Promoting an awareness of CSR: Motivating instead of regulating

Fundamental reforms are now necessary as a result of globalization and ongoing shifts in socioeconomic structures. In order to carry out effective reforms, the question must be posed: Which responsibilities should be addressed by the public sector, which by the private sector and which by other societal actors? In Germany in recent decades, legal regulations have significantly hampered those who would otherwise take the initiative and address social causes. Not least, the state's decreasing financial resources have made it necessary for citizens to become more involved in their communities and for businesses, society's key economic players, to take on more responsibility for economic, social and environmental issues as part of their corporate activities.

Many businesses -- small, midsized and large -- carry out their corporate activities in a socially responsible manner, and such economic integrity is an expression of how the social market economy works. Only a fraction of CSR's significant potential -- both for the business community as well as society at large -- has been tapped to date. If this untapped potential is to come to fruition, CSR needs to be structured within the market economy as part of a competitive challenge for identifying best practices and optimal solutions. A number of tools provide businesses with a behavioral framework; these include existing guidelines, especially those for multinational corporations, currently emerging reporting standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative, and new national legal norms, especially in the areas of environmental and social impact. Such elements will ultimately provide Germany with its own, unique CSR profile.

How can policymakers promote civic engagement among the business community? Examples from other countries show that when politicians take a proactive role, they can effectively motivate actors in the private sector. Such experiences demonstrate that CSR can best be seen as a market-based criteria capable of producing optimal solutions when based on corporate competition. Utilized this way, CSR can help companies initiate policies to maximize their corporate potential -- and simultaneously optimize their contribution to the common good.

To make this happen, the German government needs to take action in a number of areas. In particular, it needs to create the appropriate background conditions that would allow German companies to take the initiative more often. CSR must also be made an explicit part of the political agenda, and the related responsibilities that are currently spread among a number of departments must be converged in one location and coordinated to a greater degree than has been the case in the past. As in those EU member states that place a greater emphasis on CSR, Germany should create a chief-of-staff responsible for CSR-related activities who is positioned at the highest levels of the Economics Ministry. The tasks ascribed to such a position might include establishing an information platform for the business community and for SMBs in particular. The goal of such activities should be:

• Increasing public awareness of CSR and dissemination of best practices among businesses
• Development of benchmarking services in order to promote innovation, credibility and transparency
• Coordination of activities among federal and state actors (with a particular focus on support for local-level activities)
• Inclusion of trade associations and other stakeholders

In addition, special attention must be paid to promoting mediating structures between the business and nonprofit communities, so that the civic engagement demonstrated by the business sector can be more effectively aligned with social needs.

The Bertelsmann Stiftung wants to increase the extent and depth of dialogue between political, business and civil society actors on CSR issues and motivate them to generate partnership-based solutions. To achieve this, the foundation's project work makes use of a number of media and tools, including diverse publications, forums aimed at generating dialogue and a conference for high-level CSR constituents.