Education and Corporate Social Responsibility : International Perspectives 9781781905906, 9781781905890

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EDUCATION AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

DEVELOPMENTS IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY Series Editors: Gu¨ler Aras and David Crowther Recent Volumes: Volume 1: NGOs and Social Responsibility Volume 2: Governance in the Business Environment Volume 3: Business Strategy and Sustainability

DEVELOPMENTS IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY VOLUME 4

EDUCATION AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES EDITED BY

JAMILAH AHMAD Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

DAVID CROWTHER De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

SRRNet Social Responsibility Research Network www.socialresponsibility.biz

United Kingdom – North America – Japan India – Malaysia – China

Emerald Group Publishing Limited Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK First edition 2013 Copyright r 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited Reprints and permission service Contact: [email protected] No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-78190-589-0 ISSN: 2043-0523 (Series)

ISOQAR certified Management System, awarded to Emerald for adherence to Environmental standard ISO 14001:2004. Certificate Number 1985 ISO 14001

CONTENTS LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: CSR EDUCATION MOVING TOWARDS COMMON DIRECTION David Crowther and Jamilah Ahmad

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PART I: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES CHAPTER 2 WALKING THE TALK: TEACHING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN UK HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS David Crowther and Shahla Seifi

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CHAPTER 3 THE ROLE-PLAY APPROACH TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) EDUCATION: THE CONCEPT AND A STEP-BY-STEP EXAMPLE Caroline Ditlev-Simonsen

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CHAPTER 4 EMBEDDING CSR WITHIN THE UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS CURRICULUM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATION MODULE Helen Goworek and Petra Molthan-Hill

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CHAPTER 5 APPLYING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY TO THE CHALLENGE OF EMBEDDING ETHICS INTO THE BUSINESS SCHOOL CURRICULUM Denise Baden

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CHAPTER 6 INTERNATIONAL STUDENT VIEWS OF ETHICS WITHIN A UK BUSINESS SCHOOL CURRICULUM Debbie Holley, Saranda Hajdari, Dianne Hummal and Tomasz Scibior

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PART II: INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES CHAPTER 7 EDUCATION AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: THE BRADFORD COLLEGE EXPERIENCE Khosro S. Jahdi

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CHAPTER 8 CSR TRENDS IN THE TOP 100 US BUSINESS SCHOOLS: A THEORY–PRACTICE RELATIONSHIP Lina M. Gomez and Lucely Vargas Preciado

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CHAPTER 9 CSR AND EDUCATION: THE GHANAIAN AND AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE George K. Amoako, Ruby Melody Agbola, Robert K. Dzogbenuku and Evans Sokro CHAPTER 10 CHALLENGES OF INTEGRATING CSR INTO CURRICULA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROMANIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM Georgiana Florentina Grigore, Alin Stancu and Rodica-Milena Zaharia

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CHAPTER 11 STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING ACADEMIC ABILITIES FOR CORPORATE EDUCATION: RELEVANCE OF OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES B. PanduRanga Narasimharao

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CHAPTER 12 BEYOND THEORY AND PRACTICE: A MALAYSIAN CASE STUDY Jamilah Ahmad and Suriati Saad

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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INDEX

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Ruby Melody Agbola

Department of Management Studies, Central Business School, Ghana

Jamilah Ahmad

School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia

George K. Amoako

Department of Marketing, Central Business School, Ghana

Denise Baden

Southampton Management School, UK

David Crowther

De Montfort University, UK

Caroline Ditlev-Simonsen

Department of Accounting – Auditing and Law, BI Norweigian Business School, Norway

Robert K. Dzogbenuku

Department of Marketing, Central Business School, Ghana

Lina M. Gomez

Universitat Jaume, Spain

Helen Goworek

Nottingham Trent University, UK

Georgiana Florentina Grigore

Bournemouth University, UK

Saranda Hajdari

Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Debbie Holley

Faculty of Education, Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Dianne Hummal

Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Khosro S. Jahdi

Business and Law School, Bradford College, UK

Petra Molthan-Hill

Nottingham Trent University, UK

B. Panduranga Narasimharao

University of Mysore, India vii

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Lucely Vargas Preciado

Johannes Kepler University, Austria

Suriati Saad

School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Tomasz Scibior

Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Shahla Seifi

Universiti Putra Malaysia

Evans Sokro

Department of Human Resource Management, Central Business School, Ghana

Alin Stancu

Faculty of Marketing, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania

Rodica-Milena Zaharia

Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: CSR EDUCATION MOVING TOWARDS COMMON DIRECTION David Crowther and Jamilah Ahmad INTRODUCTION In the West, just as much as in Eastern civilisations, a concern for respect and civility, and therefore mutual and complementary development of all the parts involved in an action, has been a philosophical driver for more than two millennia. In a practical way this implies, for the ‘human individual’, that the consideration of others’ realisation and accomplishments are as equal and important as her/his own. As an example of this mutual co-development, European humanistic thinkers have written and reflected about the need of having a humanistic orientation on any social action; in this respect the work of Rousseau (1712–1778) and Montaigne (1533–1592) are especially notable. This line has also been explored more recently by the American philosopher Dewey (1909). Moreover, within this humanistic concern, other philosophers such as Socrates (in Plato’s works – 399–384 B.C.) and later Kierkegaard (1851) reflected on the responsibility of action regarding the whole, for which it is necessary to consider the meaning of existence as the representation of the soul – in a spiritual context – that affects this ‘whole’ inter-related development. We talk then about the need to explore the sense of actions, the results pursued and their consequences. Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 1–14 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004003

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We know from experience that actions have repercussions which result in either distress or satisfactions to other beings that interact with the actor who originated an action. Therefore, it is essential to accept accountability for actions and consequences of decisions. In this sense, repercussions may be treated as ‘meanings’ of actions, either as results or as transcendent explanations of the spirit. Within a holistic philosophy of this kind, in a world that needs more and more justice and responsible organisational actions (Crowther & Rayman-Bacchus, 2004), managers, as potential agents for proactive change (within a social constructionist perspective), are called to develop behaviours concerned with the consideration of others, not only with human beings but also with ecological elements of the planet. From this perspective, we can conceive of the manager as an integral being1 whose development (as a human being) involves a spiritual enhancement regarding the whole person. This demands us to look for approaches that help to develop not only the intellectuality of managers (from the traditional occidental primacy of technical and conductive abilities), but also their morality and ethics. Some previous research (e.g. Chanlat, 1998; Davila Gomez, 2003) shows us that these kinds of needs are more related to the development of attitudes (such as comprehension, compassion, sensibility, among others) rather than with the reinforcement of technical and mechanical abilities. We need therefore to complement the actual dominant organisational pragmatic paradigm of functionalism, with other open human and social perspectives. For the latter, one way of contributing to this aim is through the role, contents and practice of management education, given that a part of the lifetime reflection that actual (or future) managers spend is inside classrooms, where the influence of professors may represent a factor of consciousness about the reality and needs. In order to accomplish the aim of procuring a human orientation inside management education, it is therefore imperative to reflect upon some pedagogical and educational approaches that include some of our concerns and ideas. In this respect, our literature review shows us that humanistic educational thinkers such as Rousseau (1712–1778) and Rabelais (1494–1553) treated some of our concerns about human integrality in students by means of promoting justice and consideration towards others and nature. Equally, Montessori (1870–1952) and Pestalozzi (1746–1827) treated in depth the inherent connection between humans and nature as well as the need for equality, compassion and mutual understanding. These two applied their precepts in elementary schools, and their methods are still practised nowadays. Similarly Valett (1977, 1974) proposed a set of guides to integrating the emotional and affective stages of a student’s growth.

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Unfortunately, even though there is a strong corpus about our concerns, the problem we find is that their precepts, and in some cases practical guides for teachers, are not yet either included in or developed for either university courses or for management education.2 Most of the actual applications in education remain in elementary schools. Consequently there is a need to explore the possibilities and challenges that it would be implied in the fact of translating a humanistic orientation into management education. From another perspective, it has been largely upon the influence of Piaget’s movement that Western education is based. He and his followers (e.g. Doise, Mugnet and Perret-Clemont – as explained by Dillenbourg (1999)) developed the concept of constructivism, where the basis is the relation between student and professor (or child and parent), which is established with the aid of the subject–object interaction. Piaget’s precepts (1977a, 1977b) have been very valuable, where his deepest area of concern was the cognitive field, the development of the intelligence. However, the question of ‘awareness’ for other subjects’ needs and meanings (or actors and ecological factors) is not well developed in his approach.

INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY Not far from this, we experience a similar situation in business schools, as they are also educational organisations. Our citizen clients are the students, and we as professors may reproduce coercive interactions of power or considerate human relations. As pointed out before, we as professors, as well as sometimes directors of institutions, have a past psychological life that is in continuous construction and readjustment. We might be frustrated by the way we have been treated by others, and we may have chosen to give the same treatment to our students. Or, we might have experienced autocratic hierarchical power from others in different instances, and we may have chosen to inflict bureaucratic excess for the accomplishment of any minimal task that a subordinate asks us, only because of the desire that others have the same difficulties that we have had to face. Where then is the compassion? Where is the sensibility? Those are the feelings to develop in order to obtain attitudinal change represented in positive thought and a belief for a better company, community and even more, a better world and a better future for the generations to come. Even worse, students are paying us to be mistreated because they have no other alternative, in the near future, in organisations that will engage them only if they approve the courses taught in the university. A way of

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interaction is then socially accepted as the right one, even though we feel it is wrong. It is like an accepted suffering in order to achieve our ideals. As treated by Montessori (1870–1952), our methods are so reprehensive and compelling that the will of the student is almost forgotten. Students are forced to follow the professor’s (and institutional) precepts, and in the process of doing so, they receive a pedagogy of repression and instructionalism, totally opposed to dialogue, debate and the students’ self-discovery. On this path, most students choose to follow the precepts because of the internal fears of disappointing their parents, fears of being confrontational or simply fear of not fitting in with society. This pedagogy of oppression (Freire, 1970) is then accepted in a silent way, even though, students feel mistreated. That is why it is not surprising that the work of a revolutionary woman like Maria Montessori in the early 20th century was so difficult. Nowadays, we find some primary schools that follow her method of love, compassion and comprehension.3 Nevertheless, there is still need to extend this kind of pedagogy to adult education, moreover to business schools where the faith of many is decided by the formation of the elite of organisations. In addition, it is in this point when alternative methods and contents inside classrooms might help the awakening of actual students (future directors of society and forgers of change). As alternatives we have discussed both critical reflection and humanistic and respectful interaction. As learning by example helps to procure the occurrence of non-previously experienced situations on the students’ minds, there is a chance that the unknown will be accepted as a possibility, and that it is worthwhile to fight and to immerse the spirit in those alternatives. In order to generate compassion and generosity in our students, we need to exhibit the same. As proposed by Reynolds (1999), we need less hierarchical approaches, but, as developed by the humanistic authors mentioned earlier, it is imperative to work not only on instantaneous learning but also on the complete development process of the individual. As new orientations are needed for professors to follow, new challenges arise for educational institutions in order to bring about the continual development of their personnel (and their professors). In this sense, we align our thoughts with what Dewey (1975, pp. 8–9) expressed about the need to integrate morality and ethics in any educational process: The social work of the school is often limited to training for citizenship, and citizenship is then interpreted in a narrow sense as meaning capacity to vote intelligently, disposition to obey laws, etc. But it is futile to contract and cramp the ethical responsibility of the school in this way. The child is one, and he must either live his social life as an integral

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unified being, or suffer loss and create friction. [y] The child is an organic whole, intellectually, socially and morally, as well as physically. We must take the child as a member of society in the broadest sense, and demand for and from the schools whatever is necessary to enable the child intelligently to recognize all his social relations and take his part in sustaining them.

Dewey’s precepts are widely applicable to management education, as we have highlighted that there is a need to contribute to the continual development of the individual and not only to the learning of a specific task. Hereby, as we discussed earlier, as a practical example of a humanistic approach inside the courses, we could also ask students to contact and live experiences of ‘organisational realities’ side by side with those people that already work in organisations. We propose here, not only the traditional stages of experiential learning orientated to develop skills, but also the need to demand of the students as class assignments the need to reflect on the consequences they see and experience through the experience of the workers they encounter while they are in that situation. In parallel, and different from the traditional probationary periods that can take weeks or months, another example that demands reflection and social discussion may include for students the task of to go and visit organisations and perform interviews at different levels of personnel (directors and employees) in order to obtain different points of view of a particular situation that the organization is experiencing (or the theme learned in the classroom – for example the exercise of strategic planning, or an IT implementation project). Hereby, we are demanding the students to do more than what traditionally is asked, because as we open the possibility to different points of view, we integrate in the conscience of the student the need to consider the stakeholders, and not only the powerful ones. Thus, strategic planning may be seen afterwards in the course as a process that includes ethical considerations for many groups of interest. Here, the support of the institution is needed in order to allow and to consolidate relationships with industry and other organisations in order to allow students to undertake visits and probationary periods, but at the same time, there needs to be consideration from the part of those who control the programmes of study because many times, the courses are so highly sophisticated and rationalised that the freedom and safety margin for the professor to manoeuvre does not exist. Many times, we are also victims of the excess of rationalism, and in management education, the abuses of what we taught about reengineering, because in order to having it all in written procedures and policies, some things like the evaluation process of the course, contents and tasks to ask to the students, are already explicit and are a norm.

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In this sense, when we discuss about sensibility and the opening of the mind, it is imperative that the person (the student) develops the will and the pleasure for humanistic and social attitudes and values. As stated by Winnicott (1965, p. 73): The word ‘concern’ is used to cover in a positive way a phenomenon that is covered in a negative way by the word ‘guilt’. A sense of guilt is anxiety linked with the concept of ambivalence, and implies a degree of integration in the individual ego that allows for the retention of good object-imago along with the idea of destruction of it. Concern implies further integration, and further growth, and relates in a positive way to the individual’s sense of responsibility, especially in respect of relationships into which the instinctual drives have entered. Concern refers to the fact that the individual cares, or minds, and both feels and accepts responsibility.

As also developed and explained often by Winnicott, this sense of concern, and therefore the responsibility value we seek in managers, may not be well developed depending on childhood experiences, but also on the continuous development of the individual throughout life. Therefore, when we, as professors, receive students, it might be that this concern does not necessarily make part of an intrinsic principle (an ontology) and therefore only the transmission of our theoretical corpus will not be enough. Thus, the integration of alternative orientations, such as that of the humanistic, which includes contact with nature and to experience organisational reality side by side with other human beings, can help to develop the sensitiveness we aim for. In this way, we may procure a more human relationship with our students in order to offer alternative experiences seeking that they identify that power is not only an oppressive constraint (as we have discussed) but also an alternative for change. Hereby, in order to overcome the barriers of the past, and the psychoanalytical conflicts the individual has in his subconscious, as developed by Klein and Riviere (1964), the task of professors is wider than the dominant practice utilised nowadays. The former implies ethics and forethought, not only in professors, but also in the managers of educational institutions. More examples of humanistic practices in organisations and in teaching are needed. More experience and contact with the world are essential in order to contribute to the development of critical thinking of students as well as human and social attitudes of concern and responsibility. We recognise of course that this places a considerable burden of responsibility upon the people (such as ourselves) who are engaged in the education of managers and future managers.4 We argue, however, that such education is more open as it is concerned with providing opportunities for all and with a concern for society as a whole rather than with merely reinforcing and reproducing

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existing hierarchies of power. It is a broader education than simple task proficiency and knowledge transfer because it extends the approach used in primary education into higher education; moreover, because it does not place the professor and the student in a hierarchical position of power; rather the professor and the student work together and learn from each other. The result is not only more challenging but also more satisfying for the professor as well as for the student. This is laudable in its own right but what we are concerned with is behaviour in the workplace and our argument is that the provision of education for managers has a key role to play in forming of that behaviour in the workplace. We argue that a more holistic humanistic education for managers and potential managers will help change the workplace towards a socially responsible environment in which the people working there are valued as people and not just as factors of production.

TEACHING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be explained in terms of the new social contract between business and society (Crowther, 2002). This social contract implies some form of altruistic behaviour – the converse of selfishness (Crowther & Ortiz Martinez, 2004), whereas self-interest connotes selfishness. Self-interest is central to the utilitarian perspective championed by such people as Bentham, Locke and J. S. Mill. The latter for example advocated as morally right the pursuit of the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Similarly Adam Smith’s free-market economics is predicated on competing self-interest. These influential ideas put interest of the individual above interest of the collective. The central tenet of social responsibility, however, is the social contract between all the stakeholders to society, which is an essential requirement of civil society. This is alternatively described as citizenship but for either term it is important to remember that the social responsibility needs to extend beyond present members of society. Social responsibility also requires a responsibility towards the future and towards future members of society. Subsumed within this is of course a responsibility towards the environment because of implications for other members of society both now and in the future. CSR, therefore, involves a concern with the various stakeholders to a business but there are several problems in identifying socially responsible behaviour:  Research shows that the concern is primarily with those stakeholders who have power to influence the organisation. Thus organisations are most

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concerned with shareholders, less so with customers and employees and very little with society and the environment. CSR would imply that they are all of equal importance.  The definitions imply that CSR is a voluntary activity rather than enforced though regulation, whereas in actual fact it is an approach and the voluntary – regulated debate is irrelevant.  Claiming a concern is very different to actually exhibiting that concern through actions taken (Crowther, 2004). Because of the uncertainty surrounding the nature of CSR activity it is difficult to evaluate any such activity. It can be seen, however, that there are several strands to CSR and therefore a number of ways it can be taught in a management education curriculum. At the simplest level is the notion of the triple bottom line and the concomitant implication that social and environmental impacts are extras which can be added on to the financial accounts. Other approaches include an ethical element in recognising that the way in which accounting is used is a matter of choice which has an ethical dimension. And at a more complex level this accounting is set within an organisational framework with added dimensions of power and increased ethical dilemmas.

CSR CURRENT CONTRIBUTION The purpose of this book is to examine the way in which CSR is taught in the business, management, accounting and communication school curriculum. The ontological position of the authors necessitates an acceptance that there is no particular best way of doing this but a study of practice will lead to an understanding of the possibilities thereby enabling each person to select from a wider repertoire. This is reflected in the diversity of chapters which comprise this volume. The first part of the volume contains a number of theoretical perspectives. Integrating CSR into education requires more than just theoretical approach. Practical experience, and most important the ability to grasp the underlining idea of what social responsibility is all about, requires attention to the detail of the curricular. This sentiment is further discussed in Chapter 2 where Crowther and Seifi argue that UK universities are aware that they are lacking behind in acting in terms of CSR although they know that they have some roles to play in the area of CSR in addition to their

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traditional roles of teaching and research. The authors suggest that information on the CSR of higher education is valuable to relevant stakeholders. Senior managers of institutions of higher education in the UK are also perceived as socially responsible in the actions and dealings with all stakeholders. The chapter seeks to remove the misconception that academic researchers are mainly interested in the CSR of profit-making corporate entities. This chapter provides a framework on which future studies could be based. It also improves our understanding of the additional social obligations which not-for-profit corporate entities, especially those in education, owe to their stakeholders and society in general. The discussion continues with an exploration of alternative teaching and learning tools in the complex, value-based field of CSR by Ditlev-Simonsen. She divides her chapters into two parts: Part 1 presents the role-play in education concept with focus on CSR education, while Part 2 offers a stepby-step example of a role-play exercise in the field of social responsible investment (SRI). The author argues that only through role-play and reallife-simulation process, students will be able to gain a better grasp of the challenges and dilemmas in an area that has no absolute ‘rights’ or ‘wrongs’. Furthermore she states that students will learn facts while also developing a better understanding of their own and others’ attitudes. In Chapter 4 Goworek and Molthan-Hill examine the development and implementation of a sustainability module at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the UK and assess how this is embedded within the undergraduate business curriculum. This chapter explores how sustainability can be integrated effectively within the curriculum and focuses on a module for the academic year 2011/2012. ‘The Sustainable Organisation’ (SO) and its underlying principles from the perspectives of members of the module team. It also reflects on previous and concurrent modules incorporating sustainability and CSR. The module’s connections with industry and related research were also clearly discussed in detail in the chapter. Discussion of curriculum development continues in the following chapter where Baden argues that embedding CSR issues across the business school curriculum is not always effective due to factors such as lack of expertise, confidence, resources and/or motivation on the part of faculty staff. On the other hand, stand-alone courses tend to be optional, thus allowing many students to graduate with little to no coverage of ethical issues. In addition, the effectiveness of business ethics and CSR education has been challenged by a number of studies, raising the question of how to measure effectiveness and which pedagogical methods to use. The main contention of this chapter

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is that the underlying aim behind efforts to integrate ethics into the business school curriculum is in order to motivate and enable future business leaders to manage ethically and respond effectively to the challenges of sustainable development. Conceptualising ethics education in terms of eliciting behavioural change enables access into the insights provided by social psychological research into factors affecting behaviour, such as self-efficacy, subjective norms, knowledge, awareness, attitudes and role models. As ethical behaviour is a focus of the previous chapter, Chapter 6 continues the discussion by sharing research of students’ views of ethics. Holle, Hajdari, Hummal and Scibior are concerned with the role of CSR education in the development of students and therefore focus on the views, experience and understandings of ethics as part of the written coursework among the international students in a UK university. The chapter includes extracts from the student essays along with their individual and collective commentaries about how they have come to understand more about CSR and about the ethical conduct of the organisation as part of the assessment of the course. The authors clearly believe that the relationship between lecturer and student communities in higher education should be explored using the concepts of the asymmetry of knowledge and the symmetry of ignorance. To further develop an understanding from CSR learning around the world, the book has put together, as Part 2, a number of perspectives and experience from across the globe. Thus the subsequent chapters are designed to further elaborate teaching and learning scenario of CSR in various countries as means of helping develop our understanding of best practice. In the first of these chapters Jahdi focuses mainly on the teaching of CSR at a higher education institution, and the possible lessons that could be learnt from that experience. This chapter discussed how CSR course can be introduced as an optional module at higher learning institution looking both at the popularity of CSR in education and at factors that motivate students to opt out for studying such a module, and whether learning about CSR has made any difference to their way of thinking and perception. Meanwhile, in Chapter 8 Gomez and Vargas analyse the websites of the top 100 business schools in the United States (according to the US News Magazine). The purpose is to identify the alignments between the curricula of business schools and the overall CSR campus initiatives, in order to find common CSR trends according to the seven core subjects of the ISO 26000 in social responsibility. Authors also gauge the importance of understanding

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to what extent US business schools and universities are committed to fully prepare future business leaders for a sustainable society and environment through the relationship between CSR theory and practice. The comparisons continue in Chapter 9 where Amoako, Dzogbenuku, Sokro and Agbola share their experience of the teaching of CSR in business schools in Africa. Believing that the teaching of social responsibility is one way of tackling proposed changes in business and economics education, the authors present ways of embedding CSR into the curricula of business schools and other higher institutions of learning. The chapter also highlights the importance of developing industry-relevant and sustainable academic stimulating programs and also suggest how to bring CSR to the forefront of academic research in Ghana and Africa. This chapter can help to improve on CSR education in Africa in that the development and teaching of CSR should be specified in all stages of the university curriculum from the first to the final year. Following on from this analysis Grigore, Stancu and Zaharia investigate how practitioners and researchers in Romania respond to questions about the integration and description of an intensely debated topic of CSR, from an educational point of view. This chapter presents the key features of educational system in Romania and highlight challenges in integration and coverage of CSR into curriculum. In the findings, a profile of the CSR curriculum is emphasised as well as the link between CSR and education and the opportunities that derive from this connection were also discussed. Further to this analysis Narasimharao shares the importance of a university outreach program and its significance for industry in the context of India. He suggests that the outreach concept can help in evolving new strategies for implementing and promoting other successful concepts like the clustering of industrial activities, developing local interactive learning systems using local sources of knowledge, linear and non-linear innovation models and so on. The author also argues that corporate education need to be developed as broad based to get the benefit of a ‘whole’ university concept. The presumption in the whole efforts of corporate education through universities is that learning makes a difference to corporate success; that the university is much more than just a collection of courses; and that knowledge is jointly owned, accumulated, developed and shared. This chapter discusses how universities can develop strategies for corporate education at universities through academic development using outreach and the engagement concept. In the last chapter Ahmad and Saad indicate concern that despite increasing awareness among businesses of the need to focus beyond compliance with laws in order to respond to the dynamic economic, societal

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and environmental changes in Malaysia, little is mentioned on how a university can contribute in developing this concern for social responsibility. This chapter deliberately discusses the needs for a university to have drive, compassion, commitment and persistence towards achieving this goal in order to cope up with the present contextual demands, as a way to replenish its own actions and enlarge its source of reference, and thereby becoming an institution that helps and partly is involved in shaping stakeholders’ involvement in socially responsible engagement. The authors suggest that teaching and educating have an important role to play in facilitating future employees to become more ethical, transparent, engaged and socially responsible for their community and surroundings. Therefore, a university should play its part by offering a more strategic CSR approach in their courses and they propose a framework that embeds both theory and practice by incorporating four main stakeholders that is organisations, community, government or policy makers and media into these efforts. The discussions in this book are wide ranging and cover a diverse range of perspectives and experiences. This is deliberate and a part of our attempt to move the discourse and to show its multi-faceted and international connotations. In conclusion, therefore, the diversity of contributions to this book shows how broad is the range of topics, issues, selection of contributions from authors with a wide range of backgrounds both geographical and disciplinary. Although most chapters initially appear to be individual and unconnected they are in fact linked by a common theme that is CSR education. The objectives of this book is to ensure a strategic and pragmatic approach to ensuring that CSR courses become embedded in the curriculum so that the concepts can be utilised and applied by students who are the future employees of organisations and the future decision makers for those organisations and for the planet as a whole. Since CSR is rapidly becoming important throughout the world, academicians have responded to this by embedding CSR into the curricula of their respective institutions. Practice, however, differs throughout the world and this book is designed to share and explore these different practices. We hope this book succeeds in opening up the discourse in this important but often neglected area.

NOTES 1. Integral incorporates the biological, intellectual and spiritual – as was claimed in ancient Greek times by Socrates, for example.

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2. Probably the only exception to this is based in the work of Freire (Escobar, Fernandez, Guevara-Niebla, & Freire 1994; Freire, 1970) and his advocacy of the avoidance of authoritarian teaching in favour of shared learning experiences. 3. See some examples at The Montessori Foundation – http://www.montessori.org. 4. This of course opens up a considerable discourse regarding the role of education and the role of educators in the process. We do not intend in this chapter to engage with this discourse to any great extent, instead restricting ourselves to the arguments we have made as a precursor to the book.

REFERENCES Chanlat, A. (1998). Les deux Bourque: coˆte´cour, coˆte´jardin - Grandeurs et mise`res de la matie`re du dirigeant. Que´bec: Les Presses de l’universite´ Laval. Crowther, D. (2002). A social critique of corporate reporting. Aldershot: Ashgate. Crowther, D. (2004). Corporate social reporting: Genuine action or window dressing? In D. Crowther & L. Rayman-Bacchus (Eds.), Perspectives on corporate social responsibility (pp. 140–160). Aldershot: Ashgate. Crowther, D., & Ortiz Martinez, E. (2004). Corporate social responsibility: History and principles. In Social responsibility world (pp. 102–107). Penang: Ansted University Press. Crowther, D., & Rayman-Bacchus, L. (2004). The future of corporate social responsibility. In D. Crowther & L. Rayman-Bacchus (Eds.), Perspectives on corporate social responsibility (pp. 229–249). Aldershot: Ashgate. Davila Gomez, A.-M. (2003). Haciaun Management Humanistadesde la educacio´n a distancia: intersubjetividad y desarrollo de cualidadeshumanas, Doctoral thesis, E´cole des HautesE´tudesCommerciales de Montre´al, HEC Montre´al, Canada. Dewey, J. (1975). Moral principles in education, copyright 1909. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Dewey, J. H. (1909). Moral principles in education. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press. Dillenbourg, P. (1999). What do you mean by ‘‘collaborative learning’’? In P. Dillenbourg (Ed.), Collaborative learning - cognitive and computational approaches (pp. 1–19). Oxford, UK, Amsterdam: Pergamon. Escobar, M., Fernandez, A. L., Guevara-Niebla, G., & Freire, P. (1994). Paulo freire on higher eduation: A dialogue at the National University of Mexico. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Penguin. Kierkegaard, S. (1851). For self-examination and judge for yourselves! trad. Lowrie, W, 1941, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 4th printing, 1974. Klein, M., & Riviere, J. (1964). Love, hate and reparation. New York, NY: The Norton Library. Piaget, J. (1977a). Meside´es, Deno¨elGonthier, coll. Me´diations. Piaget, J. (1977b). El nacimiento de la inteligencia en el nin˜o, Ed. grijalbo, 1994, Bogota´, trad. Delachauxet Niestle´, 1977. Reynolds, M. (1999). Critical reflection and management education: Rehabilitating less hierarchical approaches. Journal of Management Education, 23(5), 537–553.

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Valett, R. E. (1974). Affective-humanistic education – Goals, programs & learning activities. Belmont, CA: Lear Siegler, Inc. Valett, R. E. (1977). Humanistic education – Developing the total person. Saint Luois, CA: The C.V. Mosby Company. Winnicott, D. (1965). The maturational processes and the facilitating environment: Studies in the theory of emotional developments. New York, NY: International University Press.

PART I THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

CHAPTER 2 WALKING THE TALK: TEACHING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN UK HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS David Crowther and Shahla Seifi INTRODUCTION Corporate entities of whatever shape or form (profit motive or not-forprofit) aspire to be successful in whatever they do. Success can come about through many means. In recent times, corporate entities around the world have come to realise that success can be achieved when they are perceived by their stakeholders as being socially responsible; these stakeholders tend to warm to what the entities do or stand for, which consequently makes a big difference in terms of achieving or not achieving their strategic objectives (Aras & Crowther, 2009). This has become even more apparent during the recent economic and financial crisis where the socially responsible organisation has prospered while others faltered and CSR has been adopted as a survival strategy (Crowther & Seifi, 2011). A socially responsible corporate entity takes cognisance of the impact of its actions on its communities, its stakeholders and the environment when formulating its corporate objectives and in its decision making process. It strives at all times to either minimise or totally remove the adverse effects of its activities on Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 17–34 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004004

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the environment, employees, business contacts group, suppliers of funds and credits, governments and other affected members of society. Corporate entities around the world now consider that being socially responsible is not just very ‘trendy’ but also good for business and so an essential part of their strategy, quite a dramatic change over the last decade. It would be reasonable to argue that the activities of several nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) – by acting as pressure groups – have played a catalytic role in the emergence of the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Aras & Crowther, 2010). These NGOs try to police different aspects of corporate and governmental behaviours in both the developed and less developed countries of the world in order to ensure that these behaviours do not fall short of acceptable standards. International organisations such as Green Peace, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, World Wildlife Fund are a few of such organisations. In addition, business associations such as the World Council on Sustainable Development, Business in the Community (BitC), CSR Europe and several others are propagating various CSR-related activities and events to increase corporate and societal awareness of what the field entails and how beneficial its inculcation into business practice would be on the environment, their stakeholders and the world at large. The United Nations and many of its arms have been very active in the area of sustainable development, which is an aspect of CSR, while many governments around the world exhibit similar enthusiasm (Papasolomou-Doukakis & Idowu, 2005). The higher education sector in the UK has been experiencing a transformation phase of late. Institutions of higher education are gradually becoming more self-autonomous1 and required to develop alternative sources of funding; students are now perceived as clients; the word competition was of no significance in the industry before now but has now become paramount – nationally and globally; there was no distinction between local and overseas students vis-a`-vis the fees they paid until the 1980s but now the requirement is to maximise fee income and differentiate the two groups; and profit or surplus was not one of the variables used to measure success or performance; all as long as the objectives of the institution concerned were achieved in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and value for money. All these are changing in the UK’s higher education institutions and it appears that nothing can be taken for granted any more! The industry will become even more competitive and self-regulated as time goes by. Higher education has now been internationalised according to the International Finance Corporation,2 which argued that in 2003 about 2% of the world’s university students’ population of 100 million was studying

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outside their home countries. It also noted that there has been an annual growth of 7% in the market since the late 1990s with a current annual fee income of $30 billion. A fee income of this magnitude signifies the enormity of the market. If institutions of higher education in the UK wish to continue to attract foreign students who are prepared to pay higher discriminatory fees in order to enable them to take a reasonable portion of that total annual fee income, in addition to providing good-quality services (which they are noted for), they must be seen to be socially responsible by this stakeholder group (clients) and other stakeholder groups related to them for example governments of their home countries, prospective employers and loan providers such as the International Education Finance Corporation (an arm of the World Bank which provides loans to international students). More specifically we argue that a university which seeks to gain fee income by teaching a degree concerning CSR must particularly be seen to behave in a socially responsible manner. At present there are very few universities which teach this subject as a degree although an increasing number incorporate such a topic into many business–related degrees. Originally this tended to be at masters degree level but lately this teaching has been extended to undergraduate level also. Our study concerns a variety of universities teaching CSR in different ways.

THE EDUCATION DISCOURSE It is generally accepted within the discourse of teaching in higher education that modern learning theory is founded in the student-centred learning paradigm initiated by Rogers (1951), and that the teaching strategies used in higher education are based upon this paradigm. It has been argued, however (Crowther & Davies, 1996; Davies & Crowther, 1995), that there is a largely unquestioning acceptance within this discourse that the subject matters being taught are appropriate for the needs of students. Consequently the only topic for debate within the discourse is the mechanisms for transferring the knowledge contained within these subjects from the holders of that knowledge (the academics in higher education) to the persons desirous of receiving that knowledge (the students). It is argued, however, that the subject matter which is involved in the process of knowledge transfer needs also to be an integral part of the discourse and that this consideration is of particular relevance within the business school community of higher education. It is further argued that in this arena the development of the subject matter taught is in danger of becoming irrelevant

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(Crowther & Carter, 2002) to the needs of the customers purported to be served (i.e. present and future business managers) and hence, at best marginalised and at worst excluded, from the discourse of education. The language of the dominant discourse within the business school environment is concerned with the teaching of management, or business, as a subject which is conveniently subdivided into different specialist areas for practicalities of teaching. Conveniently at the same time this divides the subject area into suitable areas for research by individual academics within institutions and enables the development of specialist expertise. At the same time the sub-language of the discourse is founded upon an acceptance of the free market as a mediating mechanism and hence an acceptance of classical liberal theory. Implicit within classical liberal theory is the freedom of an individual to pursue his/her own ends, and this matches the ethos of academic freedom completely. Also implicit within classical liberalism, however, is the tendency of communities to atomise (Barnett & Crowther, 1998) into lonely individuals and it is argued that this is taking place within the domain of business schools as individuals and groups diverge and develop their own subject specialisms. This has led to the fragmentation of management as a subject into a number of discrete disciplines which increasingly have little connection, or even perceived relevance, to each other. Within the paradigm of modernity, within which this view of higher education operates, acceptance of this is unquestioning and each discipline continues to distance itself from other disciplines within the business school environment, continues to fragment into sub-disciplines (which eventually become new disciplines in their own right) and continues to legitimate each as a discrete discipline without regard to the legitimation of other parts of the business environment. This has been argued to be the case in social sciences generally by Seidman (1992, p. 47) who states that there has been: y a tendency for intellectual life to drift towards disciplinary inwardness and closurey . As theorists take their own specialty problems and conventions as their reference point, their work becomes technical and obscure.

Accounting practice3 has existed in its present form since Pacioli described double entry book keeping in the fifteenth century but it is only recently that the subject has moved from practitioner to academic and started to develop a theoretical research tradition of its own. Accounting, therefore, has had a strong imperative to legitimate itself as a discipline, firstly within the domain of management studies, and latterly as a discipline in its own right legitimated through its own traditions. Accordingly this has led to research which suggests that the understanding of an

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organisation’s internal operations is a crucial area for study (e.g. Aoki, 1984) and that accounting is an important part of this study (e.g. Emmanuel, Otley, & Merchant, 1990; Macintosh, 1985). Equally the importance of studying accounting in the wider environment of business has been argued by Swansson (1978), Spicer and Ballew (1983) and Gordon and Miller (1976). At the same time the need to legitimise accounting as a discipline has resulted in theoretical research into technical matters such as return on income (Dearden, 1969), residual income (Emmanuel & Otley, 1976; Grabski, 1985) and NPV (Scapens, 1979). This consideration of the technical matters of accounting has been extended more recently to a consideration of the development of new techniques such as activity-based costing (Kaplan, 1990) and a link to actual practise through research into the use of the technique in organisations (e.g. Bhimani & Piggott, 1992; Cobb, Innes, & Mitchell, 1992). Thus accounting in its quest for legitimacy as a discipline needs to maintain strong links with the world of the practitioner. Although it is widely recognised among accounting lecturers that accounting is a social construct which is far from neutral in its effects – often deliberately so – when the subject is taught many teach the subject as if it is a science which conveys the neutrality assumed to belong to a science. Thus we teach that accounting conveys the truth, and the debate about the use of the different techniques and standards of accounting is concerned largely with how best to represent in the accounts the truth which is assumed to exist. Consequently every time an Enron comes along the debate focused on the way in which regulations need to be adapted and upon criminal activity. It has also led to an increasing concern with governance and its role in risk management (Crowther & Seifi, 2010). Thus corporate governance has also become a subject which is extensively taught in business schools. At the same time such large-scale exposures of the misbehaviour of corporations has brought to the fore issues concerning CSR, which is often presented as a new topic. Issues of socially responsible behaviour are not of course new and examples can be found from throughout the world and at least from the earliest days of the Industrial revolution. But CSR is on the agenda of corporations, governments and individual citizens throughout the world. Thus the term CSR is in vogue at the moment but as a concept it is vague and means different things to different people; the only commonality among these different meanings is an assumption that it is unrelated to accounting, and is needed to compensate for the deficiencies of accounting.

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DEFINING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY In recent years the concept of CSR has gained prominence to such an extent that it seems ubiquitous, both in the popular media and among academics from a wide range of disciplines. There are probably many reasons for the attention given to this phenomenon (Crowther & Caliyurt, 2004) not least of which is the corporate excesses witnessed in recent years. For many people the various examples of this kind of behaviour – ranging from BCCI to Enron to Union Carbide to the collapse of Arthur Andersen – will have left an indelible impression among people that all is not well with the corporate world and that there are problems which need to be addressed (Crowther & Rayman-Bacchus, 2004). This will be particularly the case among those adversely affected by this collapse. Issues of socially responsible behaviour are not of course new, as noted by several academic researchers in the literature: the British Institute of Management noted that the use of CSR has been on the corporate scene in the UK for as far back as 1947; Idowu and Towler (2004) who argue that the Employee Report was the predecessor of CSR reports in the UK; Maltby (2004) argues that it has been practised by a number of British manufacturing companies, especially Sheffield steelmakers, during the beginning of the twentieth century; and Norris and O’Dwyer (2004) summed it all up when they argue that ‘the concept has received much attention in the past but this has tended to wax and wane; what we are now witnessing is only a resurgence of interest in corporate social responsibility’. Indeed examples of CSR can be found from throughout the world and at least from the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution and the concomitant founding of large business entities (Crowther, 2002) and the divorce between ownership and management – or the divorcing of risk from rewards (Crowther, 2004a). But CSR is back on the agenda of corporations, governments and individual citizens throughout the world. The term CSR is in vogue at the moment but as a concept it is vague and means different things to different people. For example Topal and Crowther (2004) are concerned with bioengineering and its effects upon biodiversity and therefore upon the future of the planet. On the other hand Castells (1996) and Mraovich (2004) are concerned with the consequences of the networked society, while Rayman Bacchus (2004) is more concerned with trust in, and legitimacy of, corporate behaviour and the constant tension between economic wealth and social wellbeing. This raises the question as to what exactly can be considered to be CSR. According to the European Commission (EC) ((2002), 347 final: 5),

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y CSR is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.

which was simplified in 2011 to ‘the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society’.4 This is not a new definition and has resonance with earlier idea such as those of Dahl (1972) who stated y every large corporation should be thought of as a social enterprise; that is an entity whose existence and decisions can be justified insofar as they serve public or social purposes.

The broadest definition of CSR is concerned with what is – or should be – the relationship between the global corporation, governments of countries and individual citizens. More locally the definition is concerned with the relationship between a corporation and the local society in which it resides or operates. Another definition is concerned with the relationship between a corporation and its stakeholders. For us all of these definitions are pertinent and represent a dimension of the issue. A parallel debate is taking place in the arena of ethics – should corporations be controlled through increased regulation or has the ethical base of citizenship been lost and needs replacing before socially responsible behaviour will ensue? However, the way this debate is represented it seems that it is concerned with some sort of social contract between corporations and society. This social contract implies some form of altruistic behaviour – the converse of selfishness (Crowther & Ortiz Martinez, 2004), whereas selfinterest connotes selfishness. Self-interest is central to the utilitarian perspective championed by such people as Bentham, Locke and J.S. Mill. The latter for example advocated as morally right the pursuit of the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Similarly Adam Smith’s free-market economics is predicated on competing self-interest. These influential ideas put interest of the individual above interest of the collective. The central tenet of social responsibility, however, is the social contract between all the stakeholders to society, which is an essential requirement of civil society. This is alternatively described as citizenship but for either term it is important to remember that the social responsibility needs to extend beyond present members of society. Social responsibility also requires a responsibility towards the future and towards future members of society. Subsumed within this is of course a responsibility towards the environment because of implications for other members of society both now and in the future.

