Lack Of Experts As An Ideal Introduction To Csr

The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, BMA) is supporting 73 projects in Germany using European Union (EU) funds in the amount of € 26 million. By providing the subsidies, the European Commission and the German Federal Government are hoping to implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among German small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The project run by Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University is one of these CSR projects. It is aimed at providing comprehensive information on CSR to the businesses in question and at emphasizing their responsibility along the supply chain. On top of that, the project aims to provide businesses with information on the opportunities inherent in this concept, such as information on how to motivate experts to stay with the company, on how to save energy or on how to make inroads into new markets based on CSR. The given examples show that there is wide variation in CSR issues. Another important objective of the project involves motivating selected female students to assume managerial positions in professional life, while preparing companies for and/or paving the way for female managers. The following experiences were gained during project implementation: Contrary to small and medium-sized businesses in the UK, Sweden or Brazil, German SMBs are not familiar with CSR as a systematic approach to management – with the exception of Baden-Wurttemberg, where the topic has been previously dealt with by SMBs. Among the German groups listed in the German stock exchange index DAX, there are already a number of companies dealing with CSR; there is also an ethics code along with other approaches relevant to CSR. The English term “Corporate Social Responsibility”, which is itself perceived to be “strange” because of the non-German nature of the term, causes German SMBs to distance themselves from the topic. The German translation “Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Unternehmen”, which is not entirely identical to the term CSR, works better when addressing the companies. This is an important issue to bear in mind when it comes to talking about communications on this topic. In Germany CSR is not aimed at replacing legal regulations, as is, for instance, the case in emerging countries. In contrast to them, Germany sets high legal requirements, for instance with respect to safety at work or environmental standards. CSR comes “on top” for German companies: it is an additional commitment. For this reason, German small and medium-sized businesses continue to fight for the CSR issues to be voluntary at the European level, while turning against the plan by the EU Commission to make CSR compulsory for companies with 500 or 1,000 or even more employees. In addition, legal commitments concerning this delicate issue are perceived to be demotivating. Voluntary commitment is assessed as being equivalent to entrepreneurial liberty, which is an important motive for being an entrepreneur. By emphasizing the topic of “responsibility” in CSR consultation, one runs the risk of being slightly misunderstood. It is not only since the time of the introduction of CSR that entrepreneurs have thought of their entrepreneurial activities as involving a lot of responsibility; after all, the implementation of a creative idea into a business idea provides a large number of people with jobs. The same is true of the continuation of family businesses, which often occurs in the trades and in the service sector. Many medium-sized entrepreneurs feel responsible for their staff as a result of the long-standing personal contact they have maintained, which is why they do not want to make them redundant – not even in times of crises. Those who have shouldered such a lot of responsibility for many years do not really like to be told what it means to carry entrepreneurial responsibility. In addition, many medium-sized businesses are run by their owners, i.e. those who run the company are liable for the company’s success with their property. In this respect, they differ to a great extent from managers employed in corporate groups. A large number of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs are involved with social activities, mostly in a philanthropic manner – and often with projects that are close to their hearts. As a rule, the social projects are not linked to the company’s core business. It cannot be said that there is a systematic approach pervading all of the entrepreneurial activities. The majority of the social projects tend to be oriented towards Corporate Citizenship (CC). The slogan used by German small and medium-sized entrepreneurs is not “Do a good turn and talk about it”; it nearly seems to be the other way round: provide help and keep quiet about it, only then is support assessed as being something good. Those who talk about their activities in public may be doing something useful, but they are no longer considered to be doing something good. What is commonly referred to as “gender topics” is frowned upon in German business circles, as was once again demonstrated very clearly by the recent discussion on the female quota. However, how can the number of women hired by companies be successfully increased, how can companies be motivated to entrust women with more responsible tasks within the framework of an internship that lasts no more than four to six months? How can we, at the same time, trigger a discussion in companies on how to fill managerial positions in businesses with women, too, in the future? The unspoken deal between the university and the company is: the trainees that the company is offered by the university “chance to” be women. The gender approach is not under discussion at this point, the trainees offered just happen to be female. For its part, the university is “allowed” to carry out CSR consultation within the company. For companies, this involves, first and foremost, a commitment rather than a passion. What needs to be done now is to seize the opportunity to explain the advantages of CSR to the companies and thus, to gain their support for CSR. Once this works out, a large number of small and medium-sized businesses join in with dedication. Entrepreneurial personalities are often very creative people; once they have come to grips with the idea of CSR and have come to see the benefit of it, they develop the threads, coming up with very creative ideas, for instance for future social projects. Just to mention three examples: A media company started campaigning for the topic of having a “break”: as a result of the poor pay in the media business, people have to work long hours – which is why many of them are affected by “burn outs”. The partnership with Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University and an academic study initiated by a professor at our University enabled the company to start a campaign on the internet based on scientific data: the study dealt with research on what type of person needs an active or passive break at what time of day. Another company is collecting data on buildings that are relevant for the insurance industry within the framework of a larger project. They intend to provide part of the data