CSR-Berichte in der Telekommunikationsbranche: Globale Standards gleich einheitliche Umsetzung? - Eine kontrastive Untersuchung

This masterthesis tackles the argument of the globally accepted guidelines for corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and investigates the their application on the basis of selected examples of authentic CSR reports. The aim of this work is to investigate which standards are being used by German and US American telecommunication companies and by the use of which means they are implemented in the management approach. Furthermore, the thesis aims at emphasing the different perceptions of corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship in the German and US American sociopolitical history. The analysis of four authentic CSR reports is used moreover to highlight the companies committment and support to the empowerment of women, referring to their employees as well as to society as a whole. The analysis serves the attempt to answer the question if globally accepted and applied CSR guidelines are consistent with values and principles of different societies. Additionally, it highlights how the companies treat their female employees with regard of measures such as trainings or employee resource groups in order to improve their carreers and finally evaluates the amount of women in the senior management and higher positions. In order to respond to the above mentioned questions and issues, the work begins with an introduction of the terminology used in a global, German and respectively in a US American research context. For the clarification of the different terms, official statements and publications of globally acting initiatives that promote standards and guidelines for CSR are cited, such as the United Nations Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative, the International Organisation for Standardisation etc. These sources have been used also for the explanation of the various globally accepted CSR guidelines. In order to outline the most decisive and popular models and theories of CSR, relevant literature has been used, such as anthologies about CSR research as well as original works and articles. For the presentation of the German and US American telecommunication market publications of the States have been consulted, such as National Action Plans of both countries, statistics of the open portal Statista and essays of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI). The investigation of the above mentioned material showed, that the telecommunication sector of both countries have similar perspectives and importance for furture innovations, but that the responsibility of companies towards the society is percieved in a different manner. Eventough this diverging concept, the analaysis of the authentic CSR reports demonstrates, that the concept of CSR as well as the contents regarding social, economical and ecological concerns are mainly similar in all reports. Furthermore, the analysis shows, that only one globally accepted guideline, namely the indications of the Global Reporting Initiative, are used for the reporting about CSR. Another significant result is the fact, that eventhough the majority of the companies are committed to the empowerment of women, the US American companies employ a much higher amount of women in positions of senior management and the executive board. German companies, however, initiate a higher rate of projects in order to empower women in the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), but employ a much lower quote of women in higher positions in their companies. A further significant new finding is that the US American firms concentrate less on women empowerment only, but on diversity and inclusion programs. Their policies for an equal payment refers not only to the pay gap between male and female employees, but to minorities in general, including ethnic heritage, sexual orientation, gender and disability.