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CSR therefore involves a concern with the various stakeholders to a business but there are several problems in identifying socially responsible behaviour:  Research shows that the concern is primarily with those stakeholders who have power to influence the organisation. Thus organisations are most concerned with shareholders, less so with customers and employees and very little with society and the environment. CSR would imply that they are all of equal importance.  The definitions imply that CSR is a voluntary activity rather than enforced though regulation, whereas in actual fact it is an approach and the voluntarily regulated debate is irrelevant.  Claiming a concern is very different to actually exhibiting that concern through actions taken (Crowther, 2004b). Because of the uncertainty surrounding the nature of CSR activity it is difficult to evaluate any such activity. Academic researchers, in an attempt to understand the factors that have helped to heighten recent interests in the field of CSR as we presently know it, have postulated a number of theories which they have used to support their arguments and formalise the results of their studies. These are decision usefulness theory (which argues that investors find the social information disclosed by corporate entities helpful in their decision making exercise); see for example Spicer (1978), Buzby and Falk (1979), Belkaoui (1980), Mahapatra (1984), agency theory (which views the relationship that subsists between the managers and owners of a corporate entity as that of agents and principals); see for example Jensen and Meckling (1976), stakeholder theory (which assumes that in order for an entity to generate sustainable wealth over a long period of time, good relationships must exist between that entity and its critical stakeholders); see for example Carroll (1989), Freeman (1984), Clarkson (1995) (who distinguishes between two classes of stakeholders namely; primary and secondary stakeholders), sustainable development theory (which argues that the future of mankind lies in his ability to build sustainable business enterprises and an economic reality which connects industry, society and the environment); see Hart (1997), Senge and Carstedt (2001) and Ricart, Rodriguez, and Sanchez (2005), social and political theory (which describes society as operating under ‘a series of social contracts between members of society and society itself’), Gray, Owen, and Adams (1996) and finally legitimacy theory (which postulates that ‘the actions taken by an entity are assumed to be desirable, proper or appropriate within some socially constructed system of

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norms, values, beliefs and definitions’) (Gray, Kouhy, & Lavers, 1995; Lindblom, 1994; Suchman, 1995). Vogl (2003) takes a slightly different approach to the theories mentioned above. He argues that four factors can be recognised as contributing to the recent trends in corporate entities around the world embarking on socially responsible behaviours. These factors, he argues, are tightening regulatory pressures, changing demographics, pressure from NGOs and the increased necessity for greater transparency. Prior to the 1970s, the maximisation of the shareholders’ wealth was assumed to be the singular objective of the firm. Thus Friedman (1970) argues that managers are expected to conduct the business of the firm in accordance with the owners’ or shareholders’ desire, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of society which are embodied in local laws and customs but Elkington (1997) has argued that this cannot possibly be the case as shareholders only belong to one of the many stakeholder groups of a business. The objectives are in actual fact three-folds argues Elkington, namely to create economic value (which agrees with Friedman’s argument), ecological values and social values for all concerned (i.e. all affected stakeholders). It should be noted that there is a twenty-seven-year gap between their arguments. Friedman’s argument was not wrong. It was only based on what were then the accepted standards. Elkington’s argument was equally not incorrect: by 1997 society had become more developed and better informed, while corporate entities too had recognised that they operate in a multi-stakeholder world and that they must be seen to take on board the needs of all their stakeholders. They can no longer continue to meet the needs of just one stakeholder group at the expense of the other stakeholder groups; a balance needs to be struck in meeting the needs of them all. The issue of sustainability (which is an aspect of CSR) in higher education has become a big debate and consequently a research-based area for academics in various institutions of higher education around the globe; see for example van Weenen (2000) whose research looks at the experiences of different universities around the world during the process of integrating sustainable development in their activities including the university of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Noeke (2000) whose research in Germany focused on the establishment of an environmental management system at the university of Paderborn, Wright (2002) whose research in Canada focuses on a set of major national and international frameworks for sustainability in higher education through the use of declarations, Wals and Jickling (2002) (who were based in The Netherlands and Canada

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respectively) whose research explores both the overarching goals and process of higher education from an emancipatory view and with regard to sustainability, Fien (2002) whose research in Australia explores issues related to the choice of goals and approaches for advancing sustainability in higher education; Holt (2003) whose research examines the values, actions and attitudes of a group of students as they enter and leave a business school at Middlesex University, UK; and Christensen, Pierce, Hartman, Hoffman, and Carrier (2007) who found that 42% of the top global MBA programs require CSR in their core content. This has come about as a result of different factors. Firstly, societies are becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that the natural resources nature has endowed them with will not last for ever; in fact species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate (Wals & Jickling, 2002) and if nothing is done at the rate some of these resources are being used or wasted they will become too scarce when the next generation occupy this planet. Secondly, international organisations for example the United Nations and its various arms are organising conferences and conventions on sustainable development to draw the attentions of world leaders in the fields of politics, education, business and others (who have the power to influence behaviours); that actions need to be taken urgently to alleviate future problems in this area; see for example Agenda 21 in Rio of 1992, the Kyoto Protocol of December 1997 and similar actions which have been taken. Finally, it has been realised that educators in higher education are fortunate to have the opportunity or power to influence the thoughts and behaviours of tomorrow’s leaders today!

TEACHING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO PRACTICE It can be seen therefore that there are several strands to CSR and therefore a number of ways can be taught in the curriculum. Our interest in this chapter is the examination of universities which either teach a degree course about CSR or have this as a significant component of a degree. At present this represents a small number of universities although an increasing number offer degrees in governance or sustainability or in the environmental aspects of CSR. It is our belief that a part of the teaching of such a subject is through the setting of an example – in other words walking the talk is an essential part of the teaching of this subject. Consequently we believe that it is imperative that social responsibility is practised at an institutional level

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and also at a personal level. Our purpose is to examine the extent to which this is true in practice. There are three basic principles upon which CSR is based (Crowther, 2002; Crowther & Caliyurt, 2004) which are accountability, transparency and sustainability and these provide the lens through which we examine the relationship between institutional behaviour and the teaching of CSR. Accountability is concerned with an organisation recognising that its actions affect the external environment and its various stakeholders, and therefore assuming responsibility for the effects of its actions. This concept, therefore, implies a quantification of the effects of actions taken, both internal to the organisation and externally. More specifically the concept implies a reporting of those quantifications to all parties affected by those actions. This implies a reporting to external stakeholders of the effects of actions taken by the organisation and how they are affecting those stakeholders. This concept, therefore, implies recognition that the organisation is part of a wider societal network and has responsibilities to all of that network rather than just to the owners of the organisation. Alongside this acceptance of responsibility, therefore, must be a recognition that those external stakeholders have the power to affect the way in which those actions of the organisation are taken and a role in deciding whether or not such actions can be justified, and if so at what cost to the organisation and to other stakeholders. Accountability, therefore, necessitates the development of appropriate measures of performance and the reporting of the actions of the firm. This necessitates costs on the part of the organisation in developing, recording and reporting such performance and to be of value the benefits must exceed the costs. Benefits must be determined by the usefulness of the measures selected to the decision-making process and by the way in which they facilitate resource allocation, both within the organisation and between it and other stakeholders. Such reporting needs to be based upon the following characteristics:  Understandability to all parties concerned;  Relevance to the users of the information provided;  Reliability in terms of accuracy of measurement, representation of impact and freedom from bias;  Comparability, which implies consistency, both over time and between different organisations. Obviously British universities are accountable to HEFCE and it is a matter of public record concerning their performance in terms of teaching

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standards and research capability. Furthermore all universities have procedures to attempt to safeguard their students and ensure that their staff are covered by the standard employment legislation. The question, therefore, arises as to what further information might be provided to enhance this accountability. In this context, therefore, we consider that any information relating to the CSR activity or policy of the institutions would exhibit this accountability; moreover, we recognise that there are many guises to CSR, so our search used a wide variety of keywords to seek any information contained on the university websites. When previously researching this issue it was difficult to find any information except about courses offered in CSR and information about conferences hosted but nothing regarding policy. De Montfort University even declined to provide any information when asked because of other ‘demands on time and resources’. This has changed quite dramatically over the last decade and most universities have extensive statements about sustainability and about environmental impact, although much less about their relationship with their key stakeholders. Environmental impact tends also to hover around Stage 2, the cost containment stage (Crowther, 2006); see Table 1, rather than demonstrating real engagement. Table 1. Stages of Maturity of CSR Activity. Stage of Dominant Feature Development

Typical Activity

1

Window dressing

Redesigning corporate reporting

2

Cost containment

3

5

Stakeholder engagement Measurement and reporting Sustainability

6

Transparency

7

Accountability

Re-engineering business processes Balanced scorecard development Sophisticated tailored measures Defining sustainability: re-engineering processes Concern for the supply chain: requiring CSR from suppliers Reconfiguration of the value chain

4

Source: r Crowther.

Examples

Changed wording and sections to reflect CSR language Energy efficiency programmes Customer/employee satisfaction surveys CSR reports Sustainability reporting Human rights enforcement: e.g. child labour Relocating high value added activity in developing countries

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Directly related to accountability is the principle of transparency. Transparency means that the external impact of the actions of the organisation can be ascertained from that organisation’s reporting and pertinent facts are not disguised within that reporting. Thus all the effects of the actions of the organisation, including external impacts, should be apparent to all from using the information provided by the organisation’s reporting mechanisms. Transparency is of particular importance to external users of such information as these users lack the background details and knowledge available to internal users of such information. Transparency, therefore, can be seen to follow from the principle of accountability and equally can be seen to be a part of the process of recognition of responsibility on the part of the organisation for the external effects of its actions and equally part of the process of transferring power to external stakeholders. For a complex organisation such as a university a core part of this transparency is being able to understand how responsibility is devolved within the institution and this is one of the most complex aspects of the organisation. For both institutions it is possible to glean information about what departments exist and what their functions are – except of course that it is not normally possible to arrive at any information about who is responsible for CSR,5 except in terms of teaching! The third principle of CSR is concerned with sustainability and central to this is a concern for the future which has become manifest through the term sustainability. This term sustainability has become ubiquitous both within the discourse globalisation and within the discourse of corporate performance (Aras & Crowther, 2008). Sustainability is of course a controversial issue and there are many definitions of what is meant by the term (Seifi, 2011). At the broadest definitions sustainability is concerned with the effect which action taken in the present has upon the options available in the future (Crowther, 2002). If resources are utilised in the present then they are no longer available for use in the future, and this is of particular concern if the resources are finite in quantity. Aras and Crowther (2007) argue that there are four aspects to sustainability: societal influence, environmental impact, organisational culture and finance. Most people, however, rely upon the Brundtland definition or the recent ISO 26000 definition – or just mention sustainability without bothering about any definition. Indeed all organisations have something to say about sustainability and the actions being taken, and universities are no exception. Statements tend to be anodyne and primarily concerned with environmental actions being taken.

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CONCLUSIONS Much CSR research seems designed to demonstrate that organisations are deficient in their behaviour or their reporting. This we consider to be futile as it is always possible to find some room for improvement or a different perspective on what is actually reported. What we do consider to be important, however, is that any university with pretensions to teach about CSR should have some pretensions to set an example in its own behaviour. It is not of course realistic to be prescriptive concerning what information must be provided – this will differ in each organisation according to its priorities and capabilities. Rather than outline what a university should do, it seems appropriate to pose some questions in the areas of policy, accountability, transparency and sustainability that should be addressed. A socially responsible organisation would be able to answer yes to all of these questions as some information would be available to interested stakeholders (Table 2). Our research shows that this requirement is not recognised. There is therefore some way to go before such institutions focus upon such requirements as part of their claim to offer such courses. At the moment there seems to be a bland assumption that the ability to offer such courses without ‘walking the talk’ is sufficient – the talk without the walk.

Table 2. Key Questions to Be Addressed Concerning CSR Performance. Aspect Policy Accountability Transparency

Sustainability

Key Question Does the university have a CSR statement? Is the statement visible to interested stakeholders? Are any measures of CSR activity reported? Does the organisation participate in any benchmarking activity? Who is responsible for CSR within the organisation? Does the university invite comments and suggestions concerning its CSR performance? Is information provided concerning societal influence? Is information provided concerning environmental impact? Is information provided concerning organisational culture Is information provided concerning finance?

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NOTES 1. Some would say marketised – see Crowther (2003). 2. www.ifc.org. 3. We use accounting as our example not just because that is the professional and disciplinary background of one author but also because – for historical reasons – the Accounting Department is where the CSR degree is located his institution. 4. See http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/730: Corporate Social Responsibility: a new definition, a new agenda for action. 5. How responsibility is allocated for any function in a university is generally fairly opaque.

REFERENCES Aoki, M. (1984). The Co-operative game theory of the firm. Oxford: Oxford Univerity Press. Aras, G., & Crowther, D. (2007). Is the global economy sustainable? In S. Barber (Ed.), The geopolitics of the city (pp. 165–194). London: Forum Press. Aras, G., & Crowther, D. (2008). Corporate sustainability reporting: A study in disingenuity? Journal of Business Ethics, 87(Supp. 1), 279–288. Aras, G., & Crowther, D. (2009). The durable corporation in a time of financial and economic crisis. Economics and Management, 14, 211–217. Aras, G., & Crowther, D. (2010). Non-governmental CSR: An agenda for research. In G. Aras & D. Crowther (Eds.), NGOs and social responsibility (pp. 7–31). Bingley, UK: Emerald. Barnett, N. J., & Crowther, D. E. A. (1998). Community identity in the 21st century: A postmodernist evaluation of Local Government structure. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 11(6/7), 425–439. Belkaoui, A. (1980). The impact of socio-economic accounting statements on the investment decision: An empirical study. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 5(3), 263–283. Bhimani, A., & Piggott, D. (1992). Implementing ABC: A case study of organisational and behavioural consequences. Management Accounting Research, 3(2), 119–132. Buzby, S. L., & Falk, H. (1979). Demand for social responsibility information by university investors. The Accounting Review, 54(1), 23–37. Carroll, A. B. (1989). Business and society: Ethics and stakeholder management. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western. Castells, M. (1996). The rise of the network society. Oxford: Blackwell. Christensen, L. J., Pierce, E., Hartman, L. P., Hoffman, W. M., & Carrier, J. (2007). Ethics, CSR, and sustainability education in the financial timestop 50 global business schools: Baseline data and future research directions. Journal of Business Ethics, 73(4), 347–368. Clarkson, M. B. E. (1995). A stakeholder framework for analysing and evaluating corporate social performance. Academy of Management Review, 20, 92–117. Cobb, I., Innes, J., & Mitchell, F. (1992). Activity-based costing: Problems in practice. London: CIMA. Crowther, D. (2002). A social critique of corporate reporting. Aldershot: Ashgate.

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Crowther, D. (2003). Social responsibility and the marketisation of higher education. Staff and Educational Development International, India, 7(1), 23–40. Crowther, D. (2004a). Limited liability or limited responsibility. In D. Crowther & L. Rayman Bacchus (Eds.), Perspectives on corporate social responsibility (pp. 42–58). Aldershot: Ashgate. Crowther, D (2004b). Corporate social reporting: Genuine action or window dressing? In D. Crowther & L. Rayman Bacchus (Eds.), Perspectives on corporate social responsibility (pp. 140–160). Aldershot: Ashgate. Crowther, D. (2006). Standards of corporate social responsibility: Convergence within the European Union. In D. Njavro & K. Krkac (Eds.), Business ethics and corporate social responsibility (pp. 17–34). Zagreb: MATE. Crowther, D., & Caliyurt, K. T. (2004). Corporate social responsibility improves profitability. In D. Crowther & K. T. Caliyurt (Eds.), Stakeholders and social responsibility (pp. 243–265). Penang: Ansted University Press. Crowther, D., & Carter, C. (2002). Legitimitating irrelevance: Management education in higher education institutions. International Journal of Education Management, 16(6), 268–278. Crowther, D. E. A., & Davies, M. L. (1996). Multimedia, mesmerism and teaching strategy. CALECO 1995 conference proceedings, University of Bristol (pp. 11–17). Crowther, D. & Ortiz Martinez, E. (2004). Corporate social responsibility: History and principles. In Social responsibility world (pp. 102–107). Penang: Ansted University Press. Crowther, D., & Rayman Bacchus, L. (2004). Perspectives on corporate social responsibility. In D. Crowther & L. RaymanBacchus (Eds.), Perspectives on corporate social responsibility (pp. 1–17). Aldershot: Ashgate. Crowther, D., & Seifi, S. (2010). Corporate governance and risk management. Copenhagen: Ventus. Crowther, D., & Seifi, S. (2011). The future of corporate social responsibility. In M. A. N. Costa, M. J. Santos, F. M. Seabra & F. Jorge (Eds.), Responsabilidade Social - Uma Visa˜o Ibero-Americana (pp. 749–772). Lisbon: Almedina. Dahl, R. A. (1972). A prelude to corporate reform. Business & Society Review, Spring 1972, 17–23. Davies, M. L., & Crowther, D. E. A. (1995). The benefits of using multimedia in higher education: Myths and realities. Active Learning (3), 3–6. Dearden, J. (1969). The case against ROI control. Harvard Business Review, 47(3), 124–135. Elkington, J. (1997). Cannibals with Forks: The triple bottom line of 21st century business, Capstone, Oxford. Emmanuel, C. R., & Otley, D. T. (1976). The usefulness of residual income. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 3(4), 43–51. Emmanuel, C. R., Otley, D. T., & Merchant, K. (1990). Accounting for management control. London: Chapman & Hall. European Commission. (EC, 2002). Corporate Social Responsibility: A business contribution to sustainable development. COM (2002) 347 final, Official Publications of the European Commission, Brussels, July 2. Fien, J. (2002). Advancing sustainability in higher education: Issues and opportunities for research. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 3(3), 243–253. Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston, MA: Pitman Publishing.

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Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York Times Magazine, September 13. Gordon, L. A., & Miller, D. (1976). A contingency framework for the design of accounting information systems. Accounting, Organisations & Society, 1(1), 59–69. Grabski, S. V. (1985). Transfer pricing in complex organisations: A review of recent empirical and analytical research. Journal of Accounting Literature, 4, 33–75. Gray, R., Kouhy, R., & Lavers, S. (1995). Corporate social and environmental reporting: A review of the literature and a longitudinal study of UK disclosure. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 8(2), 47–77. Gray, R., Owen, D., & Adams, C. (1996). Accounting and accountability, changes and challenges in corporate social and environmental reporting. Harlow: Prentice-Hall. Hart, S. L. (1997). Beyond greening: Strategies for a sustainable world. Harvard Business Review, 75(1), 67–76. Holt, D. (2003). The role and impact of the business school curriculum in shaping environmental education at Middlesex University. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 4(4), 324–343. Idowu, S. O., & Towler, B. A. (2004). A comparative study of the contents of corporate social responsibility reports of UK companies. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 15(4), 420–437. Jensen, M. C., & Meckling, W. H. (1976). The theory of the firm: Managerial behaviour, agency cost and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3(4), 305–360. Kaplan, R. S. (1990). Contribution margin analysis: No longer relevant. Journal of Management Accounting Research (USA), 2(Fall), 2–15. Lindblom, C. K. (1994). The implications of organisational legitimacy for corporate social performance and disclosure. Critical perspectives on accounting conference, New York, NY. Macintosh, N. (1985). The social software of accounting and information systems. London: Wiley. Mahapatra, S. (1984). Investor reaction to corporate social accounting. Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, 11(1), 29–40. Maltby, J. (2004). Hadfield Ltd: Its annual general meetings 1903–1939 and their relevance for contemporary corporate social reporting. The British Accounting Review, 36(4), 415–439. Mraovich, B. (2004). The power of networks: Organising vs. organisation. In D. Crowther & L. Rayman Bacchus (Eds.), Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility (pp. 59–82). Aldershot: Ashgate. Noeke, J. (2000). Environmental management systems for universities – A case study. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 1(3), 237–251. Norris, G., & O’Dwyer, B. (2004). Motivating socially responsive decision making: The operation of management controls in a socially responsive organisation. The British Accounting Review, 36(2), 173–196. Papasolomou-Doukakis, I., & Idowu, S. O. (2005). Reputational responsibility. In D. Crowther & R. Jatana (Eds.), International dimensions of corporate social responsibility (Vol. 1, pp. 22–50). The ICFAI University Press. Rayman Bacchus, L. (2004). Assessing trust in, and legitimacy of, the corporate. In D. Crowther & L. Rayman Bacchus (Eds.), Perspectives on corporate social responsibility (pp. 21–41). Aldershot: Ashgate.

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Ricart, J. E., Rodriguez, M. A., & Sanchez, P. (2005). Sustainability in the boardroom: An Empirical examination of Dow Jones Sustainability World Index leaders. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 5(3), 24–41. Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client centred therapy. London: Constable & Co. Scapens, R. W. (1979). Profit measurement in divisionalised companies. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 6(3), 281–305. Seidman, S. (1992). Post-modern social theory as narrative with a moral intent. In S. Seidman & D. G. Wagner (Eds.), Postmodernism and social theory. Oxford: Blackwell. Seifi, S. (2011). Disclosing the jargon of sustainability. Social Responsibility Review, 2011(3), 31–37. Senge, P. M., & Carstedt, G. (2001). Innovating our way to the next industrial revolution. Sloan Management Review, 42(2), 24–38. Spicer, B. H. (1978). Investors, corporate social performance and information disclosure: An empirical study. The Accounting Review, 53(1), 94–111. Spicer, B. H., & Ballew, V. (1983). Management accounting systems and the economics of internal organisation. Accounting, Organisations & Society, 8(1), 73–96. Suchman, M. C. (1995). Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20, 571–610. Swansson, E. B. (1978). The two faces of organisational information. Accounting, Organisations & Society, 3(3/4), 237–246. Topal, R. S., & Crowther, D. (2004). Bioengineering and corporate social responsibility. In D. Crowther & L. Rayman Bacchus (Eds.), Perspectives on corporate social responsibility (pp. 186–201). Aldershot: Ashgate. Vogl, A. J. (2003). Does it pay to be good? Across the Board, New York, NY, January/February (pp. 16–23). Wals, A. E. J., & Jickling, B. (2002). ‘‘Sustainability’’ in higher education: From doublethink and newspeak to critical thinking and meaningful learning. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 3(3), 221–232. Wright, Tarah S. A. (2002). Definitions and frameworks for environmental sustainability in higher education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 3(3), 203–220. van Weenen, H. (2000). Towards a vision of a sustainable university. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 1(1), 20–34.

CHAPTER 3 THE ROLE-PLAY APPROACH TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) EDUCATION: THE CONCEPT AND A STEP-BY-STEP EXAMPLE Caroline Ditlev-Simonsen One tends to forget when told, remember if shown, and understand when involved Confucius 551–478 BC

INTRODUCTION The social and environmental challenges facing our society, coupled with financial scandals and crises, have led to increased focus on and expectations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Ditlev-Simonsen, 2009; Knox, Maklan, & French, 2005; Midttun, 2007; Samuel & Ioanna, 2007). However, in order to meet this expectation, business students need education in the CSR field. The amount of attention to CSR in business education varies widely (Evans, Trevin˜o, & Weaver, 2006) and the lack of a CSR curriculum in some countries has been severely criticised, with calls for more focus on the

Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 35–56 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004005

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subject (Aronsen & Bue Olsen, 2009). In Norway, for example, propositions to the Parliament about CSR urge The Research Council for Norway to pursue and strengthen their programme for financing research in this field (Utenriksdepartementet, 2009). CSR addresses normative and ethical issues, and students’ self-awareness, attitudes and understandings of others are key elements (Banaji, Bazerman, & Chugh, 2003). CSR-related situations comprise a set of dilemmas with no absolute ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. In this sense CSR education is different from most of business school education format, and therefore requires different educational tools. This chapter is based in part on lecture experience teaching international Master classes at BI-Norwegian Business School and BI-Fudan University in Shanghai. BI was one of the first business schools to develop a mandatory CSR course for all Master’s students. This course was launched in 2001, and was initially based on a standard teaching format and with an article-based syllabus and guest lectures. About 30% of the lectures were given by guest lecturers representing the variety of well-known stakeholders – including corporations, government and organisations (NGOs) – that had responded to the CSR issue. The course was designed to provide a better understanding of the complex CSR challenges, and to stimulate in-class debate with the guest lecturers. During the actual lectures, however, the students were passive and difficult to engage. CSR knowledge could be substantially enhanced by involving the students more. In order to engage students, an alternative education framework was needed. A CSR teaching structure based on problem-based stakeholder roleplaying may be an effective alternative to conventional lectures (Collins & Kearins, 2007). This method is also in line with the goal of Education 2020, which focuses on the boundaries between education and other sectors, including work life (Forskningsra˚det, 2009), and the propositions that focus on applying different methods enforcing the learning process through problem-based education (Kirke- utannings- and forskningsdepartementet, 2001). In line with these recommendations, a problem-based role-play in a CSR educational setting was developed and tested. This chapter is divided into two parts. Part 1 provides an introduction to role-play as an educational tool. Part 2 is a step-by-step manual for how to set up an in-class role-play session with the topic socially responsible investment (SRI). More specifically, the two parts will address: Part 1: Role-play education We will start by introducing a pedagogic framework for role-play education. Thereafter we will apply this role-play concept in the CSR education setting.

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After having debated different stakeholder perspectives on CSR issues, which are the bases for the role-play concept, we will illustrate how to use the role-play education setup by suggesting a few relevant cases. Finally, we will give some practical advice as to preparing the students, organisation of the class and evaluation of student performance. Part 2: Step-by-step manual for role-play education: the SRI case In this part of the chapter we will give a practical step-by-step exercise on how to conduct a role-play exercise in a Master class level on a CSR issue; the concept of SRI. The process is divided into the following nine steps:         

Step Step Step Step Step Step Step Step Step

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Inform the class – in advance In-class preparation Presenting the case Presentation of the stakeholders – the roles to be played Work schedule The structure and purpose of the debate The debate Roundup Evaluation

PART 1 – ROLE-PLAY EDUCATION Pedagogical Framework The role-play concept is based on a combination of case development, problem-based learning (PBL) and role-play simulation. This section provides an overview of these elements. Case-Based Education Teaching through cases was introduced in law education at Harvard in 1870, and in management education in 1908 (Weaver, Kowalski, & Pfaller, 1994). ‘A Case is a descriptive document, often presented in narrative form, based on real-life situation or event. It attempts to convey a balanced multidimensional representation of the context, participants, and reality of the situation. Cases are created explicitly for discussion and seek to include sufficient detail and information to elicit active analysis and interpretation by users with differing perspectives’ (USC Centre for Excellence in Teaching).

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Cases can be of different sizes – from a few paragraphs to several pages. They can be divided into two categories: closed cases and open cases. A closed case describes the problem, how it was managed and the result. An open case focuses on describing the problem and it is up to the students to suggest how to solve it (Belsom & Ditlev-Simonsen, 2005). Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Problem-based learning is ‘a collaborative, case-centered, and learning directed method of instruction’, according to Koschman et al. (Aarskog & Kaland, 2006) and was originally launched in clinical education. Through an artificial social structure, a plausible scenario for students to enrol, respond and react is constructed. In PBL settings, the teacher’s role changes from knowledge-provider to a facilitator in the learning process. Furthermore, to a greater degree than in more conventional classes, students learn from their own and other students’ experiences. Role-Play Simulation Role-play simulation is a learning method based on role-play, where students take on the profiles of different actors, like stakeholders. Relatively few role-play simulation classroom exercises have been tested, but these have yielded promising and positive results (Doyle Corner et al. 2006). Such instances of stakeholder role-play also assume conflict. Ensuring a setting of constructive controversy is an important element of the role-play simulation process. However, ‘(t)he positive outcomes indicate that intellectual conflict can have important and positive effects on student learning and well-being’ (Johnson & Johnson, 2009, p. 27). The Role-Play Concept in CSR Education The field of CSR is based on different opinions and dilemmas. Whereas maths and history, for example, are based more on absolute truths, CSR is to some extent based on personal opinions. Such opinions come into play when deciding how individuals should behave. With respect to corporations, though, this could present problems. Even though CSR seeks to represent the company as such, decisions as to what CSR implies for the company are often made by the management team. We have seen several examples of the sorts of problems that can result. Microsoft’s decision to support a gay rights bill led to major protests by some Christian employees claiming that the Bible states one should not marry someone of the same gender (Vise, 2005). In the end, and in this case, Microsoft had to withdraw its support for the bill.

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Differences of opinions as to who and what constitute a responsible corporation can be found externally as well. Shell, Walmart and Philip Morris are examples of corporations viewed as very responsible by some people, and as not responsible by others. These companies have, in some cases, been excluded from ethical funds due to their poor CSR performance while at the same time receiving awards for being very good CSR performers. The remaining of this chapter section will use three company cases as examples to illustrate this paradox of companies which are viewed as both responsible and irresponsible. Shell received considerable negative attention when the Brent Spar was decided to be dumped in 1995. The NGO and media attacks and negative press contributed to Shell’s having to focus on environmental and, later, corporate responsibility issues. Through a comprehensive set of environmental and ethical initiatives, as well as attractive and comprehensive CSR reports, the company has received several prizes and rewards for its CSR work. Shell was for example the ACCA Sustainability Reporting Award Winner for online reporting, and Philippines Shell’s ‘Movement Against Malaria’ program won Asian CSR excellence Award in 2011 (www.shell.com). At the same time, the company has been criticised heavily for irresponsible conduct – for example, in Nigeria, where gas is ‘flared’, for example by Friends of the Earth International.1 Large areas of land have been polluted and destroyed as a result of gas flaring, with a devastating negative impact on local communities. Is Shell a responsible company? – some say yes, and some say no.

Walmart is one of the largest employer in the world, with about 2.2 million employees. The company is criticised for offering poor working conditions and low wages.2 At the same time, though, many of their employees would be unemployed were it not for Walmart. In addition, thanks to Walmart’s low prices, many people who otherwise would not have enough money for food can afford to buy groceries. Finally, even as Walmart has been criticised for racism in the workplace, Black Enterprise Magazine rated the company as among ‘The 30 Best Companies for Diversity’ in 2005, and the company has also received several awards for diversity, multiculture and corporate governance.3 Is Walmart a responsible company? – some say yes, and some say no.

Philip Morris is a leading cigarette producer. We know that smoking leads to cancer, pollution and death worldwide. So what does the company say

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about itself? Does it consider itself a responsible company? Yes, they do. They argue that, if they did not produce cigarettes, somebody else would, and maybe under worse working conditions than Philip Morris offers its employees (Philip Morris has developed stringent supplier requirements). Philip Morris argues that the company is aware of and communicates the danger of its product. Furthermore, the company is actively involved both in helping to keep children from smoking and in developing new, less dangerous products.4 Still, even though the cigarette market in the West is saturated, there is tremendous growth potential, for example, in EasternEurope, where Philip Morris is very active. Philip Morris follows existing laws and regulations, but is still excluded from several SRI funds for being an irresponsible company. However, is it not the smokers, though, rather than the producers, who are to be criticized here? Why do we blame Philip Morris? Is Walmart a responsible company? – some say yes, and some say no.

These cases illustrate the variety of opinions as to which is and which is not a responsible company. For students to study the topic, therefore, it is not enough to read stories and cases. They also need to develop, test and express their own arguments, and understand others’ perceptions. The roleplay concept is a useful approach in this setting. In the next section we will present the stakeholder theory, a key element of the role-play concept.

Stakeholder Theory This section of the chapter is based mainly on the stakeholder theory section of the article, ‘How stakeholders view stakeholders as CSR motivators’, by Ditlev-Simonsen, Caroline D and Wenstøp, Fred to be published in The Social Responsibility Journal (accepted in 2011). Originally, corporations were perceived as having one stakeholder: the owners. The goal was to maximise return on equity. In the 1980s, Edward Freeman argued that corporations should extend their mission to include stakeholder groups beyond shareholders – that is, to enlarge their circumference (1984a). This idea was not new, however; corporations have always thought of customer preferences and employees’ well-being when producing products. However, the notion of balancing these and other stakeholders’ interests in a broader, conscious organisational strategy was new. ‘The central idea is that an organisation’s success is dependent on how well it manages the relationship with key groups, such as customers,

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employees, suppliers, communities, financiers, and others that can effect the realization of its purpose.’ (Freeman & Philips, 2002, p. 333). Stakeholder theory is a cornerstone of both CSR thinking and business ethics (Doh & Guay, 2006; Enquist, Johnson, & Ska˚len, 2006; Freeman & Liedtka, 1991; Morsing & Schultz, 2006). It implies that the firm must justify its strategies not only to shareholders and authorities who play a regulatory role, but also to an extensive group of other stakeholders. Stakeholder theory is related to a strong tradition in organisational theory, where the organisation’s relationship to its environment is seen as a major premise for its value creation. According to Freeman, the firm must identify its most important stakeholder relationships and systematically evaluate how its goals and action plans affect these, in order to engage in active negotiations to build collaborations and reconcile differences (Freeman, 1984b). Freeman lists typical stakeholders as owners, financiers, activist groups, suppliers, customers, employees, trade unions, competitors, authorities and political groups. Stakeholder theory builds on several disciplines, including ethics, strategy, law, economics and theory of organisation, and is central to CSR research (Doh & Guay, 2006; Enquist et al., 2006; Freeman & Liedtka, 1991; Morsing & Schultz, 2006).There are varying opinions, however, as to who can be called a ‘stakeholder’. Several studies have asked the question, ‘To whom is the organization responsible?’ (Vos, 2003, p. 143). The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), for example, lists employees, customers, suppliers, governments and their agencies, the public, NGOs, investors and lenders as stakeholders (WBCSD, 2002, p. 18). Harrison and St. John list of stakeholders, on the other side, include customers, suppliers, competitors, government agencies/administrators, local communities/governments, activist groups and unions as stakeholders, and argue that ‘(p)ersons, groups, neighbourhoods, organisations, institutions, societies, and even the natural environment are generally thought to qualify as actual or potential stakeholders’ (Mitchell, Agle, & Wood, 1997, p. 855). Some studies have focused more on evaluating different types of stakeholders and categorizing these. Identifying primary and secondary stakeholders is one approach, voluntary and involuntary stakeholders another. A qualitative class approach divides stakeholders according to urgency, power and legitimacy (Mitchell et al., 1997; Vos, 2003). A challenge when developing a role-play case is how to identify the appropriate stakeholder, and thereby the roles to be played. In the next section we will present several practical examples of cases and stakeholders for inspiration.

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Relevant Cases for Role-Play Sessions For a case to work for a role-play class session, it should be concrete. The more well known (from media) the issue is, the more efficient and easy it is for the students to become acquainted with it. Either material can be handed out in class or the students themselves can be responsible for finding material appropriate to their role on their own. The debate question is proposed and briefly discussed, and stakeholders to be involved (the roles) described. Following are examples illustrating the wide variety of relevant cases. We will suggest a debate question, describe the case and suggest films available at www.youtube.com which can be used to ‘set the stage’ for discussion. Finally, a list of possible stakeholders will be suggested. In the suggestions below, we have only listed names of organisations or departments. This should be updated with the actual name of the representative (which is changing so rapidly that we will not include specific names in our list in this book). Suggestion 1. The Telenor Case Debate question: how to deal with CSR behaviour among suppliers? Telenor Group is one of the six largest mobile phone operators in the world, with more than 203 million subscribers. A Scandinavian TV documentary revealed miserable working conditions and environmental violations at a supplier. ‘Employees were shown working with hazardous chemicals and heavy metals virtually without protection. Workers were as young as 13 years, a clear violation of child labour laws. The firms were caught allowing polluted waste water to spill into nearby rice fields. And in one case, a worker was killed when he fell into an unsecured pool of acid’ (Wikipedia). This case was front page news in several newspapers for a considerable period of time. Telenor first responded by denying there were poor conditions among suppliers, but after an aggressive critique from media, social organisations, customers and politicians, the company changed its strategy and acknowledged having behaved wrongly, and announced changes designed to avoid such situations in the future. This case represents a challenge faced by many corporations. As large corporations can have up to several hundred suppliers, maintaining full control over suppliers’ working conditions can prove difficult. At the same time, getting ‘caught’ buying goods from suppliers with poor working and environmental standards may threaten the corporate brand. How to respond in such situations is a good case for a role-play setting.

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An introduction to this case can be found in the film ‘Flip the Coin’, which is available on www.youtube.com. In the Telenor Case, relevant actors in the role-play could be, for example:      

The CEO of Telenor A representative from A representative from A representative from A representative from A representative from

the supplier in Bangladesh Amnesty International the Telenor office in Bangladesh Bangladeshi government the film crew that made ‘Flip the Coin’

Suggestion 2. The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Case Debate question: who is to blame for the BP Deepwater Horizon accident? The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in 2010 in the Mexican Gulf and continued for 3 months. ‘In January 2011 the White House oil spill commission released its final report on the causes of the oil spill. They blamed BP and its partners for making a series of cost-cutting decisions and the lack of a system to ensure well safety. They also concluded that the spill was not an isolated incident caused by ‘‘rogue industry or government officials’’, but that ‘The root causes are systemic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur’ (Wikipedia). An introduction to the case can be found on www.youtube.com: ‘The Real Reason Behind the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico – 2010’. In the Deepwater Horizon oil spill case, relevant actors in the role-play could be, for example:  The CEO of BP  A representative from BP responsible for Health, Safety and Environment (HSE)  A representative from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF – International)  A representative from the Environmental Protection Agency, USA  A representative from another oil company (i.e. a competitor) Suggestion 3. The EU ‘low-carbon roadmap’ case Debate question: what should be the goal for CO2 reduction in EU? The EU’s climate policy goals for 2020 include reducing emissions by 20% over 1990 levels, increasing the share of renewables in the bloc’s energy mix by 20% and improving energy efficiency by 20%.

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However, the financial crises and the related reduction in business activities have made reaching this goal much less challenging. Countries were supposed to struggle and take initiatives to achieve their reduction goals. As this is no longer necessary because of the countries’ reduced economic activities, some stakeholders argue that the EU should set a more ambitious goals for climate change emission reduction, with an additional 5% reduction. ‘The analysis shows that the cost-efficient pathway to the necessary reduction in 2050 requires a 25% domestic reduction in 2020, y It also shows, however, that the EU can produce this reduction if it delivers on its existing commitment to increase energy efficiency by 20% by 2020.’ For more information, read ‘EU ‘‘low-carbon roadmap’’ aims for 25% cuts by 2020’ on www.globe-net.com. In the EU ‘low-carbon roadmap’ case, relevant actors in the role-play could be, for example:         

A representative from the EU Climate Action A representative from UK Environmental ministry A representative from the Italy Environmental ministry A representative from Business Europe (employers’ organisation) A representative from the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (Eurofer) A representative from European People’s Party (EPP) A representative from European Trade Union confederation (ETUC) A representative from Socialists & Democrats in the EU A representative from Greenpeace Preparing the Students

Students should be informed of the issue to be addressed as early as possible prior to the role-play session. In class, role-play as a teaching tool, as well as the selected case, should be presented by the instructor. A short introduction to each of the appointed stakeholders should also be provided. A clear announcement of the purpose of the session – that is what is expected in terms of acquired knowledge, acquired skills and reflection – should be presented. If the session is to be graded, an outline of the grading process should be included. Using video clips and clips from www.youtube.com are great approaches to introducing the case and the different stakeholders’ views. Watching how media addresses the issue on the news is a great ‘starter’ for engaging the debate.

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How to Organise the Class Role-play works well in classes with 15–50 students, and is also possible for larger classes. However, the more students in the class, the less chance or time each will have to take part in the debate. When cases are selected, the class is broken up into groups. Each group represents one of the stakeholders in the case – that is it has one role. There should be no more than 10 stakeholders in each role-play session. I have found that five to seven works best. Each of the student groups representing the stakeholders should have three to five students. In groups that size, all students will have an opportunity to participate and contribute. The students may obtain the material regarding the role they are supposed to play in advance, it may be handed out in class, or the students may not receive any material at all. In this case, part of the role-play exercise is to find material to build up the case themselves. The first and the last suggestions require more time, whereas the second, handing out the material in class, is a quick solution. Applying this approach requires a total of only 2 hours for introduction, class preparation and on-stage debate. The solution used depends on the case selected and how ‘deep’ the instructor wants to dig into the material. If, for example, the class has 25 students, five stakeholder groups with five students each can be established. After the students have prepared their appointed stakeholder role, one student from each group can go on stage to participate in the debate. The instructor can choose who is to go on stage or the group itself can choose. Students get more engaged in the preparations if there is a chance they will be the ones to be on stage. A class with 100 students, for example, implies 20 groups with five students each. It is too much to have 20 stakeholder representatives in the on-stage debate. An alternative, then, is to have 10 stakeholders represented, with two groups of five students in each. Before the on-stage debate, which of these two groups is to represent the stakeholder is decided randomly – for instance, by throwing a pair of dice.

Student Assessment and Evaluation Student assessment can vary widely in role-play sessions. It is of course possible not to have any grading or evaluation at all. Here, students would likely still study the material as it would be ‘embarrassing’ to have to get on stage and not perform well.

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In a slightly more strict evaluation, the instructor grades students according to their performance on stage (giving either an individual or a group grade) and/or how the audience (the rest of the class) evaluates their performance. A more thorough student evaluation can be based on self-evaluation, peer review, individual write-ups of what the students learned in the session, or reflection notes describing their stakeholders’ role and arguments and onstage learning. Filming the debate session and discussing it afterward are another good tool for evaluation and learning. Experience and Feedback Received When applying the role-play concept as an in-class learning tool, we have generally received only positive feedback from the students. Following are some examples after a session where we distributed an electronic survey anonymously (through www.confirmit.com) asking the students to provide feedback on their experience of the role-play session as a teaching and learning tool. I very much enjoyed this exercise. I think it a great teaching method. It was very engaging and it is more likely that I will remember the important aspects [from] the course than from any presentation. I think it was a good experience, class participation/interaction level was very high, compared to the normal lecture/presentation/debate set-up. It also gave a very effective perspective of the different arguments from the involved parties. The test was very interesting, as it allowed us to make and defend a case, by entering a debate. The case was well selected, because of its controversial nature.

In this first part of the chapter of the role-play approach to CSR education, we have provided an overview of the role-play concept and its pedagogical framework. In Part 2 of the chapter we will be more practical and provide a step-by-step manual on how to set up and conduct a role-play session in class. The example provided is ‘real’, and was conducted fall 2011 in a Master class at BI Norwegian Business School with 25 students, and it took 120 minutes to conduct.

