Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Unternehmen in Deutschland

The changing role of companies in society and their increasing responsibility are accompanied by profound societal changes. Simultaneously these aspects penetrate the economy, politics and society. The textbook at hand analyzes the topic of corporate responsibility from different political, professional and scientific viewpoints through three interconnected perspectives:

For centuries, the concept of social market economy (“Soziale Marktwirtschaft”) was considered as the guideline in the German economic policy. Especially since the latest financial and market crisis, this concept and its aspiration of combining both social and economic progress is experiencing a type of renaissance. This chapter focuses on the question if the concept of social market economy offers guidelines on what role companies play or should play in society. Firstly, a short introduction will portray the historical and theoretical background of the social market economy which will be followed by a critical analysis of the social role of companies within this economic system. Lastly, a set of possible perspectives on the responsibility of companies in a modern version of the social market economy will be introduced.

The normative debate about Corporate Social Responsibility must be integrated within a scientific and conceptual systematization. To do so the internal structures of companies need to be identified (shareholder- and stakeholder approach, specific characteristics of the market system as well as different types of corporate responsibility in society and its underlying social distribution conflicts). This chapter will bring together economic theory (new institutional economy) and regulatory approaches.

The chapter focuses on the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSOs are conceptualized as one of the key stakeholder groups that contest harmful corporate social and environmental practices and cooperate with corporations to improve their social and environmental performance. The CSOs’ involvement is thus a necessary condition for the legitimation of CSR activities. This chapter reviews how CSR has changed over the last decades, and how these changes have shaped the involvement of CSOs with CSR. It also provides an overview of multiple roles CSOs play in various forms of CSR.

This chapter focuses on the historical development of the informational infrastructure which enabled the social responsibility of both companies and investors. The informational infrastructure had its point of origin in various and often individualized initiatives in the United States. Nowadays, like sustainable investing, informational infrastructure is considered mainstream in the conventional financial market. Even though those who made sustainable investments also suffered losses during the financial crisis, their type of investment can increase the growth in this investment segment; like the Vietnam War, consumer protection initiatives or the Anti-Apartheid Movement in the past century. They all played an important role in promoting sustainable investing.

Companies are not only economic but also political actors. Thereby the question concerning the relationship between political power and responsibility and the legitimacy of political engagement of companies is at the center of this chapter. Economic-ethically concepts will be applied to answer this question. With the help of these concepts the political actions of companies on a national level and within the context of global governance will be analyzed. The goal is to recognize, that a) besides their economic role companies also play a political role and that b) this political role needs to be morally reflected through economic ethics.

During recent decades, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has grown at an explosive rate, and global CSR frameworks have proliferated. This chapter provides an overview of these initiatives which include the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the Global Reporting Initiative for non-financial reporting. It then focuses on EU-level CSR. Two lessons emerge from this analysis. First, CSR is dynamic and constantly evolving. Second, CSR is contested and conflictual. Stakeholders disagree over whether CSR is by definition voluntary or involves some degree of regulation by public authorities. One example of this is the change in the European Commission’s definition of CSR between 2001 and 2011. Civil society groups were unhappy with the EU’s first definition, and business organizations are unhappy with the second one. There is much at stake in these conflicts: as a result of business and German government resistance, the scope of the EU Directive 2014/95/EU which mandates non-financial reporting for large companies has been significantly reduced.

Why do companies decide to act socially responsible? Based on the assumption of individual rights of action (concept of sovereignty), first the increase of companies as a new type of actor can be explained. Secondly, this new actor develops own goals, gains power and thus influences and even threatens the direct and socially defined interests of individuals. Sociological analyses show that other social measures besides the market and the state can influence the companies to act socially responsible. These social measures are primarily forms of social embeddedness and institutions which define and legitimize social concerns. They are especially successful when they are compatible with the companies’ economic interests. From a sociological viewpoint social movements, collective forms of protest, standards and associations are essential social mechanisms while at the same time their actions are limited by the existing economic conditions.

“Corporate citizenship” is considered as an attempt to solve societal problems through civic engagement of companies. Due to the lack of a coherent and comprehensive approach, the empirical research on Corporate Citizenship is challenging. The components, their operationalization and stated interdependencies will be portrayed and located within the German research. Based on this a model will be introduced that will help systemize the existing research and furthermore enable the explanation and operationalization of one’s own research question.

To first illustrate the perspective of business administration on companies’ social responsibility the historical background of this topic is outlined so that the origin and developments of the discussion concerning corporate responsibility in economic sciences can be analyzed. To show the limits of the traditional method, especially the approaches of business ethics based on an explicit economic approach will be considered. Furthermore, approaches of integrative economic ethics and culturist business ethics will be portrayed to ensure an extensive understanding of economics, economy and ethics and to promote a re-thinking of economy.

