Master of Business Administration
(MBA)

Corporate Social Responsibility
Implementation in German Companies

Module: Marketing Assignment:
No. 2/2 Author:

Arend Grünewälder
Student ID No.:
191330

1st academic semester Summer 2007
Neuss, 12th of July 2007

Executive Summary

"Corporate Social Responsibility", or CSR for short, is the buzzword for company′s voluntary initiatives involving a number of various activities and company′s programs. But the question is what does Corporate Social Responsibility real y means and how is it implemented in German companies? Expectations are growing as the public at large and, increasingly, the financial markets want to know not just what a company does with its profits, but also how it earns them.

This assignment examines first in what extend ethical aspects are an essential condition for the justification of Corporate Social Responsibility. Therefore the basic aspects of CSR and the paradigms to ethics will be discussed in the first part. Afterwards before examining the situation of CSR in the German businesses landscape, the main elements to build up a program focussing on social responsibility wil be listed. Then with the insight of what drives a CSR program, the question how is it implemented in German companies in order to meet stakeholders expectations wil be answered. Several surveys conducted by agencies and the German ministry will be the basis for an objective reflection of the situation in Germany and il ustrating the variety of initiatives and commitments. Final regards on the problems and risks connected with Corporate Social Responsibility are mentioned to close up the study.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 2
Table of Contents 3
List of abbreviations 4
List of figures 5
1. Introduction 1
2. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility 1
2.2 Roots of Corporate Social Responsibility 2
2.3 Business Ethics 2
2.4 Paradigms to ethics related to corporates 3
2.5 Effects of Social Responsibility for companies 4
3. Designing CSR Management 5
3.1 Establishment within the organization 5
3.2 Creating a company′s CSR policy 6
3.3 Utilizing management systems 6
4. CSR in German Companies 7
4.1 Acceptance of European CSR policy 7
4.2 Public-private partnerships 7
4.3 Implementation rate of various CSR areas 8
4.4 Companies initiatives 9
4.5 Companies management tools 9
4.6 German ranking of company′s CSR initiatives 10
4.7 Critical remarks 11
5. Conclusions 11
Bibliography 13
ITM Checklist ­ 360° Analysis 16
Declaration 18

List of abbreviations

e.g. - exempli gratia
EMAS - European Eco-Management and Audit System
CC - Corporate Citizenship
CEO - Chief Executive Officer
CG - Corporate Governance
CS - Corporate Sustainability
CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility
ISO - International Organization for Standardization
US - United States

List of figures

Figure 1: Survey of fond managers and analysts
Figure 2: Company′s activities in CSR′s areas
Figure 3: Percentage of companies using different environmental and social management tools