PART 2: STEP-BY-STEP MANUAL FOR ROLE-PLAY EDUCATION, THE SRI CASE This role-play teaching example is related to how the national office of an international humanitarian organisation, the Norwegian Red Cross, should

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manage their funds with regard to the SRI concept. The SRI concept addresses the question of what are right investment criteria with respect to CSR. The SRI market has increased continuously since the concept was introduced in the late 1980s, and in some countries, like Norway, it now covers more than 80% of all capital under management (Norsif, 2010). Eleven percent of money managed professionally in the United States has SRI criteria and 17.5% of all European assets are under SRI management (showing growth of 102% in the past 3 years). But what is Socially Responsible Investment? – and how should the Red Cross manage their funds when it comes to investing in responsible companies? The following are some examples of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ – and dilemmas – in this field. For more information see Part 1 of the chapter. Some stakeholders claim that investing in tobacco is responsible because it is not illegal to produce tobacco. Others say it is not responsible, because tobacco may lead to early death. Some find nuclear energy corporations to be acceptable (to avoid CO2 emissions), whereas others find such companies to be unacceptable because of radiation and waste management risks. Walmart has been not only criticised for poor working conditions but also received awards for being responsible. Is it okay to invest in this company? The Norwegian Petroleum Fund, one of the world’s largest funds, says it isn’t and excludes Walmart from its investment universe. The SRI concept provides an excellent opportunity for CSR education. In this SRI role-play scenario, we give the students different stakeholder roles in the SRI setting, where they are to argue for different opinions, not necessarily in line with their own beliefs. We have tested this teaching approach in different Master classes in both Norway and China and received positive responses. In this step-by-step example, we have chosen a ‘light’ all in class version of role-play teaching, which is good as a starting point. Two hours (120 minutes) were used to go through the whole session. The case, How should the Norwegian Red Cross manage their funds with respect to SRI? is very locally oriented; however, the issue is international and can easily be revised to fit the same challenge in another country or for another organisation’s fund management. We will use the actual time schedule applied in class (11:00–13:00). Step 1: Inform the Class – in Advance One week prior to the class students were informed that the next week’s class would be based on role-play and that the issue to be addressed would be how the Red Cross should manage their funds with regard to SRI.

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Step 2: In-class Preparation (11:00–11:15) In the first 15 minutes of the class, we informed the students are informed about the case and how they were to approach the issue. The students were also told the goals of the session: to develop understandings of SRI (based on facts), dilemmas in investment strategies and NGOs’ approaches to investments; to develop arguments both pro and con for different SRI issues; to present their views (views not necessarily their own); to participate in an on-stage debate; to communicate about complex issues; and to reflect on their own personal opinions. Step 3: Presenting the Case – by Actors Outside the Classroom (11:15–11:30) As not all students were equally familiar with SRI, 1–3 minute videos from www.youtube.com were represented to make the introduction engaging and motivating. We showed two videos. The first was ‘Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)’, by Issa, Amanda, Felipe and Ahmend (http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=RQ3e58JDCQc). This film takes only a few minutes, has engaging music, is informative and engages the audience. The next video, ‘CSR Report Special Edition: CSR and Global Socially Responsible Investment’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAaekUGzILE), presented by a news anchor reporting about SRI, is more fact oriented. This clip supports the argument that SRI is a relevant and important issue and sets the scene for that SRI is relevant and important. After the videos, the instructor gives a short introduction to SRI and the following are the text in the slides presented: This is SRI  Started in 1758 USA Quakers – against slave trade  Common criteria include avoidance of alcohol, tobacco, gambling and weapons  In 2007, 11% of money managed professionally in the US had SRI criteria  17,5% of all European assets are under SRI management (102% growth in the past 3 years)  Not all agree as to what the right criteria are  Uncertain if it pays off financially to apply SRI

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Next, the NGO perspective is presented. What are the motivating factors for investors to apply SRI criterias? The following four issues are addressed:

Alternative SRI motivation factors  Avoid profiting from unethical behaviour  Encourage corporations to enter positive lines for business or to develop strong stakeholder relations  Pick stocks that will outperform and avoid stocks that will underperform  Seek to change corporate behavior

In our case, the goal of the on-stage debate was to discuss what investment criteria an NGO, the Norwegian Red Cross, should choose. The organisation, therefore, had to presented:

This is the Norwegian Red Cross  The Norwegian Red Cross was founded in 1865  The organisation now has 150,000 members and provides a variety of humanitarian services, including care for the old and the infirm, prisoner visits, outdoor rescue and international work  The Norwegian Red Cross manages 2,4 billion NOK Funds (300 million EUR)  The current investment profile follows ethical guidelines related to human rights, the environment, working conditions and child labour, and prohibiting investment in weapons, tobacco, pornography or alcohol corporations  In this case we will the extent to which this is the right approach to fund management and evaluate alternative investment criteria (SRI)

Step 4: Presentation of the Stakeholders – the Roles to be Played The stakeholders involved – i.e. the roles to be played – represent different views and opinions as to what social responsibility is and how organisations like the Red Cross should manage its funds.

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Stakeholders to be presented in the debate, and arguments for selecting them as stakeholders  The Vice fund – included because it is an unethical fund  KLP – included because it is a leading financial institution in Norway and actively involved in negative screening and active ownership  Storebrand – included because it is a leading financial institution in Norway actively involved in positive and negative screening  Walmart – included because the company has been excluded from ethical funds due to violation of human rights and labour rights  Phillip Morris (tobacco) – included because the company has been excluded from ethical funds due to making products which are threats to human health

Background information about the roles (the stakeholders) to be played, that is included in the on-stage debate. Vice Fund – An Unethical Fund ‘The Vice Fund invests in companies, both domestic and foreign, engaged in the aerospace and defence industries, owners and operators, gaming facilities as well as manufacturers of gaming equipment, manufactures of tobacco products and producers of alcoholic beverages. The Vice Fund seeks to select well-performing stocks of tobacco, alcohol, gaming and weapons/defence companies because we believe that these industries tend to thrive regardless of the economy as a whole. In fact, they may have the potential to perform better when times are uncertain, leading many to view investment in ‘Vice’ industries as a solid strategy during recessionary periods’ (http://www.usamutuals.com/vicefund/phil.aspx).

KLP – Negative screening, Active Ownership KLP is one of Norway’s largest insurance companies. ‘KLP has had ethical filtering of its investments in securities since 2002. Since then, openness has been fundamental to this strategy.’ ‘Respect for human rights and employee rights, environmental protection and anticorruption are fundamental to responsible business operation.’ ‘The companies in KLP’s investment world are monitored continuously for breach of our ethical guidelines. Selling the shares is a last resort if the company does not show willingness to improve.’

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‘Each half-year KLP announces which companies are excluded from our investments and why.’ (www.klp.no) Storebrand – Positive and Negative Screening The Storebrand Group is a leading player in the Nordic markets for pensions, life and health insurance, banking and asset management. ‘Sustainable Investment is an investment strategy that aims for solid financial returns while at the same time taking into account companies’ environmental, social and governance performance.’ ‘At Storebrand we seek to avoid investing in companies that employ unethical practices and to influence all companies to make constant improvements. To achieve this we have introduced Storebrand’s ‘‘Group Standard for Sustainable Investments’’.’ www.storebrand.no Walmart (Violation of Human Right and Labour Rights) – Unethical/Excluded Corporation Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, employing 1,6 million people. ‘In recent years Walmart has taken several steps to improve energy efficiency not only in its stores, but in its supply chain. It has convinced its suppliers to reduce the amount of packaging they use, enabling them to put more on delivery trucks, which has meant fewer deliveries and less gas consumed. But to many investors Walmart still has work to do in terms of employee relations. They argue that the pay is poor, managers work long hours, and the large part-time staff receives few benefits. To them Walmart is an SRI outcast.’ (www.socialinvesting.about.com) Philip Morris (Tobacco) – Unethical/Excluded Corporation Philip Morris International is a leading international tobacco company, holding almost 15% of the international cigarette market. Many funds argue that it is irresponsible to invest in the tobacco industry, whereas others claim that it is okay to invest in such companies as it is not illegal to produce cigarettes. We, the teachers, had prepared 5–10 pages describing the attitudes of the different stakeholders in this case. The class of about 25 students was divided in five groups of five students and each group assigned one of the stakeholders that they were to present. They were all given the same information material, that is information about the stakeholder they were to act as well as the information for the other stakeholders which were to be represented on the on-stage debate.

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Step 5: Workschedule (11:30–12:30) For 1 hour the student were to prepare their role, based on the material handed out and. If interested, they could also search for additional material. Group work:  Read article in the literature collection (handout)  Read handouts regarding assigned role as well as those of other participants  Prepare presentation (2 minutes per group)  Prepare a minimum of two question to other groups, prepare for discussion

The instructor was available in class during the 60 minutes the students had to prepare their roles. Some students stayed in the classroom, others went outside or to the cafeteria. After this 1-hour presentation session, one student from each of the five groups was to be appointed to be on stage. In our case we let the students select the representative themselves. To make students even more engaged and concerned, the teacher can select the representative a few minutes prior to the on-stage debate. 12:30–13:00 – Present your view and debate  One representative from each group is on stage (in accordance with the role you are assigned)  Present your assigned role, 2 minutes per group  20-minute debate: Audience is the Norwegian Red Cross wondering what their SRI criteria should be  Audience needs to have questions for the panel ready

Step 6: The Structure and Purpose of the Debate We emphasised that the purpose of the panel was for each participant to convince the audience. The audience was now the 20 remaining students (five were already on stage). These 20 students were now to represent the Norwegian Red Cross and challenge the students on stage on why they should invest their funds in them. The students in the audience were

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supposed to pose questions, and the on-stage students were to convince them, the Red Cross, that they should purchase stock from and in them. Step 7: The Debate To set the scene for the debate, two tables were put together at the front of the class, making room for five chairs to be placed behind the tables. Water and glasses were put on the tables, and nameplates with stakeholder names (Vice fund, KLP, Walmart, etc.) were put in front of each on-stage students to make the exercise more ‘real’. One person from each of the stakeholder groups was given a seat on the ‘scene’. Each of the students on stage gave a 2-minute presentation stating their case, and argued why they were the right corporation or fund to manage the Red Cross capital. The instructor, acting as the debate leader, opened by asking the panel two questions. It is important that the first questions are challenging and ‘aggressive’ to set a dynamic tone. Having a list of questions ‘up the instructor’s arm’ is crucial to keeping the debate active and engaging. Even though the students were asked to develop two questions each, they are not always ‘ready’ to pose these questions to the panel. If the panel debate leader (the instructor) sets an example at the start of the debate, the students will follow. The debate leader’s list included the following questions: 1. Question to: Philip Morris: Don’t you have any bad conscience for producing and selling cigarettes? 2. Question to: Storebrand and KLP: Is it not hypocrisy not to invest in weapons – we need weapons to maintain peace. 3. Question to: Storebrand and KLP: Don’t you think it is more important to focus on max return on investment for the Norwegian Red Cross, even if it is from tobacco investments? The purpose of the organisation is to earn as much as possible on their fund management to save lives for people who are struggling. If grown-ups choose to smoke, that is their free will and responsibility, and not a Red Cross problem. Research so far has shown that applying ethical criteria may reduce yields. 4. Question to: KLP: 55 corporations are excluded from your investment universe. In Norway we have more than 500,000 corporations. Is your exclusion policy only a gimmick (so few corporations)? 5. Question to: KLP and Storebrand: Unacceptable working conditions are usually associated with corporations operating in developing countries. However, we have corporations breaking labour law in Norway too. Adecco is a good example. This company allowed employees who wanted

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to work overtime beyond what is legal in Norway. Are you considering excluding Adecco from your investment universe? 6. Question to: Storebrand: KLP let everybody know which corporations they exclude from their universe. Why does not Storebrand do the same? Storebrand talks a lot about the importance of openness and transparency, yet does not act according to themselves. The panel leader must actively manage the debate, breaking in if the discussion is unbalanced focusing too much on one issue or if too few students are participating, commenting on questions posed, etc. The panellists may also pose questions to one another or comment on others’ answers. Step 8: Roundup The teacher announced that there are only a few minutes left. The panellist might give some final comments before the instructor sums up and thanks the panellists and the audience. Step 9: Evaluation In our case, the students were asked to write a short reflection (200 words) on their learning experience. We chose to make this anonymous (through confirmit), as we wanted to get impartial comments on their learning experience and how to improve the learning. The feedback could work equally well, though, with the students’ names, asking them to sum up their learning experience.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION This chapter presents a different approach than lecturing for teaching CSR. The role-play case method is described both from a pedagogical perspective and from a more practical step-by-step experience sharing point of view. Themes and issues to apply as cases are also presented. This type of interactive dynamic teaching can be useful when teaching a complex, culture and value-based topic like CSR. Compared to more standard lecturing, the role-play method does not necessarily require more work for the teacher. However, it is a more ‘uncontrollable’ approach, as it is difficult to foresee how the students will engage in the debate. If the students do not want to pose questions, the debate become dull, and the exercise is not a success.

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Therefore, the teacher’s engagement and ability to motivate students to participate may be a crucial element to make this teaching method a success. So far we have had great experience using this role-play method. However, there is, as always, room for improvement. Maybe in the future a good database of role-play cases in the CSR field can be developed and available for courses wanting to use this method.

NOTES 1. http://www.foei.org/en/get-involved/take-action/archived-cyberactions/stopflaring 2. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2f9a03c0-6a86-11df-b282-00144feab49a.html# axzz1zYTdJyeu, http://socialistworker.org/2004-2/504/504_05_WalMart.shtml 3. http://www.walmartstores.com/AboutUs/336.aspx 4. http://www.altria.com/en/cms/Home/default.aspx

REFERENCES Aarskog, R., & Kaland, S. (2006). DPBL: Distribuert problembasert læring. Retrieved from http://www.nvu.no/nvukonferansen2006/aarskog-kaland-PAPER.doc Aronsen, E., & Bue Olsen, J. (2009). Høyere utdanning – stryker i etikk og samfunnsansvar [Higher education – Fail in ethics and social responsibility]. Retrieved from http:// www.ukeavisenledelse.no/meninger/leserinnlegg/20090121/hoyere-utdanning-stryker-i-etikkog-samfunnsansvar/. Accessed on December 16, 2012. Banaji, M. R., Bazerman, M. H., & Chugh, D. (2003). How (Un)Ethical are you? Harvard Business Review, 81(12), 56–64. Belsom, E., & Ditlev-Simonsen, C. D. (2005). Case-Basert Undervisning. Oslo: Høgskolen i Oslo. Collins, E., & Kearins, K. (2007). Exposing students to the potential and risks of stakeholder engagement when teaching sustainability: A classroom exercise. Journal of Management Education, 31, 521–540. Ditlev-Simonsen, C. D. (2009). Fordrer det noe spesielt a˚ lede en samfunnsansvarlig bedrift. Magma, 2, 22–33. Doh, J. P., & Guay, T. R. (2006). Corporate social responsibility, public policy, and NGO Activism in Europe and the United States: An institutional-stakeholder perspective. Journal of Management Studies, 43(1), 47–73. Doyle Corner, P., Bowden, S., Clark, D., Collins, E., Gibb, J., Kearins, K., & Pavlovich, K. (2006). Grounded learning from a strategy case competition. Journal of Management Education, 30, 431–454. Enquist, B., Johnson, M., & Ska˚len, P. (2006). Adoption of corporate social responsibility – incorporating a stakeholder perspective. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 3(3), 188–207. Evans, J. M., Trevio, L. K., & Weaver, G. R. (2006). Who’s in the ethics driver’s seat? Factors influencing ethics in the MBA curriculum. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 278–293.

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Forskningsra˚det. (2009). Programplan 2009–2018. Freeman, R. E. (1984a). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Marshfield, MA: Pitman Publishing Inc. Freeman, R. E. (1984b). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Mansfield, MA: Pitman. Freeman, R. E., & Liedtka, J. (1991). Corporate social responsibility: A critical approach. Business Horizons, 34(4), 92–99. Freeman, R. E., & Philips, R. A. (2002). Stakeholder theory: A libertarian defense. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(3), 331–349. Idowu, S. O., & Papasolomou, I. (2007). Are the corporate social responsibility matters based on good intentions or false pretences? An empirical study of the motivations behind the issuing of CSR reports by UK companies. Corporate Governance, 7(2), 136–147. Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). Energizing learning: The instructional power of conflict. Educational Researcher, 38(1), 37–51. doi:10.3102/0013189X08330540 Kirke- utannings-, & forskningsdepartementet. (2001). Gjør din plikt – Krev din rett. redigert av utdannings- og forskningsdepartementet Kirke-. Oslo: Kirke-, utdannings- og forskningsdepartementet. Knox, S., Maklan, S., & French, P. (2005). Corporate social responsibility: Exploring stakeholder relationships and programme reporting across leading FTSE companies. Journal of Business Ethics, 61(1), 7–28. Midttun, A. (2007). CSR eller bedriftens samfunnsansvar: en megatrend vokser fram [CSR or corporate responsibility: A new megatrend]. MAGMA, 3. Retrieved from http://www. magma.no/csr-eller-bedriftens-samfunnsansvar-en-megatrend-vokser-fram. Accessed on December 16, 2012. Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 853–886. Morsing, M., & Schultz, M. (2006). Corporate social responsibility communication: Stakeholder information, response and involvement strategies. Business Ethics: A European Review, 15(4), 323–338. Norsif. (2010). Sustainable Responsible Investments. redigert av Norwegian Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. Samuel, O. I., & Papasolomou, I. (2007). Are the corporate social responsibility matters based on good intentions or false pretences? An empirical study of the motivations behind the issuing of CSR reports by UK companies. Corporate Governance, 7(2), 136–147. Utenriksdepartementet. (2009). Næringslivets samfunnsansvar i en global økonomi. redigert av Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Oslo: Det Kongelige Utenriksdepartement. Vise, D. A. (2005). Microsoft Draws Fire for Shift on Gay Rights Bill. Washington Post, April 26. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/25/ AR2005042501266.html, Accessed on October 2009. Vos, J. F. J. (2003). Corporate social responsibility and the identification of stakeholders. Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Management, 10(3), 141–152. WBCSD. (2002). Sustainable development reporting – Striking the balance. World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Retrieved from http://www.wbcsd.org/pages/ edocument/edocumentdetails.aspx?id=144&nosearchcontextkey=true. Accessed on December 16, 2012. Weaver, R.A., Kowalski, T.J., & Pfaller, J.E. (1994). Case-method teaching. In Handbook of college teaching (pp. 171–178). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

CHAPTER 4 EMBEDDING CSR WITHIN THE UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS CURRICULUM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATION MODULE Helen Goworek and Petra Molthan-Hill INTRODUCTION This chapter examines the development and implementation of a sustainability module at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the UK and assesses how this is embedded within the undergraduate business curriculum. The objectives are to explain the background to the development of the module in the context of the University as a whole and to examine the issues and potential benefits concerning its implementation. The chapter explores how sustainability can be integrated effectively within the curriculum and focuses on a module for the academic year 2011/2012 ‘The Sustainable Organisation’ (SO) and its underlying principles from the perspectives of members of the module team. It also reflects on previous and concurrent modules incorporating sustainability and corporate social responsibility Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 57–76 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004006

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(CSR). The module’s connections with industry and related research will also be discussed within the chapter. In conclusion, the wider implications of offering the SO module within a business school will be assessed.

THE CONTEXT OF THE MODULE NTU has been voted the greenest university in the UK by the People and Planet Green League table for two consecutive years, scoring highly for its curriculum and staff and student engagement, as well as for its environmental policy, consequently providing an ideal location for a sustainability module which addresses CSR and sustainability issues. SO is a module for third-year students in Nottingham Business School (NBS) which is currently being studied by 93 students from various disciplines. The topics of sustainability and CSR have been integrated within the curriculum at NBS through stand-alone modules and via individual lectures on several modules, such as ‘Managing the Global Supply Chain’ and ‘Marketing Management’. Delivering a module focusing on managing sustainability in relation to business has been facilitated by the launch in 2009 of the CSR and Sustainability Research and Teaching Group at NBS, a voluntary group initiated by the SO module leader, and some of its members are responsible for the module’s curriculum development. SO is a core module for BA (Hons) business students and is an elective for those studying business jointly with accounting and finance; economics; financial services planning; human resources; information systems; international strategic enterprise; marketing; or operations. Interdisciplinarity is a key feature of the SO module, with participation from staff within four academic disciplines at the University: accounting and finance, marketing and management divisions at NBS, as well as input from the professor of sustainable design and consumption from the NTU School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment. The module tutors provide different perspectives on developing and delivering the curriculum for this module, utilising applied sustainability tools such as carbon management.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CSR, SUSTAINABILITY, BUSINESS AND EDUCATION Within this chapter, we view CSR as the way in which an organisation deals with sustainability and communicates relevant strategies. While it is

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debatable whether CSR is a component of sustainability or vice versa, there is undoubtedly overlap between these two areas, with each element crossing the boundaries of the other. The concept of ‘sustainability literacy’ has been developed by Stibbe (2009) which he uses: ‘to indicate the skills, attitudes, competencies, dispositions and values that are necessary for surviving and thriving in the declining conditions of the world in ways which slow down that decline as far as possible’ (pp. 10–11). The SO module aims to enable students to become sustainability literate by building their awareness of the impact of businesses’ unsustainable practices and consumerism on society and the environment, explaining how CSR policies can impact upon this situation. It also aims to give students an overview of how they might engage in CSR in their future careers, through both theory and practice. Clearly, the business sector has a significant impact on the environment and there is consequently a need for the workforce to be sustainability literate (Robinson, 2009). In this chapter, however, sustainability is understood in the broader sense to include not only environmental issues, but also the social and economic dimensions. Consequently, students should be able to recognise the significance of the triple bottom line (Elkington, 1999), considering a combination of economic, environmental and social sustainability, rather than viewing business purely from a profitability perspective, and to gain the sustainability literacy skills which enable companies to be transformed (Stibbe, 2009). ‘Economic’ is again understood broadly here, incorporating not only the economic sustainability of the company in a financial sense (such as return to shareholders and future profits) but also the economic situation of the country/countries in which the companies operate (Crane & Matten, 2010). When discussing the ways in which a business leader radically alters his company’s ethos and strategies in order to adopt sustainable practices, Stibbe and Luna (2009) state: ‘the conventional education system he went through prepared him for the role of industrial leader in an unsustainable society, but it did not give him the skills to lead his company in ways that were sensitive to the systems that human life depends on’ (p. 3). This is a situation which we would seek to avoid with our own students and this can be addressed, at least in part, by the adoption of content regarding sustainability in our courses. Additionally, we intend to clarify to our students that ethical decisions are made by individuals, as in the example mentioned above, whether they work alone or in groups, rather than being made by organisations as such (Maclagan & Campbell, 2011) and that students have the capacity to make decisions which impact upon their organisations, the wider society and the environment in their future careers.

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Indeed, it is difficult to envisage a business management role which would not entail making such decisions. Commercial enterprises have a responsibility towards the environment and society in which they conduct business, and academics in the disciplines of business and management are uniquely positioned to be able to influence their students’ knowledge in the field of sustainability. As lecturers within a business school, we consider ourselves to be in a privileged position to be able to adopt curricula which can assist in preparing our students for future roles as leaders in a sustainable society. This can be achieved by encouraging them to look ahead to the 21st century and beyond, adapting the content of our degree courses to offer students sight of longer-term sustainable goals, with less emphasis on short-term profitability, veering away from 20th century views on business education which frequently fail to recognise the impact of unsustainable business practices (ibid.). It is suggested by Blincoe (2009) that we have solutions available to us to be able to live more sustainably, yet we have not taken steps to do so. This is possibly because of a tension between consumers, business and government, each waiting for the other to take the lead in this respect. An alternative and viable option to break this deadlock is that academics can act to spur on students to become more sustainability literate, since they are both consumers and potential future business-people. This is a swifter and potentially more effective solution than the lengthy, labyrinthine processes taken by governments to introduce legislation, since academics have the ability to update curriculum content on a frequent basis. Moreover, we have the opportunity to connect CSR with education at a university, school/ faculty, degree course and, ultimately, at the module level. In a sense, this gives lecturing staff a certain level of power by facilitating change towards the sustainability curriculum, since they have a direct line of communication with the business managers of tomorrow. As Blincoe (ibid.) states: ‘Mainstream education can help correct the current imbalances, help learners gain a sense of interconnection, and educate the next generation for a sustainable life even in the midst of climate change. To teach competences, tools and skills with this in mind, new educational principles have to take the place of current practices’ (pp. 205–206).The development of such educational principles is an aspect that we seek to achieve within the SO module. Three potential levels of response by educational institutions to the challenge of teaching sustainability have been proposed by Sterling (2004): 1. Educating about sustainability – an accommodative response 2. Education for sustainability – a reformative response 3. Capacity building – a transformative response

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The first level is the most basic, with sustainability modules being added to the educational offer. The second level takes this further, when policy and practice within the institution are reformed via more sustainable approaches. The third level is much more substantial, making the educational institution a place where students are transformed by the adoption of skills for sustainability (ibid.). The concept of there being different levels of adoption of sustainability in education has been developed further by Rusinko (2010) and subsequently by Godemann, Herzig, and Moon (2011), who have developed a matrix containing four methods of implementing sustainability into the curriculum, detailed in Table 1. These methods will be explained further, using previous and current examples from NBS.

IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABILITY AND CSR WITHIN THE CURRICULUM AT NTU In this section, comparisons are made between the module tutors’ experience of lecturing on this stand-alone sustainability-related module and teaching individual lectures on sustainability issues and CSR in existing modules,

Table 1.

Matrix to Illustrate Integration of Sustainability (adapted by Godemann et al., 2011, based on Rusinko, 2010). Existing Structures

Narrow curricular

Broad curricular

Quadrant 1 Piggyback Integration of sustainability within existing structures by adding sustainability to individual sessions of courses or modules Quadrant III Mainstreaming Integration of sustainability within existing structures but with the emphasis on a broader cross-curricular perspective (entire curriculum)

New Structures Quadrant II Digging deep Integration of sustainability through new stand-alone modules Quadrant IV Focusing Integration of sustainability though new cross-disciplinary offerings such as sustainabilityrelated courses which are required for all business school students and new programmes

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identifying areas for best practice. The practical implementation of sustainability and CSR modules in practice at NBS is discussed in relation to the theories of integrating sustainability within the curriculum. The implementation according to the first quadrant, ‘Piggyback’, is the easiest to achieve by integrating sustainability into an existing module, such as providing an extra case study with a sustainable focus or adding a few slides to a lecture that adds a sustainable dimension to the content provided. In 2010 a Skills Survey was funded by NTU Estates to investigate how sustainability is integrated into modules and programmes University-wide (Ndlovu, Puntha, & Ndlovu, 2011). One of its findings was that most module leaders reported that some additional material had been added to the core content such as a reading list and/or a case study. The more common one, labelled here as the third approach, incremental change, has been to add business ethics, CSR and/or sustainability to an existing module; most of the module would be taught in a traditional way and then a few sessions or a case study would be centred around sustainability. This is an approach that we have used previously in supply chain management and marketing management modules which have incorporated one or more lectures on ethics and CSR. For example, an individual marketing ethics and CSR lecture on marketing management includes topics such as:    

Influences on the development of CSR Social responsibility and marketing ethics The importance of CSR Ethical sourcing

The advantages of such an approach are that a wide range of students can gain an understanding of CSR and sustainability, including those who have not selected optional modules on the topic. The view of Lynn Oxborrow, a member of the SO module team, on this approach is that: It reflects life! Sustainability is a cross-cutting theme in all areas, and teaching this way increases exposure to more students and also helps them see it in a practical light that affects jobs and lives, not just as a bolt-on element to deal with when other issues are resolved or for specialists only. I’d say this reflects supply-chain teaching within the management modules as a whole, not just the sustainability aspect.

However, a potential disadvantage is that this content may be viewed by students as supplementary, and this can be exacerbated by leaving it until towards the end of a lecture or including a CSR lecture near the end of a module. Rusinko (2010) says that, though this type of approach can be implemented easily with few resources, it integrates sustainability into the

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curriculum in a non-uniform manner. It could therefore be considered to be more effective for the CSR and sustainability material to be presented as fully integrated within modules and to implicitly demonstrate its importance by prioritising it within schedules, for example by presenting it in the first half, rather than in the latter half of a module, wherever possible, if this is not to the detriment of the module topic itself. However, the introduction of ethical content in our existing business modules, even where it has not been prioritised, has at least served a useful purpose by introducing and addressing CSR and sustainability within the curriculum. The new SO module is conceptualised as a stand-alone module fully dedicated to sustainability tools. This could be classified as the second way of implementing sustainability into the curriculum, labelled ‘Digging deep’ in Table 1. In some ways this is also an easier way of implementing sustainability, since no change in the existing structure is required. However, it can be perceived as an ‘add-on’, similar to adding a few sustainable tools and lectures into individual module as described above, especially if this is offered as an elective, as is the case with the SO module. Students might therefore gain the impression that sustainability can be conducted by specialists but that it is not something for general managers or ‘mainstream employees’ to be concerned about. However, such a module can be useful if tools are taught in detail, in the way that greenhouse gas (GHG) management is in SO. Not every manager/employee needs to be a specialist, so only a few need to be able to fully implement such a management programme. Nevertheless, we would recommend that some basic principles of GHG management could be included in the general education of managers so that they are familiar with the concept and can identify the necessity of implementing such a programme in the future by appointing a specialist to do so. The approach of using stand-alone modules has been also identified as one of the preferred options within NTU, and specifically NBS, according to the NTU Sustainability Survey Report (Ndlovu et al., 2011). There is, for example, an option for the Master’s Programmes on offer entitled ‘Managing Sustainability’. In 2010/2011 it was only selected by nine students, highlighting the risk that students might be able to get a Master’s degree without being ever exposed to sustainable theories and tools. The SO module has proven popular with students, yet offering this module as an option to joint honours students means that there is a danger of preaching to the converted. Making modules on CSR and sustainability compulsory offers the opportunity to convey information to students who are less interested in such issues, thus potentially resulting in making a greater

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impact. Nonetheless, the Programme Leader for NTU’s BA (Hons) Business Joint Honours degrees, Alastair Allen, expresses the view that stand-alone modules about CSR and sustainability should not be required: Students should be learning about sustainability/ethics/green issues in ALL their modules and it should become a normal mind-set to consider them as criteria when making business decisions. Having ‘stand-alone modules’ means that the issues covered are rather like ‘add-ons’ and not core (just like ‘quality’ was in industry in the 70s and 80s). My view is best summed up by a quote from Lantos, who says ‘There are a lot of people who passed through ethics programs now rotting in prisons’ (Lantos, 1999). Having read that, I decided it is incumbent upon all University lecturers to convince students that the only way to behave in business is the ethical way for the benefit of the individual and society. However, the issues are always going to be ‘how?’ and ‘whose ethics?’

Recently Truscheit and Otte (2007) have suggested that implementing sustainability should not only change the content of modules or programmes but it should also teach students ‘soft skills’ such as teamwork or conceptualising an argument. Here, the discussion about what makes students sustainability literate also needs to be addressed and included. This sustainability literacy approach (Stibbe, 2009) has also been considered in the design of our SO module. This is in line with the third quadrant in the framework from Godemann et al. (2011), the mainstreaming of sustainable issues. This can encompass the content of sustainability such as tools for carbon management or ethical marketing but also the soft skills mentioned before. In NBS this approach has been taken for all of the MBA programmes. All MBAs have to take part in a sustainable organisation simulation game over a number of days. In this role-play game the students have to take over a company with low sustainable credentials and transform it into a sustainable organisation addressing sustainable issues in all their functional areas such as marketing, supply chain management, operations and accounting. Besides acquiring various tools for all functions within a company, they also gain various ‘soft skills’ such as working in teams and across teams, prepare a presentation for the ’fictional’ board to convince them why they should embark on this sustainable strategy and develop steps on how to implement these tools into the existing structure. Furthermore, they work in interdisciplinary teams and also gain an understanding of the bigger picture, as they have to align the corporate strategy with the steps taken by the individual departments. The fourth quadrant, ‘Focusing’, also addresses the broad curriculum, but requires new structures. An example would be a new module offered to all programmes at the beginning of their studies introducing sustainability principles and a general understanding of the challenges faced in this century

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and its implications for governments, intergovernmental organisations, science, business and the public. This approach has been taken by the Leuphana University in Lueneburg, Germany and has been discussed at NTU in the Beyond Greening the Curriculum Group (BGCG), a University-wide committee with the task of suggesting ways of implementing sustainability in the curriculum. In Lueneburg these courses are offered not only to business students, but also to students from all of the faculties. Not only the content, but also the students are therefore from different disciplines and can practise in teams how to work in an interdisciplinary way. In addition there is a fifth way, which is not fully captured by the framework above (Godemann et al., 2011), to raise awareness of the issues involved. This ‘Philosophy of Sustainability’ introduces students to principles of sustainable development such as systems thinking or environmental ethics, as well as making them aware of some of the major problems such as climate change. We developed such a module at NBS in 2004, the predecessor to our current SO module. Subsequently, another elective module, ‘Ethical and Strategic Issues in Management’, was introduced in 2006 and was made core to one of the undergraduate business programmes in 2010, along with the SO module. During the same year feedback from students and staff about the crossover between the two modules led to a requirement for SO to be revised, in order to differentiate between them more distinctly. Furthermore the focus on the philosophy on sustainability had to be changed as explained below. This led to the submission and approval of a new module specification under the same title for the academic year 2011/2012, and it is this version which comes under scrutiny in this chapter.

BACKGROUND TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATION MODULE The SO module is an elective for students on the BA (Hons) Business Management Joint Honours programme (with a cohort of approximately 180 students) and core for students on the BA (Hons) Business programme (with around 50 students). The module is often studied in conjunction with ‘Ethical and Strategic Issues in Management’, which is also core for some students and an elective for others. Programme leader Alastair Allen considers that students engage well with the module, reflected by 85% of the marks being in the first or upper second category in 2010/2011, despite one of the students in that year’s cohort telling him that it was the ‘ardest

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module’ they’d studied because they ‘had to think’! Alastair’s own view on the module is: Although all NBS module leaders are encouraged to develop and communicate the ethical issues within their modules, this is often in the broadest of terms and so having a module such as SO allows a focussed approach to delivering content and awareness about sustainability issues. All major organisations – private and public – and many smaller ones nowadays devote space on their websites and in annual reports to sustainability issues and so this module is an effective way of preparing students for considering these issues when they achieve employment.

During the initial years of the original version of the SO module, it seemed that some of the students were oblivious to climate change and the module team at that time engaged in discussions with students about whether or not such a problem existed. In more recent years however, students appear to have accepted that climate change is taking place and they increasingly criticised the hours dedicated to the exploration of the facts and fiction around this situation. Generally, the feedback highlighted that they did not want to simply discuss sustainability, but to make it happen. They wanted to learn about tools to be able to implement sustainability into business. This situation corresponds with Phillips’s (2009) view that ‘learners will be seeking a combination of intellectual study and active engagement in societal change processes’ (p. 212). Based on this feedback from the students the new SO module has been developed under the same title and replaced the previous version in October 2011, with new staff being recruited from across NBS to work with the existing module leader.

THE SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATION MODULE CONTENT The curriculum content of the SO module is discussed here, to give a flavour of how CSR and sustainability curricula can be constructed. This module is divided into the four sections below, which will be discussed separately and subsequently some of the common underlying ideas will be discussed further. I. II. III. IV.

Philosophy of sustainability Carbon or GHG management (including consultancy) Sustainable supply chain management Ethical marketing and consumer behaviour

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Philosophy of Sustainability As mentioned previously, this topic was the main focus of the module before its redesign. This section is taught by Petra Molthan-Hill (senior lecturer in the Management Division), the module leader of SO and Sian Hancox (senior lecturer in accounting and finance); both were also teaching on the previous version of SO. The team who taught the previous incarnation of SO decided to remove all of the sessions which focused on general awarenessraising, for example the science of climate change, since the students had been rather vocal about not needing to learn this within the module. It seems that there has been a shift in the last five years that, at least within the NBS student population, the concept of climate change is no longer contested, possibly as a result of it being contained in the school curriculum and being more widely reported in the media. However, while the science has been more or less understood, the underlying philosophy and principles of sustainability are less commonly known. This section of the module, therefore, covers:     

Principles of sustainability Systems thinking Environmental ethics Challenges for sustainability in decision-making Internal information to support a sustainable strategy

It is commonly agreed that systems thinking is one of the major building blocks of sustainable thinking (Clayton & Radcliffe, 2010; Stibbe, 2009). The previous module and also the redesigned version, therefore, utilise a computer simulation game by Meadows (2001) called ‘Fish Banks, Ltd’, to offer students some valuable experiential learning. During the three-hour long game the students are asked to run a fishing company with the aim of maximising profit for their shareholders. In all games they have played so far at NBS, the students are so focused on their profit that firstly they overfish the deep sea (where the profit is higher) and then the coastal water. Normally, the companies inevitably go bankrupt before they reach the 10th round of the game. It does not make a difference whether this game is played at the beginning of the year or after the students have had a sound introduction into sustainability, the moment they get the task to maximise profit they act as though they have forgotten all of these insights! Sometimes there is one ‘company’, that is a group of students, which attempts to act in a more sustainable manner, but they have never been able to convince their colleagues to do so. In addition to the original game we have added some

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features for example ‘press announcements’ from Greenpeace highlighting the fish decline, and recommendations from the European Union to have a fishing quota and we have also added some meetings between the ‘companies’ as a meeting of the ‘Trade Organization’, in which they have to discuss the possibility of a quota. If they decide at all to agree on a quota they normally do it too late in the game where the fish stocks are already declined beyond repair. Normally, the company which to date has had the highest profit and the biggest ship fleet will stop any agreement. The collapse of the whole fishing industry appears to be something of a revelation for the students, as is the calculation of the reasonable amount of money the companies could potentially have made while still maintaining their industry by fishing at a sustainable level, offered in the debrief. At this point, concepts such as systems thinking and sustainable management are also explained in relation to the game. Another topic previously taught within the philosophy of sustainability has been kept in the module: environmental ethics, tracking its emergence from the early 1970s to date (Attfield, 2003). In his analysis of various existing models of ethical decision-making Jones (1991) highlighted the importance of the first step, that the manager identifies a given business situation as a moral one, by stating: ‘a person who fails to recognise a moral issue will fail to employ moral decision-making schemata and will make the decision according to other schemata, economic rationality, for example’ (p. 380). Environmental problems in particular are not usually presented as an ethical problem; they are analysed and tackled using a bureaucratic, resource-orientated approach. As Crane and Matten (2010) point out, all stages, not only the first one in the ethical decision-making process are influenced by the issue’s moral framing; the most important aspect of moral framing being the language in which moral issues are presented. The problem, they observe, is ‘that many people in business are reluctant to ascribe moral terms to their work, even if acting for moral reasons, or if their actions have obvious moral consequences’ (p. 153). Therefore, in learning business ethics, students need to be enabled to identify the moral dimensions of normal business activities and decisions. In the experience of the SO module team, students have problems in recognising ethical dimensions, for example when they are asked to apply the ethical decision-making framework from Trevino and Nelson (1995) they tend to highlight business problems but have difficulties in defining the underlying values or even acknowledging them. Furthermore, the impression can sometimes be given that they do not feel so comfortable talking about ethical issues. This was

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also observed by Bird and Waters (1989) who suggested that managers need to learn how to express themselves in moral terms: Managers also shun moral talk in order to not expose their own ethical illiteracy. Most managers neither know nor feel comfortable with the language and logic of moral philosophy. At best they received instruction in juvenile versions of ethics as children and young adults in schools and religious associations. They have little or no experience using ethical concepts to analyse issues. They may more readily and less self-consciously use some ethical terms to identify and condemn obvious wrongdoings, but do not know how to use ethical terms and theories with intellectual rigor and sophistication to identify and resolve moral issues. (p. 78)

Therefore students need to learn mature moral language in this module, which means in this context matching environmental ethics to the core theme of sustainability, so that they are not too embarrassed to introduce these concepts into the business discourse. Therefore, philosophical articles and ideas need to be integrated into the training of environmental ethics. Students need to become ‘ethics literate’ by learning the appropriate words and concepts, and they also need to learn how to apply these concepts in the business world and how to challenge the ‘instrumental reason’ (Habermas, 1984) of the business world. Finally, the ‘moral neutrality’ of the business world needs to be questioned in the classroom (and maybe not only therey). A discussion about the morality of ends and the morality of means within the business world needs to become the centrepiece of any sustainable studies so that environmental issues are not seen as supplementary to the ‘neutral’ world of business.

Carbon Management or Greenhouse Gas Management In the redesign of the module a significant block of content on carbon management, or GHG management, was included and was made the focus on the first assessment, a group presentation, due to the students’ request in their feedback to learn more about tools to address the problem of climate change in business. This section incorporates the following steps based on the GHG Management Programme by Lingl, Carlson and the David Suzuki Foundation (2010):    

Business Case for GHG Management Goals of the GHG Management Programme Measuring GHG Emissions Reducing GHG Emissions

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 Offsetting GHG emissions: Going Carbon Neutral  Communicating the GHG Management Programme Richard Holmes, an environmental consultant employed to teach on the module, Sian Hancox and Petra Molthan-Hill deliver this part of the module and work alongside the ‘Future Factory’ to support the consultancy work. Future Factory is an NTU-based initiative which supports businesses’ adoption of sustainable practices, financed primarily by the European Regional Development Fund.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management The module’s supply chain management (SCM) section is an extension of content from existing modules on SCM offered to Level 3 NBS students. This section of the module covers:    

SCM and sustainability Choosing and managing suppliers sustainability Sustainability in materials and logistics Being lean and green

Lynn Oxborrow, senior lecturer in the NBS Management Division and Project Director of the Future Factory, delivers this section of the module. Since academic literature on the specific topic of sustainable SCM is somewhat limited, generic SCM theory is blended with information on sustainability from different disciplines. Additionally, Lynn Oxborrow’s research with her NBS colleague, Clare Brindley, Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, contributes towards the SO module. This particular research project commenced in 2010 investigates the sustainable supply chain within NTU’s catering facilities. The Future Factory funded the two colleagues to document this research for a conference paper and to provide audio-visual outputs in collaboration with media communications students from NTU’s School of Arts and Humanities. This has resulted in the production of a video comprising an interview in which NTU’s Head Chef discusses how a sustainable approach impacts upon the catering supply chain, as well as a case study to be utilised as teaching materials in the module. Closing the loop, as a consequence of this research into sustainability within the supply chain, Lynn Oxborrow and Clare Brindley are being consulted to advise NTU on its procurement policy.

