German Sustainability

In 2008, Deutsche Post DHL has been rated as the best performer in the logistics and transportation sector by Climate Counts, which is a non-profit organization rating corporations on their efforts towards justifying climate change (cf. Climate Counts, 2010). “Climate Counts has found that [Deutsche Post DHL] has established clear and absolute goals to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, with oversight on climate action at the highest level in the company” (Climate Counts, 2010). Therefore, the company got 67 out of 100 points in an overall evaluation.

Furthermore, Deutsche Post DHL won the Leo-Award in the category “People of the Year” for its Disaster Response Teams in 2008. The prize is awarded by the DVZ Deutsche Logistik Zeitung (cf. DVZ, 2008). Due to “the company's readiness to assume economic, ecologic and social responsibility with a particular emphasis on the companies’ climate protection Program GoGreen”, Deutsche Post DHL received the German Sustainability Award for the most sustainable strategy. (Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis, 2010).

The award is an initiative of the German Sustainability Awards Foundation in cooperation with the Federal Government, the German Council for Sustainable Development, trade associations, NGOs, and research facilities.

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The prize aims to persuade companies to operate sustainably and help to raise awareness of the principles of sustainable development (cf. Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis, 2010). 5. 2. Negative critique Rettet den Regenwald (2009), an environmental organization in Germany, criticizes Deutsche Post DHL for using ten transporters that consume palm-oil.

Deutsche Post DHL is using these transporters in order to minimize CO2 emissions and to reach their goals within the GoGreen project. According to calculations by the organization, the transporters will cover a distance of ca.

3. 3 million kilometers which equals a 700,000 liter palm-oil consume (cf. Rettet den Regenwald, 2009). The palm-oil is produced in Southeast Asia where rain forests are deforested in order to build up palm-oil plantations.

For a compensation of the CO2 produced during the cut-and-burn, it would be necessary to use each plantation for at least 423 years (cf.Rettet den Regenwald, 2009). Thus, it would be less damaging for the environment, if Deutsche Post DHL used normal transporters. 6. Corporate Social Responsibility Debates Firstly, the discrepancy between the shareholder’s and the stakeholder’s perspective will be explained and illustrated through Deutsche Post DHL’s CSR program. Afterwards, the different elements of CSP will be clarified. 6. 1. Shareholders vs. Stakeholders CSR can be are divided into two general perspectives: the shareholder’s and the stakeholder’s perspective.

From the shareholder’s perspective, corporate social responsibilities are considered to be solitary towards the company’s shareholders. This means that the only responsibility for a company is to make profit to its owners, meaning profit maximization. One of the most famous promoters of this perspective is Milton Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize in 1976. He has proposed that companies are only responsible to their shareholders (Friedman M. , 1970). Adam Smith, the founder of the classical economical theory, supports these beliefs as well.

Smith has argued that an efficient market mechanism will guarantee that beneficial activities for a company are also good for the society. According to this point of view, the society determines its demands through the market and then the companies act in response to those demands (cf. Carroll A. , 1996, pp. 29–32). The stakeholder’s perspective highlights the bonds between the companies and the society. According to this idea morale should be involved in company’s decision making. The main obligation for the company is defined as securing the long-term profits and growth, which requires a socially responsible way of action.

(cf. Herchen O. , 2007, p. 11. ) At the present time, the stakeholder’s perspective seems to be the most approved idea. Stakeholders are defined as “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the firm’s objectives” (Freeman E. , 1984, p. 25). According to the stakeholder perspective of CSR, a company has to perform responsibly against all its stakeholders. For example, the company has to treat its employees accurately, obey the laws given by the government, act ecologically enough to please the environmentalists and however make enough profit to keep its owners satisfied.

Shareholders vs. Stakeholders at Deutsche Post DHL Due to the fact, that Deutsche Post DHL is engaging in various social projects which require a huge amount of money such as the Disaster Response Teams, the company is not solely interested in profit maximization. However, not all projects require spending money. For example, the company saves money with its fuel-minimizing agenda within its GoGreen focus area. Thus, from my point of view, Deutsche Post DHL wants to maximize its profits but it also considers its stakeholders and not shareholders exclusively.

