Business process management and compliance with corporate social responsibility standards and norms. Real case : legislative decree no. 231/2001 : implementation of the 231 model evidencing the role of business processes

Processes count as the most important assets of companies. It is not only by chance that Business Process Management (BPM) has gained importance among companies. It can be adopted for many different reasons such as improving efficiency or adapting to norms, regulations and standards (compliance), or supporting risk analysis and management. The present work in particular motivates the role of BPM as a support to and a facilitator of compliance. Ensuring the compliance of processes to legal regulations, governance guidelines, and strategic business requirements is a sine qua non condition to control business behavior. As widely recognized, the behavior of a company influences internal and external environments, i.e. society and stakeholders. Literature undoubtedly underlines the relevant importance of the opinion of stakeholders in nowadays business. Their opinion is the link with BPM and compliance with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards and norms such as ISO26000, SA8000, SOX and Italian legislative decree 231/2001. Not only does BPM represent the suitable tool to support compliance and control, but it also helps with being coherent with organizational culture and internal procedures. This dissertation is divided into seven chapters. The first describes history of BPM, CSR and its standards and norms; from chapters two into five literature review is given, followed by a real case description before giving our conclusions.