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Ethical Marketing and Consumer Behaviour As in the module’s SCM content, the ethical marketing and consumer behaviour section of the module draws from standard marketing theory combined with literature from other fields, for example sociology and business ethics (Fisher & Lovell, 2009). This is largely because literature on sustainable marketing and consumption has been somewhat limited in nature and much of it has been published only recently (e.g. Arnold, 2009; Belz & Peattie, 2009; Dahlstrom, 2011; Martin & Schouten, 2011), with a few initial pioneers writing about the topic in the 1990s (e.g. Fuller, 1999; Wagner, 1997). The rationale behind the inclusion of marketing in the SO module is to offer sustainable options for those students who wish to pursue careers which incorporate marketing or to work alongside marketers, as well as offering students more insight into the sustainability impacts of their own behaviour as consumers. Helen Goworek, senior lecturer in marketing, whose research specialisms are retailing and sustainable fashion, delivers this section of the module, comprising:     

Marketing strategy, CSR and sustainability Sustainability and consumer behaviour Sustainable products and brands Marketing communications and sustainability Sustainable retailing

This component of the module is intended to encourage students to consider characteristics of consumption behaviour which affect ethical concerns, that is value, frequency, visibility, complexity, for self or for others and necessity or indulgence (Belz & Peattie, 2009). Additionally, Tim Cooper, professor of sustainable design and consumption at NTU, will give a lecture within this series of lectures based on the research for his book ‘Longer Lasting Products’ (2010). This section of the curriculum is based mainly upon the framework of the marketing mix, that is product, price, promotion and place, with the impact of sustainability upon price being discussed within the other three topics. Two other key aspects of marketing, strategy and consumer behaviour, are covered, to offer students both corporate and consumer perspectives on sustainable marketing. The marketing component of SO was developed as a direct outcome of the instigation of the NBS CSR and Sustainability group, since meeting with this staff group enabled Petra Molthan-Hill to identify those staff in various business disciplines with an interest in CSR. Though NTU has a strong sustainability strategy, the SO module was constructed largely via staff

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voluntarily engaging in this informal group, which was not initiated by a ‘top-down’ directive. The establishment of informal research and teaching networks within an educational institution can therefore be conducive to the development of CSR curricula.

Module Coursework and Assessment The assessment on the SO module is in two parts: a group presentation worth 30% of the module mark and a final ‘open book’ exam contributing to 70% of the module mark. Half of the teams will act in a consultancy capacity to advise firms which are clients of the Future Factory, thereby allowing the sustainable tools gained from the module to be applied in practice. The other half will apply the same tools to existing companies, based on desk research. Students are asked to follow the steps as outlined in the set text: ‘Doing Business in a New Climate’ (Lingl, Carlson & the David Suzuki Foundation, 2010). The presentations take place in seminar time followed by the opportunity for questions from other students and staff. The incorporation of this consultancy project and the Fishbanks exercise into the SO module corresponds with Rusinko’s (2010) similar idea of using experiential business learning within the sustainability curriculum for management and business courses, using extra-curricular businesses set up by the students. Rusinko (ibid.) suggests: ‘theoretical frameworks learned in class would help students as they plan, develop, and grow the business, while the business itself would provide a learning lab for students to test and refine the theories and frameworks learned in class’ (p. 513). The module team had originally planned that the students would simply investigate companies on the Internet such as Patagonia and Walkers, which are known for their positive reputations for carbon management. However, due to previous work with the Future Factory by the module leader, the idea emerged that the students could not only learn the GHG Management Programme but also apply it directly to a small-to-medium enterprise (SME) in the region. It is hoped that the students will not only gain a better understanding of the limits and possibilities in a real company but also practise many soft skills such as teamwork, project and time management and dealing with new people, etc. It was therefore agreed that the students should be allowed to choose between desk work and consultancy work, as the latter would be more time-consuming but would offer more benefits, including practical experience to be listed on the CV. Fifty-one out of the

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ninety-three students on the module opted for the consultancy work, a better response than was originally anticipated. The team from Future Factory spoke to existing contacts and also ran an advertisement to encourage companies to participate: at the moment of writing 10 companies are taking part. They range from an Indian restaurant to artists’ studios and waste management companies. The students, working in groups of five, establish the goals of the company with regard to GHG Management and the boundaries of their investigation on a first visit accompanied by a team member of the Future Factory. In a second visit they will collect more details such as utility bills. The final contact with the company will be in the presentation, where the students will summarise their analysis of the company and give recommendations and a detailed plan on how to implement GHG Management. The companies can decide to invite other attendees to this presentation, but the business is offered confidentiality. The students are required to sign a confidentiality agreement with Future Factory and other procedures have been established to fulfil the ethical approval requested at NBS for any research or research-related project. While the involvement in the assignment is beneficial to the Future Factory, it should also be noted that it involves additional resource support to liaise with the companies, which may prove difficult to replicate within the existing provision, so this issue needs to be addressed for next academic year. The whole consultancy project (or the related desk-based analysis) is scheduled for the first 10 weeks of the Autumn term and accompanied by seminars, each focused on one step mentioned above, connected to lectures which provide a deeper understanding of the material.

Issues and Potential Benefits Involved in Implementing the Module We consider that internal input from NTU and external input from other organisations have been used to good effect within the content of the SO module. The module reflects the multidisciplinary nature of sustainability, maximising NTU’s resources with contributions from different academic disciplines, spanning six divisions within three different schools, as well as integrating a commercial initiative. There is a blend of teaching, research and commercial aspects, highlighted in particular in the SCM content. We believe that there could be more sustainable tools included in this module such as sustainable strategies. The latter was not included as some of the students attending were offered the possibility of choosing another module called ‘Ethical and Strategic Issues in Management’ (ESIM)

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which has a strong focus on sustainable strategies. The two modules are complementary, ESIM looking at the bigger picture of how to place a company in the market and the overall strategy they should take, as well as how to incorporate in this ethical considerations be it in environmental, social or/and economic aspects. In contrast, the SO module goes into more detail of how a company can translate a corporate strategy in different functional areas. Some students have chosen both options to acquire expertise in sustainable management, which is not currently offered as a degree pathway or as a separate programme by NBS. However, besides these institutionspecific reasons there might be some time limits on how much content can be included in a single module. Furthermore, there remains the question of whether we need a paradigm shift, where it becomes mandatory for all management tools used in business, be it marketing, HR or corporate finance, to be based on sustainable principles.

SUGGESTIONS FOR BEST PRACTICE The manner in which CSR and sustainability education is approached should ideally take into account the context of the University and the content of the degree programmes in which it is located. Though the SO module discussed in this chapter works well within the context of NTU, its curricula, its students, its teaching and research and its commercial resources, it may not apply effectively in the same format in other educational institutions. Equally, alternative approaches to CSR and education could be just as effective as those implemented at NTU. The module is currently offered as an elective option on some of our programmes and a core option on others, but we could make further progress by making it a compulsory component of our business degrees, so that it is not just selected by those with a prior interest in sustainability. This would permit all undergraduate students at NBS to be exposed to sustainability issues and could promote more lively debate within seminar discussions, as well as reinforcing students’ and employers’ expectations and requirements of a ‘green’ University. In this case the module would require another redesign and the link to other disciplines such as science and psychology could be increased. An additional question is whether we should begin to integrate part of the module into Years 1 and 2 and create a sustainability thread which runs along all the other modules, introducing the students early on to principles of sustainability such as systems thinking and taking these ideas up in so-called ‘normal’ modules, linking them integrally to the more traditional content of existing modules.

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A further step we could take is to investigate and implement methods of offering the curriculum more sustainably in this module (Rusinko, 2010) to show our commitment and to demonstrate good practice, for example by using video-conferencing for speakers and by offering some of the module content online, to a greater extent than we do already. We offer this example as a case study of a module which we consider reflects current best practice at our institution, but this is only a step on the way to better practice and we predict a time when a paradigm shift has occurred and sustainability and CSR are fully integrated into every framework and module in business education. However, until then we believe best practice is to integrate sustainability increasingly into our modules and programmes and our module is a step on the way towards sustainability. Additionally, we recognise that sustainability can relate to all types of business and to all educational subjects and we will encourage our students to recognise this too. We are aware that several of our colleagues across other schools within NTU are teaching sustainability content within their modules. A further opportunity would be for us to consolidate our diverse efforts and increase both efficiency and synergy by distributing generic sustainability teaching materials throughout the University while making such materials sufficiently flexible to allow the staff concerned to adapt them to fit their own specialisms. Moreover, we accept that educators need to make far more substantial changes if we are to participate in encouraging lasting change. The publication of further research in the field of CSR will be an enabling factor in the development of such curricula.

REFERENCES Arnold, C. (2009). Ethical marketing and the new consumer. Chichester: Wiley. Attfield, R. (2003). Environmental ethics: An overview for the 21st century. Cambridge: Polity Press. Belz, F. M., & Peattie, K. (2009). Sustainability marketing: A global perspective. Chichester: Wiley. Bird, F., & Waters, J. (1989). The moral muteness of managers. California Management Review, 32(1), 73–88. Blincoe, K. (2009). Re-educating the person. In A. Stibbe (Ed.), The Handbook of Sustainability literacy: Skills for a changing world (pp. 204–208). Totnes: Green Books. Clayton, A. M. H., & Radcliffe, N. J. (2010). Sustainability. A systems approach. London: Earthscan. Cooper, T. (2010). Longer lasting products: Alternatives to the throwaway society. London: Gower Publishing. Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2010). Business ethics (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Dahlstrom, R. (2011). Green marketing management. Andover: South-Western Cengage. Elkington, J. (1999). Cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st century business. Bloomington, MN: Capstone. Fisher, C., & Lovell. (2009). Business ethics: Individual, corporate and international perspectives. London: Financial Times. Fuller, D. A. (1999). Sustainable marketing. London: Sage. Godemann, J., Herzig, C., & Moon, J. (2011). Approaches to changing the curriculum. Presentation given on the ISIBS Workshop – Session II, University of Nottingham 20–21 October. Unpublished. Habermas, J. (1984). The theory of communicative action. Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. London: Heinemann. Jones, T. M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issuecontingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16, 366–395. Lantos, G. P. (1999). Motivating moral corporate behaviour. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 16(3), 222–233. Lingl, P., Carlson, D., & the David Suzuki Foundation. (2010). Doing business in a new climate. A guide to measuring, reducing and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. London: Earthscan. Maclagan, P., & Campbell, T. (2011). Focusing on individuals’ ethical judgement in corporate social responsibility curricula. Business Ethics: A European Review, 20(4), 392–404. Martin, D., & Schouten, J. (2011). Sustainable marketing. London: Prentice Hall. Meadows, D. L. (2001). Fish Banks, Ltd.: Game administrators manual. Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire. Ndlovu, T., Puntha, H., & Ndlovu, S. (2011). NTU sustainability survey report. London: Nottingham Trent University. Phillips, A. (2009). Institutional transformation. In A. Stibbe (Ed.), The handbook of sustainability literacy: Skills for a changing world (pp. 209–214). Totnes: Green Books. Robinson, Z. (2009). Greening business: The ability to drive environmental and sustainability improvements in the workplace. In A. Stibbe (Ed.), The handbook of sustainability literacy: Skills for a changing world (pp. 130–136). Totnes: Green Books. Rusinko, C. A. (2010). Integrating sustainability in management and business education. The Academy of Management Learning and Education, 9(3), 507–519. Sterling, S. (2004). Higher education, sustainability and the role of systemic learning. In P. Corcoran & A. Wals (Eds.), Higher education and the challenge of sustainability: contestation, critique, practice, and promise (pp. 49–70). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. Stibbe, A. (2009). The handbook of sustainability literacy: Skills for a changing world. Totnes: Green Books. Stibbe, A., & Luna, H. (2009). The handbook of sustainability literacy: Skills for a changing world. Retrieved from http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/stibbe-handbook-of-sustainability/ chapters/Introduction Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (1995). Managing business ethics. Straight talk about how to do it right. New York, NY: Wiley. Truscheit, A., & Otte, C. (2007). Sustainable games people play: teaching sustainability skills with the aid of the role-play, NordWestPower. In C. Galea (Ed.), teaching business sustainability. Volume 2: Cases, Simulations and Experiential Approaches (pp. 164–170). Sheffield: Greenleaf. Wagner, S. A. (1997). Understanding green consumer behaviour: A qualitative, cognitive approach. London: Routledge.

CHAPTER 5 APPLYING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY TO THE CHALLENGE OF EMBEDDING ETHICS INTO THE BUSINESS SCHOOL CURRICULUM Denise Baden INTRODUCTION Many believe we are suffering from an ethics crisis (Perry & Nixon, 2005). The increased incidence of irresponsible behaviour by business, recent examples being the global financial crisis and the BP oil spill, and the devastating consequences on society have focused attention on the role business schools play in educating future business (and other) leaders. There have also been criticisms of business schools failing to take into account the ‘factually impossible notion of unlimited growth in a world of limited resources’ (Giacalone & Thompson, 2006), and continuing to encourage business strategies which are at odds with the growing challenge of sustainable development, which include issues of climate change, inequity and resource depletion (Giacalone & Thompson, 2006; Shrivastava, 1995; Waddock, 2007). Indeed, business schools have been criticised for encouraging a self-interested, profit-oriented focus that ignores the wider responsibilities of business to society (Gioia, 1992; Kochan, 2002; Mitroff, 2004). Starkey, Hatchuel, and Tempest (2004), for example, claim that the business Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 77–110 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004007

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school has become ‘‘ethically compromised because the values it espouses have been implicated in recent corporate scandals.’’ McPhail (2001) suggests the inclusion of business ethics into accounting and business education as a possible remedy. Cant and Kulik went further and claimed that ‘‘business schools would be remiss, if not unethical themselves, if their ethics education efforts were not increased in light of recent events.’’ (2009). However some authors have gone further and claimed that it is not enough to teach ethics, the real problem is the ideological worldview propagated within business schools that assume the centrality of materialistic values. Giacalone and Thompson (2006) argue that business schools perpetuate an organisation-centred worldview which places business interests at the heart of society, with the assumption that what is good for the organisation is ultimately good for society. Reedy and Learmonth (2009) make the point that even when business schools have introduced courses on business ethics, fundamental questions about the ethics of profit maximisation are rarely raised. It has been further argued that business schools encourage the Western neo-liberal values of competitive individualism and materialism before students even start their course by promoting the goal of business school education solely in terms of achieving higher future wealth (Pfeffer & Fong, 2004). These concerns have spawned debate on how business schools should respond. The introduction to chapters on business ethics education typically begins with the context for this increased interest in business school education, namely the increasing scandals and consequences of unethical business behaviour. Therefore, implicit, but rarely stated, in this debate is the desire that business education will equip students with the tools, skills and motivation to identify and resist unethical behaviour in the workplace and to adopt responsible and sustainable business practices. Historically the goal of education was centred on the notion of moral character (Hill & Stewart, 1999). However in the last century, with increased emphasis on scientific method and objective rationality, the focus shifted to the role of universities as creating knowledge, rather than character (Marsden, 1994). With respect to business ethics it was concluded by the Hastings Centre in 1980 that it was not the role of higher education to change students’ behaviour (Callaghan & Bok, 1980). However, there has been increasing dissatisfaction with this approach with many management scholars calling for morality to be put back into business education (Bernstein, 1995; Cant & Kulik, 2009; Ghoshal, 2005; Leavitt, 1989; Salbu, 2000; Starkey et al., 2004). Hill and Stewart (1999), for example, proclaim the need for business schools to explicitly change their

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focus from knowledge production to character development, and there is now growing pressure on business schools to turn out more ethical or moral graduates (Sims, 2004). The increasing number of authors who share this opinion (Leclair, Ferrell, Montuori, & Willems, 1999; Taft & White, 2007; VanSandt, 2002; Woo, 2003) suggests that the time might be right to explicitly include behaviour change as a legitimate goal of business ethics education. The hesitancy apparent up until recently in adopting this position may derive in part from sensitivity to cultural differences in ethical judgements of right and wrong, and a fear of universities being seen to engage in prescriptive cultural imperialism. While these are understandable and legitimate concerns, these issues arise in any kind of teaching. For example it has been argued that the very assumptions underlying our teaching of economic rationality present a specific worldview that has influenced managerial behaviour in a destructive fashion (Ghoshal, 2005; Ghoshal & Moran, 1996, Giacalone & Thompson, 2006). Here the cultural imperialism in the teaching is implicit and therefore largely unseen. Its very visibility in ethics teaching renders it less insidious as lecturers and students alike are more alert to such issues. The argument of this chapter is that attempting to influence future workplace behaviour is not only a legitimate goal of business ethics education, but also the outcome that most authors in the field have either explicitly called for or implicitly implied as a goal of such teaching. The benefit of making such a goal explicit is that it enables a more tactical and focused debate around which pedagogical methods can best achieve this aim, and conversely, to avoid the over-use of pedagogies that are unlikely to achieve this aim. For example, a plethora of studies have failed to reach consensus on the effectiveness of ethics teaching (Lau, 2010; Waples, Antes, Murphy, Connelly, & Mumford, 2009; Winston, 2007), in part because of the diversity of methods used to teach ethics, and also because the outcomes are unclear. Many have measured effectiveness via scales measuring cognitive moral development (CMD), for example, despite the empirical evidence that CMD correlates little with actual ethical behaviour (Blasi, 1980; Perugini & Leone, 2009). According to a survey carried out by Dean and Beggs (2006) even business educators themselves had little confidence that their teaching had much impact on students’ actual behaviour. McDonald and Donleavy (1995) critique business ethics education on the grounds that its abstract nature precludes effective learning, and that ethics training has little effect on behaviour as students are unable to apply the ethical skills they have gained in the real world of business. Similarly,

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Donaldson (2008) criticises the intellectual approach to teaching business ethics, saying it is ineffectual in promoting ethical behaviour, in part because it propounds a negative view of managers, and also because it underestimates the situational determinants of behaviour. The practical relevance of management education in general has been questioned by many management scholars who have expressed doubt that management pedagogies have affected actual management performance in the field (Donaldson, 2002; Linder & Smith, 1992; Mintzberg, 2004; Pfeffer & Fong, 2002). As there is little in the literature that compares management pedagogies in terms of their effect on actual ethical behaviour, a useful place to start is by examining what has been learned so far from the large body of research relating to behaviour change, and relating it to our experiences of embedding ethics education in our curriculum. Like many other business schools we have debated the relative merits of embedding ethics education throughout the curriculum versus stand-alone courses. Disadvantage of embedding ethics is that instructors are unlikely to be expert in teaching that subject, and may lack either motivation, skills or confidence in teaching outside their area of expertise (Cant & Kulik, 2009; Dean & Beggs, 2006; McDonald, 2004). Another difficulty is sourcing materials and texts, as few core course set texts include a sufficient coverage of ethics (Baetz & Sharp, 2004). However the disadvantage of most stand-alone courses in business ethics is that they are almost always optional courses, so many students will not take them. Indeed it is a plausible concern that those who do are already more inclined to care about ethical issues than those who don’t, hence the likelihood of ethical education being focused on those least in need of it, conversely, and even more importantly, leaving out those potentially most in need of it! When the School of Management at one particular university signed up to the UN Principles of Responsible Management Education (see www.unprme.org), this provided a framework within which we began to consider how to deal with such issues and more effectively embed ethics education throughout our curriculum, and avoid the danger of always ‘preaching to the converted’. Like many other business schools, timetabling constraints made it extremely difficult to introduce business ethics as a core subject, so we sought more innovative means of embedding ethics into our curriculum. The tradition of service-learning, which can also be classified as a type of experiential learning (Kolb & Fry, 1975), presented itself as an alternative approach to ethical education. Service learning incorporates community engagement into the curriculum and has been proposed (Altman, 1996) as a means of combining civic participation with socially responsive education, that is education in the

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key problems and challenges facing society (such as Sustainable Development) first-hand experience of these social issues in the community and attainment of the experience and skills to address these challenges. A review of the service-learning literature by Eyler, Giles, Stenson, and Gray (2001), for example, demonstrates that service-learning has a positive effect on students’ moral development and sense of social responsibility and improves students’ ability to apply what they have learned in ‘the real world’. A more recent meta-analysis of service-learning initiatives (Conway, Amel, & Gerwien, 2009) indicates that it leads to positive outcomes academically, personally and in terms of citizenship behaviours, particularly for students at the higher education level and where structured reflection is built into the process. In accordance with the first principle of the UNPRME to ‘‘develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy’’ we wanted to find a way to embed ethical awareness into our MSc entrepreneurship module. Very few (4/41) of the students on this course chose to take the business ethics option, and like many business/ management school students (Chen & Tang, 2006), appeared to be embedded in the culture and values of profit maximisation, thus there was little danger of ‘preaching to the converted’. Indeed, of all business people, entrepreneurs especially have been accused of anti-social tendencies by some researchers (King & Roberts, 1992; Morris, Schindehutte, Walton, & Allen, 2002). While this is a stereotype that has been contested (Longenecker, Moore, Petty, Palich, & Mckinney, 2006), the typical entrepreneurship curriculum often draws on case studies that present role models of entrepreneurs who have achieved success by breaking the rules and operating at the margins of ethically acceptable behaviour (Bhide & Stevenson, 1990) and role models of enterprises that are ruthlessly profit driven with little if no attention paid to social or environmental impacts. However, in terms of offering ‘socially responsive knowledge’ that could be translated into positive behaviour that could potentially address society’s key issues within the business domain, entrepreneurs are an obvious target. The essence of entrepreneurship is innovation, overthrowing old structures with new (Schumpeter, 1934), turning problems into opportunities and creating something from nothing. Social enterprises have been lauded and promoted as an alternative business model that can deliver social goods in an economically sustainable fashion. Reedy and Learmonth (2009) propose incorporating coverage of such alternative business structures into the curriculum as an antidote to the typical focus on instrumental values and to

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challenge the assumption that the managed corporation is the only desirable form of organisation. Also, even if students are exposed to a critical view of corporate activity, this will not necessarily empower them to seek change, unless they are also exposed to some alternative models. For example Fournier (2005) believes that: There are many ways in which the business schools of tomorrow could meaningfully engage with alternative organisations and contribute to debates about the development of more socially and environmentally sustainable economic relations, if they cared to do so. This would require business schools not only to question the holy grail of growth, efficiency, competition, and consumption, but also to actively explore alternatives: how can we organise economic activities so as to privilege dignity, justice, well being, the environment? How can we consume less, produce less, work less? How can we respect each other and our environment more? (p. 205)

Thus our goal was to raise students’ awareness of social entrepreneurship and develop their skills and knowledge in this domain through practical work placements with social enterprises. Reflections from the students on these placements are analysed in the context of the literature on behaviour change to ascertain the effectiveness of this initiative in terms of its likelihood of leading to more pro-social business behaviour. The central tenet of this chapter is that simply exposing students to an organisational culture that has ethics and social responsibility at its heart has the potential to positively influence students’ ethical perceptions, intentions and potentially their future behaviour. This tenet is suggested by the rich literature on the powerful effect of work and social norms on behaviour which date as far back as Aristotle, who in his Nichomachean Ethics describes ethics as a habit of virtue, learned by observation and through a modelling process, and continues through to the modern day in the literature on social learning theory (Bandura, 1977b), norms (Cialdini, Reno, & Kallgren, 1990) and planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1985).

LITERATURE ON BEHAVIOUR CHANGE In this section, social psychological literature pertaining to behaviour is discussed. The section finishes with a summary of how this literature can inform the choice of pedagogies that will best provide students with the knowledge, motivation and skills to contribute positively to society in their future activities. A starting point for the discussion of psychological models of behaviour is the traditional rational choice model, which assumes that people make

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decisions based on calculating the costs and benefits to themselves. Implications of this theory for behaviour change are simply to provide sufficient information to enable such cognitive deliberation, and to manipulate the costs or benefits of relevant behaviours. Thus knowledge, awareness and beliefs are important components of decision-making alongside judgements regarding which outcomes will be most rewarding. The assumptions behind the rational choice model have been criticised on a number of fronts, such as ignoring the role of unconscious processes, habits and emotions, and in particular, failing to consider the social context of behaviour and decision making (Jackson, 2005). This latter criticism led to the development of models to account for the influence of other people’s attitudes on individual behaviour, the best known of which is Fishbein and Ajzen’s ‘Theory of Reasoned Action’ (1975) (Fig. 1). This model incorporates the role played by social influence into the model in the form of the ‘subjective norm’. Behavioural intentions are proposed to be the product of attitudes towards the behaviour and subjective norms. Attitudes are influenced by beliefs, knowledge, awareness and evaluations regarding how rewarding the outcomes will be. The subjective norm refers to beliefs held regarding others’ views and attitudes towards such behaviour, and how important these people’s views are to us. A distinction has been drawn between descriptive norms, which provide information on what others do, and injunctive norms which express the level of social approval/disapproval of certain behaviours (Cialdini et al., 1990). Both of these have been found to influence behaviour independently. For example a study on the effectiveness of different types of campaigns to encourage recycling found that the more viewers believed that other people recycled (descriptive norm) and the more they believed that recycling was approved of by their peers (injunctive norm) the greater their intentions to

Behavioural beliefs and outcome evaluations

Attitude towards behaviour Behavioural intentions

Normative beliefs and motivation to comply

Fig. 1.

Behaviour

Subjective norm concerning behaviour

Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).

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recycle (Cialdini, 2003). Many such studies have provided overwhelming empirical support for the influence of social norms on behaviour, for example in relation to alcohol use (Agostinelli, Brown, & Miller, 1995; Neighbors, Larimer, & Lewis, 2004); towel re-use in hotels (Goldstein, Cialdini, & Griskevicius, 2008); energy conservation (Gockeritz et al., 2010); and water consumption (Corral-Verdugo, Frias-Armenta, Perez-Urias, Orduna-Cabrera, & Espinoza-Gallego, 2002). Nolan, Schultz, Cialdini, Goldstein, and Griskevicius (2008) found that descriptive normative beliefs were the greatest predictor of energy conservation behaviour and that normative social influence produced the most changes in such behaviour compared to other reasons. They also found that participants were unaware of this influence and that the importance of normative influences of our behaviour is thus generally much underrated. Studies on ethical decision-making support the notion that peer-group plays a significant role, for example Zey-Ferrell, Weaver, and Ferrell (1979) found that respondents’ perceptions regarding the beliefs of their peers were the strongest predictor of ethical behaviour. Ethical decision-making models also incorporate the role of social influence. For example Trevino (1986) proposed an interactionist model of ethical decision-making in organisations, which includes situational moderators such as immediate job context, organisational culture and referent others. Even under the category of individual moderators, Trevino includes the concept of ‘field dependence’ to allow for the extent to which individuals will depend upon external social referents to guide their behaviour. Similarly, Ferrell and Gresham (1985) proposed a contingency framework in which ethical issues arise from the social or cultural environment, and decisions are made on the basis of both individual factors (e.g. values, knowledge and attitudes) and organisational factors such as significant others (managers and peers). They emphasise the role of the environment and differential association, that is learning from ones peer group, in predicting unethical behaviour. Hunt and Vitell (1986) similarly emphasise the role that social, cultural and organisational factors play in ethical decision-making. Even those researchers who have challenged these linear cognitive models of ethical decision-making on the basis that they under-estimate the role of unconscious processes (Haidt, 2001; Reynolds, 2006) still maintain the importance of our normative societal beliefs, as they form the basis of our prototypes, which in turn form the foundation of our information-processing systems. The message from the social psychology literature then is clear, we are profoundly affected by the social context, and targeting beliefs about how others are behaving tends to have a more powerful influence on behaviour

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than other kinds of information. However, this ‘underrated’ influence of descriptive norms can also backfire, if the information being presented suggests that an undesirable behaviour is common (Cialdini, 2003). Hence there is the danger that failing to provide positive descriptive norms of responsible business behaviour, and instead focusing class discussions on business ethics failures, could create a descriptive norm of unethical conduct. While the lecturer’s aim may be to use this case study of unethical behaviour to highlight ethical issues, the message that may linger is that this is the kind of thing that business people do. As Cialdini (2003) states in his paper on crafting normative messages: ‘There is an understandable, but misguided tendency to try to mobilize action against a problem by depicting it as regrettably frequent yWithin the statement ‘‘Many people are doing this undesirable thing’’ lurks the powerful and undercutting normative message ‘‘Many people are doing this’’’. (p. 105). Thus our perceptions of how other people behave can affect our own behaviour – a phenomenon known as the self-fulfilling prophesy. These self-fulfilling prophesies can occur via interpersonal expectancy effects (Rosenthal, 1994). For example studies have shown that raising leaders’ expectations can increase organizational effectiveness (Eden, 1990) and employee engagement (Bezuijen, Van den Berg, Van Dam, & Thierry, 2009). Similarly Liberman, Anderson, and Ross (2010) found that telling participants in a negotiation process that previous negotiations had resulted in a successful outcome led to consistently successful outcomes, whereas when participants were simply urged to reach an agreement, there was a consistent rejection of the same proposal. In addition, those in the positive expectation condition reported a more positive negotiating experience, and held more positive views of their counterpart than those in the neutral condition. Self-fulfilling prophesies can also be mediated via the ‘sucker effect’ (Schnake, 1991) which describes the tendency to reduce one’s effort or cooperation to avoid being taken advantage of by others who we fear will pursue their self-interest at our expense. For example if we believe others will behave opportunistically and further their self-interest at the expense of ours, this can give rise to pre-emptive self-serving or unethical behaviour (Cohen & Czepiec, 1988; Pronin, 2008; Tenbrunsel, 1998; Zinkhan, Bisesi, & Saxton, 1989). These fears are supported by studies which have found increased cynicism by business students regarding typical business behaviour (e.g. Cagle & Baucus, 2006; Cole & Smith, 1996; Luther, DiBattista, & Gautschi, 1997). Donaldson (2008) similarly argues that managers suffer from negative stereotyping, claiming that management

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school academics propound a critical view of business managers based on a small sample of cases, and use these to form generalisations about their tendency to unethical conduct. Conceptualising these beliefs as stereotypes allows access into the rich literature and research findings on stereotyping; its causes, consequences and means of overcoming. For example Allport (1954) proposed the contact hypothesis which proposes that contact with the stereotyped group is a key means of reducing prejudice, on the basis that prejudice is a result of generalisations and oversimplifications about a group of people based on mistaken or incomplete information. Therefore, so long as the stereotyped group does not conform to these stereotypes, beliefs about this category of people will be modified on the basis of direct experience. The role of the organisational culture in affecting ethical behaviour has also received much attention. Particular research on ethical climate theory (Martin & Cullen, 2006; Victor & Cullen, 1988) focuses on the types of ethical climates in organisations and how the ethical climate influences decision-making and behaviour. Victor and Cullen (1988) argued that the type of ethical climate depends upon organisational form, therefore in line with their classification, social enterprises would be expected to conform to the ‘benevolent’ type of organisation typified by a focus on team interest at the local level, and social responsibility at the cosmopolitan level. In a review of the ethical decision-making literature, O’Fallon and Butterfield (2005) report an increase in the number of studies showing the positive influence of ethical climate upon ethical decision making. They go on to discuss the role of peer influence as a key contextual moderating variable, which is supported both by empirical studies (Beams, Brown, & Killough, 2003; Jones & Kavanagh, 1996) and by theoretical models of decision-making (e.g. Trevino, 1986), and the literature on social learning theory (Bandura, 1977a). Social learning theory (Bandura, 1977a) proposes that individuals learn by imitating the behaviour of others. Based on experiments which showed that children will copy behaviours they see others performing, Bandura showed how behaviour is influenced by both psychological and environmental factors. Social learning, thus, allows employees to influence coworkers’ behaviour through modelling (Brown, Trevino, & Harrison, 2005). Although much of the research has looked at modelling of anti-social behaviour (Robinson & O’Leary-Kelly, 1998), the same processes can apply when modelling pro-social behaviour. Indeed there is a wide body of literature discussing the educational benefits of role models (Hannula, Kaasila, Pehkonen, & Laine 2007; Paice, Heard, & Moss, 2002). For

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example, in the context of medical education, Creuss, Cruess, and Steinert (2008) draw attention to the means by which the observed behaviours and attitudes of role models are converted into the belief patterns and behaviours of the students (Fig. 2) and caution that ‘‘teachers need to be aware of the conscious and unconscious components of learning from role modelling, so that the net effect of the process is positive’’ (p. 718). Dobson and Armstrong (1995) highlight the essential role played by moral exemplars, or role models, in ethics teaching, claiming that: ‘‘The role of exemplars is critical for the application of virtue ethics because it is from these individuals that the virtues are disseminated throughout the profession’’ (pp. 189–190). They cite Gioia’s account of his involvement in the Ford Pinto case where the decision was taken not to recall dangerous cars, which resulted in hundreds of burn deaths. Gioia’s advice to prevent a repeat of such cases is ‘‘learning or training that concentrates on exposure to information or models that explicitly display a focus on ethical considerations’’ (1992). Dean (1992) promotes the use of positive examplars to act as role models, for example to illustrate how such individuals deal with

Active Observation of role model

Making the unconscious conscious Unconscious incorporation of observed behaviours

Reflection and abstraction

Active exploration of affect and values

Translating insights into principles and action

Generalisation and behaviour change

Fig. 2.

The Process of Role Modelling (Creuss et al., 2008).

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ethically sensitive situations, and behave ethically in practice. Similarly, Knapp, Louwers, and Weber (1998) suggest celebrating accounting heroes as a means to promote ethical accounting practices. Cognitive science research supports the important role of exemplars as they tap into the way in which our brain processes information and learns: The exemplar theory suggests, however, that what moral learning consists in may not be (primarily) the learning of rules but the acquisition of pertinent exemplars or examplesy . A morally suitable role model may be didactically more effective than a set of behavioural maxims. (Goldman, 1993)

There is therefore an argument that focusing on good business or ‘moral examplars’ may be an effective means by which to instill ethics. As DeMarco (1996) points out, it is insufficient to eliminate vice, one must also cultivate virtue: Trying to become virtuous merely by excluding vice y is as unrealistic as trying to cultivate roses solely by eliminating weeds. After clearing the garden of weeds, one must still plant seeds or cuttings and nurture their growth; otherwise, the weeds simply return. The best way to exclude vices is to crowd them out with the presence of strong virtues. (pp. 13–14)

There has been little research into the effectiveness of positive role models in business ethics education. However, a study comparing different methods to develop moral motivation found that teaching methods using moral examplars were more effective in increasing resolve to have moral courage than traditional methods or exhortation (Christensen, Barnes, & Rees, 2007). Similarly, Lockwood and Kunda (1997, 1999) have found that exposing students to positive role models can inspire and motivate students to emulate the role model, but only as long as the role model’s achievements seem attainable. The most comprehensive attempt to compare the relative influence of positive role models versus negative role models of business in business education found that students exposed to positive role models reported less cynicism and increased confidence in their ability to adopt socially responsible business practices in their future working life than students exposed to negative role models of business (Baden, 2011). This last point references the notion of the attainability of a goal. One shortcoming of the Theory of Reasoned Action is that it did not allow for the role of perceptions of attainability, for example one may have a positive attitude towards a behaviour, and believe that others have too, but lack confidence in one’s ability to carry out the behaviour. To overcome this constraint, Ajzen (1985) developed the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Fig. 3) which included a new variable known as ‘perceived behavioural

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Behavioural beliefs and outcome evaluations

Attitude towards behaviour

Normative beliefs and motivation to comply

Subjective norm (social pressures)

Beliefs about ease/difficulty of behaviour

Perceived Behavioural Control

Fig. 3.

Behavioural intentions

Behaviour

Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1985).

control’ (PBC), defined as ‘‘the person’s belief as to how easy or difficult performance of the behaviour is likely to be’’ (Ajzen & Madden, 1986). Thus intentions towards a behaviour are predicted by attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms and PBC. Importantly though the likelihood of intentions leading to the actual intended behaviour are also strengthened by increased PBC. This amended model greatly improved the amount of variance explained by the model. For example Chang (1998) found that the Theory of Planned Behaviour was a better predictor of unethical behaviour than the Theory of Reasoned Action. In particular, PBC predicted behavioural intentions better than attitude. A meta-analysis of tests of the Theory of Planned Behaviour totalling together a sample of nearly a million people showed it to be one of the most predictive models of behaviour (Armitage & Conner, 2001), with the combination of subjective norm, attitude and PBC correlating an impressive 0.63 with behavioural intention, and a correlation of 0.52 between intention plus PBC with actual behaviour. The Theory of Planned Behaviour has thus been used in a wide variety of contexts that aim to change behaviour such as green marketing (Kalafatis, Pollard, East, & Tsogas, 1999), health behaviours (Connor & Sparks, 1996) and proenvironmental behaviours (Tonglet, Phillips, & Read, 2004). The concept of PBC originated from Self-Efficacy Theory (Bandura, 1977a) which relates to one’s power or capacity to produce a desired effect. If people feel they can have a positive impact on any situation, they are more

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likely to act. The concept derives from Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986) which emphasises the importance of enhancing a person’s behavioural capability and self-confidence. The advantages of greater self-efficacy include higher motivation in the face of obstacles and better chances of persisting over time without formal supervision. In his review on proenvironmental behaviour, Barr (2004) reported that the extent to which individuals feel competent and able to perform a given behaviour (selfefficacy) as well as their perception that such action will have a tangible positive effect (response efficacy) is a key factor in whether they will perform the behaviour. Numerous other studies have demonstrated that notions of perceived control or perceived behavioural barriers are additional significant predictors of sustainable behaviour (Axelrod & Lehman, 1993; Ellen, Wiener, & Cobbwalgren, 1991; Grob, 1995; Kalafatis et al., 1999; Tanner & Kast, 2003). Increasing efficacy can also help to counteract some of the other barriers to ethical behaviour. For example in a review of psychological contributions to sustainability, Oskamp (2000) investigates the ways by which barriers such as inertia can be overcome. One way to deal with inertia is by increasing awareness and information, and also by fear. However, this can backfire leading to denial. When trying to integrate sustainability issues into the curriculum, discussions of the challenges facing the planet in terms of global warming, environmental degradation, resource depletion, mass poverty and growing population are inevitable. There is thus a balancing act to be drawn between raising awareness of the urgency and importance of these challenges, without engendering a sense of helplessness to solve them. Oskamp suggests that two things are required to bypass this descent into denial: firstly, awareness of what they can do, and secondly, efficacy, that is they believe it’s possible to do it.

SUMMARY Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (1985) emphasises the contribution of positive attitudes, subjective norms and PBC to behaviour. Although most educational methods in business ethics education aim to promote more positive attitudes towards pro-social business behaviour, over-emphasis on business ethics failures may negatively impact subjective norms, and the typical classroom-based approach allows little opportunity for students to develop their efficacy and skills in the domain of ethical business.

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Drawing attention away from what businesses do wrong, and focussing it instead on businesses who’s mission is to contribute to the social good, builds descriptive and injunctive norms of positive enterprise and may enable the dynamic of self-fulfilling prophesies to operate in a more positive fashion. One way to overcome negative stereotypes of business is through contact with businesses and entrepreneurs that contradict the stereotype. Social enterprises provide a positive example of enterprises that, by their very definition, aim to operate for public good, as opposed to private gain. Therefore the owners and workforce of such enterprises are likely to have values that are more pro-social and/or pro-environmental than those of a typical commercial corporation, and a more ethical organisational culture (Shaw, Shaw, & Wilson, 2002). Those who choose to work in such an environment are generally motivated by more altruistic values and are more intrinsically motivated (Guzman & Santos, 2001). In addition, like many entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs are typically good at generating social capital and building networks and keen to inspire those around them (Sharir & Lerner, 2006), and thus well placed to replace negative stereotypes with positive role models. Case study-based pedagogies in business ethics often ask students to consider what a company should do in particular situations, for example how to balance the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders. Such scenarios often make salient the intense competitive pressure upon businesses to prioritise profit. This, coupled with the predominantly negative image of business portrayed both in the media and in many of the ethical scandals discussed, can make ethical behaviour seem like an unattainable ideal, which risks reducing students’ confidence and self-efficacy in the ethical domain. The literature, however, emphasises the importance of selfefficacy for behaviour. Kaplan (2000), for example, identifies wanting to participate and dislike of feelings of competence and helplessness as the most important aspects of human nature in terms of having strong motivational and behavioural implications: A situation in which people cannot act effectively, in which they cannot solve the problems they face, or implement the solutions they come up with, is likely to be extremely distasteful. In other words, people would be expected to avoid contexts that they consider conducive to helplessness. And since this is a cognitive animal, one would expect an avoidance of even thinking about the realms that evoke feelings of helplessness. Thus in this perspective helplessness would be one of the most important motivational issues to consider in the context of behaviour change. (p. 498)

This suggests that education that aims to promote pro-social behaviour should emphasise students’ feelings of confidence and efficacy in their ability

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to act pro-socially in the business domain. Thus a particular advantage of social enterprise placements is that the students are exposed to a group of people who are demonstrating in practice how enterprise can address some of the social and environmental problems we face. Being given the opportunity to contribute in such an environment could therefore increase students’ (especially entrepreneurship students) efficacy in the domain of addressing social problems through enterprise. As discussed, Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (1985) is one of the most comprehensive and predictive models of behaviour. Therefore, we will use this framework to determine the extent to which the social enterprise placements affected attitudes, subjective norms, PBC and intentions towards pro-social business behaviour.

METHOD This section will discuss first how the social enterprise placements were set up with a brief description of what they involved. Data is then presented from a content analysis of the written reflective narratives based on the students’ experiences. This is supplemented by quotes from brief interviews with some of the students which were used in a short film about the social enterprise placements, and a personal reflection based on my classroom experience.

Social Enterprise Placements The social enterprise placements took place as part of an assessed piece of coursework (see Appendix A) for a core MSc course on entrepreneurship. Although the requirements were for students to contribute 8 hours to a social enterprise placement between October and December 2009, some were still volunteering up until the end of their course. Over half of the students on the course (23 out of 41) chose the social enterprise option, and it was roughly an equal mix of males and females. A list of the social enterprise placements and a brief description of the activities involved are in Appendix B. These were sourced either through contacts known already within the School of Management or by the University’s Community Volunteering organisation, which arranges volunteering opportunities for all students. In this case they geared the opportunities and placements to the requirements of the course and skills

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of the students. The enterprises chosen all conformed to the definition provided by the then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as enterprises ‘‘with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners’’ (2003). Within this broad definition there were a wide range of organisational types including a start-up workers’ co-operative, a commercially driven limited company with social aims, and enterprises that had developed from charities that relied heavily on grant funding. In two cases, the social entrepreneur gave a talk to the class and recruited volunteers then and there. Support for the extra work required for this project was provided by funds from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s v-inspired students programme. This programme has been funded by v, the national young volunteers service, and aims to demonstrate the benefits of volunteering for students, universities and communities. They also provided funds for a short film to be made about the initiative (see http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=VXv5Tsr-WQU). Both students and the social enterprises were made aware that this was a pilot project and that results would be written up in a report. All students’ names have been withheld and the social enterprises were asked to indicate whether they were happy for results pertaining to them to be made public, and if so whether they would prefer quotes to remain anonymous or fully referenced, and their wishes have been respected in all publications and reports. This was a voluntary placement and students were made aware that it was in its first year and was an ‘entrepreneurial’ option in that it required proactivity and initiative, as the social entrepreneurs would be busy with little time available to help. It was explained to them that the placement option would be high risk, in that while it may provide the possibility for opportunities to network, learn new skills and contribute to something important, it may also be disappointing, with little input from the social enterprise, and not much interesting work to do. Managing expectations was important so that the students knowingly accepted the greater risks of a placement scheme. Similarly, the contacts at the social enterprises were told that they may get bright and capable students, but they may also end up with some of the weaker students who might not make a useful contribution. Almost all of the placements in the end turned out to be successful, except for one that was disappointing. As expectations had been properly managed, there was no bad feeling on either side.

