Corporate Social Responsibility and Welfare State Institutions.

Transcription

1 Corporate Social Responsibility and Welfare State Institutions. The case of the energy market in a German British comparison. Martin Kunze, M.A. ESAPnet doctoral workshop, Mannheim, July 4 6, 2013

2 Main interest of my thesis: The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the socio-political role of energy companies in the fields of basic public services in a comparative perspective, between Germany and the UK. Basic assumption: Companies in European welfare states are confronted with socio-political issues (e.g. poverty) in a fairly new way, and therefore are increasingly integrated in respectively involved with welfare state institutions.

3 content I. Context of my Dissertation II. Research Questions I. Theoretical Perspective II. Research Design

4 I. context of my dissertation Shift towards a socio-political role of energy companies Private energy-companies in liberalised markets Private companies as socio-political acteurs within the field of basic public services New social question (crisis of the Welfare State) Changing (public) perception of the social responsibility of companies New legal framework (liberalisation) Trade-off between the logic of a free market and the logic of delivering basic services

5 II. research questions (1) How are companies in liberalised markets in Germany and the UK confronted with socio-political issues? (2) With what strategies are companies responding to socio-political challenges? (3) Which consequences can be identified to the field of basic energy services, when all of a sudden not the classic actors of the welfare mix, but companies themselves provide them?

6 III. theoretical approach Corporate Social Responsibility Research Welfare State Research -Corporate Citizenship (Backhaus-Maul et al. 2010; Crane et al. 2008;...) -Companies as political actors (Crouch 2008; Flohr et al. 2010; Irmisch 2011; Kleinfeld 2007; Néron 2010;...) -Companies Social Policy (Hax 1977; Schmidt 2005; Seelaib-Kaiser 2002;...) -Companies and Social Policy in developing countries (Crane et al. 2008; Mühle 2010;...) -Companies as providers of social services (Bode 2004; Evers 2005; Klenk/Nullmeier 2010;...) Social Policy as... -Policy against markets (Esping- Andersen 1990; Huber/Stevens 2001; Korpi 1983; Streeck 1999;...) -Policy for markets (Hall/Soskice 2001; Mares 2003; Swenson 2002; Paster 2010;...) Historical Institutionalism (Pierson 1996; Pierson/Leibfried 1998; Scharpf 1999; Thelen 1992;...)

7 IV. survey design Two approaches 1. Policy field analysis (appr interviews, document analysis) 2. Case studies (appr. 10 companies in Germany and UK; appr. 3 interviews per company, document analysis) Germany public Energy Companies: Munich, Leipzig, Muenster private Energy Companies: RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall, (EnBW) Great Britain private Energy Companies: RWE, E.ON, ScottishPower, SSE, (British Gas, EDF Energy)

8 IV. survey design Two levels of analysis (1) cross-country comparison - independent variable: welfare state regime What is the impact of welfare states institutions on the sociopolitical role of companies? (2) cross-company comparison (in Germany) - independent variable: constitution of the company Does the constitution of a company matter regarding their sociopolitical role?

9 Comments welcome! Martin Kunze, M.A. Martin Luther Universität Halle Wittenberg Philosophische Fakultät III Erziehungswissenschaften Franckeplatz 1, Haus Halle, Germany martin.kunze@paedagogik.uni halle.de halle.de/paedagogik/rvo/personal/martinkunze/

10 VI. Appendix case study Public authorities alone can t handle social problems appropriately any longer. In the future, private companies, public authorities and non-profit organizations have to develop collaborative solutions. (NPO-Member) I hope and expect that we can develop new instruments to deal with challenging customers in a faster, easier and in the end more agreeable way, so that both sides can benefit from it. If the customer knows, where to get help, how to handle money, he can become an ordinary customer and this would be the best, happening to us. (Company-Member)

