Corporate social reporting in Germany: Conceptual developments and practical experience

Abstract

As in all other highly developed market economies of the Western world, the impact of business activities on the quality of human and social life, and specifically the living environment, has become a prominent subject of debate and concern in Germany during the past decade. This development is mainly influenced by a growing recognition of the social cost of economic development (Mintrop, 1976, p. 4; Budtius, 1977, p. 187) and the basic value change in the intellectual and political elite. Beyond this, an increasing proportion of the general public is gradually turning away from the purely economic orientation of the past towards the emphasis of post-industrial, post-material values (Striimpel, 1977, p. 10; Inglehart, 1977). After a period of tremendous economic growth and achievements, and a high degree of consensus about the prevailing economic interest in society in the late sixties/early seventies, other priorities, summarized as “quality of life” issues, have become increasingly prominent and politically significant. Scholars of social change consider 4 developments as having been instrumental to these basic changes: 1. The tremendous volume of publications discussing the need for reorientation on society (Eppler, 1975), the ecological burden of mounting industrial production as well as the growing depletion of natural resources (Gruti, 1974). 2. The rapid growth of citizen groups demanding participation in decision-making in areas like industrial location and the nuclear power debate (Battelle-Institute, 1975). 3. The reorientation of major unions from away demanding only higher wages and reduced working hours, to stressing the importance of a humane work environment for human health as well as for intellectual and personal development (Brinkmann-Herz, 1975, p. 109). 4. The increasing attention these concerns receive in the general media (Hartmann & Furch, 1974). The growing reco’gition of the broad spectrum of social costs caused by rapid economic growth stimulated the search for a new paradigm quality of life and related academic resiarch on “social indicators” and “social reporting” as an extension of traditional reporting on national growth rates, productivity achievements and the amount of consumption goods available to different parts of the population. Added to the concern with the rising social costs of economic development was the strong movement criticizing the capitalistic system as an uncontrollable exploitive super-power in our societies. It was stimulated by the student revolution in the late sixties in Germany and produced an overwhelming volume of literature on this issue and stimulated nationwide discussions particularly among the intellectual elite. A merger of these 2 developments pointed to an obvious scapegoat: the business corporation was considered to be the main cause of the newly perceived misallocation of natural and human resources. Smoke stacks and industrial complexes which up to now had been used as an indicator of progress, prosperity and wealth became symbols of (wrong perspectives and goals when the physical