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Presentation of Data The main body of the data comes in the form of a content analysis of feedback from the students which they wrote as a reflexive paragraph as part of their assessed coursework. Each theme will be illustrated by one or two prototypical quotes. The fact that this occurred in the context of an assessed piece of coursework means that the students paid more attention to writing it clearly and thoughtfully than they may have done otherwise. However, it also raises the possibility that they may have written what they thought the lecturer wanted to hear. To try to mitigate against this, students were told in their guidelines ‘‘The final reflective paragraph should be an honest account on what you have gained (if anything) from the experience of doing this assessment. While a copy of the report is sent to the organisation, the final reflective paragraph only comes to me.’’ It was also verbally emphasised that honesty was important and students wouldn’t be assessed on whether their experiences were positive or negative. Although two of the students did mention some negative aspects, it remains possible that some students might have chosen to emphasise the positive more than the negative. The full instructions for the coursework are presented in Appendix A. The Appendix only includes guidelines for the voluntary placement option relevant to this chapter, but readers should be aware that students were also offered the alternative of a standard essay of 3000 words to do a case study of an entrepreneurial venture, so the social enterprise placement was a voluntary alternative to the set essay.

Methodology of Content Analysis The methodology involved a preliminary reading of the responses to allow a greater sensitivity to the data. In a second reading, specific themes suggested by Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour and their frequency counts were identified. The coding required an element of interpretation of underlying meaning rather than specific words as ‘‘the analyst is searching not just for manifest content but latent content as well’’ (Bryman & Bell, 2007). Under ‘attitudes’ were themes related to the cognitive, affective and behavioural components of attitudes. Comments relating to cognition, that is beliefs, knowledge and awareness were easily isolated, but the affective and behavioural components often overlapped and so were separated into themes relating to positivity of the experience and values/motivations.

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Subjective norms relate to beliefs regarding others’ opinions regarding appropriate behaviour within the enterprise domain. Many said that exposure to social enterprise and social entrepreneurs made them aware of a new role for business – such comments were listed under the attitude domain, but have implications for Subjective Norms. Numerous comments explicitly said, or implicitly implied, that the social entrepreneurs had been inspirational role models, which suggests the presence of a motivation to adopt their views and mindset about business, and so have been listed under subjective norms. PBC is conceptually related to self-efficacy and refers to an individual’s confidence in his/her ability to achieve a certain behaviour or outcome. An important aspect of this factor is expectation of success – the idea both that the behavioural outcome is possible and that one has the abilities to achieve it. Thus comments referring to exposure to successful role models of social enterprise were grouped under this category, as were comments relating to increased skills, confidence and competency in the social enterprise domain resulting from their placements. As the focus of this chapter is on the specific pedagogical outcomes presented by social enterprise placements, comments relating to this method of learning are also presented as a separate category.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Class Room Experience The first hint that exposing students to a social enterprise culture might be an effective way to open business students’ eyes to the positive impacts enterprise can have occurred before any placements had even taken place. As part of the project I had invited a social entrepreneur to talk to the entrepreneurship students about how she had set up her social enterprise which as was being run as a workers co-op with the aim of employing marginalised women who would not normally be able to find work. In the Q and A session afterwards, one student asked the speaker why she did not sell her goods via high street retailers. Instead of couching her reply in financial terms, she responded by referencing her values and the values of her enterprise, and their inconsistency with the values of the high street chains. There was a palpable change in the atmosphere as the students digested this. It spawned a lot of conversation, and in the discussions afterwards with the students it became apparent that this was the first time they had heard an

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entrepreneur justify decisions in terms of values rather than profit, and many of them, even those who didn’t go on to do the social enterprise placements, were excited and challenged by this. Thus simple exposure to an alternative viewpoint where entrepreneurial decisions are influenced by values challenged students’ pre-existing and unchallenged assumption that business always puts profit first.

Quotes from the Short Film Five students were interviewed about their placement experiences as part of a short film about the initiative. The quotes emphasize both the valuable learning opportunity and the placements provided as well as the students enjoyment of the experience. Participant 1: It’s been quite a steep learning curve so far. I’ve not worked with a community organisation before now Everything that I’m learning at the Scrapstore at the moment is going to be useful when setting up my own business. Participant 2: It was really good fun getting to understand people and seeing their enthusiasm for the work that they do. It was incredible. What I’m going to learn from this is far beyond what you’re ever going to get from a classroom scenario. Participant 3: It’s been brilliant, it’s been just such a worthwhile experience, she’s really making a difference. Working with the women in these marginalised communities is very uplifting, and I know I’m certainly making a difference to her life. It takes a lot of hard work for a social enterprise to begin but if the cause is really something you are passionate about its something that’s really easy to work for. It’s excellent to actually be involved in an enterprise and particularly excellent to be involved in one that’s so supportive of marginalised women in the community. Participant 4: I guess that this should be a compulsory part of the course to just show that you have understood what entrepreneurship is about. I think that this is really one of the most useful units that you can be provided with It’s a chance to just explore yourself in a sense because you get to be involved in real businesses, real social enterprises while still being a student.

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Participant 5: It’s really of benefit to both parties, because the company gets something free from the students and the students get to apply what they’ve learned.

Student Reflections The most common theme in the students’ reflective paragraphs was that their volunteering experience had increased their self-efficacy in the social enterprise domain. Many statements incorporated an explicit statement of the benefits of ‘learning by doing’ over classroom learning (Theme 5) and a description of how the placement increased their skills, competencies and/ or confidence in the domain of entrepreneurship (Theme 3a). However, students may have improved their skills, and been exposed to social enterprise, but still not believe that social enterprise is achievable for them if their placements leads them to doubt the viability of the enterprises they are volunteering for. Therefore, for this increase in self-efficacy to be translated into an increased likelihood of students starting pro-social enterprises themselves, students need confidence that social enterprises can offer an achievable role model for business, and that they have the ability to develop the skills and garner the resources to make this happen. It is thus pertinent that seven students made statements indicating that they had been exposed to successful role models of social enterprise, and that none had expressed any doubts about the viability of the enterprises they worked with. The social enterprise placement also introduced students to people working within that sector and thus increased their network in this field, which is an important aspect of successful entrepreneurship, an additional outcome that several students explicitly note in their narratives (Table 1). Another prevalent theme was that the placements had raised students’ awareness of social enterprise and opened their eyes to the positive role that enterprise can play in society. Some comments expressed a general theme of having had their outlook broadened and several of the international students expressed that this was the first time they had come across enterprises that pay attention to the triple bottom line of profit, society and environment as part of their mission. Although this relates clearly to beliefs and knowledge which affect attitudes, these beliefs also relate to subjective norms. For example it was apparent from most narratives that the placements had changed expectations or assumptions and descriptive norms about enterprise. In particular, although only a few explicitly said that they now had different views or expectations of business,

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Table 1. Theme

Themes with Illustrative Quotes. Frequency Count

1. Attitudes (knowledge, beliefs, awareness, motivational factors)

1a. Made aware of possibilities of ethical business/social enterprise 1b. Rewarding experience

1c. Effect of placement on values, attitudes or motivation

19

18

5

2. Subjective norm

2a. Social entrepreneurs/ enterprise acted as inspirational role model 2b. Changed expectations or assumptions and descriptive norms about enterprise 3. Perceived behavioural control

7

7

Illustrative Quote

‘Personally, before studying this module, I had a little familiarity with the enterprise that has its prior objectives in societyy . I truly believe that the advantage of social enterprises will contribute to economic sustainability in the long-term.’ ‘It helped me to realize what a huge value and benefit social enterprises bring for economic and social development as well as for the society.’ ‘The experience of working with a social enterprise is one that I enjoyed greatly, and helped me balance my experiences of commercial environments.’ ‘I believe that being committed to a project where I feel and I can and so ‘‘will’’ make a difference inspires me to commit whole heartedly and consequently allows a far more proactive and creative approach to problem solving.’ ‘I did not fully appreciate how heavily a firm’s mission statement and culture influences their decision making until spending some time with XXX and his team y He has opened my eyes to the concept of operating a successful, dynamic and entrepreneurial business for an objective other than profit.’ ‘Having the opportunity to work with the XXXX Project has been an inspiration to me as an aspiring entrepreneur.’ ‘Talking with each member of the staff, I learned a lot by listening to their experiences which were valuable to me.’ ‘We managed to create a feasible business model that, when followed, can lead to a national or even international expansion, by only using few contacts within this systemy . Before I next start a social enterprise project I will make use of this model to analyse the prospective structure to ensure that possible pitfalls are identified early and remedies to these are available and embedded.’

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Table 1. (Continued ) Theme

Frequency Count

Illustrative Quote

3a. Self-Efficacy – increased skills, confidence, competency in social enterprise domain 3b. Exposure to successful role models

23

3c. Networking benefits

4

‘It also gives me some perspective of potential problems and boundaries, which might emerge in organizing social enterprise, and the solutions to handle those problems.’ ‘Perhaps the most powerful lesson I have taken away, is that a small dedicated workforce can achieve a great deal if they are committed and unified. Despite the fact that the project is only run by the entrepreneurs themselves, one part-time worker and six volunteers, they have been able to bring opportunities and facilities to youths around Southampton.’ ‘While working on this assignment we had the opportunity to meet a lot of people involved in the development of entrepreneurship amongst students. This was a good opportunity to grow our own network.’ ‘As a result of this project I am more interested in establishing an organisation on the lines of a social enterprise, which has a community value.’ ‘After volunteering for such brilliant company, I have come to a conclusion that any business that I will start in the future should perform at least some social function, so that sustainable development could be realised.’ ‘The main learning experience was in actually talking to a functioning social entrepreneur and finding out how a social enterprise can work in practice as opposed to just in theory.’ ‘Learning by practicing with a real enterprise helps me gain broader knowledge than just studying from textbooks.’

7

4. Intentions

4a. Future behaviour

9

5. Comments on learning method

5a. Learning from practice rather than theory

22

it was implicit in many accounts that this placement had affected their subjective norm of business, both in the sense that they now realised enterprise can and does create positive social impacts and in the sense that people they admired shared this norm of social enterprise. Many of the comments expressed feelings of having been inspired by the social entrepreneurs themselves, indicating that these social entrepreneurs

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may act as role models for how the students would like to be in their future careers as entrepreneurs. The frequency count given in the results underrepresents this aspect, as many reflections spoke about what they did in the placement and how the social entrepreneur prioritised issues and overcame obstacles, with the general tone being one of inspired excitement and admiration, but with no specific sentences to capture this feeling. Similarly some comments indicated that the practices, mission and goals of the social enterprises were acting as a role model for the type of enterprise the student admired. The social enterprise placements were clearly positively reinforcing for the students, with adjectives such as ‘‘exciting’’, ‘‘rewarding’’, ‘‘inspiring’’, ‘‘enjoyable’’ being used to describe the experience. Eighteen students explicitly expressed that the experience had been rewarding for them, but this was implicit in all accounts. This aspect relates to motivational aspects of behaviour, and indeed, six students explicitly expressed an intention to continue volunteering, or incorporate social goals into any future enterprises they may start up, and three more implied such an intention. Lastly, the prevalent comment that they had learned more from the placement than they could have done from theory implies that the social enterprise placements were more effective in enhancing students’ appreciation of the positive contribution enterprise can make to society than any amount of lecturing could have achieved. As argued in Section ‘Introduction’, one aim of business ethics education is to elicit pro-social ethical behaviour in future managers and business leaders. In other words we are looking to affect future behaviour through education. A common adage is that the greatest predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. By encouraging students to volunteer for an enterprise with a pro-social mission, this provided a practical experience of volunteering in a socially responsible business environment, thus increasing the likelihood that they will seek out or create similar experiences for themselves in the future. One can explain this in terms of a number of different theories. For example both knowledge of social enterprise, PBC and self-efficacy, in the social enterprise domain clearly increased following contact with social enterprises, that is they now know more about what it takes to run a social enterprise. Added to this, exposure to an organisational culture that propounds pro-social values in the field of enterprise increased both descriptive and injunctive norms regarding socially responsible business, as well as providing role models to emulate. There is also the effect of positive reinforcement as the students found the experience to be a rewarding one as shown by the narratives. As indicated by the students

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themselves, the social enterprise placements ticks all these boxes in a way that other pedagogies such as lecturing, class-work, case studies and so on cannot.

CONCLUSION The growing challenge of climate change, resource depletion and the everincreasing gap between rich and poor has led to a renewed appreciation of the necessity for sustainable development, and makes the effectiveness of our current attempts to embed sustainability and environmental issues into management education an increasingly urgent issue. If the aim of embedding ethics into the business school curriculum is to enable and motivate students to manage the organisations of the future in socially and environmentally responsible ways, the implication is that we need to provide them with the skills, motivation and if possible, the opportunity to do so. The literature review discussing the research on factors underlying ethical choices and behaviour highlights the important role of self-efficacy (or perceived behavioural control), positive attitudes, descriptive/injunctive norms, expectations and role models, and intentions in motivating behaviour. Social enterprise placements allowed contact between the entrepreneurship students and a work culture and people who are quite different to the stereotype of business managers as ruthless and amoral. The opportunity to work with social entrepreneurs and other staff at social enterprises, who tend to be highly motivated individuals who have chosen to work in an environment that prioritises ethical and social factors (Guzman & Santos, 2001; Shaw et al., 2002), therefore, provides both a positive social learning opportunity for business students who may not have been exposed to such an ethically focused culture before, as well as positive role models in the form of the social entrepreneurs themselves. Social enterprise placements present an alternative model of enterprise that share the entrepreneurial challenges of creating value, solving a problem and creating something from nothing, but with profit being viewed as a means to enable the social aims of the enterprise to be realised, rather as an end in its own right – an approach that initially surprised, and then ultimately inspired many of the students. This chapter argues that exposing students directly to a business culture that is predicated upon social responsibility is an effective means to embed pro-social business values in the curriculum. Here responsible enterprise is not presented a

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hypothetical ideal, but is being lived in practice. Example can be the best means of ‘silent exhortation’ – to quote Benjamin Franklin: ‘‘Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand’’ (Benjamin Franklin, 1706–1790).

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APPENDIX A: COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT (75% OF MARKS) Contribute 8 hours to a social enterprise or charity and then either: a) Write a report (1000–1500 words) on how you can apply your entrepreneurial skills to help the charity/social enterprise raise money and achieve their objectives. Finish with a reflective paragraph (150–200 words) on what you have gained from the experience. – or if placement not suited to such a report then do b) b) Write about how working with a social enterprise informed your view of the similarities and differences between social enterprises and commercial enterprises (1000–1500 words). Finish with a reflective paragraph (150–200 words) on what you have gained from the experience.

Marking Guidelines Social Enterprise Report: The nature of this assignment makes it hard to precisely specify marking guidelines as opportunities to demonstrate entrepreneurial expertise will vary according to the type of organisation you are working with. These external factors will be taken into consideration when assessing your work. The default option should be to write the report, but if your placement was not suitable for such a report then it is OK to write about differences between social and economic enterprises. The following guidelines apply to the report. Good reports will demonstrate entrepreneurial expertise, for example creative, innovative and context aware solutions and ideas, that both demonstrate commercial awareness (where appropriate) AND are mindful of the social/environmental objectives of the organisation. In terms of style, good reports are clear, well structured, focussed and concise. References may not be necessary for the report, although if you are applying a particular framework or theory, attributable to a particular person/author you should reference it. The final reflective paragraph should be an honest account on what you have gained (if anything) from the experience of doing this assessment. While a copy of the report is sent to the organisation, the final reflective paragraph only comes to me. This final paragraph should be about 150–200 words, in addition to the report, so the report + reflective paragraph should be at least 1200 words and no more than 1700 words. I will seek feedback

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from the organisation on both your performance and your report. Although this feedback may influence your marks, the final responsibility for your mark rests with me as course co-ordinator, and will be predominantly based on my view of the quality of your report. The reasoning for this is that the charities/social enterprises may have widely differing expectations on what to expect from the report that will affect their view, and could provide unfair advantage or disadvantage to the student. N.B. If you choose to do the essay about social enterprises, there are lots of journal articles under books on Blackboard to refer to, when discussing differences between social and commercial enterprises.

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APPENDIX B Project: XXXX (7 students): Helping with the marketing efforts of a workers’ co-op that provides work for marginalised immigrant women making underwear. Project: XXXX Scrapstore (3 students): Helping to generate ideas for revenue and develop a business plan for the social enterprise. Project: SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) (1 student): Helping to establish an environmental consultancy ‘Green and Clever’. Project: XXXX Community Trust (2 students): Web-based marketing and face-to-face market research in relation to a new product. Project: XXXX city council Consultancy project (2 students): Grass roots community development. Project: XXXX Solutions (3 students): Assessing the market and the financial risk of introducing a new service. Project: XXXX Music project (1 student): Marketing, finance/funding and future strategic planning. Project: XXXX (3 students): Exploring opportunity for market expansion into university sector.

CHAPTER 6 INTERNATIONAL STUDENT VIEWS OF ETHICS WITHIN A UK BUSINESS SCHOOL CURRICULUM Debbie Holley, Saranda Hajdari, Dianne Hummal and Tomasz Scibior INTRODUCTION This course has made me observe the international business environment in a completely different light, and has made me think about whether a ‘win-win situation’ is ever possible in an international business context, where the organisations are involved in extremely complex supply chains. (Dianne from Estonia who studied in a UK business school)

This chapter will focus on the views of three international students, from Poland, Estonia and Kosovo, and their experience and understandings as they explore ethics as part of a written coursework. It will include extracts from the student essays along with their individual and collective commentaries about how they have come to understand more about corporate social responsibility (CSR). The focus of the work is the United Kingdom (UK) Royal Mint (www.royalmint.com), a government-owned company and the world’s leading exporter of coins and medals, an organisation that prides itself on its ethical buying policy. The students were tasked with following the supply chain (SC) for the purchase of copper,

Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 111–135 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004008

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a valuable commodity sourced from Chile, and it is here in the mines of the Atacama desert that the students start to realise that UK CSR statements in sets of company accounts are not simple, or indeed straightforward. The relationship between lecturer and student communities in higher education can be explored using the concepts of the asymmetry of knowledge and the symmetry of ignorance. While lecturers may ‘know’ more about higher education, we are still ignorant about aspects of students’ experience, as they are of those of the lecturers (enTWIne).

BUSINESS SCHOOLS AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES There has been much press coverage, both nationally and internationally, about what ‘should’ be done in the wake of the recent financial crisis and ongoing issues with governance within the European Union. The study of ethics is being considered as an important aspect of learning in business schools ‘since the financial crisis shone a spotlight on the damage that can be done by irresponsible business practices and an exclusive focus on the bottom line’ (Gardiner, 2010). In particular, the key roles of management education and the MBA have been highlighted, especially those offered in the UK and US business schools. There is debate as to how ethics teaching should be undertaken: For too long, business schools have taken an either/or approach to teaching business ethics, opting for either a stand-alone course or an integrated model. This is a false choice as both of these options can send students the wrong message – either that ethics only matters for a single course (but not in marketing and finance) or that ethics is nothing more than an add-on to other disciplines. (Dean Krehmeyer, Executive Director Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics Report 2009)

Pre-credit crunch, the need for MBAs to be ‘ethical’ as well as show you how to fast-track your career and make a load of cash was not that high on the agenda, concedes Mark Stoddard, accreditation projects manager of the Association of MBAs (AMBA) (Paton, 2010). In a recent report, ‘The Post Downturn MBA: An Agenda for Change’ (Durham Business School and AMBA, 2009), business schools were widely criticised for contributing to the current economic crisis by producing MBAs who are focused on creating shareholder value and high-risk strategies instead of sustainable practices and stakeholder responsibility.

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It now seems a fundamental failure of business school ideology has been to focus on how companies can make the most money with minimal regard to social consequence. (Nair, 2009)

The aftermath of the credit crisis has resulted in a renewed call to develop the curriculum. Cass Business School set up a ‘teaching ethics task force’; Essex revisited their curriculum with more explicit outcomes by rebranding their offering which now recognises the social, ethical and environmental responsibilities of business (ABS, 2010–2011). This points towards future teaching of ethics modules at universities covering typical topics such as corruption, but also a new approach to make students realise that ‘a company has responsibilities beyond its shareholders’ wallets—to employees, community, customers and the environment’ (Gardiner, op. cit). Business school faculty can have the greatest impact on the way the next generation of corporate leaders think, which will be more effective than any legislation. They need to be role models who can inspire and challenge current business models. We have to move away from teaching business as a science devoid of moral or ethical considerations, as that results in managers who lack personal reflection and values. Haniffa (2009)

However, very little attention has been paid to undergraduate business school students, and the appropriateness of, and how students would access, an ethical curriculum. Students are often silent or absent from formal policy documents inside and outside the Higher Education Institution (Sinfield, Holley, & Burns, 2009). The danger here is that what business schools are producing and reproducing in terms of curriculum and pedagogy is safe, avoiding ‘troublesome knowledge’ (Land, Cousin, Meyer, & Davies, 2005) and the messiness of the issues that contributed to the current global economic crisis and longer term issues around sustainability. What needs to be addressed is precisely this messiness, the uncertainty of knowledge claims and the risks that both curriculum and pedagogy have to embrace to adequately respond to real-world issues.

STUDENT MINI BIOGRAPHIES AND COUNTRY/ BACKGROUND DETAILS Dianne/Estonia Dianne is originally from Estonia and she moved to London over 4 years ago to gain further knowledge about different countries and cultures (prior to moving to London, she spent a year in Washington, DC). She comments,

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‘Estonia is an interesting country; in a way, it seems to be the ‘unknown’ country for a lot of people.’ It gained its independence in 1991 after 60 years of occupation by the Soviet Union, and therefore it is still a relatively ‘young country’. Estonia is now on a fast-track for gaining a status as a country that is known for its fast-growing economy. Indeed, Estonia has had the fastest growth compared to other EU countries, with GDP growing by 8.5% in the first quarter of 2011 (Ashton, 2011). Estonia is known for being quick at adopting new technologies. Skype – the online software used by 200 million people every month (BBC, 2009) and a revolutionary idea developed by an Estonian team (BBC, 2009), is one of the fastest growing technologies across the globe. Skype’s international traffic volume grew 39 billion minutes in 2010, more than twice the volume gain achieved by all telephone companies in the world combined (Taylor, 2011). Estonia’s developing educational system has been built to ‘develop Estonian society into an open learning society, where every person is a lifelong learner.’ (Estonia.eu, 2011). According to the Education Act, adopted in 1992, the ultimate goal of education is to ‘to create favourable conditions for the development of personality, family and the Estonian nation; to promote the development of ethnic minorities, economic, political and cultural life in Estonia and the preservation of nature in the global economic and cultural context; to teach the values of citizenship; and to set up the prerequisites for creating a tradition of lifelong learning nation-wide.’ It is common for students in Estonia to spend 5 years at a higher education level as the general structure of higher education is divided into two main cycles: the first 3 years of study will provide them with a Bachelor degree and the following 2 years will provide them with a Masters degree. There are now nine universities, including three private universities, 22 institutions of professional higher education, and two vocational schools offering higher education programmes in Estonia (Estonia.eu, 2011). The tuition fees vary from around d1,000+ to d6,000 per year (Educations.com, 2011). While scholarships are available, they are mostly granted for Masters and Doctorate students. Despite the rapidly expanding opportunities and increasing professionalism and international approaches at a university level, Dianne decided to study in London in order to develop her English language skills and gain a broader experience of international markets. Indeed, her interest in international business has grown since an early age as her mother works in an Estonian organisation that trades in cloth and materials from abroad and arranges the manufacturing of clothes for designers around Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and the UK. So she was convinced London would

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be the best place to study due to the limitless access to various business environments and diverse cultural experiences. This is why she decided to read for BA in Marketing with Arts Management at London Metropolitan University. However, her final decision to attend an international purchasing course was based on recommendations from her friends, who had attended this module previously. What she found the most compelling about this course was that tackling issues, such as ethics and CSR, were done in a very natural way, as the students were asked to prepare a real business case study – making the learning processes intriguing and relevant in the real-world business context.

Saranda/Kosovo Saranda, originally from Kosova, aged 22 has recently completed her masters degree at University College London studying politics, security and integration. Although Saranda and her family have lived in London for the past 13 years, she has recently returned to Kosova and is being considered for a senior position at the OSCE Kosovo in the Human Rights Department. Saranda has aspired to become a successful businesswoman hence began her studies studying business studies from GCSE. She then moved on to an undergraduate degree course in international business and management at a London business school. London business schools are known across the world due to the quality of teaching, resources and teaching staff. Although ultimately Saranda was confident she would seek employment in her home country, she was aware that her degree would be highly attractive in the Kosovo labour market. Her decision to study business shaped her ambitions for the future, thus adding value to her CV in terms of career prospects. Kosova was declared an independent country in February 2008, thus it is the youngest country in Europe. Subsequent to the war and years of segregation under the Serbian regime, the independence of Kosova has provided the opportunity to create a modern, cross-ethnic school and university-system. The American University in Kosova in partnership with the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York is Kosova’s most prestige university taught in English by known lecturers from across the world. The degree from AUK is accredited and recognised across the world, hence it attracts students from different countries making it the most culturally diverse institute in Kosova. AUK offers extensive options for undergraduate degrees, most popular being the business school due to the

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diverse career options it brings for graduates. The syllabus, exams and grading standards being similar to universities in the US, AUK, are attracted by the elite due to costing but they offer opportunities that other local-based universities are unable to offer. The University of Prishtina being the oldest and most respected in Kosova offers ranges of course, specifically, the faculty of economics offers courses in banking and finance, accounting, management, marketing and economics (http://ekonomiku.uni-pr.edu/). Due to lack of employment opportunities in Kosova, business degrees offer opportunities to seek employment in private businesses such as banks, accounting firms and other private business, hence making it the most favourite degree to study which offers career opportunities for graduates.

Tomasz/Poland Tomasz comes from Poland and has been living in London for the past 8 years. For Tomasz, London is a city of opportunity and careers which offer new challenges and possibilities. Prior to his move he studied for an IT degree and worked in the IT and Logistics field. He comments, 01/05/2004 is a remarkable date for all Poles living within or outside Polish borders. It was a time when the Polish nation said ‘Yes!’ to EU membership. A new era of uncertainty and curiosity brought new challenges and opportunities for a nation of emigrants. Over 80,000 Poles left their country after the EU opened it borders in 2004 (Iglicka & Ziolek, 2010). According to the Annual Population Survey of the UK Office for National Statistics, about 520,000 Polish-born people were in the UK in December 2009. This made Poland the second-largest emigrant country, after India. The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) prediction for Polish economy growth is close to 4% in 2011. This was driven by foreign capital investment, EU-financed infrastructure projects and the 2012 European Football Championships Tournament. Some claim that having its own currency works to Poland’s economic advantage. The Polish economy has demonstrated the most persistent approach to avoid recession and it was the only country in the EU that avoided a recession with an economic growth of 1.2% (http://www.economist.com), despite a national tragedy when plane carrying 88 members of the Polish Parliament, Military members, and war veterans crashed in the suburbs of Smolensk, Russia. That crash included the Polish president Lech Kaczynski, National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek and Army Chief General Franciszek Gagor. Despite this tragedy

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the Polish nation is perceived as open and hardworking, and it is where many international corporations have decided do business. In newly created economic regions, multinational corporations have opened their major factories. Just recently, Samsung and Dell opened the largest production plants in Europe. This development, together with Euro 2012 and the EU Presidency, lets us look at the future with positive prospects. Tomasz successfully applied for a post as a SAP developer with a blue chip company upon graduation.

METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS The three students were invited to participate in this study and all volunteered in the first instance to be interviewed for a small-scale research project carried out by their lecturer, the first author, into students’ attitudes to ethics (reported in Holley, 2010). This initial study was conducted after the students had completed all aspects of the assessment on the course, and after marks had been awarded. The small-scale study was subsequently developed into a joint conference paper, and presented at an International Corporate Social Responsibility symposium (Holley, Hajdari, Hummal, & Scibior, 2011); and the students, now graduates, have added in their reflections and comments to this chapter as the writing evolved. The first author has edited to allow for academic consistency, but minimised ‘interference’ to the wording of the sections contributed by her co-authors. To develop this chapter, we have drawn upon Rowland’s (2000) concepts of an ‘ideal speech community’ where a learner cannot be empowered until conditions are created in which each is free to communicate sincerely and honestly undistorted by the influences of power. A model to develop the resources for learning is suggested, in which each has a part to play: The public context (knowledge from different disciplines) The personal context (knowledge from different teaching experiences) The shared context (knowledge of the present process) Thinking through some of the issues of power relations within the classroom, the ideal situation where the student will be able to communicate to the lecturer on an equal basis seems unlikely as ‘contributions as tutor were inevitably given special value’ (Rowland, 2000, p. 66). The relationship of a tutor undertaking research with his/her own students will require careful structuring and there will be implications for the research design of the empirical work for the thesis, and the methodological stance, as both

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reflective (private practice) and reflexive practices (practice shared with one’s community) will have to be considered. Tenni, Smyth, and Boucher (2003, p. 5), talking about the researcher as autobiographer, suggest that a willingness ‘to see, confront and discover oneself in one’s practice and to learn from this is at the core of this work and central to the creation of good data’. Following Stake and his case study as a ‘choice of object to be studied’ (Stake, 1994, p. 236), the work of the three co-authors is annotated as they explore the ethical implications of a government department sourcing a commodity from Chile. The students have selected key ethical aspects from their individual course works, and identified joint themes for further discussion. This approach assists us to ‘hear’ the student voice through their writing, as all too often the unequal powers of educational discourse can find the academic acting as a ‘gatekeeper’ to academic discourse (Sinfield, Burns, & Holley, 2004). Sims and Felton (2006) suggest that for addressing ethical issues, a pedagogical framework needs to focus on the following questions: (1) What are the objectives or targeted learning outcomes of the course? (2) What kind of learning environment should be created? (3) What learning processes need to be employed to achieve the goals? and finally, (4) What are the roles of the participants in the learning experience? The student voice and experiences of ethical teaching and learning analysis carried out are encompassed partly by (1) above, in that it is articled in the learning outcomes; by (2) in that both online discussion and encouraging students to have their opinion were encouraged in group discussion and writing tasks in the classroom; (3) by scaffolding student participation throughout the semester and (4) of especial interest to this paper, students being required to ‘assess the ethical implications’ of a series of recent press articles. Thus the structure of the paper offers an analysis of the Royal Mint and its efforts at partnership sourcing set in the context of a rich case study; and in doing so offers the reader insights into student attitudes to ethical teaching and learning.

THE COURSEWORK BRIEF Your task is to provide a Financial Times style piece of interesting and original work of not more than 1,500 words that assesses the supply chain issues facing the Royal Mint. (See Appendix A for full coursework briefing.)

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OVERVIEW OF COUNTRY AND CONTEXT FOR COURSEWORK (TEXT SELECTED AND WRITTEN BY STUDENTS) An Analysis of Chile Chile, with population of 17.3 million (UN, 2008) spread over 3,287,590 sq km (BBC, 2009), is one of South America’s most stable and prosperous nations. While being the fastest growing economy in Latin America, it is still on the road to recovery after the recent global economic crisis when the export markets shrank, and from the devastating earthquake that hit the country in 2010. In June 2009, Chile’s Central Bank reported that the country’s economic activity had contracted 4.6%, despite a government stimulus plan of nearly $4 billion (World Bank, 2010). But Chile, the world’s No. 1 copper producer, seems to be getting back on its feet as the GDP rose by 5.2% in 2010 to $221.6 billion (Avila & Haynes, 2011). But despite recent improvements in living standards and GDP per capita $11,873 (World Bank, 2010), in 2008, around 13.7% of Chileans live below the poverty line (World Bank, 2009). Thus, Chile is facing the challenges of diversifying its copper-dependent economy, and equalising wealth distribution (Moreira & Blyde, 2006). Over the past decades, as Chile has deepened its commitment to trade liberalisation, its exports of commodities, including copper, which accounted for 40% of GDP, were valued at d43,76 billion (Salter, 2008). According to a study conducted by British Trade International (2010), Chilean exports to the UK rose between 2008 and 2009 from $873 million to $875 million. As the world’s leading producer, Chile produced 461,700 tonnes of copper in September 2009, up 10% from the corresponding month in 2008 (Metal Bulletin, 2009). The largest contributor to the total output was BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto owned Minera Escondida. Codelco, as a largest copper producer, accounted for 15% of global production (Metal Bulletin, 2009). It operates in the World’s Premier copper region in Chile and it unites the biggest red metal mines at Codelco North, including: Chuquicamata, El Abra, Los Pelamabres and Andina. Nishiyama (2005, p. 134) states Chuquicamata is ‘the largest and most productive open copper mine in the world.’ With a relatively stable copper production over the period of 20 years from 1980 to 2001 and accounting for 642,000 metric tonnes in 2001, the mine contributes towards Chile’s GDP by 2.5% (Infomine, 2009).

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Supply Chain Processes Christopher (1998, p. 19) defines the supply chain (SC) process as: ‘A network of connected and interdependent organisations mutually and cooperatively working together to control, manage and improve the flow of materials and information from suppliers to end users’. A company such as the Royal Mint will typically use a third party to arrange all its ore purchasing via the London Metal Exchange (http://www.lme.com/) and a specialist shipping agent to arrange for transportation of coils of copper, ready to be unrolled and punched into thousands of copper coins (McDougall, 2009). Chile is one of the first countries which started to install their own smelting plants (Prain, 1975). Codelco has five mines out of which three have smelter facilities: Chuquicamata, Potrerillos and Salvador. Although there is a significant trade in their ores and concentrates, most of the output is smelted and refined in the country where they are mined and is then exported to the consuming centres as refined metal (Minerals Trade, 2002). Local smelting plants such as those operated by Codelco enable mining companies to maintain full capacity at low production costs. All the mining transport processes are determined by the mine design and layout, either open or underground mines. At the pit in order to uncover the mine the blasting take place. Then, the mountains of rock are loaded into big Liebherr trucks by the electric giant shovel Bucyrus. The trucks are then moved to a higher section where the smelter is located (Codelco, 2004). The ores are grinded, enriched by a float flotation process and then smelted to 1,2001C. At the next stage the concentrate is cleaned from impurities and cooled. Finally, copper is purified to 99.99% by electrolysis. From Chuquicamata the copper in its cathodes form is palletised, bounded by metal straps, 2 MT per pallet and loaded into 20 foot containers. Then it is transported by Antofagasta Railway Co Plc to Mejillones or Antofagasta (www.antofagasta.com). Different methods of copper transport are determined by particular types of ore, agent agreements, the distance to the nearest port, port facilities, and local atmospheric conditions. Hill (2009, p. 550) points out 14 steps of typical international trade transaction, which specify the legal obligation between seller and buyer. The transaction agreement identifies the roles and responsibilities of Codelco to convey ingots to Mejillones. From this point, a shipping agency will handle all customs and excise duty, taking account of import duty rates which are set annually by the EU (Lysons & Farrington, 2006). As Chile has signed the Free Trade agreement with the EU, there is a 0% tariff applied for

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importing copper, which helps the Royal Mint to save on costs (Market Access Database, 2009). From deep in the Atacama desert, the copper alloys travel thousands of miles from the mines to reach our pockets. From Minera Escondida, a slurry pipeline transits concentrate to a mechanised port built by BHP and Rio Tinto at Coloso and copper cathodes to Puerto Antofagasta (Infomine, 2009). From there, however, the copper needs to be transported to San Antonio port in order to gain access to the route towards the UK, where the copper coils are processed and then stamped into finished coins (McDougall, 2009).

ETHICS, WORKERS’ RIGHTS, CORPORATE THEFT AND WATER There are widespread, polarised and contentious views about ethical issues involved in the copper mining industry in Chile. It is undeniable that the Chilean Government is keen to keep its international mining companies to secure employment and country revenue. Indeed, evidence has revealed that the copper and nickel used by the Royal Mint are sourced unethically, causing shocking levels of environmental and social devastation as vast amounts of water are being drained from the Atacama desert, which is already ‘one of the driest places on earth’ (McDougall, 2009). The mine sucks the land dry for miles and as a consequence, water demand is extremely high. Escondida uses more water each year than the whole of the capital, Santiago. This has led to a ‘water war’ with the indigenous people of Quillagua (BBC Programmes, 2009). The water problem is compounded by the issue of ownership – the water supply rights are in private hands that trade them like commodities, thus there are no safeguards for the environment (McDougall, op.cit) ‘Copper Mining, like all open cast mining, can never be ethical.’ Guilen Gonzalez, union leader, says in an interview with the Daily News (2 August 2009)

As a result, continuing industrial action was taken at the end of October 2009 in Chuquicamata. Union leaders blocked mine access, delaying work for 41 days, demanded a pay increase of 5.5 over 2 years and medical benefits (BHP, 2007). This radical move was the result of workers’ demands for wage increases as the economy rebounded and copper prices boomed to just over US $3.11 on the London Metal Exchange (Soto, 2009). According to trade union leader Guilen Gonzalez (McDougall, 2009, p. 5): ‘Here in Chile, our land and our lives have been destroyed by copper mining [and]

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water theft by big corporations is common.’ An in-depth investigation by McDougall (op. cit) revealed that the mining companies approach has led to environmental damage. In Escondida, one of the largest and driest open pits in the world, almost all water is being drained. The consequence is that there is virtually no plant or animal life being supported, which impacts on the local economy. However, this has not stopped the Royal Mint from buying metal to make ‘dirty money’. For Hajdari, Hummal, and Scibior (2010) the price that Chilean people pay for the production of UK coinage is too high. Below are extracts from their coursework which have been selected to illustrate the tensions between a large government organisation needing to be seen to act ethically, and the reality of the life in the copper mines. Extract 1: The Government-owned Royal Mint is a supplier of coins needed for our everyday transactions. Beyond producing 1.4bn coins on behalf of the Treasury for UK circulation, it supplies around 2.7 billion coins for 50 other countries around the world, making it the leading export mint with around 15% share of the worldwide market (Llewellyn-Jones, 2008). In the words of Andrew Stafford, the Royal Mint’s Chief Executive: ‘We, at the Royal Mint, are making money for everyone.’ In 2007, as the company celebrated the 40th anniversary of its move from Tower Hill, London, to Llantrisant, the national mint saw sales increase to d160 million, contributing towards d8.2 million profit (Llewellyn-Jones, 2008).

Saranda: As a Government Agency, politicians too have responsibilities to ensure that all the stakeholders needs are taken into account. Dianne: This year has not been greatest and most profitable year for Royal Mint, as in the year that ended on the 31st of March 2011, recorded pre-tax profits of d3.1m were down from d4.2m in last year (Kelsey, 2011; Trotma, 2011). However, the CEO, Adam Lawrence, is highly positive about what is yet to happen as they are the official suppliers of victory medals and commemorative coins for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as providing coins for the Diamond Jubilee (Trotma, 2011). Furthermore, Lawrence anticipates ‘this will drive strong demandyand grow Royal Mint’s international reputation.’ While this may all be very exciting for the company, there is still little said in public by the company directly about what measures they are taking to secure and maintain a safe working environment for every stakeholder, from top to bottom. As the company continues to shovel the profits, a question

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remains: How will this affect the Chilean miners working underneath the Atacama Desert? As the money-making continues, the company will have to start talking openly about the ways they source materials to make coins for the masses. Tomasz: During the opening ceremony of a new plant in Llantrisant, in March 2011, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP said: ‘As a manufacturer, exporter and employer based in South Wales, the Royal Mint is a real British success story. I’m proud to open this new facility which will allow the Royal Mint to build on this success.’ The source of this success has its participants not just in the UK but around the world. The majority of revenue however, comes from the national market and it is supported by many events such as: HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Royal Wedding, or the Olympics for which the Royal Mint has been awarded a contract to produce 4,700 gold, silver and bronze medals. In addition The UK will be moving 5p and 10p coins to a new pioneering technology – plated steel – effective 1 January 2012 (The Royal Mint Annual Report, 2010–2011). Turning to international markets, Greece and the rest of the Europe are the largest sources of revenue for the Royal Mint, accounting for just under d72 million. According to Andrew Clark (2011), Egypt is the Royal Mint’s second-largest foreign customer, behind Russia, accounting for a substantial portion of last year’s overseas revenue. The income result from international customers indicates the Royal Mint’s status as the leading exporting mint in the world; ‘with approximately 15% of the available global market, consolidating its status as a major supplier of steel-plated coinage products’ – as stated on the Royal Mint website. Extract 2: How dirty is the money in our pockets? Money-making comes with a high price tag, as the Royal Mint itself claims: ‘with unique position, there come responsibilities’. And with the Royal Mint being a multimillion pound business, there is a lot of vagueness around the origins of the copper needed for producing coins. In fact, when looking at the Royal Mint sourcing policies, there seems to occur more uncertainty than assurance. Their website states that ‘a significant proportion of raw materials consist of non-ferrous metals which are traded on LME’, where metals are bought in anonymity, or ‘purchased-to-order’ from clients of the London Metal Exchange (McDougall, 2009). As Chile is the biggest copper producer, and exported 42,900 tonnes of copper to the UK in 2005 (WBMS Yearbook, 2006), then – by using common sense – it is obvious that at least some of this copper must come directly to the Royal Mint.