11 VI. Appendix case study Most of the employees in the customer service haven been working here since 20, 30 years. Usually those people don t have any existential worries not in their past nor in their future. A works council ensures, that their chair is never getting cold. ( ) They can hardly imagine, that some people are living in entirely different circumstances, without this education and possibilities. ( ) That could explain the enormous speechlessness on both sides at the beginning of the project. How could you idiots disconnect the energy? [social workers] and Why are they so brazen not to pay for our energy? [customer service]. ( ) After some meetings - finally - people on both sides have begun to discuss these things. This is quite interesting and productive, I think. Before that, they didn t even try to understand the other side, definitively not. They even didn t know that debt counseling exist they didn t know! (Company-Member)

12 VI. Appendix disconnections UK-Germany Number of disconnections of households in Great Britain and Germany Germany appr in 2011 (Bundesnetzagentur 2013) Source: EnergyUK 2010

13 V. references Backhaus Maul, H./Biedermann, C./Nährlich, S./Polterauer, J. (Ed.) (2010): Corporate Citizenship in Deutschland. Gesellschaftliches Engagement von Unternehmen. Bilanz und Perspektiven, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. Bode, I. (2004): Disorganisierter Wohlfahrtskapitalismus. Die Reorganisation des Sozialsektors in Deutschland, Frankreich und Großbritannien. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA)/ Federal Cartel Office (2013): Monitoringbericht 2012, Bonn. Crane A./Matten, D./Moon, J. (2008): Corporations and Citizenship, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crouch, C. (2008): Postdemokratie. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp. EnergyUK (2010): Britain s Energy Market. Key Questions answered, London. Esping Andersen, G. (1990): The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press. Evers, A. (2005): Mixed Welfare Systems and Hybrid Organizations: Changes in the Governance and Provision of Social Services, in: International Journal of Public Administration, Jg. 28/Heft 9/10, Flohr, A. et al. (2010). TheRoleof Business in Global Governance. Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan. Hall, P.A./Soskice, D. (Eds.) (2001): Varieties of Capitalism. The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hax, K. (1977): Sozialpolitik betriebliche, in: Albers, W. (Ed.): Handwörterbuch der Wirtschaftswissenschaft (HDWW), Stuttgart: Vandenhoeck + Ruprecht, Huber, E./Stevens, J. D. (2001): Development and Crisis of the Welfare State. Parties and Policies in Global Markets, Chicago/London: The University Press. Irmisch, A. (2011): Astroturf. Eine neue Lobbyingstrategie in Deutschland? VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden.

14 V. references Kleinfeld, R. (2007): Lobbying: Strukturen, Akteure, Strategien. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. Klenk, T. /Nullmeier, F. (2010): Welfare industries: enterprises as providers of public goods, in: Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, Jg. 4/Heft 1, Korpi, W. (1983): The Democratic Class Struggle, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Mares, I. (2003): The Politics of Social Risk: Business and Welfare State Development, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mühle, U. (2010): The Politics of Corporate Social Responsibility. The Rise of a Global Business Norm, Frankfurt/NewYork: Campus. Néron, P. Y. (2010): Business and the Polis: What Does it Mean to See Corporations as Political Actors?, in: Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 94/No. 3, Paster, T. (2012): The Role of Business in the Development of the Welfare State and Labour Markets in Germany. New York: Routledge. Pierson, P. (1996): The new politocs of the welfare state. World Politics, 48, Schmidt, M.G. (2005): Sozialpolitik in Deutschland. Historische Entwicklung und internationaler Vergleich. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. Seeleib Kaiser, M. (2002): Betriebliche Sozialpolitik oder mehr Staat? Das Modell USA revisted, ZES Arbeitspapier 12/2002. Streeck, W. (Ed.) (1999): Korporatismus in Deutschland. Zwischen Nationalstaat und Europäischer Union, Frankfurt/New York: Campus. Swenson, P. (2002): Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Marktes and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden, New York: Oxford University Press. Thelen, K.A. (2002): The Political Economy of Business and Labor in the Developed Democracies, in: Katznelson, I./Milner, H.V. (Eds.): Political Science: The State of the Disciplin, New York: W.W. Norton & Company,