In Germany, companies are in many ways incorporated into the society and the political system. From a political science viewpoint, the formalized relationship between companies, society and politics are important. This chapter portrays the main theories and terms of corporatism, the coordinated and liberal market economy, governance and the research about associations. From a political science viewpoint, it will show that the discussion primarily from the Anglo-American region concerning the companies’ voluntary assumption of responsibility cannot be directly applied to the situation in Germany.

The jurisprudential approach and discussion of the phenomenon and the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility will be analyzed through three systematic steps. Firstly, the term corporate responsibility will be defined from a jurisprudential perspective. Secondly, based on jurisprudential scientific research the reach of civic legal responsibility of companies will be analyzed. Lastly, it will be discussed if and to what extent the social behavioral expectations towards companies play a role in the field of law.

Communication plays an important role in the debate concerning companies and their social responsibility. It helps comprehend the stakeholders’ expectations towards the company and at the same time it is an essential mean to reach legitimation. Social responsibility becomes a topic in the communication studies when the public communication takes place through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This happens when either a company reports their activities or if journalists do so. Journalists oftentimes report when companies act irresponsible and Corporate Social Irresponsibility (CSI) is the case. CSI however does not play an important role in the scientific approaches which narrows the view. This chapter however captures the social responsibility of companies in its entirety, discusses the important role of communication for social responsibility and suggests a theoretical perspective which makes CSR empirically manageable.

In light of the question “What makes organizations so similar?” a theoretical explanation based on the (sociological) neo institutionalism will be proposed to explain why the topic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or social responsibility cannot be ignored by any company. The introduction on the fundamental argument of the neo institutional organizational theory assumes that companies tend to adapt to (partly contradictory) societal expectations. The chapter focusses especially on the tension between social responsibility and economic interests.

In Germany, social policy is primarily considered the state’s area of responsibility. This chapter however discusses social policy from an extended sociopolitical perspective while considering the changing role of companies and their increasing meaning in sociopolitical matters. Firstly, the historical development of the relationship between companies and social policy in Germany will be portrayed. Then the current significance of companies as stakeholders in sociopolitical matters will be analyzed.

Consumer protection is not an independent part of the company policy but moreover it had to prevail against it in the beginning. To date no stable model from the representation of interests has been developed which can be confirmed when viewing the historical development of consumer protection. Oftentimes consumer policy is equated with state interventionism. However, the development over the last centuries shows that depending on the different historical constellation of the consumer society they oftentimes introduced their own manifestation. Companies and consumers often altered their manifestation multiple times, while the state mostly only filled one of many roles. Consumer policy followed the path of societal differentiation and got engaged in a game with players of different strengths and it is only to a certain extent able to democratically reflect and enforce complex consumer issues.

“Urban development” is discussed as a sphere of activity for Corporate Social Responsibility from the perspective of urban research. Firstly, the central topics, changes and processes (Post-Fordism, competition, fragmentation, warranty, governance) that influence the current urban development and at the same time constitute the context surrounding civic engagement will be analyzed. Secondly, examples for civic engagement of companies in urban development will be introduced.

To resolve the complex and somewhat tense relationship between sports and economy in this chapter will portray the ambivalence between sports organized by the Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund (German Olympic Sport Confederation) as federal organizations on the one hand and companies on the other hand. On this basis, the new form of cooperation between the German Olympic Sport Confederation as a federal organization and major enterprise will be introduced, which attempts to portray the companies’ involvement in sports as Corporate Citizenship. The different projects indicate that in sports Corporate Citizenship has found a middle way between corporate donations for the benefit of sport clubs on the one hand and marketing based sports sponsoring on the other hand.

The societal commitment of companies is diverse and varies, however especially the commitment of employees (Corporate Volunteering) is considered essential for the development of corporate culture and their understanding of Corporate Citizenship.

The relationship between sustainability and business case, i.e. the establishment of economic values, has an important role in the scientific and academic discussion. A business case for sustainability is considered promising when the sustainable managing companies not only optimize their products and production processes but furthermore alter their core activity and role in society. This chapter discusses what defines a sustainable company and portrays the concept of the business case of sustainability.

More and more companies are committing themselves to uphold further standards of ethical conduct within their corporate policy which go beyond the existing laws. Primarily this consists of the adherence of human rights, the protection of labor standards, fair business practices, consumer protection, transparency and the publication of relevant company information, environmental protection or the avoidance of environmental risks. Oftentimes the companies’ voluntary commitments are based on international standards and guidelines of conduct. Within this chapter these standards and guidelines will be systematically portrayed, analyzed and further explained through examples.