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Dianne: As stated by the Chief Officer of the Royal Mint, Adam Lawrence, it was only in the Annual Report 2008–2009 when Royal Mint’s corporate objectives were introduced to the public, that the company promised it would invest in being safe and environmentally friendly and commit to building for the future. According to the report, the company has now invested in building a new treatment plant, which will go into operation during the first quarter of 2011–2012, enabling the company ‘to reduce the amount of effluent discharged, allowing [them] to recycle whenever possible’. And Lawrence (2011) further claims that the company’s energy usage per tonne of production also decreased in 2010–2011. However, while the company is making improvements, only future figures will be able to show and prove to us that the Royal Mint is serious about the steps they are making to build for a sustainable future. Saranda: Being anonymously traded at the London Metal Exchange does not exempt a company from acknowledging its Corporate Social Responsibilities. Extract 3: Surprisingly, the Royal Mint praise themselves for being a member of Sedex (The Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) which claims to be ‘a membership organisation for businesses committed to continuous improvement of the ethical performance of their supply chains’ (Sedex, 2010). However, Sedex does not set concrete ethical standards which the companies have to obey and this in effect devalues the concept. A Royal Mint spokesperson told the Financial Times: ‘We take sourcing of its raw materials very seriouslyyAs a member of Sedex, we are committed to continuous improvement of the ethical performance of their supply chain’. However, SEDEX membership is not a defence; as a body they do not require members to meet or commit to any ethical standards.

Dianne: Despite the Royal Mint being a member of Sedex, it is clear that this does not obligate them to actually take actions that would consider all of the stakeholders’ needs – so there appears to be a shift towards the more profitable parts of the supply chain, at the expense of the actual miners and their working conditions. In its recent Annual Report (2009), the Royal Mint claims to understand the environmental impact of the suppliers it uses, and even promises to choose suppliers that follow environmentally balanced practices within a 5-year plan. One can only hope that these promises are

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kept. However, it is likely that the Royal Mint will continue to ‘wash its hands’ after touching the money, and it will take them some time before they are able to prove to wider communities that they are able to keep their promises at all times. .

Tomasz: The major impact on the Royal Mint’s financial status is driven by purchasing. The largest part of raw materials purchased by the Royal Mint are metals such as: nickel, gold, silver and copper. The price of these materials has been highly unstable in the last year. If we look at the example of copper, the price of which has seen some volatile increases from just over 6,000 US$/tonne at 31/05/2010 to 10,000 US$/tonne at 26/01/2011. This illustrates how copper prices have rocketed by almost 66.6% over a seven month period, whereas, nickel saw a significant increase in price from just under 18,000 US$/tonne at 31/05/2010 to 29,000 US$/tonne at 26/02/2011. This represents a 65% increase in nickel price over a nine month period (LME, 2011). As a result, d3.9 m profit while the price of majority of raw materials increased by over 60% is a substantial performance. If we look at the example of the Royal Australian Mint which reported an after tax surplus of $1.2 million for the financial year 2009–2010, (Royal Australian Mint Annual Report, 2009–2010), the Royal Mint are more profitable, but, arguably, this is at the expense of the workers in the mines who are on short term contracts, minimum wages and subject to the exigencies of market forces. Extract 4: There are concerns at the local level as well, as Peter Harris, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) National Officer for Wales has said: ‘We are deeply concerned that the Mint’s effectiveness and international reputation are being placed in jeopardy by the Government’s desire to plug the gap in finances, following the bailout of the banks’ (Western Mail 10-11-09).

Dianne: When looking at this year’s Royal Mint profits, it is noticeable that the profits have decreased (from d8.3m in 2009/2010 to d3.6 million in 2010/ 2011), with the company expressing this as a ‘disappointing’ year. The graphs in the annual report show swift rises in copper prices, and a fluctuating market, with unstable forecasts for the future. As an incomegenerating Government department, the need to bring increasing profits will put pressure on the whole SC, and those at the end – the miners extracting the copper – are the ones who are most likely to suffer.

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Tomasz: Despite some poor figures from 2010–2011, which Peter Schofield, the accounting officer, described as disappointing, the profit trend at the Royal Mint Limited was upward. Taking into account the financial, combined with the business and economic challenges facing today’s world, as well as unstable commodity prices fluctuation, the Royal Mint produced a solid, profitable performance with d3.6 million profit. Revenue increased by 24.5% to d215.1m (2009–10: d172.8m) mainly due to increased base metal commodity prices. The Royal Mint revenue growth deduced as capital expenditure spend reached d17.3 m (The Royal Mint Annual Report, 2010– 2011). This is seen as a positive move in the development of the company, the benefits of which will be seen in future years. The Llantrisant (Welsh) based facility was part of a long term strategy move to invest in a new, world leading aRMour production plant to support the change from non-ferrous metal to aRMour plated steel coins and blanks. ‘These plants are critical to our future growth plans’: Adam Lawrence, Chief Executive. Furthermore, cash outflows were used to support the London 2012 Olympic Coin Programme, HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee events and boost operational efficiency. Moreover, during the year, the Royal Mint paid a d4.0m dividend to their shareholders, HM Treasury, for the financial Year 2009–10. This additional income was driven by The Royal Wedding of HRH Prince William to Catherine Middleton. Extract 5: Further to that, the Royal Mint fails to disclose the social consequences of its partnership with BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. While the commodity prices have improved due to increasing demand from countries such as China and India (BBC, 2009), the miners’ rights are continuously being ignored; and they are left without any share of the enormous profits the mining companies are earning. Indeed, one of the biggest challenges facing Chile’s mining industry is not only to cope with environmental ignorance but also the controversial consequences of labour exploitation. While the Royal Mint is not on ‘the spot’ and not directly responsible for the workers’ conditions, it is – as a multi-billion corporation – to be blamed for earning its profits at the expense of the miners in Chile.

Tomasz: Now, almost two years after the first initial study was carried out by the contributors to this chapter, there is still little mention by the Royal Mint directly of what commitments they have made to guarantee that the people at the end of the SC are treated fairly. When scanning through their latest Annual Report, there is actually no mention of where from and how they

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supply the copper, without which it would not even be possible to produce the money ‘for the nation’. Saranda: The Royal Mint still has some work to do and a lot to prove before it can be claimed that they are wholly ethical in the way they operate.

DISCUSSION ‘Ethics is the discipline that examines one’s moral standards or the moral standards of a society’ (Velasquez, 2002). It has, obviously, a variety of other definitions, such as: ‘the principle of conduct governing an individual or a group’ (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1986), in Velasquez, 2002). Nevertheless, when classifying the larger term, then business ethics is seen to be the understanding of what is right or wrong in the ‘assortment of institutions, technologies, transactions, activities, and pursuits of what is called the business’ (Velasquez, 2002). Or, in other words, business ethics are concerned with moral standards as they apply to behaviour in the wider business context. Clearly, with the increasing public exposure, ‘ethics’ is building a more solid platform in the public’s eye, but at the same time there is a common struggle between the wish to be ethical and the competing pressures of business performances. What is important to note, however, is that there is escalating evidence from academic studies that shows ‘positive correlations between responsible business behaviour and return-on-investment, stock price, consumer preferences and employee loyalty’ (Kumar & Steinmann, 1998). However, the fact is that many young adults in universities see business, together with ethics, as a ‘game’ (Freeman & Gilbert, 1991 in Parks, 1993). Nevertheless, the idea that business education should include the discussion of ethics and corporate responsibility has long been universal among those responsible for shaping business schools’ curricula (Piper, 1993). But is it really the responsibility of business schools to address these issues? Some would say no, because ethics embodies yet another subject in an already overcrowded curricula, and that the values of management students are shaped and unchangeable (Piper, 1993). However – to reject this view – Kohlberg (in Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, & Meyer, 1987) found that a person’s ability to deal with moral issues is not formed all at once because, just as people’s physical, emotional, and cognitive abilities develop

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through years, so does the ability to deal with moral issues as people move through different stages of their lives. Furthermore, as Velasquez has argued, a person starts to practise ethics at the level where moral standards absorbed from family, friends and others start to play a role in the decisionmaking processes over what is right or wrong. Thus, in reality, undergraduate and MBA students are actually at a critical stage in making sense of the ethical dilemmas of business. Therefore, it is the obligation of business schools to enforce the sense of social responsibility (Gordon & Howell, 1959), and universities should be made responsible for developing the principal business ethics frameworks for students to critically evaluate, ready for application that students could then apply in organisations that they are potentially going to work for after graduating. Accordingly, undergraduate students should be encouraged to develop a common belief that for obtaining a job and sustaining success, one must develop a clear understanding of how to anticipate and address ethical issues as they arise. Doing the right thing from Day 1, and taking into consideration all of the stakeholders’ needs and anticipations, will definitely help today’s students avoid becoming involved with the business faults of tomorrow (Hajdari et al., 2010). It is important to note, however, that by taking ethics into consideration, the chances for enhancing consumer preference and employee loyalty become much higher (Haas in Kumar & Steinmann, 1998). Thus, the Royal Mint, just as any other company who discards the needs and rights of the stakeholders, risks neglecting its full corporate social responsibilities. Accordingly, without question, it is today’s students’ responsibility to recognise and understand how important it is that businesses (that they are likely to be employed by) commit to the noblesse oblige (Hill, 2009), and do their best to give something back to the societies within which they operate. Dianne: While I have always been convinced that organisations should be responsible for giving something back to the societies that they operate in, I have never really put much thought into how to actually carry out ethical business decisions, and how severe the consequences of unethical behaviour can be. And now that I have graduated from the University and have been part of the job market. I feel there are still a lot of questions that I need to find answers for. Therefore, I strongly believe that Universities should integrate the basic framework of ethics to the curricula throughout the undergraduate courses in order to assist students to make a difference

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between what is right or wrong, and to help them identify irresponsible actions before they can even arise. And, most importantly, enhance the understanding that decisions made today, will have an effect on tomorrow. Saranda: ‘I believe that students should be learning about ethics from secondary school. Although it is important that ethics should be taught more in undergraduate courses, if students do not have an ethical and moral compass, I very much doubt that a few modules at business school are going to make much of a difference. The rushing river of profit and greed creates a cultural flow so strong that ethics can be more challenging to navigate. Most importantly, I think that business schools should not be merely responsible because I believe that students should have acquired ethical foundations before university from their parents, family, and peers. Although I would encourage greater emphasis on the study of ethics during university, I am almost certain that a few modules would not be able to instil ethical qualities.’ Tomasz: Searching for the latest news, the BBC ethics website sparked my attention. ‘Torture at secret Iraq jail in Baghdad’, ‘China executes killer of eight school children’; these are just couple of top news items in today’s pod cast. I have asked myself a simple question: ‘Do we really care’? If it is true, what should we do? How to react? Being a business undergraduate student, it is my understanding that ethics perception should be inculcated not only through teaching or discipline. Our awareness of ethics should be derived from our upbringing, experience and common sense. Although, I would enjoy an ethics foundation course as a part of degree curriculum, I don’t see the Business School as an institution which currently offers a crucial role to play in the area of ethics education.

CONCLUSIONS Business and management courses continue to be the most popular subjects within the UK. Over the past 14 years, business studies courses have expanded by 74% (ABS, 2010–2011, p. 26). While in 2009/2010, both the undergraduate-level and postgraduate-level business studies uptake were up 7% and 12%, respectively. And, it is important to note that one in four international students coming to the UK decide to undertake business studies (ABS, 2010–2011, p. 35). This means that the things that are being

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learnt and students are exposed to will be put into practice around the whole world. Therefore, it has never been more crucial that exposure to ethical issues and corporate governance, as an integral part of Business Studies, is implemented and guaranteed at all times. Developing future leaders and business decision makers, who will be working in increasingly competitive, yet global markets, is happening now. However, whether educators are able continue to make progress with implementing the recommendations of ABS and associated stakeholders remains uncertain. The ‘economic meltdown’ has, as a consequence, led to a Government that is reducing public spending across the board. In the UK alone, government funding to higher education institutions over the next 5 years is due to fall by between 18 and 35% (Morris cited in ABS, 2010–2011, p. 2). All three students, now graduates, agreed this concluding statement: Today’s educators need to become more innovative in the ways they communicate the need for ethical business-making to students from around the world. The 21st Century’s curricula is much more than just understanding the basics of business and moneymaking. It is about ensuring that, when students leave the schools and enter the real world, they have the business know-how that takes into consideration that each decision they will be making, will have a larger impact to the wider communities. If not immediately today, then tomorrow for sure.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to thank my co-authors for agreeing to share their work with the wider community.

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BBC Programmes. (2009). Tropic of Capricorn – Chile to Brazil, Episode 4. Retrieved from http://www.bbcknowledge.com/nordic/programmes/tropic-of-capricorn/episodes/. Accessed on 5 November 2011. BHP Billiton. (2007). Reports and presentations. Retrieved from http://www.bhpbilliton.com/ home/investors/reports/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed on 5 November 2011. British Trade International. (2010). Trade statistics UK-Chile in UK in Chile. Retrieved from http://ukinchile.fco.gov.uk/en/business/help-for-uk-companies/trade-statistics-uk-chile. Accessed on 5 November 2011. Christopher, M. (1998). Logistics and supply chain management (2nd ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education. Clark, A. (2011). Mubarak’s downfall threatens Royal Mint’s coinage contract in Egypt. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/13/egypt-crisis-threatensmint-contract. Accessed on 09 November 2011. Codelco Senior Notes. (2004). Retrieved from http://www.codelco.cl/prensa/presentaciones/ pdf/RoadshowOct04.pdf. Accessed on 7 December 2009. Durham Business School and the Association of MBAs. (2009). The post downturn MBA: An agenda for change. Retrieved from http://www.mbaworld.com/administrator/file_sys/ uploaded_files/1261055610-The_Post_Downturn_MBA_Nov09.pdf. Accessed on 25 January 2010. Educations.com. (2011). Study in Estonia. Retrieved from http://www.educations.com/Study_ in_Estonia__d2639.html. Accessed on 30 October 2011. Estonia.eu. (2011). Society – Estonian educational landscape. Retrieved from http://estonia.eu/ about-estonia/society/estonian-educational-landscape.html. Accessed on 30 October 2011 and http://www.economist.com. Accessed on 30 October 2011. Gardiner, B. (2010). Emphasis on ethics – schools want students to recognize that profits aren’t everything. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/ SB10001424052702304168004575178410786321340.html#articleTabs%3Darticle. Accessed on 19 April 2010. Gordon, R. A., & Howell, J. E. (1959). Higher education for business. New York, NY: University Press. Hajdari, S., Hummal, D., & Scibior, T. (2010). Interviews with Holley, D. 14/04/2010. Haniffa, R. (2009). Ethics are needed in the boardroom. The Financial Times. Retrieved from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4230ad3e-db4f-11de-9023-00144feabdc0.html. Accessed on 25 January 2010. Hill, C. W. L. (2009). International business: Competing in the global marketplace. London: McGraw. Holley, D. (2010). Student attitudes to socially responsible business: a case study of mine workers in Chile. Paper presented to 9th International Corporate Social Responsibility Conference: Zagreb School of Economics & Management, Croatia 16–18 June. Holley, D., Hajdari, S., Hummal, D., & Scibior, T. (2011). Student attitudes to socially responsible business: the Royal Mint and its Ethical sourcing policy. Paper presented at first international symposium on Corporate Responsibility & Sustainable Development London Metropolitan Business School, UK, 19–20 April 2011. Iglicka, K., & Ziolek, M. (2010). EU membership highlights Poland’s migration challenges. Retrieved from http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID¼800. Accessed on 9 November 2011. Infomine. (2009). Mine sites: Escondida. Retrieved from http://www.infomine.com/minesite/ minesite.asp?site¼escondida. Accessed on 6 December 2009.

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Kelsey, C. (2011). Royal Mint profits fall as weak economy cuts demand.Western Mail. Retrieved from http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business-in-wales/business-news/2011/07/ 23/royal-mint-profits-fall-as-weak-economy-cuts-demand-91466-29104856/. Accessed on 11 November 2011. Kumar, B. N., & Steinmann, H. (Eds.). (1998). Ethics in international management. New York, NY: de Gruyter. Land, R., Cousin, G., Meyer, J. H. F., & Davies P. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (3): implications for course design and evaluation in Rust (2005). Improving student learning diversity and inclusivity. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development. Lawrence, A. (2011). Annual report: Chief executive’s report. Retrieved from http:// www.royalmint.com/web/reports/ar2010-2011.pdf. Accessed on 5 November 2011. Llewellyn-Jones, R. (2008). Masters of the art of making money. Wales. Retrieved from http:// www.walesonline.co.uk/business-in-wales/business-features/2008/06/11/masters-of-theart-of-making-money-91466-21053960/. Accessed on 6 December 2009. LME price. Retrieved from http://www.lme.com/nickel_graphs.asp. Accessed on 08 November 2011. Lysons, K., & Farrington, B. (2006). Purchasing and supply chain management. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Market Access Database. (2009). Applised tariffs. Retrieved from http://madb.europa.eu/ mkaccdb2/indexPubli.htm. Accessed on 6 December 2009. McDougall, D. (2009). Britain’s dirty money: How the loose change in our pockets is costing the earth. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1203057/ Britains-dirty-money-How-loose-change-pockets-costing-earth.html#ixzz0N6kQ6WPI. Accessed on 6 December 2009. Metal Bulletin (2009). BMRA calls on UK government to support metals recyclers. Retrieved from http://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/2346255/BMRA-calls-on-UK-governmentto-support-metals-recyclers.html. Accessed on 6 December 2009. Minerals Trade. (2002). A global picture. BGS British geology survey. Retrieved from www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id¼1305. Accessed on 4 December 2009. Moreira, M. M., & Blyde, J. (2006). Chile’s integration strategy: Is there room for improvement? In Inter-American Development Bank: Integration & Regional Programs Department. Retrieved from http://www.iadb.org/intal/aplicaciones/uploads/publicaciones/i_INTALITD_WP_21_2006_Moreira_Blyde.pdf. Accessed on 26 April 2010. Nair, C. (2009). Business schools are failing society. The Ethical Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.ethicalcorporation.com/content.asp?ContentID¼6351. Accessed on 4 December 2009. Nishiyama, T. (2005). The roles of Asia and Chile in the world copper market. Retrieved from http://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeejrpoli/v_3a30_3ay_3a2005_3ai_3a2_3ap_3a131-139. htm. Accessed on 3 November 2009. Parks, S. D. (1993). Is it too late? Young adults and the formulation of professional ethics. In T.R. Piper, M. C. Gentile & S. D. Parks (Eds.), Can ethics be taught? Perspectives, challenges and approaches at Harvard Business School (pp. 21–28). Harvard: Harvard Business School. Paton, N. (2010). Business schools put ethics high on MBA agenda. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/23/business-schools-ethics-mba. Accessed on 25 January 2011.

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Piper, T. (1993). Rediscovery of purpose: The genesis of the leadership, ethics and corporate social responsibility initiative. In T. R. Piper, M. C. Gentile & S. D. Parks (Eds.), Can ethics be taught? Perspectives, challenges and approaches at Harvard Business School. Harvard: Harvard Business School. Prain, R. Sir. (1975). Copper. The anatomy of an industry. London: Mining Journal Books Ltd. Rowland, S. (2000). The Enquiring University Teacher. Buckingham: SRHE & Open University Press. Royal Australian Mint Annual Report. (2009–2010). Retrieved from http://www.ramint. gov.au/about/compliance/downloads/2010/2010AnnualReport.pdf. Accessed on 08 November 2011. Royal Mint Annual Report. (2010–2011). Retrieved from http://www.royalmint.com/corpo rate/about/annualreport.aspx. Accessed on 08 November 2011. Salter, I. R. (2008). Business and Law for the Mariner. Glasgow: Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd. Sedex. (2010). About Sedex: The Supplier Ethical Data Exchange. Retrieved from http:// www.sedex.org.uk/sedex/go.asp?u=/WebSite/Home&pm=6&location=About. Accessed on 22 March 2010. Sims, R. R., & Felton, E. L. (2006). Designing and delivering business ethics teaching and learning. Journal of Business Ethics, 63, 297–312. Sinfield, S., Burns, T., & Holley, D. (2004). Outsiders looking in or insiders looking out? Widening participation in a post 1992 university. In J. Satterthwaite, A. Atkinson & W. Martin (Eds.), The Disciplining of education: New languages of power and resistance (pp. 137–152). Trentham books. Sinfield, S., Holley, D., & Burns, T. A. (2009). Journey into silence: students, stakeholders and the impact of a strategic. UK Social Responsibility Journal, 5(4), 566–574. ISSN: 1747111 (Governmental Policy Document). Soto, A. (2009). Chile Spence copper mine shut as strike invade. Reuters. Retrieved from http:// blogs.reuters.com/alonso-soto/page/13/. Accessed on 2 December 2009. Stake, R. (1994). Case Studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S Lincoln (Eds.), The Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 236–247). London: Sage. Taylor, P. (2011). Skype’s changing traffic growth. Financial Times. Retrieved from http:// www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e858ad1c-7b1f-11e0-9b06-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1cHHr29qq. Accessed on 30 October 2011. Tenni, C., Smyth, A., & Boucher, C. (2003). The researcher as autobiographer: Analysing data written about oneself. The Qualitative Report, 8(1), 1–10. Trotma, A. (2011). Royal Mint profits fall by d1m. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www. telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/8655785/Royal-Mint-profits-fall-by-1m.html. Accessed on 11 November 2011. United Nations. (2008). Review of maritime transport 2008. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Retrieved from http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/rmt2008_en.pdf. Accessed on 6 December 2009. Velasquez, M. (2002). Business ethics: Concepts and cases, 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, T.,& Meyer, M.J. (1987). Can ethics be taught? Santa Clara University. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/canethics betaught.html. Accessed on 15 March 2010.

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WBMS – World Bureau Minerals Year Book. (2004–2009). Retrieved from http://www.worldbureau.com/services-more.asp?owner=24. Accessed on 12 November 2009. Western mail newspaper. Retreived from http://www.mediauk.com/newspapers/13876/westernmail. Accessed on 10 November 2009. World Bank. (2010). Chile- country brief. Retrieved from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/ EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/LACEXT/CHILEEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22255176BpagePK: 1497618BpiPK:217854BtheSitePK:325273,00.html. Accessed on 5 November 2011.

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APPENDIX A

Assessment brief Autumn 2009 Your task is to provide a ‘Financial Times’ style piece of interesting and original work of not more than 1,500 words that assesses the supply chain issues facing the Royal Mint. The completed work should include full referencing of all sources, facts and figures within the body of the work and a full bibliography is to be provided. Indicative marking scheme:  Include a brief analysis of the Royal Mint and some carefully selected information about the country of origin (20%)  Demonstrate your knowledge the physical supply chain process for transporting and processing copper (including minting the money) from the country of origin to final destination (50%)  Assess the implications of the recent press coverage about ethical issues (30%)  Marks will be allocated for depth of research and writing that conveys a range of complex issues within the word count

PART II INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES

CHAPTER 7 EDUCATION AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: THE BRADFORD COLLEGE EXPERIENCE Khosro S. Jahdi INTRODUCTION In the early 1990s while working on my PhD in ethical green marketing, I was approached by my then Deputy Head of Department to write a module with a similar title. His argument was that current research should feed into current teaching. I was delighted with this request and prepared the module called ‘Marketing Ethics’. It was offered to the final-year students of undergraduate courses and proved to be a popular option especially amongst the law cohorts. At the time we had a flourishing business and law school that attracted large numbers of students locally, nationally as well as internationally. The module was later taught by me and a colleague with a keen interest in philosophy and as such the syllabus was modified to include philosophical as well as marketing aspects of ethics. However, the balance was maintained whenever possible. While on that particular subject, Schlegelmilch and Oberseder (2000) refer to almost 50 years of research into marketing ethics in their paper. With reference to the 1990s which coincides with the teaching of the above mentioned subject, they discovered 239 Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 139–153 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004009

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marketing ethics articles in 58 journals. That decade interestingly witnessed a move away from general marketing ethics topics to a focus on perhaps more specialist areas such as marketing education (e.g. Lane, 1995; Shannon & Berl, 1997), promotion (e.g. La Tour & Henthoren, 1994) and so forth. This at a glance highlights the growing importance of ethics in different shapes, forms and guises. Timetabling changes resulted in my being taken off the module that was created by me, while the philosopher colleague continued teaching it single hand. Over the years the syllabus had been altered drastically and was almost entirely philosophy based and was re-named ‘business ethics’. Almost 10 years since the creation of the original module and its gradual loss of appeal to students I was asked whether I would consider preparing a new module titled ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ which would reflect my ongoing research into that field. The new module proved to be very popular amongst the final-year students again attracting well over 50 who actively participated in class discussions and debates. Their interest was further reflected in the quality of assignments that the students produced. Prior to the end of the teaching period I took the liberty of distributing a questionnaire amongst the students, with a view to assessing their perceptions, the results of which will be discussed later in the chapter.

TEACHING ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY In terms of teaching ethics, it would be interesting to compare and contrast two papers on the topic produced almost a decade apart. The first research carried out by Shannon and Berl (1997) examined the attitudes and perceptions of business students at a number of U.S. universities towards ethics education. The second by Wallace, Tassabehji, and Cornelius (2006) analysed the nature, motivations and commitment to ethics tuition by the ‘top-tier’ business schools identified by the Financial Times. Both papers cite the United States vis-a`-vis attaching importance to ethics teaching and make a reference to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) which stipulates some coverage of ethical issues in business schools. This is further reflected in the creation of Ethics Education Task Force (EETF). To a cynical mind most of this might be regarded as mere window dressing. Almost quarter a century ago, Murray (1987) wrote about the U.S. business schools being accused of inadequate coverage of ethics in their teaching and the resultant unethical behaviour by the American business. That warning appears to have gone unheeded, as

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unethical behaviour continued unabated amongst corporations. The 2008 US financial sectors’ perpetuated economic catastrophe is a clear indictment of insufficient attention to matters ethical at business schools. However, Moore (2012) informs that many MBA programmes across the globe actually incorporate a CSR element or social project of ‘some kind’. This was mainly a reaction to the financial crisis referred to above. Moore (2012) warns that while some universities do a good job of offering CSR, for many this is merely paying lip service. He also states that MBA programmes are generally accused of training graduates primarily for ‘the world of profit’, stimulating greed and avarice while neglecting to develop the graduates as responsible leaders. He further adds that business school ranking has become more prominent of late and now topical issues such as gender diversity and cultural sensitivity should also have CSR as a part of the ranking criteria. Sandbu (2011) mentions that when teaching business ethics, part of his methodology involves showing a clip from the film Wall Street with Gordon Gekko making the ‘greed is good’ speech and justifying greed since it apparently has beneficial social effects. This so-called ‘upward surge of mankind’ that Gekko refers to is criticised vehemently by Sandbu’s students at Wharton School. However, the very act of disagreeing is indicative of something to disagree about, that is how to justify business behaviour, he states. Sandbu (2011) concludes that business ethics lacks a core body of knowledge and an agreed methodology. This might be part of the problem as to why all the teaching of social responsibility and ethics in the US and the rest of the developed world’s business schools has not prevented corporate greed and hubris from occurring and recurring. In response to the question: can we teach business ethics? Andrew (1979), Bok (1976), Hanson (1987), Henderson (1988), Hosmer (1988), Konrad (1978), Miller and Miller (1976), Murray (1987) and Thurow (1987) had stated that it cannot be (truly) taught. The consensus was that ethics are learnt in childhood and established prior to a student’s commencement of college education. However, it was also argued that exposure to and discussion of ethics and ethical issues can heighten ethical awareness throughout the decision making process. Moore (2012) adds that ideally every MBA programme should contain a ‘real’ social project as part of its required curriculum. Such a project would evoke social change and have a lasting impact on the community. Business schools too often have a so called ‘CSR quota’ which is usually translated into financial support for a social project or initiative, rather than encouraging students to take on social projects in the community. Moore (2012) suggests that there is a

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major difference between reading and learning about CSR and making the jump to personal and social responsibility. As to the question: should we teach business ethics? Research by Dahger and Spader (1980) and Bunke (1988) of 237 company presidents and CEOs suggested that the majority (78%) favoured business ethics courses as the first or second most important thing colleges can do to help develop and sustain ethical business behaviour. However, 57% (10% first choice, 47% second choice) believed that ‘real’ business ethics problems were too complex for a course. A minority (16%) felt that ethics cannot be taught to students at that stage of their lives. However, Silver (2012) writes that many U.S. business schools believed that their teaching had influenced banks and investors contributing to the 2008/2009 financial crisis. As a result some business schools have revamped their curriculum and added courses in ethics and governance. This has apparently taken place at the expense of managerial accounting requirements. However, the question that arises here is: how much of this is genuine and not mere public relations? Furthermore, how exactly is this put into practice? Another question was posed: who should teach business ethics? Hosmer (1988) was of the opinion that ethics course work be taught by staff from functional and technical departments of the business school. Krohn (1985) on the other hand believed that it was best suited to business communications lecturers to teach business ethics. Philosophers and theologians, in Krohn’s opinion were ‘not versed in the business aspects of ethics while business professors are untrained in ethical theory’ (Shannon & Berl, 1997, p. 1061). The present-day thinking might be that as far as business schools are concerned, one could argue that any and every lecturer could have a CSR dimension to their specific subject, for example ethical accounting, CSR in marketing and so forth. The subject specialists should be aware of and knowledgeable about the social responsibility issues surrounding that particular subject. They could further cite examples of unethical behaviour as well as socially responsible actions by individuals and companies. In an ideal academic world all the subject-related ethical teaching would then be complemented by a single clearly titled CSR subject, compulsory for all students. In reply to the question: what should be taught in a business ethics course? Hosmer (1988) thought that an introductory course should convey the basic principles of normative philosophy, address the application process of such values and in addition consider the interaction of these values with economic theory and law. Krohn (1985) saw a focus on ethical issues surrounding marketing research courses in particular survey research ethics

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as importance. Feldman and Thompson (1990) were of the opinion that some lecturers attempt to teach various forms of ethical analysis, while other instructors try to focus on the issue ‘by getting students behave with a higher standard of moral values’ (ibid.). It can also be argued that various ethical theories and models as well as the necessity of learning about CSR would be a reasonable start to a business ethics syllabus. Harney and Dowling (2012) suggest that business schools should do enough to instil a sense of empathy, let alone responsibility, in their graduates, educating them to respond not only to their powerful shareholders but also to their many stakeholders in society. The transformation of some of those stakeholders into ‘occupiers’ suggests the discontent is deeply felt today. In response to the question: where in the business curriculum should ethics be taught? George (1987) referred to the results of a survey of AACSBaccredited schools. Of the respondents 46.8% offered a special course with the primary focus on the ethical components of business decisions; 33.9% offered such a course at the graduate level. Similarly with Steinberg, Dyer, and Barksdale (1989), 34% of the schools had a business ethics course, while 13.3% had a ‘marketing ethics’ course on offer. Part of the answer to this question has been mentioned in the response to the question above. Every subject should contain a clear topic relating to ethics and social responsibility. In addition, a clearly identifiable subject covering all the relevant and appropriate issues and themes should be on offer to reinforce all the subject-related CSR already taught. Case studies and examples of good and bad practices would also be included as part of the teaching. The penultimate question enquired: when should business ethics be taught? Hosmer (1988) and Krohn (1985) both concurred on the earliest possible introduction of business ethics. Hosmer went even further by suggesting that such a course ought to be part of the required curriculum and located in the first term. Feldman and Thompson (1990) and Scott (1986) stated that most business schools requiring such a course only offer it in the final year and often the final semester. Murray (1987) warns that ethics is not even addressed until the graduate school. Again, in an ideal situation, CSR should be included in the curriculum of universities for every year of the course. Students should also be encouraged to base their final-year dissertation or project on a CSR-related topic. Citizenship is incorporated at school curricula and it can be argued that really anytime is a good time to teach CSR and related subjects. School-level learning could be used as a platform to launch further and higher education CSR education. The final question asked: how should we teach ethics? Feldman and Thompson (1990) responded by suggesting a varied teaching methodology

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encompassing lectures, case studies, guest speakers and so forth. ‘y actually more than 12000 courses in ethics offered by undergraduate and (post)graduate business schools y most are considered superficial and unrelated to real-life business applications; they are simply lectures on traditional concepts of ethical behaviour’ (Shannon & Berl, 1997, p. 1062). It is perhaps worth pointing out that Kelly (2005) states that a number of U.S. business schools are decreasing or removing ethics from their curricula. If that was the case in 2005, things have certainly changed a great deal since then. The U.S.-based CFA Institute that offers the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification is one example of this change. It now updates its curriculum annually, according to Bradshaw (2012), in order to take the ‘changing environment’ into consideration. At business schools the biggest curriculum changes have been in ethics courses. Similarly in the UK, for instance, Manchester Business School’s tutor is quoted by Bradshaw as saying: ‘Business schools have put in more courses on ethics and social responsibility instead of being critical of the financial theories of how markets function.’ The teaching of CSR and ethics can vary from a university to a university as well as one tutor to another. What is important, however, is the simple fact that it IS taught. Similar research with focus on British business schools carried out almost 20 years later offers some not dissimilar perspectives. The work of Cowton and Cummins (2003) examined the teaching of business ethics to undergraduate, postgraduate and post experience cohorts at 105 UK-based institutions. Overall 58% of business schools offered business ethics; however, only 18 of the institutions taught it as a core subject. This has been blamed on the shortage of ethics specialists which then places the onus of teaching business ethics on non-specialists with a minority possessing a background in moral philosophy. On the other hand this might be indicative of the indifference attached to the importance of providing business ethics in the curricula. Some writers (e.g. Scott, 1998; Sims & Sims, 1991) are of this opinion and say that business schools are reluctant to include ethical and moral thinking in their teaching. With the increasing so-called ‘marketisation’ of higher education(see e.g. Newman & Jahdi, 2009) in the UK and other parts of the world, and the perception of students as ‘customers’ there is certainly cause for concern. It has been argued by some authors such as Wallace et al. (2006), Codeiro (2003) and Pfeffer and Fong (2004) that business ethics learning should be reflected and grounded in the corporation in the manner in which its leaders are developed. ‘Ethics’ per se should not be what a manager ‘does’, but what a manager ‘is’. The top United States’ MBA programmes were

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castigated, according to Bradshaw (2012), for training some of the most powerful people in the banking industry, blamed for the 2008/2009 financial catastrophe.

METHODOLOGY As well as the review of the literature covered mainly in the previous section, the sample for this research paper consisted of the students at Bradford College who attended the final-year undergraduate CSR module in 2011. Of the 55 distributed, 19 completed questionnaires (see Appendix) relating to the module were returned.

Principal Findings The first question aimed to find the motivation behind the student’s selection of this optional module, since it was not a core subject they were under no obligation to choose it. The response ranged mainly from wishing to find out more about the individual’s environment, how to help protect it, the dangers facing it, to learn about organisations’ economic, legal, moral and physical responsibilities. One respondent said they wished to assess the various socially responsible claims that so many companies nowadays make. Another believed that CSR is a ‘new arena in business’ and one should know more about it. The second question asked the students what they actually understood by the term CSR. The responses were: ‘it’s a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns with their business operations and also in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis y’, ‘it’s self-regulation by companies’, ‘it’s the relationship between a corporation and community’, ‘it means those wishing to start a business should consider social responsibility before profits’, ‘companies not dwelling on money 100% and considering social responsibility too’, ‘not to focus on money but social responsibility’, ‘ it’s the way in which a business integrates environmental and social issues’, ‘it’s (about) an organisation’s economic, legal, environmental responsibilities combined’, ‘it’s about business ethics’. Sadly there is no reference to an individual’s social responsibility in their response, but merely the business organisations. The third question asked what the students had actually learned from this subject. One student recited the major topics covered ranging from

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definitions to theories and models of CSR as well as the case studies and current examples on some organisations’ unethical operations. Another believed the lectures helped evaluate companies’ ecological claims. ‘The practice of how we can implement various environmental policies.’ ‘I learnt about green-washing by companies’, ‘I realised that everybody should have (some) knowledge of CSR’, ‘how some companies can use CSR to make a good image for themselves’, ‘ I gained a valuable insight into CSR, the lecturer has a profound knowledge of the subject and that really helps’; Cowton and Cummins (2003, p. 49) highlight this point. They write: ‘y the principal problem is that suitably qualified lecturers are thought to be limited in supply, the growth in business ethics teaching to date having depended on the pioneering enthusiasm of lecturers originally appointed to teach other subjects.’ However, it could be argued that having been trained in a different subject can actually contribute to the teaching of CSR. Since the majority of teaching business ethics and/or CSR is offered by business schools, any reference to business or management disciplines in the syllabus can only add value to the lectures. One student had remarked that: ‘I have learned that there is a wide literature and concern related to CSR and some large organisations do not fulfil their responsibilities and in some cases they take advantage’; ‘the rights and wrongs of doing business y’ Another question asked whether the CSR lectures altered the way the students’ perception of companies. The responses included the following: ‘Primark and Shell in the way they do business with its suppliers (Primark) and the promises they break’; ‘yes I saw them in a negative light, I also did some of my research and found out how some firms monopolise people’; ‘the vide on Primark and its child labour in India was an eye openery’; ‘the case studies changed my views’; ‘I saw them both positive and negative as some organisations happen to be ethical’; ‘when I learned about Shell in Nigeria it changed my perception’.

When asked ‘has learning about CSR influenced your personal life at all; if so in what way?’ there was a variety of responses. ‘My way of thinking really different now’; ‘yes being more socially aware of what organisations I do business with’; ‘yes I think of others when I do my business’; ‘it has made me read more about CSR and learn how I can change many things and make (the) environment cleanery’; ‘y I learned how to respect other people’s rightsy’. Another question asked whether CSR should also apply to lecturer– student relationships and if so how. Answers ranged from a simple no to ‘they (lecturers) are seen as role models’ and ‘must act in a socially responsible manner with students’. One even stated that certain tutors do not

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communicate clearly with students making life difficult in terms of explaining clearly what an assignment, for example, requires. They find this socially irresponsible. ‘Lecturers should not be thinking of themselves but put students’ welfare in front.’ The response was not very detailed or comprehensive to this question as one might have expected. The last question enquired as to the students’ views on what the future holds for CSR and why. Some clearly had no idea what it might be – which is understandable – while others said there is insufficient information on the subject per se. One wrote that ‘ycolleges and universities must do more to publicise CSR and make it a compulsory subject for all studentsy’ However, the vast majority believed that more organisations will embrace CSR and this will be reflected in their behaviour be it labour relations, the environment or communities. A warning was included in the response: ‘But a lot of window dressing will go on by companies (who will) pretend they are being (socially) responsible. Globalisation makes it really absolutely essential for companies to practice CSR when considering their powers.’ It is precisely how this ‘practice’ takes place that is worthy of examination.

DISCUSSION Sandbu (2011) writes: ‘the most ineffective goal one could set is to teach people to be good. Moral motivation is acquired in childhood and professional ethics are strengthened- or undermined- in the workplace. But a university is not suited to making people be good. What it can do is inculcate analytical skills’. However, there are authors (see e.g. Shannon & Berl, 1997) who disagree with this and place the onus partly on business schools. It is encouraging to note that large numbers of students select the subject of CSR of their own volition, year after year. As one who has been teaching for over a quarter of a century, I can detect signs of interest as well as disinterest in a subject amongst students. It is not merely the body language that speaks volumes, the interaction in the classroom can also be sued as a barometer to check levels of student interest and understanding of a topic. That said, the teaching methodology(ies) employed can also contribute greatly to the creation and maintenance of not simply student interest but even desire. Variety in methods used albeit plausible cannot by itself stimulate and maintain student interest levels. Formal lectures which were intentionally interactive by means of including questions and answers managed to maintain student comprehension and heightened interest levels. That also helped me to gauge student knowledge, perception and learning

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process vis-a`-vis topic under discussion and pitch my teaching at an appropriate level. Case studies and the occasional videos as well as seminars and tutorials aimed to enhance and reinforce student comprehension and provided them with real-life scenarios. The survey results show that the students’ overall understanding of CSR tended to focus mainly on company activities and policies, very little if anything was mentioned about the role of the individual in society. In addition, the responses reflected Carroll’s (1991) Pyramid emphasising companies’ various responsibilities. Although it can be assumed from the responses that the individual student’s behaviour (except in one case of aiming to save water and other finite resources) had not been changed as a result of attending the CSR lectures, it becomes apparent that their perception and ways of thinking have been somewhat affected. This could be in the long-term result in behaviour change too. However, one must consider the objectives and motives behind teaching CSR as a subject in the first place. Bradford College is not offering a process of indoctrination resulting in drastic change of student behaviour. It is offering an opportunity to discuss important social responsibility and ethical issues that affect large sections of the population, if not in the UK, but in other parts of the universe. It is also highlighting the tremendous powers of multi-national organisations and their long practised socially irresponsible activities. Furthermore, the lectures endeavour to inform the student of their own social responsibilities while not wishing to preach to them good behaviour. The simple fact that some students in the light of their attendance of the CSR lectures decided to write about ethical and CSR issues in their final year dissertations is a testament to the impact that these lessons achieved in academic terms. As a lecturer that is an added bonus to me. That trend has continued and as well as under-graduate students, a growing number of post graduate members of the course have embarked on CSR-related dissertations. On a larger scale, the events of 2008/2009 in the United States and the portioning of blame on some of their business school-trained MBA graduates, have resulted in curricular re-thinking by many universities. At the time of writing this chapter, the Financial Times has a special ‘Sustainability in Business Report’ that analyses business organisations’ (including banks’) strategies. While in America, an event entitled: ‘The Responsible Business Summit USA, 2012’ is about to take place. The summit aims to: ‘discover how to fully embed and integrate CSR in your organisation’. It invites interested parties to: ‘learn how to collaborate with key stakeholders and establish competitive edge using proven CSR strategies’. However, Prof Penman of the Graduate School of Business at Columbia

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University, New York (quoted in Silver, 2012), warns that part of the problem is that students paying some $180,000 for an MBA expect to be taught how to make money. Indeed in a capitalist society there is nothing wrong with making money, it is the manner in which that takes place that matters. One of the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School professor’s adds a further warning by stating that as a discipline, finance is where medicine was 500 years ago – if you went to see a doctor you were just as likely to be killed as cured (Silver, 2012). Both these warnings emphasise the importance of teaching CSR at business schools (and elsewhere for that matter), and as mentioned earlier even starting from primary schools. Business schools should not have the monopoly of having CSR as part of their curricula, nor should it be confined to them only to teach ethics. Universities offering production engineering, construction and so forth should not be exempt. CSR affects everyone and is in every course and subject.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE RESEARCH This chapter has attempted to emphasise the teaching of CSR not merely as another subject but analysing and explaining it and its relevance, importance and necessity to the young people attending HE educational establishments. It is hoped that academics in other HE institutions either envisaging introducing CSR into their curriculum, or already doing so might compare and contrast these findings with their experience, dialogue and discussion with their own students. It would be interesting, for instance, to see the type of questions they would ask as well as student responses. Furthermore, those not already involved in teaching CSR may be encouraged, hopefully in the light of reading this chapter, seriously consider its introduction.