Corporate Social Performance Corporate Social Performance (CSP) is one of the most common terms when discussing a company’s role in a society. How a company meets or even exceeds its stakeholder’s expectations defines how stakeholders will evaluate the company’s social performance (cf. Husted B. W. , 2000, pp. 24–25). CSR answers only the question, what should be done, but CSP covers also the company’s performance, meaning how a company will achieve their aims. 6. 2. 1. Social Responsibility

Carroll has divided social responsibilities into four categories, which derive from the stakeholders’ expectations: economical, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities (Carroll A. , 1996, p. 40). The responsibilities are shown in the table below: Social expectations Category of responsibility Society hopes for Philanthropic – “Be a good corporate citizen” Society expects Ethical – “Act ethically right” Society requires and demands Legal – “Obey the laws” Economical – “Make profit” Table 1 Company's social responsibilities and societal expectations (adapted from Carroll 1996)

Economical responsibility is the basis of all other responsibilities and it means that a company must be economically profitable. According to this view companies’ responsibility is to produce their goods and services and sell them with profit. A company acts as a fundamental economical unit of a society. The society expects and demands the company to take care of this responsibility as well as its legal responsibility, which means that the company obeys the laws and rules of the society. Ethical responsibility means that the company does the “right thing”, involves in “fair play” and avoids causing trouble.

Philanthropic responsibilities involve good corporate citizenship - meaning that the company voluntarily helps the society and tries to raise citizens’ standard of living. The society doesn’t require this although it hopes for it. In that sense the last category seems not to be a responsibility for company (cf. Carroll, 1996). 6. 2. 2. Social Responsiveness Social responsiveness is about company’s responses towards the social expectations, demands and wishes. It is not referring to managers’ morale or attitudes towards social responsibilities but basically describes how a company reacts in front of these requirements (cf.Carroll A. , 1979, p. 501).

The actions taken by a company can be reactive, defensive, adaptive or proactive. The lowest level is the reactive. The company does nothing and tries to resist its responsibilities. It wants to do less than the expectations. In the next level, the company is defensive. Thus, the company does fulfill the minimum expectations. The company accepts its responsibilities but it acts defensively and reacts only on issues it has to. An adaptive company tries to be progressive and it meets all the requirements it is confronted with. A proactive company is usually a leader of the industry.

It meets and likes to exceed all its expectations and seeks actively new ways to create goodwill. (cf. Carroll A. , 1996; Wartrick & Cochran, 1985). 6. 2. 3. Social Issues Management “The third dimension of the model concerns the scope of social issues that management must address”(Buchholtz A. ; Carroll A. , 2008, p. 57). The stages of social issues management are identification of the issues, analyzing them and developing a proper solution. 6. 2. 4. Corporate Social Performance at Deutsche Post DHL What social responsibility categories does Deutsche Post DHL fulfill?

Obviously, as a profit-oriented company, it fulfills the economic category. Since Deutsche Post DHL obeys the law, it satisfies the requirements for the legal category. Furthermore, the company behaves ethically and meets the society’s expectations with its social and environmental programs. Due to the fact, that the company is not doing more than expected, it is not reaching the philanthropic category. Another question is, at what level the Deutsche Post DHL’s actions are taking place. Since Deutsche Post DHL accepts its responsibilities as a multinational company (cf.

Deutsche Post DHL, 2010), it should be at least at the defensive level. From my point of view, Deutsche Post DHL reached the next higher level – the adaptive level, because the company wants to implement a reliable corporate social responsibility program. 7. Morale Foundation – Aristotle’s Ethics From Aristotle’s point of view, ethical knowledge is rather general knowledge than certain knowledge such as physics. Since it is not only a theoretical discipline, he considered that a person must have "experience of the actions in life" and have been "brought up in fine habits" in order to become good (NE 1095a3 and b5).

Thus, a person will not become ethical by studying what virtue is. Rather a person must truly engage in ethical activities. Aristotle differentiates between four types of people: vicious, incontinent, continent and virtuous (cf. Rorty A. , 1980). The first type of people is vicious. These people see only a small value in virtue and do not attempt to become more ethical. Both, continent and incontinent people are facing a moral conflict. The difference between these levels is, that continent people are behaving virtuous most of the time, whereas, incontinent tend to be vicious in order to avoid conflicts.

The highest level, a person can reach, is the virtuous level. Those people truly enjoy their social activities and do not face any moral dilemma. Although Deutsche Post DHL is not a natural person, one can find elements of Aristotle’s ethics in Deutsche Post DHL’s CSR program. Since the company seems to try hard in behaving socially responsible, one can say that Deutsche Post DHL is continent. But is it virtuous? From my point of view, Deutsche Post DHL is not virtuous, because it has to deal with the moral dilemma of behaving socially responsible on the one hand, and maximizing profit on the other hand.