The commitment to corporate social responsibility of construction companies in the United Kingdom and Germany

The 100 largest construction companies in the United Kingdom and Germany were selected for this research.  Content analysis, a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews are applied.  Case studies were carried out to identify whether a commitment to corporate social responsibility requires a change in organisational behaviour and has an impact on the decision-making process.

Results demonstrated that construction companies, articulating a commitment to corporate social responsibility, also display the commitment in the public domain but to a different extent.  In general, German construction companies were not as eager as their UK counterparts neither to convey their commitment to corporate social responsibility in the public domain nor to articulate it by decision-makers.  British companies emphasised the key components of corporate social responsibility more often than their German counterparts.  The total number of key stakeholders varies significantly between different countries, with British companies articulating to be engaged with a higher number of stakeholders.  Reputation was the most popular driver for 90 percent of British and 81% of German construction companies.

Using a more industry-specific data set, results revealed commitment to corporate social responsibility is statistically significant and positively correlated with business performance. There is much evidence to suggest a change on the organisational behaviour of construction companies induced by a commitment to corporate social responsibility.  Most British companies developed and reported key performance indicators to demonstrate their performance on corporate social responsibility but only a few German companies did so.  In addition, British companies indicated a higher impact of corporate social responsibility key performance indicators on decision-making.  For the impact corporate social responsibility key performance indicators have on decision-making, respondents from the UK and Germany ranked health and safety highest but water consumption, biodiversity and greenhouse gas emission lowest.