RESPONSE TO FEEDBACK The feedback provided me as the one who prepared the module and also taught it, with valuable information. The level of student interest in the subject and the various themes covered in the syllabus as highlighted earlier was encouraging. This prompted me as well as the Business School management to consider introducing a more comprehensive, rigorous and globally orientated module for the Masters’ level students. Thus the

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International CSR module was created and as with the Year 3, undergraduate CSR subject, it too attracted large numbers of students. The feedback also showed what a wide range of definitions students had of CSR and what it really meant to each individual. Some of these definitions were used in the lectures at the outset to simply stress the variety of people’s perception of CSR. There were also indications of changes in students’ outlook on life in general, perceptions of companies, especially the multi-national organisations and the powers that they wield. This too was re-iterated in lectures in following years by use of relevant case studies built around often irresponsible companies. It is a sad fact of life that almost every year examples of such unethical organisations can be found. The College has ethics embedded in its curriculum vis-a`-vis student research and dissertation work. Since the introduction of the CSR module, there has been more of an emphasis on this element by staff, which one might conclude is a by-product of the CSR module’s introduction and popularity. As far as lecturer–student relationships are concerned, the student feedback aired some individuals’ anxiety. However, since there are clear and strict institutional rules on such matters, no other action could really be taken. All the same this concern was communicated to colleagues and appropriate authorities. Learning about CSR appeared to have impacted on individual student’s life too in a variety of ways ranging from saving water to recycling and so forth. This too prompted me to highlight in my lectures each individual’s role to play in making this world a more socially responsible and ultimately better place. The inclusion of genuinely ethical organisations and individuals in lectures further reinforced the continuous growth of CSR and that this is not merely a fad but something substantial that is here to stay. It was, furthermore, encouraging to note from the feedback that the students believed this to be true too when asked what they think the future holds for CSR. Overall the feedback has solidified and strengthened my resolve to continue offering CSR and International CSR along other worthy subjects to our students. The fact that my learning and knowledge from attending various CSR conferences and from other academics is fed directly into my teaching provides both modules with currency, analysis and certainly a global perspective. Students are informed of this which undoubtedly adds to their interest in the subject. In terms of how this module fits within the curriculum in the Business School in terms of students’ knowledge and expectations, every subject is in one way or another related to business and management. Amongst the subjects on offer, in the third year of the degree courses are, for instance, marketing

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management, corporate strategy, business analysis, business–to-business marketing and accounting. CSR’s syllabus builds on student knowledge of the first 2 years of study as well as topics covered by those business/ management modules. Furthermore, within the CSR, various management functions and how they could have an ethical dimension are also studied and discussed in detail. This approach has the potential and capability of educating students about not only specific business subjects, but also their CSR impact on individuals and society at large. Also as mentioned earlier, students use this combined, synergistic learning and prepare a CSR-related dissertation. This is an invaluable culmination of three years’ higher education.

REFERENCES Andrew, J. (1979). Teaching ethics. Wall Street Journal, August 6, p. 10. Bok, D. C. (1976). Can ethics be taught? Change (October), 26–30 Bradshaw, D. (2012). Changes come in response to criticism. Financial Times, 18th June. Bunke, H. (1988). Should we teach business ethics? Business Horizons, 31, 2–8. Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organisational stakeholders. Business Horizons, July–August, 39–48. Codeiro, W. P. (2003). The only solution to the decline in business ethics: Ethical managers. Teaching Business Ethics, 7(3), 265–277. Cowton, C. J., & Cummins, J. (2003). Teaching business ethics in UK higher and further education: Process and prospects. Teaching Business Ethics, 7(1), 37–54. doi: 10.1023/ A:1022665221990 Dahger, S. P., & Spader, P. H. (1980). Poll of top managers stresses education and leardershipby-example as strong forces for higher standards. Management Review (March), 54–57. Feldman, H. D., & Thompson, R. C. (1990). Teaching business ethics: A challeneg for business education in the 1990s. Journal of Marketing Education, 12(2), 10–22. George, R. J. (1987). Teaching business ethics: Is there a gap between rhetoric and reality? Journal of Business Ethics, 6, 513–518. Hanson, K. O. (1987). What good are ethics courses? Across the Board (September), 10–11. Harney, S. & Dowling, E. (2012). It is time that business schools learnt to walk the walk. The Financial Times, 28 May. Henderson, V. E. (1988). Can business ethics be taught? Management Review, 27(August), 52–54. Hosmer, L. T. (1988). Adding ethics to the business curriculum. Business Horizons, 31, 9–15. Kelly, M. (2005). It’shekuva time to be dropping business ethic courses. Business ethics. Retrieved from http://ethics.co/what’s_newbestbizschools.html Konrad, A. R. (1978). Are business ethics worth studying? Business and Society Review, 83(Fall), 54–57. Krohn, F. (1985). A general semantics approach to teaching business Ethics. Journal of Business Communication, 22, 59–66. Lane, J. C. (1995). Ethics of business students: Some marketing perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 14(7), 571–580.

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La Tour, M. S., & Henthoren, T. L. (1994). Ethical judgements of sexual appeals in print advertising. Journal of Advertising, 23(3), 81–90. Miller, M. S., & Miller, A. E. (1976). It’s too late for ethics courses in business schools. Business and Society Review, 82(Spring), 39–42. Moore, R. (2012). Time for a genuine commitment to CSR. The Financial Times, 11 June. Murray, T. J. (1987). Can business schools teach Ethics? Business Month (April), 24–26. Newman, S., & Jahdi, K. S. (2009). Marketisation of education: Marketing, rhetoric and reality. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 33(1), 1–11. Pfeffer, J., & Fong, C. T. (2004). The business school ‘business’: Some lessons from the US Experience. Journal of Management Studies, 41(8), 1501–1520. Sandbu, M. (2011). Business ethics courses skirt main issue. The Financial Times, 2nd May. Schlegelmilch, B. & Oberseder, M. (2000). Half a century of marketing Ethics: Shifting perspectives and emerging trends. Journal of Business Ethics. doi: 10.1007/s10551-0090182-1 Scott, J. C. (1986). Moral and ethical education in basic business. Business Education Forum, 40(October), 28–30. Scott, W. G. (1998). Profit at any price: The moral failure of business schools. In J. R. Schermerhorm, J. G. Hunt & R. N. Osborn (Eds.), Managing organisational behaviour (pp. 123–141). New York, NY: Wiley. Shannon, J. R., & Berl, R. L. (1997). Are we teaching ethics in marketing? A survey of students’ attitudes and perceptions. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(10), 1059–1075. Silver, S. (2012). Banking: Changed climate leads to revamped curriculums. The Financial Times, 18 June 18. Sims, S. R., & Sims, S. J. (1991). Increasing applied business ethics courses in business school curricula. Journal of Business Ethics, 10(3), 211–219. Steinberg, M. S., Dyer, R. F., & Barksdale, H. C., Jr. (1989). Marketing ethics: An examination of the values and attitudes of today’s students/tomorrow’s professionals. Journal of Midwest Marketing, 4, 65–77. Thurow, L. (1987). Ethics don’t start in business schools. New York Times (14 June) (Section 4), p. 25. Wallace, J., Tassabehji, R., & Cornelius, N. (2006). A statistical analysis of corporate social responsibility and ethics teaching in business schools. Bradford University School of Management.

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APPENDIX: CSR STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE Please take a few minutes to complete this questionnaire which is to be used for research purposes only. 1. What motivated you to choose the CSR module this semester? 2. Please explain what you understand by the term Corporate Social Responsibility. 3. In your own words, please write down what you have actually learned from this subject so far. 4. In what ways, if any, have attending these lectures influenced your views on the local, national and international issues? Please explain in as much detail as possible. 5. Have these lectures altered the way that you thought of companies? If yes, which ones and in what way, that iss positive or negative. 6. Has learning about CSR influenced your personal life at all? If so in what areas and to what extent? 7. Do you believe that CSR should also apply to lecturer–student relationships and if yes, how? 8. What do you think the future holds for CSR? Explain your answers with reasons, please. 9. Is there anything that I have missed out about CSR and its teaching that should be included here and if so what?

CHAPTER 8 CSR TRENDS IN THE TOP 100 US BUSINESS SCHOOLS: A THEORY– PRACTICE RELATIONSHIP Lina M. Gomez and Lucely Vargas Preciado INTRODUCTION Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a well-known practice among organizations around the world. It has become a refreshing alternative of conceiving and doing business that encompasses economic, social, and environmental operations for achieving competitive advantage. Although the underlying foundations of CSR are not new, the practice of CSR has been growing in importance, significance and acceptance in the last decades within the corporate world as well as in the academic setting. CSR can be defined as a responsible and ethical performance about economic, social, and environmental aspects that can improve the quality of life of different stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, consumers, government, community, society, etc. (Gomez, 2011). CSR usually describes the relation that exists between companies and society (Porter & Kramer, 2006) and the interrelationship between economic, social and environmental features (Ihlen, 2008). According to Morsing and Schultz (2006), organizations that promote social and environmental initiatives have the power to evoke positive reactions between stakeholders. At the same time, CSR also brings

Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 155–183 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004010

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beneficial opportunities for companies such as stakeholder engagement and corporate image (Du, Bhattacharya, & Sen, 2010). But doing well by being good is worth it not only for achieving company performance and success, but also for improving the planet and people’s life. Today, different groups of stakeholders are pressing companies to place CSR in their daily agenda in order to minimize the impact that corporate actions have on the environment and the human life. Companies are created by individuals; hence, individuals are the ones in charge of managing responsible corporate behaviour. But above all, business schools are the ones in charge of educating responsible individuals. Business schools should impart triple bottom line mind thinking to all their students in order to become excellent leaders that can accomplish organizational success without harming the economy, society and planet. Presently, business schools have begun to include CSR-related courses in their curriculum such as sustainability, CSR, ethics and social responsibility, corporate citizenship, sustainable environment, etc. But, what can universities and business schools do to truly engage and commit students in the importance of CSR for the business purpose? Introducing a new course in ethics, CSR or sustainability is not the only solution. Not only business schools but universities must convey to students that social and environmental issues are a vital constituent for the success of organizations. Since the meltdown of the financial system a few years ago, business schools have had to redefine what is best for future business leaders and what they should be concerned about. In other words, to provide students with the different abilities, knowledge and judgement they need for succeeding inside and outside the classroom, and later in their professional life. On the other hand, universities must also be responsible towards society, environment and stakeholders. They should create and develop a sustainable and responsible campus through different CSR initiatives and programmes. But are business schools and universities aligned about what CSR should include and promote? Are both truly concerned and engaged in triple bottom line mind thinking and practice? The purpose of this investigation is to discover alignments between the curricula of business schools and the overall CSR campus initiatives in order to find common CSR trends according to the seven core subjects of the ISO 26000 in social responsibility. It is important to understand to what extent US business schools and universities are committed to fully prepare future business leaders for a sustainable society and environment through the relationship between CSR theory and practice. Therefore, due to the lack of studies counterpointing CSR theory with practice in a university

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environment, a content analysis was carried out to the websites of the top 100 business schools in the United States (according to the US News Magazine) and their corresponding university campus website. All the different CSR-related courses included in the business graduate curriculum (MBA/PhD) and CSR campus initiatives appeared on the university webpages were taken into account for analysis. This chapter continues with a literature review on CSR, and CSR and education. The methodology is presented afterwards followed by the findings and discussions encountered on the university and business school’s webpages. The last section outlines the main conclusions.

LITERATURE REVIEW Corporate Social Responsibility The concept of CSR has gained significant importance more today than ever before. It seems that with the Lehman Brothers Collapse in 2008 and in general with the financial crisis, a call for behaving right and ethically is required for all types of organizations and individuals. Although CSR has grown in importance internationally within the industry and academic setting, it is observed that CSR does not have a universal unified definition and there are still no agreements in the meaning of what CSR represents (Crowther & Aras, 2008; Dahlsrud, 2008; Garriga & Mele´, 2004). The practice of CSR is not recent; the idea that businesses have certain responsibilities beyond shareholder value has predominated centuries ago, long before it became a catchword (Carroll & Shabana, 2010; Gokulsing, 2011). But the modern era of CSR started in the 1950s with Howard R. Bowen and his definition of Social Responsibility (SR) about how SR could guide business in the future (Carroll, 1999). Later, the CSR concept was improved in the 1960s with the birth of the environmental movement (Visser, 2010). CSR can be defined as a continuous commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of people and planet. Furthermore, CSR is a voluntary approach where organizations respond to stakeholders and society about daily operations that can impact economic, social and environmental matters. CSR requires a long-term commitment because external circumstances are always changing and stakeholders’ priorities can vary (Cohen, 2010).

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On the other hand, CSR refers to the balance of interests of multiples stakeholders (Friedman & Miles, 2006). Stakeholders are individuals or group of individuals that can be affected (positively or negatively) due to organizational success (Freeman, 1984). Everyday stakeholders (customers, academia, investors, suppliers, local communities, employees, etc.) are increasing awareness in this subject and they are claiming to corporations to enhance CSR actions that can benefit society and the environment (Du et al., 2010; Schneider, Stieglitz, & Lattemann, 2007). If organizations behave as good corporate citizens, consumers will be loyal to the company’s brand, and they will also be ambassadors of the company’s message (Du et al., 2010). Nowadays, CSR practices suggest that companies should detect key stakeholders and incorporate their needs and expectations to the corporation’s strategic goals and decision-making processes (Hartman, Subin, & Dhanda, 2007). The European Commission (2001) defined CSR as ‘whereby companies decide voluntary to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment’ (p. 4) by integrating ‘social and environmental concerns in their business operation and in the interaction with stakeholders’ (p. 6). CSR presents tremendous benefits for companies, while many can view CSR as an added cost, integrating CSR practices in long-term strategies can bring competitive advantage (Porter & Kramer, 2002). One of the advantages to behave as a social responsible company is to achieve the ability to ‘sustain itself through time, while contributing to the improvement of society and the planet as a whole’ (Cohen, 2010, p. 16). Sustainability, another term often used interchangeably with CSR but at the end they are rather different. The Brundtland Commission, formerly the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), published a report called ‘Our Common Future’, popularly known as the Brundtland Report. This report introduced the first and most used definition of sustainability or sustainable development as ‘satisfying the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland Report, World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). The purpose of the World Commission was to address concerns about the deterioration of environmental and natural resources due to economic and social development. There are several guidelines or standards for CSR and sustainability that have been served as a framework for definitions and reporting, such as GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), AccountaAbility, UN Global Compact, ISO 14100, SA 8000 and the recently ISO 26000, a voluntary international standard in social responsibility. Additionally, there are established indexes such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), FTSE4Good Index or

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Ethibel Sustainability Index (ESI) that measure initiatives in sustainability by companies. This investigation uses the ISO 26000 standard for categorizing the different CSR trends encountered. ISO 26000 is an international voluntary standard that provides guidance for organizations about principles and practices in Social Responsibility (SR). Since its first publication in November 2010, it has served the purpose of developing and presenting a uniform concept about social responsibility. SR is defined by ISO as the ‘responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society and the environment, through transparent and ethical organization that:  contributes to sustainable development, including health and the welfare of society;  takes into account the expectations of stakeholders;  is in compliance with applicable law and consistent with international norms of behaviour;  is integrated through the organization and practiced in its relationships (ISO, 2010a, clause 2.18 as cited by Borealis, 2011). The norm ISO 26000 was developed through a double consensus of principal groups of stakeholders in many countries reaching international agreements about what really social responsibility involves (ISO 26000). ISO 26000 represents a systematic and holistic approach in seven social responsibility core areas that are linked and interdependent. This guidance in social responsibility can be used by any type of organization (public and private). The seven cores of ISO 26000 contain the following dimensions: 1. Organizational Governance: it makes reference to the way firms, corporations or companies are managed or directed in the framework of policies, laws, processes and customs. 2. Human Rights: it refers to the natural right that individuals have for the simple fact of being humans. It includes aspects such as: human rights situations, discrimination and vulnerable groups, civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, among others. 3. Labour Practices: it refers to appropriate and fair conditions that employees face and experience while working for a company. It involves aspects such as: social dialogue, health and safety at work, human development and training in the workplace, among others.

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4. Environment: it takes into account issues and considerations that companies need to paid attention in their daily operations in order to preserve and conserve the surrounding communities in which they operate. Examples of environment initiatives could include prevention of pollution, climate change mitigation and adaptation, protection to the environment and biodiversity, among others. 5. Fair Operating Practices: This core issue refers to how organizations behave with other institutions including agencies, suppliers, contractors, etc. This subject considers aspects to prevent and avoid corruption, ensure fair competitions, and respect for property rights, etc. 6. Consumer issues: It makes reference to issues that need to be considered by firms for ensuring consumer rights and customer satisfaction, for example, consumer data protection, access to essential services, sustainable consumption, etc. 7. Community involvement and development: This core subject considers aspects related to community involvement, employment creation and skills development, etc., with the purpose of improving the quality of life of surrounding communities and the society in general. Table 1 shows the different seven core subjects of the ISO 26000 and its corresponding categorizations for social responsibility.

CSR and Education The Importance of a Socially Responsible Campus Universities and business schools are responsible for providing education about CSR and imparting different skills and competencies that students need for understanding the notion and purpose of CSR (Matten & Moon, 2004). Both universities and business schools play an important role in generating knowledge and practice for ensuring a sustainable tomorrow. But what can universities do to ensure that students will gain sufficient experience for committing to the practice of CSR beyond the classroom? One answer to this question was developed by The Kellogg Commission on Future of Universities in America. They distinguished seven characteristics for a better and expanded involvement with society: responsiveness, respect for partners, academic neutrality, accessibility, integrated engagement into the institutional mission, and coordination and resource of adequacies (Panduranga Narasimharao & Nair, 2010).The purpose of this Commission is to broadening the relationships between universities and society through

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Table 1.

ISO 26000 Core Subjects in Social Responsibility.

1. Organizational governance 2. Human rights a. Due diligence b. Human risk situations c. Avoidance of complicity d. Resolving grievances e. Discrimination and vulnerable groups f. Civil and political rights g. Economic, social and cultural rights h. Fundamental principles and rights at work 3. Labour practices a. Employment and employment relationships b. Conditions of work and social protection c. Social dialogue d. Health and safety at work e. Human development and training in the workplace 4. The environment a. Prevention of pollution b. Sustainable resource use c. Climate change and adaptation d. Protection of the environment, biodiversity and restoration of natural habitats 5. Fair operating practices a. Anti-corruption b. Responsible political involvement c. Fair competition d. Promoting social responsibility in the value chain e. Respect for property rights 6. Consumer issues a. Fair marketing, factual and unbiased information and fair contractual practices b. Protecting consumer’s health and safety c. Sustainable consumption d. Consumer service, support and complaint and dispute resolution e. Consumer data protection and privacy f. Access to essential services g. Education and awareness 7. Community involvement and development a. Community involvement b. Education and culture c. Employment creation and skills development d. Technology development and access e. Wealth and income creation f. Health g. Social investment

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different programmes, initiatives and partnerships for reaching the goal of serving and educating communities and improving their quality of life. For example, through volunteer programmes, students can actively participate and use their knowledge and skills to teach and empower communities about a particular subject or programme. Universities have many groups of stakeholders; internally they can include students, staff and faculty, and externally alumni, businesses, governments, professional associations and society. It is important that universities should evaluate each group of stakeholders and behave in a responsible way for sustaining fruitful relationships with them through different initiatives, programmes and efforts (Jongbloed, Enders, & Salerno, 2008). Very few investigations have showed what type of initiatives universities are doing for promoting social responsible practices on and off campus. Nejati, Shafaei, Salamzadeh, and Daraei (2011) analysed the websites of the top 10 world universities ranked by Times Higher Education. The authors identified and classified different aspects of CSR according to the seven core areas of the ISO 26000. They found that US and UK universities scored 100 in almost the seven core areas, except for community involvement and development (p. 75). The authors did not present examples of the different initiatives performed by the universities in these seven areas. Previous research has shown that universities can cause significant environmental impacts (Jabbour, 2010). Therefore, universities should provide a responsible and sustainable campus environment for current groups of stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, suppliers, local community, etc) and without compromising future generations of stakeholders. A Sustainable and Responsible Curriculum Business schools have received considerable criticism because of its marketlike education orientation based in career-enhancing and salary-increasing, marketing themselves as a medium for richer and better jobs (Pfeffer & Fong, 2004; Skapinker, 2005; Lacy & Salazar, 2005). This woefully conception places fundamental academic subjects such as ethics and CSR as irrelevant for teaching and researching. Cowton and Cummins (2003) encountered that 58% of business schools in United Kingdom taught business ethics, but only 18 schools placed ethics as core subjects. The authors agreed that ethics are treated with indifference in the curriculum. Actually, there are a growing number of business students pressuring and claiming business schools to offer core courses in CSR-related areas and better teaching in the area (Lacy & Salazar, 2005). One of the most

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important student CSR efforts is Net Impact,1 an international nonprofit organization with the purpose of educating, working and conveying for a more sustainable and responsible world. Net Impact members can include students and professional leaders working and/or with interests in areas such as CSR, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit management and environmental sustainability, among others. Net Impact student’s members have been seriously demanding societal and environmental issues in the curriculum of business schools (Lacy & Salazar, 2005). Another study has shown an increasing demand of business students in including CSR in the mainstream MBA curriculum (Marsden, 2008). This is fundamental because future managers need to consider responsible business practices and effective ways to manage them. A 2011 Net Impact survey encountered that 95% of graduate members said that having a career that cares for creating a positive social and environmental impact was very important to them. But the different efforts that business schools are currently doing are still not enough for preparing students for responsible and sustainable thinking and practice (Net Impact, 2011). In another study performed by Deloitte and the Aspen Institute, 60% of the students expressed that ‘responsible corporate governance and transparent business practices were very important to them in selecting a job, and nearly 50% said that responsible supply chain management was very important’ (p. 37). MBA student enrolment has grown by 35% between 1994 and 1999 according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of BusinessAACSB (Cornelius, Wallace, & Tassabehji, 2007). These statistics should alert business schools to redefine their educational purpose. It means to place CSR, ethics and sustainability subjects into the core curriculum and empowering responsible and sustainable analytic thinking and action between students for avoiding ‘Greed thinking’ and ‘bad apples excuses’. In spite of ethics being one of the oldest fields of study, business faculty and administrators are still debating the role and importance of this subject in the MBA classroom. Business schools are starting to include two important dimensions of ethics in the curriculum: CSR and sustainable management (Christensen, Peirce, Hartman, Hoffman, & Carrier, 2007). Although these courses are most commonly found as electives rather than core subjects with less than half of the student taking these classes (Marsden, 2008). Including CSR and sustainable courses into business core curricula bring beneficial opportunities to students, influencing and shaping organizational

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work environment. Students could be prepared in areas for enhancing operational process such as sustainability certification of products, operations and supply chains; zero-waste; eco-efficiency; work-place well-being and community vitality (Albinsson, Yasanthi Perera, & Sautter, 2011). According to Marsden (2008), the main subjects that a CSR curriculum should include are: ethical/responsible decision-making; value chain, legal and moral complicity sphere of influence; stakeholder management; environment, health and well-being; social impact, labour issues, human rights; national and international public policy engagement; governance, management, accountability and reporting. Although the reality is that CSR and sustainability courses are still considered as ‘soft’ classes compared with traditional ones such as accounting or finance (Gandz, 2011). Gandz believes that one of the elements that contributed to this traditional vision is faculty influence. Faculty usually convey attitudes and perceptions to students about what subjects are important or not, and what they should be concerned about. Faculty must pay attention to the different statements they made, for example, if business ethics is an elective course, then faculty are making a statement that ‘ethics are optional (Gandz, 2011, p. 1). Other studies have found that many CSR teachers and practitioners believe that CSR should be fully integrated into the curriculum for helping students to make social and environmental decisions as a businessperson (Matten & Moon, 2004). There are significant efforts and resources introduced by organizations for providing responsible and environmental consciousness among business schools, universities and students. The Net Impact Association for example creates and develops an annual guide to graduate programmes called Business as Unusual for prospective students interested in CSR and sustainability topics. One of the key features of this guide is that presents student perspectives about how MBA programmes address these issues. It is also a powerful tool for business schools to improve curriculum, practice, and career services (Business as Unusual, 2011). On the other hand, Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranks the best MBA programmes focused on social and environmental impact around the world through a biennial survey conducted by the Aspen Institute. The ranking is based on required and elective courses in CSR and sustainability areas. It is divided in four parts: Introduction-Basic School Information; MBA coursework, Institutional support (extracurricular activities, internships programmes, clubs, career development, centres, etc.) and faculty research (Beyond Grey Pinstripes). The ranking revealed that the majority of the top

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10 universities are from United States. It also indicated that compared to 10 years ago, there has been an increase of required courses in business and society (79% during 2011 compared to 34% in 2001). Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future is a sustainable and educational initiative programme by UNESCO. It is a free resource that contains up to 100 hours of professional development for preparing courses as well as in service education for teaching and curriculum developers. The purpose of this initiative is to help students to better understand the world where they live addressing problems such as poverty, wasteful consumption, climate change, population, health, conflict and human rights. Sustainable and responsible education initiatives are useful resources for helping students to involve in triple bottom line critical and analytical thinking. Not only students but different groups of stakeholders are recognizing the importance of a greater coverage of CSR and sustainability issues in business and education. Similar studies have analysed the presence of ethics, CSR and sustainable courses in the graduate curriculum of business schools, but up-to-date there are no studies focused on discovering alignments in the CSR trends between the curricula of business schools and the overall CSR campus initiatives. Using a content analysis of the home pages of business schools, Cornelius et al. (2007) analysed the corporate identity, level of engagement in social responsibility programmes and the relationship with ethics teaching in the top tier and lower tier business schools. They found that top tier business schools teach proactive ethics, while lower tier schools demonstrated no preference at the moment of teaching ethics. A survey of CSR education to deans, directors, professors and researchers of European business schools was conducted by Matten and Moon (2004). It analyses to what extent business schools are committed to taught CSR and ethics courses. The authors found 27 general labels for CSR programmes: 16% of the institutions used CSR, 25% used Sustainable Development and 16% described their Environmental or Ecological Management programmes as CSR. Business Ethics courses were taught in 22% of the schools, and ethics in 18% of the institutions. But a problem arisen by the respondents was that CSR modules were removed from the mainstream curriculum and they were usually introduced as elective modules. Another survey was developed by Christensen et al. (2007); their work showed how deans and directors of the top 50 global MBA programmes

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viewed the inclusion and coverage of ethics, CSR and sustainability topics at their institutions. The authors found that the majority of the schools required one or more of these subjects in the curriculum and a higher inclusion of sustainability-related courses. ‘More and more research suggests that people looking for jobs with ‘meaning,’ give them a sense of contributing to a better world rather than just making money’ (Cohen, 2010, p. 36). That is why it is important to engage future business professionals in taking a societal and environmental responsible posture through the constant exposure of CSR core courses.

METHODOLOGY This investigation uses a content analysis methodology to discover alignments between the curricula of business schools and the overall CSR campus initiatives, in order to find common CSR trends. The content analysis methodology is a useful method to codify texts, pieces of writing or categories depending on selected criteria with the purpose of obtaining information about attributes of the text (Bauer & Gaskell, 2000; Weber, 1998). It is one of the most well established methods to analyse media texts to describe content systematically and objectively (Morsing, Eder Hansen, & Langer, 2006). In this investigation the top 100 US Business Schools from a ranking carried out by US News, (2011)2 were taken into account for analysis. The data was collected from the websites of the business schools as well as from their corresponding university website. It is considered that university websites are the first source of information for students, influencing their selections at the moment of choosing the programme of study. Therefore, university websites provide valuable information regarding programmes and curriculums (Cornelius et al., 2007). The data information gathered was classified according to the seven core subjects of the ISO 26000 (organizational governance, human rights, environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development) and some other variables pre-established for obtaining better interpretative results. These variables included the presence of a CSR-related research centres (affiliated to business schools) and the presence of a campus sustainability or CSR office in every university.

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The analysis was developed in two phases for discovering the different CSR trends: 1. University Campus Initiatives: CSR initiatives were looked at different university webpages such as sustainability, community engagement, human resources, diversity, campus life, etc., in order to discover CSR campus initiatives according to the seven core areas of the ISO 26000. The above mentioned departments were usually the ones in charge of developing and promoting CSR university campus initiatives with the collaboration of students, faculty, staff and local community. 2. Business Graduate Curriculum: Manifest content related to CSR was collected and analysed from the business schools websites. Evidence was looked for CSR-related courses (including ethics and sustainability) within the graduate school curriculum (including Full-Time MBA, PartTime MBA, Evening MBA, Executive MBA and PhD). The undergraduate curriculum was not taken into account because the majority of the schools in the list did not offer undergraduate studies. Later the different courses found were classified according to the seven core areas of the ISO 26000. The CSR-related courses encountered were also categorized as core or electives. Moreover information about CSR-related research centres as well as CSR initiatives by business schools was also identified. Once the codification form was developed, an initial analysis of 20 business schools and university websites was carried out in order to judge the suitability of the categories for the purpose of this study. The authors cross-validated each subjective assessment and solved all minor discrepancies. The information was coded in a spreadsheet. For the statistical analysis the code value (variables) were quantified by an assigned number: 1 if there is information regarding to the variable or 0 if there is not information regarding to the variable, followed by a statistics analysis for each categorization.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION After analysing the different university and business schools websites, key findings were grouped under the following two categories:  CSR theory (Graduate curriculum)  CSR practice (University initiatives)

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Later relationships arisen between these two variables were discovered and analysed.

CSR Theory (Graduate Curriculum) In spite of education and awareness in the importance of CSR within the corporate world, overall US business schools are still not including CSRrelated courses into the graduate curriculum. CSR-related courses can include sustainability, society, environment, corporate citizenship, human rights, consumer issues and corporate governance, among others. As shown in Table 2, only 42 schools are offering CSR-related core courses at a graduate level (MBA/PhD). This means that more than a half of the analysed business schools are treating CSR as soft subjects and less important than traditional courses such as Finance or Accounting. These results are not surprising due to business schools marketing is still focused primarily on career and salary enhancement (Pfeffer & Fong, 2004) or as a ‘shareholder-value oriented governance of capitalist organizations’ (Matten & Moon, 2004, p. 329). Commonly US business schools are preparing students with a profitable vision rather than encouraging a responsible or sustainable approach and a sense of civic virtue and moral among students. Results also showed a common trend within US Business Schools in including sustainability subjects into the graduate curriculum. Other authors have found a higher inclusion of sustainability courses in some business schools in US and Europe (Christensen et al., 2007; Matten & Moon, 2004). As visualized in Table 2, 34 schools presented sustainability courses and 33 schools included CSR courses into the graduate curriculum. As well as sustainability is gaining recognition at a corporate level, it is also drawing attention within business schools in offering sustainability courses at the same level of importance of CSR courses. Table 2.

Number of US Business Schools with CSR-Related Courses in the Graduate Curriculum.

Courses Core courses in CSR-related areas CSR courses Sustainability courses Ethics courses

No. of US Business Schools 42 33 34 79

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Ethics is finally getting accepted in the curriculum of many US business schools after many discussions, claims, and critiques of organizations, businesses and media due to recent financial scandals in the corporate environment. Seventy-nine business schools presented ethics courses (core and/or elective), but yet there are considerable US business schools that are not placing business ethics into the core curriculum of graduate programmes. If ethics is still a big issue to include in the curriculum after many decades of claims and discussions, what can we expect of subjects such as CSR and sustainability to reach into the core curriculum? Responding to this problem, some business schools are combining two subjects in one course such as ethics and social responsibility; corporate ethics and social responsibility or the business of sustainability and social responsibility as seen in Table 3. This helps to overcome time conflicts or time scheduling of courses while covering two fundamental subjects for the business curriculum. Some of the courses presented in Table 3 were part of a concentration of an MBA specialization in sustainability or CSR. Eighteen business schools offered a MBA in sustainability or CSR showing the growing importance of these subjects for encouraging sustainable and responsible business operations. Table 3. Sample of Courses at a Graduate Level. CSR Strategic CSR and projects Accounting corporate responsibility Social responsibility and entrepreneurship Corporate responsibility

Sustainability Sustainability reporting and analysis Business and sustainability

CleanTech venture opportunities Strategies for Sustainable Development CSR and sustainability Topics in sustainable development The business of sustainability CSR and sustainability and social responsibility Leading for social value Sustainability in business Ethics and social responsibility Corporate ethics and organizational responsibility

Sustainability and competitive advantage Sustainable business, economics, and environmental policy

Ethics Ethics of corporate management Ethics and social responsibility Business ethics Law and ethics Ethics on decision making Leadership and ethics Corporate ethics and organizational responsibility Everyday ethics for managers Ethics and foundations of business

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No. of Business Schools

On the other hand, taking into account the seven core areas of ISO 26000 in social responsibility, business schools presented a higher inclusion of CSR-related courses (core and elective) in consumer issues and environment areas as presented on Fig. 1. Sixty-two business schools offered courses in consumer issues and fifty-nine about environment. Consumer issues can include aspects related to sustainable consumption, protection of consumer’s health and safety, access to essential services, education and awareness, among others. Environment can involve aspects related to sustainable resource use, climate change, prevention of pollution and protection of the environment. Human Rights and Fair Operating Practices (including social responsibility in the value chain) were not relevant topics for teaching in the graduate curriculum of US business schools as presented in Fig. 1. US Business Schools scored lower in these topics showing a lack of allegiance to fully prepare students to understand the importance and awareness of all the aspects of the CSR umbrella. Table 4 shows a sample of courses in the seven core areas of ISO 26000 offered in the curriculum some business graduate programmes. Courses vary from Solving Society Problems through Enterprise and Innovation through Understanding What Customers Value. It is important to invest and develop research and teaching in CSR-related areas; moreover business schools should engage students and faculty in training, research, and community programmes in these areas (Cornelius

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Fig. 1. Presence of CSR Core Subjects in the Graduate Curriculum.

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Table 4.

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Graduate School Curriculum Sample of Subjects in Seven Core Areas of ISO 26000.

Org. governance

Human rights

Labour practices

Environment

Fair operating practices

Consumer issues

Community involvement and development

Corporate governance Corporate governance and finance Governance and financial accountability Organizational governance and control Law of corporate governance and business ethics Current topics in corporate governance Societal and governmental environment of business Enterprise innovation for social change International human rights Doing business in the developing world Markets in human hope Solving societal problems through enterprise and innovation Innovation and entrepreneurship for developing economies Human rights and intellectual property Employee Incentives and productivity Managing workplace diversity Employee benefits management Life and health insurance Labour relations and employment Opportunity recognition and ideation Business design for environmental sustainability Business and the environment Conversation and debates on globalization Competitive environmental strategy Climate change and public policy Green innovation and eco-efficiency strategies for business Managing energy in a constrained world Special topics in supply chain management Sustainable operations in supply chain Strategic sourcing Green supply chain Global supply chain management Management of humanitarian supply chains Strategic and analytical customer relationship management Listening to the customer Product stewardship and sustainability Understanding what customers value Consumer insights Towards sustainable and responsible leadership Strategies for sustainable development: managing social issues The corporation in society Global context of business, new urbanism, smart growth and sustainable community development Local economic and community development

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et al., 2007). In other words, a combination of theory and practice in CSR areas is needed for achieving student success and concern about these topics during their graduate studies and later in their professional life. Through CSR research centres, for example, faculty can prepare students to gain potential and awareness in the purpose of CSR and sustainability for the overall business mission. Results found that only 53 universities presented business research centres in CSR-related areas. But this does not mean that the rest of the universities were not concerned about the subject. It means that there were not sufficient resources to create a centre in these areas. But in spite that only half of the business schools presented research centres, it is perceived that sustainability is a growing subject for investigation within schools. Forty-six universities presented research centres in sustainability; as well, it also was presented a higher inclusion of sustainability courses within the curriculum. Other research centres included CSR (23 universities); Corporate Governance (17 universities) and Ethics (31 universities). The importance of student experiences and practice about CSR and sustainability are fundamental for improving student and professional life. Moreover, ‘it is not what business schools teach students that matters, it is what students experience during their programmes’ (Gandz, 2011, p. 1). Students participating in activities related to CSR and sustainability can identify better these topics and issues in the workplace and personal lives rather than students who do not usually participate (Albinsson et al., 2011). Therefore, theory and practice should be working together for giving students a plethoric experience in CSR-related areas that can help them to become a responsible and sustainable person and business professional.

CSR Practice (University Initiatives) Sustainability was presented in the graduate curriculum as a prominent course trend. At a university level, sustainability initiatives and programmes were also highly employed and promoted. Around 93 universities demonstrated initiatives for improving the quality of life of students, staff, faculty, surrounded communities and the campus itself. It was perceived a more sustainable approach than CSR, with 90 universities having a sustainability office. Typically the different sustainability offices focus on the following areas: land, water, buildings, waste, energy, transportation, dining services, community, purchasing and recycling. Other departments and offices that collaborate with sustainability offices to ensure the employment and success of sustainability programmes are: Human Resources Department, Dining

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Number of Business Schools

Services, Diversity, Community Relations, Outreach, Community Engagement, Energy Institute, Campus Safety, Ethics Institute and Multicultural Affairs. As shown on Fig. 2, consumer issues and environment were the most common initiatives presented by the universities. Consumer issues mainly included initiatives for improving student awareness, commitment and participation towards sustainable practices. For example, some universities organized programmes to educate and create awareness between students about the importance of sustainable consumption. Environment focused primarily in promoting energy and waste programmes for a sustainable campus. Human Rights and Organizational Governance were not common areas to build initiatives as showed in Fig. 3. Only 55 universities developed initiatives in Organizational Governance areas and 50 about Human Rights. Basically, the purpose of creating and developing responsible and sustainable initiatives at the university level was primarily to promote a better campus for students, staff and faculty through programmes that reduce the negative impacts of its daily campus operations. Tables 5 and 6 show an example of the most common and unique sustainable and responsible initiatives around campus. Very few of these initiatives were promoted by business schools; one of them presented programmes for MBA spouses, so they can actively be involved in campus life through book clubs, service projects and seminars. This was created with the purpose of promoting and improving the quality life of the MBA spouses. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Fig. 2.

Presence of CSR Initiatives.

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LINA M. GOMEZ AND LUCELY VARGAS PRECIADO 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Theory

Fig. 3.

Practice

CSR Theory (Curriculum) and Practice (University Initiatives) Relationship.

Table 5.

Sample of Sustainable and Responsible Campus Initiatives.

Labour Practices

Environment

Consumer Issues Initiatives

On-site childcare and creative General and specific initiatives Sustainable consumption: Students’ competition for child care arrangement in waste reduction and recognizing the amount of (sharing a nanny with management, energy food wasted on their plates another staff or faculty). efficiency, water usage, that they do not intend to recycling programmes, eat. This competition has carbon emission inventory. grown over the past two Environmental reporting: years and the students are Carbon emissions plan, more conscious of the food climate change plan, they plan to take. sustainability report. Wind renewable energy Eating local week/monthly Sustainable commuting credits purchases to offset programmes bringing fresh alternatives (for faculty, its carbon emissions. locally products for faculty, staff and students): Zipcar staff, and students, and at (car sharing service) rental the same time creating transportation, public opportunities for local transportation, carpooling, farmers, ranchers and and bicycling (sharing fishermen for creating a bicycles or rental program). visible marketplace. Incentives for using

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Table 5. (Continued ) Labour Practices alternative commuting modes including fare free local and regional transit service and free shuttle bus around campus. Eligible employees can take university courses for fully tuition refund if the course is passed successfully. Health assessment: faculty and staff who enrol in this program car earn $100 in a health reimbursement by completing a questionnaire and health screenings. Volunteer opportunities: volunteer basedprogrammes for staff members where they can share ideas and work together in issues that matters to them, such as work areas, gender, ethnicity, diversity, union representation, etc. Dual career assistance program for spouses, offering mentoring and career assistance at the moment of looking for a job.

Environment

Replacement of entire patrol fleet with hybrid cars.

Paper usage reduced by switching to electronic forms.

Consumer Issues Initiatives

Lactation/quiet rooms for use by students, faculty and staff that are nursing mothers or require rest or stress relieve. Bug your Bike program: provides a free RFID (radio frequency identification device) for preventing theft.

Social benefits of trees trough Meal with the president: education, awareness, Through a random drawing, empowerment and research. various undergraduate students are selected to have dinner at the president’s home in order to provide an opportunity to interact informally about university issues.

Composting food waste for Water Bottle Refilling using on local community Stations: students have gardens or university farms. access to clean, good-tasting water that quickly and easily will refill their reusable water bottles avoiding to consume disposable plastic water bottles. Bike resource centre features Awareness, education and Sustainability office bike training and education incentives for energy saving, programmes: faculty and and free repair services waste disposal, water staff go ‘green’ in their workspace in order to earn a reduction, and recycling. For example, waste Green Office Certification. management programme: Dining incentivizes customers to use reusable mugs by giving them a discount on their coffee or tea.

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Table 5. (Continued ) Labour Practices

Environment

Consumer Issues Initiatives

Weight watchers at work: Replacing light bulbs with various universities offer more sustainable this opportunity for faculty alternatives campus-wide, and staff interested in reducing the University’s weight management. carbon emissions.