collected, which might be relevant for communities and cities, for instance for the fire brigade and monument protection, to public authorities at no cost. In this way, the data can be used in the public interest in the event of an emergency or for city planning purposes. Subsequent to CSR consultation, another company, which focusses on marketing advertisements, intends to provide their customers with comprehensive information on demographic change and the related necessity to support women. The examples show the variety of ways in which these social projects can Handing out a check is not sufficient. Now active shaping of the social project is becoming increasingly popular. This provides another advantage to the companies: image promotion for the companies themselves. If the projects are thus linked to the core business, the traditional inhibitions involved in talking about social activities subside, too. Experience in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) has shown that it is not possible to win support for CSR unless there is a concrete benefit involved. In addition, the question of costs is always a factor, as is the question of how many staff members are occupied with the CSR measures. SMBs have to calculate their investments accurately: as a rule, they do not have the same amount of financial resources at their disposal as is the case for large corporate groups. The great benefit offered by Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University’s CSR project to companies involves the provision of the much sought after experts to the businesses. Just to explain the background: the threat posed by the lack of qualified staff is one of the most important issues in the German economy. According to estimates by a MC Kinsey study there will be a lack of approximately 5.6 million workers in 2020. The study says that the greatest potential does not include immigrants, but those groups that are not optimally integrated into professional life in Germany: women and elderly workers. Many women in Germany do not work at all or work only part-time due to their child care activities, elderly workers are pushed out of the labour market at an increasingly earlier age. The demographic development in Germany has brought about a new historical situation: the conscious promotion of women is no longer a “nice-to-have” topic, but a bare necessity for companies. The pressure to make a change is thus not caused by the social responsibility involved in providing men and women with the same opportunities, but by something different: the lack of workers poses a threat to the development of the German economy. This is exactly the approach needed to make the gender topic attractive to companies. The companies’ social projects perform yet another function within the framework of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University’s CSR project. The social projects are not only aimed at making a positive change to the region and/or to the companies; they are also aimed at providing the female students with professional experience by enabling them to manage the social projects themselves. In addition, the students, prior to being hired by the companies, underwent intensive training in CSR and also consultation on the topic of “Women in managerial positions”, including some tips on behaviour to further their own careers. In the ideal case, the social project has a positive impact on a company’s exterior image, at the same time supporting students in their positions within the company. Just to avoid any misunderstandings: the students are hired for those departments where there is a need for them and which match their professional interests – the social project is nothing but an “add on”. Consultation has shown that the majority of companies are not aware of the fact that women not only have a different managerial style, but also different needs. A little survey conducted among the participating students in the run-up to the internships showed that all the students participating attach great importance to harmony in their work surroundings. Further questions revealed that this does not mean that they shy away from conflicts, but that they prefer an atmosphere in which long-lasting conflicts are not the rule and in which they can focus on their actual work. According to the students, they also prefer conflicts to be solved immediately, whereas men do not tend to attach too much importance to this issue. These are only two examples of possible differences. The accompanying scientific empirical study, which is also being conducted within the framework of the project, will take up this thread and include it in the analysis. The aim is, among other things, to examine whether companies are provided with good conflict management systems, to find out how much importance they attach to the topic of “work-life-balance” or the child care facilities offered – i.e. to topics that are important to women. Companies that intend to hire an increasing number of women as future experts or managers will have to deal with these issues, in particular in view of the fact that managerial staff is becoming increasingly female. After all, it is the female students at universities who often obtain better examination results than their fellow male students. The situation is even more dramatic at some German schools: at some grammar schools, the proportion of boys taking their German Abitur (i.e. the equivalent to A-levels in the UK) has shrunk to a level of 40 per cent. To date, the following CSR topics have proved to be at the forefront: staff recruitment and staff retention as a result of the demographic development as well as conflict management because this is a “blind spot” in many companies. Traditionally, German companies attach great importance to quality management of their products, rather than focusing on the services they provide; for this reason, they do not tend to ensure quality management of the relationships maintained by their staff among each other, with the senior management level and vice versa. The discussions concerning the topic of energy are another important point at issue. In this case, too, it is less a question of protecting the environment than of the energy costs involved. The latter are expected to rise enormously in an industrial nation such as Germany, which is due to the establishment of an alternative network. Where issues of energy or sustainable logistics concern questions of certification, external experts or experts from Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University have to be consulted. At this point, comprehensive advice reaches its limits, which is why the issue of networking is very important to CSR projects. However, the Germany-wide networking of CSR projects is proceeding rather slowly because the CSR topics dealt with vary widely, ranging from questions of environmental management to the promotion of experts (and much more); it is difficult to find starting points in terms of content, which is why networking does not really seem make sense at present. However, the more comprehensively CSR consultation is involved, the more important networking will be. This is what we will have to work towards on a national and on an international scale.