Critical Analysis of the Corporate Social Responsibility Program at Deutsche Post DHL

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1. Executive Summary

Is corporate social responsibility a new business trend or perhaps a source for competitive advantage? It definitely is a catchphrase of the early 21st century business. The impact of business on the social and natural environment has been more or less under discussion for the past 40 years but in recent years it has become one of the most relevant issues in the business environment. Investors, academics, NGOs and business consultants are all talking about corporate social responsibility.

In this report, I attempt to show the corporate social responsibility program at Deutsche Post DHL from a self-reporting and an outside-image view. Moreover, I will introduce the different levels of CSR as well as the conflict between Corporate Social Performance (CSP) and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP). Furthermore, I will discuss the moral foundation of Deutsche Post DHL.

In my proposition, the paper will be divided into the following three main parts:

critical analysis of the Deutsche Post DHL program, CSR debates and moral foundation. The first part will show the diversity of social engagements at Deutsche Post DHL. I intend to point out the three main focus areas – environment, disaster management and education, rather than focusing on individual projects. Furthermore, this section should include an overview of the positive and negative critique of the CSR program at Deutsche Post DHL.

The second part will deal with the conflict between CSR and CFP and Corporate Social Performance (CRP). Subsequently to the theory, I will answer two questions:

  1. Does Deutsche Post DHL benefit from its social and environmental activities?
  2. What CSP-levels did Deutsche Post DHL reach so far?

The last part explains the moral philosophy of Aristotle and to what extend the CSR program of Deutsche Post DHL is based on this moral foundation.    

As a result, I aim to demonstrate that on the one hand, the company is able to help the society and to minimize its negative impact on the environment. On the other hand, the company is trying to maximize its profit.  At the end, I conclude that Deutsche Post DHL is seriously engaging in corporate social responsibility but the company does not stop thinking about its financial performance.

2. Introduction

The discussion about companies’ social and corporate responsibility is gaining importance in the past years. The state, employees and other stakeholders demand more than profit maximization. Companies are asked to operate socially responsible. The fundamental idea is about a give-and-take basis. A variety of companies recognized already the importance of giving and they are presenting themselves as socially responsible. But many of them are doing it, because they want to get a profit out of it. Through a look inside a company, one can observe that at the back of obvious social activities, companies are profit maximizing with their engagements. In order to identify the exact reasons, why a company may engage in CSR, this report will focus on a single company – Deutsche Post DHL.

Deutsche Post DHL is the world’s leading postal and logistics group.

Its integrated DHL and Deutsche Post brands offer comprehensive services in international express, air and ocean freight, road and rail transportation and contract logistics. Deutsche Post is Germany's only universal provider of postal services and delivers mail and parcel in Germany and the world. The Group generated revenue of more than 46 billion Euros in 2009 with over 470,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories (cf. Annual Report, 2009).

As such, Deutsche Post DHL has a special responsibility to use its core expertise to the benefit of society and to continuously minimize its negative impact on the environment.

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3. Methods

The purpose of this paper is to obtain knowledge about CSR and to analyze the CSR program at Deutsche Post DHL critically.

Therefore, I will illustrate how Deutsche Post DHL presents its CSR program. I intend to point out the three main focus areas – environment, disaster management and education, rather than focusing on individual projects. Additionally, this part will give a summary of the positive and negative critique of the CSR program at Deutsche Post DHL. With these critiques, one will be able to prove the reliability of the CSR program at Deutsche Post DHL.

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