‘No Place for Hate’ is a campaign, for raising student awareness around issues of discrimination and educating students on appreciation and acceptance of diversity and multiculturalism Discounts in massage therapy Compressed natural gas Theme and special interest housing: For example, for on campus (CNG) refuelling station on first year females, some campus in order to universities offer a living encourage local agencies and learning community for and residents to purchase CNG powered vehicles. women interested in science and engineering. Replacement of all domestic 21 years not beers: a Medical plan with no programme for university hot water heaters with deductibles, tuition double wall, semistudents who turn 21 years remission, life insurance, old. There is a common instantaneous steam heaters optional dental and vision for more efficient energy assumption to hear among coverage, and a retirement use. university students to plan matching $1.50 for consume 21 beers in your every $1 you invest. 21st birthday. Some universities give students on their 21st birthday, a gift card and a b-day card that remind and alert them of the dangers of alcohol poisoning, tips for drinking in moderation and useful information.

A CSR Theory–Practice Relationship Results showed a relationship between CSR theory and practice in consumer issues and environment areas. As presented on Fig. 3, environment and consumer issues were the most common subjects within the graduate curriculum and campus initiatives. Consumer issues and environment are the most important issues that universities and business schools are concerned for imparting knowledge and practice to fully prepare students for the current

CSR Trends in the Top 100 US Business Schools

Table 6. Community Involvement

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Sample of Sustainable and Responsible Campus Initiatives. Fair Operating Practices

Human Rights

Org. Governance

Poverty alleviation Project for helping Purchasing and Many universities companies, project through supporting promote faculty and entrepreneurs, linking small-scale community-based student engagement producers to formal economic farms and businesses with local schools, markets. developers, and in order to prevent bringing resources to communities to excessive use of undeserved public improve their pesticides, schools for students competitiveness in K-12 , for example: antibiotics and  CLEAN Education hormones and through the  Provides science application of reducing energy science, technology costs and water use, education for 1–8 and innovation. and ensuring food grade students for freshness. global climate change solution  Learning initiatives for helping immigrants to make a smoother transition to life in the United States acquiring a valueadded education.  Learning programmes and resources for underresource pre-school children. Partnership Initiatives for Sustainable dialogues Working with Social collaboration among fighting against with the local and Environmental hunger in the state. the academic, state community. Suppliers such as government and Households are Thomas Colace business seeking assistance Company, for communities to cans, pasta, soup example, tomato enhance the kitchens, etc. vendors are all competitiveness of audited for social local companies and accountability. Each to build alliances grower is check for between the pay practices and university and supplied living business community. conditions. Teams of MBA Many universities only Through extension spouses are work with suppliers and other forming associations that offer community

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Table 6. (Continued ) Community Involvement

Fair Operating Practices

environmentalfor helping other friendly products. spouses. They can get involved in book clubs, children’s music classes, service projects, and continuingeducation seminars Farm to College is a Sustainable nationwide initiative purchasing: New appliances that enhances the relationship between purchased are Energy Star rated. local farmers and universities by buying fresh, locally grown produce and dairy.

Human Rights

Org. Governance

outreach programmes, university experts and specialists are driving efforts and initiatives to enhance agriculture and the environment. Providing financial support for citizen groups in the state.

and future challenges of our society. From changing the way people consume to manage natural resources, these issues challenge students to understand the importance of responsible and sustainable practices in all types of organizations. But this relationship shows a higher presence of sustainable and responsible campus initiatives rather than courses about CSR and sustainability. These results indicate a lack of commitment by business schools in encouraging and adapting these important topics into the graduate curriculum. If CSR and sustainability topics are not emphasized in the curriculum, why students will care about what the university is doing about these subjects? According to Pfeffer and Fong (2004) business schools focus primarily in career issues rather than giving the opportunity to students to put in practice what they have learned, for example through different resources and learning opportunities around campus. Business schools should provide a learning environment of different CSR and sustainability subjects inside and outside the classroom. But part of the problem of including CSR and sustainability core subjects into the curriculum is because it challenges the traditional notion of business theory and teaching (Marsden, 2008). Not only business schools are responsible

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in conveying students about the importance of CSR and sustainability in business education, but faculty and educators present a prominent role as well. At the end they are the ones responsible in encouraging students to understand why CSR and sustainability practices are necessary for achieving organizational success (Albinsson et al., 2011). The results of this investigation suggest that one of the best practices for achieving a better and enriched student experience is that business schools should embrace CSR and integrate it into the core curriculum and through practice. If CSR is not integrated into the mainstream of theory and practice, it could not have a long-term impact (Lacy & Salazar, 2005). Providing a balance relationship between CSR theory and practice can give business students the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to become successful professionals and leaders. Moreover if business schools and faculty convey students in the importance of CSR and sustainability topics through an interesting combination of theory and practice, students will be concerned in these subjects because these topics matter to achieve company development and satisfaction. Because prospective students usually use the Internet for college or graduate school search (Gordon & Berhow, 2009), it is important that business schools should fully display and include CSR-related courses in the curriculum. Moreover universities should demonstrate through their websites their commitment about different responsible and sustainable initiatives. Prospective students with sustainable conscious thinking could be more inclined to choose a campus or school that shows allegiance with responsible and sustainable processes. Responsible and sustainable initiatives should be welcome to improve the quality of life of different groups of stakeholders such as staff, students, faculty, community leaders, suppliers, etc. Therefore, through a successful relationship between CSR theory and practice, universities and business schools can truly engage and commit students in the importance of CSR for the overall business purpose and mission.

CONCLUSIONS This investigation has presented the different alignments observed between CSR theory and CSR practice with the purpose of finding common CSR trends between business schools and university campuses. Moreover, it has exposed the importance of combining theory and practice for educating and preparing business students about different CSR-related subjects including

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sustainability, ethics, consumer issues, environment, human resources, organizational governance, etc. Currently universities and business schools in the United States are generally concerned and engaged in CSR thinking and practice. According to the findings, both business schools and their corresponding university campuses presented common CSR trends in environment and consumer issues. But beyond this common relationship it is perceived a higher inclusion of CSR practice rather than theory. It means that university campuses are creating more opportunities for students to exercise and engage in sustainable and responsible actions and practice. But many business schools are still way behind imparting knowledge and developing skills in sustainability and CSR subjects. From the results it is observed a higher inclusion of sustainability courses and initiatives. It is interesting to note that as well as it is happening in the corporate world, a shift to sustainability within the academic setting is perceived it. There are no CSR departments or offices but almost all the analysed universities presented a campus sustainability office and there are more research centres (affiliated to business schools) in sustainability than CSR. This investigation suggest that universities and business schools should include more CSR topics such as organizational governance, human rights, fair operating practices, in order to cover all the CSR umbrella. There should be more awareness and education in all these important topics and not only in the most popular or most convenient. Social responsibility practices are usually voluntary due to the lack of specific laws that universities must follow to include social responsibility into their core policies (Nejati et al., 2011). That is why it is important to invest and develop projects and programmes that can involve students, faculty, staff, researchers and local communities. Moreover universities and business schools should take advantage of new technologies for information and communication such as blogs and social networking sites to reinforce theory and initiatives, engaging students to participate and contribute with responsible practices. Practice is different than theory; both cannot happen in isolation, they need to be working together as a whole. The challenge here is that universities and business schools should be working together in educating professionals capable of creating a better responsible and sustainable tomorrow. ‘No one knows what the future will be, except that it will be very different from what life is today and that decisions about whether the future is a sustainable one or not will depend upon changes in human culture’

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(UNESCO, 2005, p. 1). Nowadays, universities and business schools are challenged to create productive relationships between theory and practice in CSR and sustainability areas. Embracing change must be their motto in order to sustain future generations of professionals.

NOTES 1. Retrieved from http://netimpact.org/about 2. Retrieved from http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/bestgraduate-schools/top-business-schools/mba-rankings

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CHAPTER 9 CSR AND EDUCATION: THE GHANAIAN AND AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE George K. Amoako, Ruby Melody Agbola, Robert K. Dzogbenuku and Evans Sokro INTRODUCTION Issues concerning society are everybody’s business. Therefore, individuals, larger or smaller groups, formal or informal entities, public or private firms, governmental or non-governmental organisations who are key stakeholders of society must always aspire to champion societal concerns. Society’s welfare should be everybody’s business. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a broad sense can be viewed as the relationship of organisations with society as a whole, and the need for organisations to align their values with societal expectations (Atuguba & Dowuona-Hammond, 2006). In reality, it is a set of standards by which organisations can impact their environment with the potential of creating sustainable development (Helg, 2007). It is critical that society educates everyone to be responsible. From all societal actors, universities are the ones educating the future elites of a country. What they teach and do not teach may make or break a nation’s future and well-being. As noted by Dashwood and Puplampu (2010), there is a greater need for crafting a sustainable, strategic and mutually beneficial

Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 185–222 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004011

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set of responsible actions in embracing the right approaches to CSR. According to them, such actions should emanate from a genuine recognition of, and attention to, economic, traditional, historical, as well as business arguments from the perspectives of the stakeholders and interest groups. Amaeshi, Adi, Ogbechie, and Amao (2006) contend that CSR is a localised and socially embedded concept and therefore the prevailing ideas, perceptions, issues addressed and modes of practicing CSR are reflections of organisations’ responses to their socio-economic environment. There is evidence to suggest that CSR issues differ in nature from one location to the other and across industries. Hence, the perfect implementation of CSR in Ghana and Africa as a whole can be enhanced when academia in partnership with industry initiate, design and teach programmes that are relevant to the needs of industry and are a perfect fit with the African culture. The conceptual basis of this chapter, therefore, rests on the preposition that higher institutions of learning in Ghana and Africa need to adopt sustainable strategies of embedding CSR into their curricula. The chapter also urges Business and Economic schools to seek out a proactive approach to teaching CSR, as a means through which students can become competitive actors on the social development market and be persons able to offer the result-driven partnerships that businesses are looking for. In light of the above, business schools in Africa should try to push towards the movement of integrating CSR into core business education that is educating responsible managers with a broad range of stewardship skills in addition to high-level technical competencies, not for the sake of integration but for the sake of meeting the expectations of a dynamic and modern business environment (CSR Magazine, 2005). When CSR is studied as a course, it explores the challenges and opportunities of current CSR models as well as the next generation of issues that business practitioners will face. New frameworks and concepts will help organisations in society to focus and integrate social responsibility in order to position firms for higher levels of success. It will also provide the practical knowledge and insight needed to improve decision-making, leverage partnership, manage risk and measure performance. In Africa, CSR seems to be driven by factors that differ from those of Western Europe and hence could be grossly misunderstood. The difference in CSR between countries in Africa and those in the West can be examined by looking at the various drivers for or causes of CSR in developing countries, like those in Africa. Although these drivers are not all unique to developing countries, together they build a distinctive picture of how CSR is conceived, incentivised and practised (Dartey-Baah & Amposah-Tawiah,

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2011). The evolution of CSR and the emphasis on sustainability in business enterprises have elevated the desperate need to move from doing business for the sake of profit margins alone to social impact which in turn affects the profit bottom line. Universities and training institutions need to take the lead in transforming society and take on the difficult role of beginning such changes. This will make them responsible, visible and involved actors within their respective communities. Teaching CSR is one way of tackling the proposed changes in Business and Economics education. CSR has emerged as a promising concept for business engagement in society to address major societal challenges that governments and non-profit sectors have failed to successfully address. This paper is therefore guided by the following objectives: 1. To find ways of generating industries’ interest in collaborating with academia to research into ways of improving CSR strategies in Ghana and Africa. 2. To research and better understand how CSR can be embedded in the curriculum of business schools in Ghana.

METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY The methodology of the study focused on gathering information about opinions of stakeholders concerned with CSR education in Ghana. The population comprises faculty, students and views of respondents in industry. The research sought to seek their opinions on how CSR as discipline could be incorporated into academic curriculum. Purposive sampling method was used to select respondents. In this regard, selected students were asked to express the thoughts on CSR education under a focus group discussion. This approach was chosen to allow respondents especially students to individually express their views regarding CSR education.

Research Design Qualitative research approach was used to obtain views from respondents. In-depth and open-ended questions were used. Questions were structured with students contributing their views through focus group discussion. In all

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85 business students in their 3rd and 4th year were involved in the focus group discussion with the average of 8 in a group. All the participants had CSR as a core taught subject. For easy analysis, participants were numbered 1–8 and the groups numbered A–H and these codes were used for identifying and matching responses with specific participants. The discussions were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data collected was analysed using qualitative analytical methods including interpreting responses, drawing inferences and literally reproducing responses word for word. In addition to the focus group discussions, eight faculty staff were also interviewed on the subject. A number of business executives were also asked to express their opinions on CSR education in Ghana and Africa and what they thought should constitute the course content of such an education. Besides, websites of most business schools and universities of Englishspeaking African countries were also visited. The programmes offered and course outlines, where available, were examined to obtain information on the level of CSR education in these universities. English-speaking African countries were used because the authors cannot translate non-English texts should they include universities from non-English-speaking countries.

Limitation of Approach and Design Obtaining detailed opinion on CSR issues was difficult due to lack of clearcut understanding of CSR issues from respondents. Most respondents did not seem to have an idea of how CSR issues could be added to CSR curricular. Again, stakeholders of CSR like students, faculty and practitioners could not meet on a common platform to discuss CSR-related issue of interest. Nevertheless, the authors believe they have managed to capture through their research, representative reflection of the various stakeholder perspectives relevant to CSR education in Ghana.

LITERATURE REVIEW It is universally recognised that CSR has become an indispensable tool in the growth and profitability of businesses throughout the world. Accordingly, corporate managers now have the difficult task of balancing business priorities. With the use of CSR activities in the creation of successful businesses, CSR has become a blistering subject of the western management community after several decades of arguments (Chen & Wang, 2011).

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The ultimate goal of being socially responsible is to increase the welfare of humanity; CSR can be defined as corporations assuming rights and obligations in developing values including that of protection, sustainability, acting responsibly and economically with respect to the environment (Gil Estallo, Giner de la Fuente, & Griful-Miquela, 2007). There is no single, universally accepted definition of CSR. According to the definition in the ‘Green Paper: Promoting a European framework for Corporate Social Responsibility’ of the European commission, CSR is described as a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. The International Standards Organization (ISO), while considering organisations in general, defines social responsibility as ‘a balanced approach for organizations to address economic, social and environmental issues in a way that aims to benefit people, communities and society’. Different mechanisms of promoting the development of CSR are possible in Ghana and Africa as a whole. Such mechanisms range from teaching CSR in the tertiary institutions as a course on its own and voluntary codes of conduct to international regulations. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (2007) also defines CSR as the continuing commitment by businesses to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce, their families and the local community, and the society at large. Diversity Australia (2007a) suggests that CSR strategies include community projects, employee volunteering, strategic giving, matched giving, community-based partnerships and corporate foundation giving. CSR is also about the purpose of companies; what companies individually and collectively contribute to life in a community, a country and even life on earth. CSR is closely associated with the idea of ‘sustainability’. It is about the interdependence between a company and its economic, social and ecological environment. It is about how that interdependency can be managed for the better performance of a company and society as a whole. The concept of CSR is now widely recognised as a way of doing business. It is integral to all mainstream business decision-making. Those companies which have adopted CSR principles and practices no longer regard them as an optional bolt-on but have built them into all aspects of the business. Leading CSR professionals in companies no longer ‘do CSR’ for the company but, working with everyone from the Main Board downwards, act as advisors on how CSR principles can be applied at every stage of the business and help to monitor the company’s CSR performance.

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Matten and Moon (2004) also identified that the term corporate social responsibility is interpreted in a number of ways; in fact, they proposed that CSR is used synonymously with terms such as Business Ethics, Corporate Citizenship, Sustainability, Corporate Environmental Management, Business and Society, Business and Globalisation, Stakeholder Management and Governance. CSR is one of the important principles on which modern business is built. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication ‘Making Good Business Sense’ by Lord Holme and Richard Watts used the following definition. ‘Corporate social responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large’. The same report gave some evidence of the different perceptions of what this should mean from a number of different societies across the world. Traditionally in the United States, CSR has been defined much more in terms of a philanthropic model. Companies make profits, unhindered except by fulfilling their duty to pay taxes. Then they donate a certain share of the profits to charitable causes. It is seen as tainting the act for the company to receive any benefit from the giving. The definition of CSR used by Business for Social Responsibility is: ‘Operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business’. On the other hand, the European Commission hedges its bets with two definitions wrapped into one: ‘A concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment. A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interactions with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis’. Both of these definitions broadly focus on the impact of how one manages the core businesses of a firm. Some go further than others in prescribing how far companies go beyond managing their own impact into the terrain of acting specifically outside of that focus to make a contribution to the achievement of broader societal goals. It is a key difference, when many business leaders feel that their companies are ill-equipped to pursue broader societal goals, and activists argue that companies have no democratic legitimacy to take such roles. That particular debate will continue. The practice of CSR is much debated and criticised. Proponents argue that there is a strong business case for CSR, in that corporations benefit in multiple ways by operating with a perspective broader and longer than their own immediate, short-term profits.

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Critics, however, argue that CSR distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses; others believe it is nothing more than superficial window-dressing; yet others argue that it is an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations. CSR has been redefined throughout the years. However, it essentially is titled to aid to an organisation’s mission as well as a guide to what the company stands for and will uphold to its consumers and other stakeholders.

Origin of CSR CSR has been around for over 50 years now. Rather more pertinently, CSR has been there ever since commerce began (Asongu, 2007). While some authors do believe that CSR is a relatively new concept, CSR is perhaps as old as business itself and in some societies one cannot do without being socially responsible (Clement-Jones, 2005). Though traditions of corporate philanthropy date back to the Victorian Era where Quaker companies like Cadbury’s, Rowntrees and Hershey’s always worked towards improving their employees’ standard of living along with developing the communities they lived. It is seen that CSR was carried out in a paternalistic form where it was initiated by the owners of the firms, while if we see today CSR is practised by corporations that are owned by the shareholders and run by employed managers. The term ‘CSR’ came into common use in the early 1970s, after many multinational corporations were formed, although it was seldom abbreviated. The term stakeholder, meaning those on whom an organisation’s activities have an impact, was used to describe corporate owners beyond shareholders as a result of an influential book by R. Edward Freeman, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, in 1984. Proponents argue that corporations make more long-term profits by operating with a perspective, while critics argue that CSR distracts from the economic role of businesses. Others argue that CSR is merely windowdressing, or an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations. CSR is titled to aid an organisation’s mission as well as a guide to what the company stands for and will uphold to its consumers. Development business ethics is one of the forms of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. Though CSR is not a new phenomenon, it has been under much retrospection over the last decade. Much has been talked about and written about CSR.

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Importance of CSR There has been extensive research on CSR and all aspects and roles from which the organisations could benefit. Many great scholars and researchers have quoted CSR to be one of the firm’s strategies to derive benefit from its customers, ultimately resulting into the gains or profits for the companies. In the opinion of Porter and Kramer (2002), CSR and related philanthropy are a major source of deriving competitive advantage from the consumers and finally help the firm’s bottom line. Most of the researchers have felt that this link could be helpful for the companies to make a positive impact on the customers, employees and suppliers to a certain extent. As per the study conducted by Greening and Turban (2000), CSR could also help the companies to attract better and high-quality talent as their future employees. According to Peter Navarro (1998), businesses indulge into CSR as a part of their brand building exercise to increase its visibility in the eyes of the investors and other stakeholders, to appeal to a wider set of customers, to spread good will of their brand name in the market, etc. As the times have changed where all the stakeholders demand a greater amount of transparency and visibility in the system, most of the corporate have started becoming open about the CSR activities that they indulge in and advertise them too. This has helped the firms in gaining public attention and subsequently gains. The firm is undoubtedly benefited in one way or the other; however, this is not the focus and the main reason why they should indulge in CSR. Firms should have strong faith in the act of doing well, not just for themselves and their immediate intermediaries but all the stakeholders of the firm. Evaluators should also consider the good that these firms are doing towards society and not just focus on the profits incurred by the firms. Over the years all the organisations have realised the necessity of CSR being an integral part of their corporate philosophy. Many studies have supported and emphasised the role of CSR benefiting the company though its focus may just be to help the society at large. The benefits of CSR include an enhanced brand, increased positive associations from consumers and employee loyalty (Diversity Australia, 2007b). Main reasons for implementing CSR are good reputation of a company and its products, increased motivation and productivity of workers and understanding the society in which the company operates as well as contributions to sustainable development among others.

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THE NATURE OF CSR IN AFRICA According to Visser (2007), CSR can be understood to represent the formal and informal ways in which business makes a contribution to improving the governance, and social, ethical, labour and environmental conditions of the developing countries in which they operate, while remaining sensitive to prevailing religious, historical and cultural contexts. In Visser’s study of CSR in African countries, the author noted the following characteristics:  ‘CSR tends to be less formalised or institutionalised in terms of the CSR benchmarks commonly used in developing countries, that is CSR rarely has codes, standards, management systems and reports.  Where formal CSR is practised, this is usually by large, high profile national and multinational companies, especially those with recognised international brands or those aspiring to global status.  Formal CSR codes, standards and guidelines that are most applicable to developing countries tend to be issue specific.  In developing countries, CSR is most commonly associated with philanthropy or charity, that is through corporate social investment in education, health, sports, development, the environment and other community services.  Making an economic contribution is often seen as the most important and effective way for business to make a social impact.  Business often finds itself engaged in the provision of social services that would be seen as government’s responsibility in developed countries, for example investment in infrastructure, schools, hospitals and housing.  The issues being prioritised under the CSR banner in Africa are different from most developed countries. For example, tackling HIV/AIDS, improving working conditions, provision of basic services, supply chain integrity and poverty alleviation.  Schmidheiny (2006) noted that social issues are generally given more political, economic and media emphasis in developing countries than environmental, ethical or stakeholder issues.  The spirit and practice of CSR is often strongly resonant with traditional communitarian values and religious concepts in developing countries, for example African humanism (Ubuntu) in South Africa’ (cited in DarteyBaah & Amposah-Tawiah, 2011, pp. 129–130). Dartey-Baah and Amposah-Tawiah (2011) proposed that the difference in CSR between countries in Africa and those in the west can be analysed

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within the context of seven key drivers of CSR in Africa, namely cultural tradition, political reforms, socio-economic priorities, governance gaps, market access, international standards and stakeholder activism. The authors argue that western theories are limited in their understanding of the relevance and practice of CSR in Africa. Hence, the specific cultural, socio-economic, and other contexts of African countries and the needs of their respective communities must be taken into account when formulating and implementing CSR programmes. Klins, Van Niekerk, and Smit (2010) also observe that Africa’s cultural context influences attitudes towards CSR. The very communal culture is manifested in the following African indigenous concepts like ‘Harambee’, ‘Tsekada’, ‘Ubuntu’, ‘Zekat’ and ‘Nnoboa’, etc.  Harambee embodies and reflects the strong ancient value of mutual assistance, joint effort, social responsibility and community self-reliance. It is guided by the principle of collective good rather than individual gain (Winston & Ryan, 2008).  Tsekada is about behaving as a ‘‘righteous person’’, fulfilling obligations to society (Ararat, 2008).  Ubuntu in Southern Africa reflects an interdependent, communal, harmonious, relationship-aware and respectful community culture – meaning each person can only be fully functioning through other people (Nussbaum, 2003).  Zekat (or Zakat) can be translated as charity or alms to the poor’ (Klin et al., 2010, p. 3). In Ghana, similar cultural values that express mutual assistance and a sense of community include the concept of ‘Nnoboa’, a practice whereby members of a community especially farmers join forces to help each other in solving each others’ problems in return for similar favours in time of need. Klin et al. (2010) pointed out that CSR in Africa is most often associated with medium to large companies, and particularly with multinationals or large foreign investors. Given the relative wealth of these companies in comparison to the poverty of the countries and societies in which they are operating, CSR can be a way to counteract negative perceptions of business, as well as a way to make a genuine difference to social and environmental challenges. Thus, CSR activities in Africa aspire to resolve challenges faced by communities, which governments cannot fully address. By contrast, the environment, workplace issues, product quality and health and safety, which form the focus of CSR in western countries, get

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much lower priority in Africa. As a result, CSR is seldom related to the companies’ core business, but rather tends to be ‘positive payback’ philanthropy, with public relations benefits. Consequently, CSR activities and projects in Africa are mainly focused on creating a positive corporate image, as well as addressing weak public sector service delivery in the areas of healthcare (particularly HIV/AIDS), education or labour skills development and the prevention of child labour. This supports Ofori’s (2007) assertion that managers and executives in Ghana and Africa engage in CSR activities primarily to enhance their corporate image among customers and also for the well-being of the society. In oil-producing and mining countries of Africa, for example South Africa, Nigeria and now Ghana, CSR is a particularly prominent theme among mining, oil and gas companies due to their significant social and environmental impacts (Hamann & Kapelus, 2004). However, due to increasing competition and the need to find new ways of attracting and retaining customers, telecommunications companies have also joined the CSR bandwagon in various African countries including Ghana. Nonetheless, no comprehensive policy framework to set the parameters of CSR activities in Ghana exists. Furthermore, there is no institutional body regulating corporate activities on CSR and as such reporting on CSR is not consistently done among corporate bodies (Ofori, 2007). Nevertheless, CSR in Ghana is taking a new dimension with the First Ever CSR Foundation Conference held in Ghana on 30 November 2011 and the subsequent launching of the new Ghana CSR Diary & Awards. Endorsed by the Association of Ghana Industries and the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Ghana CSR Diary & Awards is a combination of a special CSR Magazine and a non-competitive CSR award ceremony that celebrates and awards organisations engaged in CSR activities aimed that providing essential assistance to communities in a variety of developmental areas, for example education, health, infrastructure. The magazine also aims at exposing irresponsible and unethical business activities of organisations found culpable, helping to educate the general public on CSR matters as well as ‘recognise and motivate institutions that are executing socially impacting activities and reward them accordingly’ (http://ghanacsrdiary.com). Clearly, there is now much awareness of the important role the CSR activities can play as the government pursues its development agenda and organisations also strive to be associated with worthwhile contribution that they make to society (Dartey-Baah &Amposah Tawiah, 2011).

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THE PILLARS AND PRINCIPLES OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY According to Karima, Oshima, and Yamamoto (2006), the main pillars of CSR are thought to be based on three key factors referred to as the ‘Triple Bottom Lines of CSR’, namely economy, society and environment. Without going into the debate about the definition and contents of the triple bottom lines, the authors state that the guidelines contained in a 2001 ‘Green Paper’ presented by the European Commission ‘has been accepted as the authorized guideline of what companies should do to meet their social responsibility’ (p. 328). The requirements outlined in the Green Paper are listed in Table 1. According to Crowther and Aras (2010) there are three main principles of CSR, namely Sustainability, Accounting and Transparency. As the word suggests, sustainability is all about the decisions taken at present in a company and its impact on the future. Sustainable development is both possible and desirable by most companies. So, firms should make a conscious effort to invest in technology and in development towards the society. There is a great emphasis on the ethical aspects of the company and this in turn demands the company to be accountable to its internal customers, that is employees, its external customers and the stakeholders. Businesses attempts to maximise profits as their first and foremost goal; however, nowadays companies cannot just stop at that. They have to focus on the ethical and the social factors also equally and ensure that they maintain transparency in their accounting systems and the policies that they follow in the companies. Companies need to follow business ethics and need to maintain a certain standard, as the companies who don’t follow ethics and don’t maintain honesty would be far away from achieving their goal and keeping their stakeholders satisfied. According to Carroll (1999), there are four main imperatives that the companies need to pursue while practicing the CSR, namely maintaining the legal, economic, ethical and philanthropic aspects that are expected by the customers and stakeholders. Organisations have developed a variety of strategies for dealing with this intersection of social needs, the natural environment and corresponding business imperatives. Organisations can also be considered on a developmental continuum with respect to how deeply and how well they are integrating social responsibility approaches into both strategy and daily operations worldwide. At one end of the continuum are organisations that

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Requirements for CSR Proposed in Green Paper.

Economy 1. Close cooperation with stakeholders 2. Compliance with national and international legislations 3. Providing superior products and services 4. Promoting entrepreneurial initiatives Society 1. Human resource management  Better information throughout the company and profit-sharing and share ownership schemes  Lifelong learning and empowerment of employees  Better balance between work, family and leisure  Equal pay and career prospects for women  Consideration of employability and job security  Reducing unemployment, raising employment rate and fighting against social exclusion 2. Health and safety at work 3. Concerns with local communities  Providing jobs, wages and benefits, and tax revenues  Provision of additional vocational training places  Donations to charitable activities  Partnerships with communities, sponsoring of local sports and cultural events 4. Concerns with human rights  Extermination of child, forced and prison labours in international operations and global chain suppliers  Consideration of wages, working hours and other social conditions Environment 1. Internal management of environmental impacts and national resources  Reducing the consumption of resources  Reducing polluting emissions and waste  Consideration of products’ impacts throughout their life cycle 2. Concerns of local communities  Concerns for local physical environment  Environmental education for community  Assisting environmental charities 3. Global environmental concerns  Protecting natural resource base of economic development  Poverty eradication  Financial and technical assistance for sustainable development  Support for NGO’s advocacy role for sustainable development Source: Requirements for CSR proposed in the report ‘Ten Years after Rio: Preparing for the World Summit on Sustainable Development’ (cited in Karima et al., 2006).

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do not acknowledge any responsibility to the society and the environment. And on the other end of the continuum are those organisations that view their operations as having a significant impact as well as reliance on society at the economic, social and ecological levels, thus resulting in a sense of responsibility beyond the traditional boundaries of the organisation.

CSR AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION A report from the EC forum on CSR (2004) refers to the important role of universities in building the necessary capacity for the relevant CSR strategies, resulting in graduates as future managers and employees who have sufficient cognition of a good attitude and improved capacities to coherently approach CSR (cited in Karima et al., 2006). The report, in addition, requires universities to play a role in the improvement of information on CSR for consumers, employees and other stakeholders. There is therefore a requirement for universities to contribute to the promotion of CSR resulting in graduates who have sufficient cognition of and a good attitude towards CSR. Studying the CSR education at the University of Tokyo, the authors argue that universities that support and promote the ideals of CSR and score high in their compliance with such ideals are more likely to include CSR programmes in their curriculum and proposed the future establishment of university-wide education programmes based on the concept of CSR and the value of sustainability at all universities. Karima et al. noted that according to Triple Bottom Line, the economy can be classified into education and research, because the principal function of universities can be found in academic activity, while that of companies can be found in business or economic activity. Thus the Triple Bottom Lines of university CSR are defined as (1) Research and education, (2) Society and (3) Environment. Hence, in addition to instruction of the concept and significance of CSR, issues associated with social ethics and morality of education and research, compliance towards associated laws, human resource management, human rights, safety and health and various concerns regarding environmental safety and preservation must be covered by special educational programmes at universities. Reinhard, Osburg, and Townsend (2010) proposed a model of inclusion of CSR into the academic curriculum of cooperative education. The model focused on the teaching and most importantly students’ research of CSRrelated topics and their operation in specific business organisations. Their

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study shows that the student groups working on the research projects significantly raised their interest and knowledge CSR and were able to come up with scientifically defendable results. There is now even more impetus than before to expand the current research focus on the dynamics of how CSR operates in the marketplace. The ethical and moral concerns in educational research at universities are at present important and profound issues. In 2004, UNESCO’s European Centre for Higher Education held the International Conference on Ethical and Moral Dimensions for Higher Education and Science, which adopted the Bucharest Declaration. This declaration provides the framework for problems associated with the ethical and moral dimensions at universities including the following: 1. Universities cannot be regarded simply as ‘factories’ producing scientific and technological experts within a global knowledge economy. Universities must have key intellectual and cultural responsibilities in a knowledge-based society. 2. The values and ethical standards that universities espouse will not only have a crucial influence over the academic, cultural and political development of their academics, students and staff, but also help shape the moral contours of society at large, promoting the highest possible ethical standards. 3. High ethical standards should be respected and put into effect not only at a rhetorical level, but also in every aspect of the work of institutions including their internal governance and management, engagement with external stakeholders as well as their teaching and research programmes (cited in Karima et al., 2006). Thus, the major points of the Bucharest Declaration support the promotion of CSR education and research in all universities. Nejati, Shafaei, Salamzadeh, and Daraei (2011) observe that universities, as the centres of knowledge generation and sharing, play a very important role in solving world’s problems by ensuring a sustainable tomorrow. However, it is questionable whether universities are concerned about the teaching and learning of CSR in their institutions. Their study shows that all the top 10 leading universities of the world studied are, in some way or another, engaged in social responsibility and sustainability issues and announce it in their website content. However, many studies reveal that the integration of CSR education into the academic curriculum that promotes the teaching and learning of CSR in most universities is severely limited.

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Academia has an important contribution to make in examining the complexities of corporate citizenship in Africa, in highlighting the metanarratives and ideological tensions that underscore much of the debate, and in critically evaluating the progress by companies in their pursuit of social, economic, environmental and ethical goals. There is a clear support for the inclusion of CSR as part of the curricula within both academic and business circles.

FINDINGS Survey of universities’ websites of four African countries, namely Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, revealed that universities in South Africa top the list with CSR-related degrees and courses. This notwithstanding, it is only the University of Cape Town (UCT) that offers a comprehensive core module on corporate citizenship. Other universities provide either core modules on business ethics or on business in society or on HIV/AIDS policy and strategy (Visser & Tolhurst, 2010). It is also worth noting that CSRrelated short courses are offered in some selected schools. For example, UNISA Centre for Corporate Citizenship offers two six-month courses in corporate citizenship and corporate governance. Again, Corporate Citizenship is offered by the Sustainability Institute at the University of Stellenbosch and the Leadership Centre, University of KwaZulu-Natal while Corporate Governance is being offered by the Institute of Directors. In addition, the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business offers courses in CSR, business ethics and black economic empowerment. In Ghana, the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) offers CSR as a core module for all undergraduate business students. CSR has also been integrated into some courses like Business Policy and Strategic Management. The UGBS has recently established the Centre for Corporate Responsibility – a CSR Centre of Excellence to develop courses/modules for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Courses and training materials emanating from the centre are intended to enhance private and public stakeholder proactive engagement in CSR. In addition, the Central Business School (CBS) being the largest business school in Ghana in terms of student population offers CSR as a core course for its business students pursuing degrees in Marketing, Human Resource Management and Management Studies. The students pursuing Management Studies programme also take a course in social responsibility and professional ethics in their final year. Also, the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) recently

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introduced CSR as a core course for its undergraduate students, while the undergraduate students of Methodist University College start a course in CSR beginning 2012–2013 academic year. Although, most of the universities in Nigeria do not offer a comprehensive module on CSR, they integrate CSR into some courses such as business ethics and health, safety, and environmental management. For example, Lagos Business School, Redeemers University, Adamawa State University and Ambrose Alli University offer courses on business ethics and health, safety and environment management. This strengthens the position of Nejati et al. (2011) that environmental responsibility is a requirement for the survival and prosperity of human beings which is an important aspect of social responsibility. This is because environmental issues are closely linked to human rights, community involvement and development, and other social responsibility core subjects. Similarly, there is no comprehensive CSR module offered by Kenyan Business Schools. However, CSR is integrated into some courses. For example Kimathi University College of Technology offer courses on Development Studies and Ethics, Business Policy and Strategic Management. Besides, University of Nairobi also offer a course in Strategic Management for students pursuing degrees in Business Administration. For the focus group discussions, the following questions were used as a guide to elicit students’ opinion and views about CSR teaching and learning at the Central Business School of the Central University College in Ghana. 1. What do think of CSR as it is being taught now at Central University College? 2. Do you think CSR should have a department of its own? 3. Do you think students should have the option of specialising in CSR as they do for Banking and Finance, Accounting, Marketing and Human Resource Management? 4. How can CSR be embedded into the university curriculum? 5. Give your thoughts on CSR and education in Ghana. The focus group discussions reveal that most of the participants agree that CSR education is important and that universities should endeavour to incorporate CSR into the educational curriculum either as a core course or a minor subject to be studied under various core courses. As one participant pointed out, teaching CSR is ‘a good foundation for students as it is preparing us for the corporate world. It will help students know their duties and responsibilities to the society’ (Participant no. 2 from Focus Group F). Yet, some argue that although teaching CSR is important in universities, the

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current mode of delivery, that is classroom lecture method is not very effective in that it does not teach students how to help their communities and society in a more practical way. As such, ‘CSR should be taught but in a more practical sense in the form of attachments, community services among others’ (Participant no. 7 from Focus Group D). Opinion was divided on the issue of establishing a whole department of CSR and offering CSR as a major comparable to other majors like Marketing, Finance, HRM, etc. While some participants thought that CSR should be treated as a full discipline and a separate department created for it, others believe CSR should rather be incorporated into the general curriculum of all courses. A participant from group A sums up opinion of the group saying: ‘We do not think it is really necessary treating CSR as a main course on CUC campus [Rather] it should be incorporated in all departments so all students will have basic ideas about it’ (Participant no. 4 from Focus Group A). Yet the consensus in group C was that: ‘Creating a department for CSR in CUC will be a perfect idea, since every responsible company has a department for CSR dealing with how to take responsibility of its society’ (Participant no. 3 from Focus Group C). The idea here is that creating a department for CSR and allowing students to specialise in CSR will give students the opportunity to develop expertise in the field and be easily absorbed by the increasing number of organisations focusing on CSR. As one participant from group G stated: ‘Students specialising in CSR is a good idea, since some companies have department for CSR, it will be an opportunity for those specializing in it to get a job’ (Participant no. 1 from Group G). Relating to the issue of how CSR can be integrated into the university curriculum, participants expressed varied and diverse opinion ranging from CSR being part of the foundation course for all first-year university students, a core subject for all courses, a minor subject for all students, and an elective to CSR being a major specialism for students who wish to major in field. As one participant observed, ‘CSR being taught as a course is a nice idea and if it is taught and done well will help raise the image and reputation of the school’ (Participant no. 8 from Focus Group H). On students’ general opinion of CSR education in Ghana, most of the participants agree that CSR education is woefully inadequate and must be ‘improved’, ‘intensified’ and ‘introduced into the Ghana Education Curriculum’. The above findings clearly support the assertion of Visser and Christiaan (2005) that academic institutions and researchers focusing specifically on

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corporate citizenship in Africa remain few and under-developed. Karima et al. (2006) also note that although education is one of the fundamental and essential missions of universities, it is ‘unclear how to establish programs for education on social responsibilities’ (2006, p. 3). The present study therefore proposes a model of CSR education that emphasises a holistic approach to CSR instruction at universities; an approach that embeds and integrates CSR education into the entire university curriculum.

THE CSR EDUCATION PARADIGM The CSR education paradigm presented below proposes that for graduates to acquire the knowledge and understanding of CSR and be able to apply them effectively when they become employees and managers in various organisations, they ought to be exposed to CSR concepts and applications at three separate but continuous stages of their university education. Instruction in CSR at university should begin with Foundation courses through to theoretical application and to practical application in the form of internship and attachments. The model postulates that CSR education should not simply be a onetime affair where CSR is treated as a minor footnote, a single topic taught in a 2 to 3-hour lecture within a major course. Rather, it should be well integrated into the entire curriculum of business education from the first year through to the final year culminating in internships where students gain knowledge of the practical application of CSR in the workplace (Fig. 1).

Foundation Courses in CSR The foundation courses in CSR should afford students the opportunity to learn the three main core subjects underlying liberal education: Ethics, Philosophy and Theology. Ethics provides the basis of CSR and then students are exposed to two other subjects that unite ethical concepts with their personal beliefs of their humanity through Theology and Philosophy studies. Ethics concerns values of humanity, philosophy deals with the nature of humanity, and theology concerns studying the foundations of one’s faith. Powers and Vogel (1980) argue that teaching business ethics is not solely about helping managers to resolve a specific moral dilemma, but also to

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Step 1: Foundation Courses in CSR • Ethics, Philosophy& Theology • Cultural norms of community and responsibility • Environmental studies • Health and safety education

Step 2: Theoretical Application of CSR to Business Subjects • • • • • • • •

Human Resource Management Banking & Finance Marketing Accounting Agro Business Business Communication Public Relations etc. CSR Major

• Core concepts and importance of CSR

Step 3 : Practical Application

• Internship / Business attachment

Application of CSR in the Workplace

Fig. 1. The CSR Education Paradigm.

develop competencies or capacities for, moral judgement in business contexts, the ability to integrate broader social issues with the managerial role and to implement this concern in a holistic fashion. According to Gardiner and Lacy (2005) interest in areas such as Social and Environmental responsibility, and by default business ethics, has been triggered by successive corporate scandals combined with external pressure from NGOs, policy-makers, consumers and the media. However, whilst the business world considers the benefits of CSR and business ethics specialist versus mainstream generalists, there is a parallel and increasing need for business schools to address the issue as part of the curriculum. With the internationalisation of business, there is an ever-increasing need for a greater and shared understanding of ethical principles and their application. Culture is the set of values, beliefs, behaviours, customs and attitudes that helps the members of a community to understand what it stands for, how to behave, and what is considered acceptable and important. According to Hofstede (1997) culture is the collective programming of mind that distinguishes the members of one community from the other. Culture should therefore be promoted to ensure people’s motivation towards achieving the common good. Klins et al. (2010) observe that Africa’s cultural context is an important factor in defining CSR on the continent. The very communal culture manifested in African indigenous concepts like ‘Harambee’, ‘Tsekada’, ‘Ubuntu’, ‘Zekat’ and ‘Nnoboa’ should be taught and explained to business students to act as the basis for contextualising CSR. Seeing CSR as part of the traditional culture will motivate graduates

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to promote the initiation and implementation of community-related CSR activities that meet real needs of the communities served by the organisations they work for. Environmental studies provide the foundation of CSR in the understanding of how to manage physical resources of the organisation and the community it resides in ‘so that they are conserved for the future’ (DarteyBaah & Amponsah-Tawiah, 2011), as well as prevent harmful consequences for relevant stakeholders. With respect to CSR education associated with environmental concerns, Karima et al. (2006) argue that the main goal of environmental education is to change behaviour through increasing environmental knowledge and the number of positive effects. In the last three decades, throughout the world, extensive and well-considered measures have been taken to develop high-integrity environmental education programmes. Despite this, the results of several studies, especially those conducted on developing countries, show that these environmental education programmes have not necessarily been successful. Because environmental education will be an important dimension of social responsibility education, the authors postulate that efforts should be made to develop superior educational programmes to deal with environmental concerns at universities. Karima et al. observe that while attention is paid to the role of environmental education in elementary and secondary school curriculum, few studies have focused on the role of universities as a means of increasing people’s environmental knowledge. Nejati et al. (2011) stated that environmental responsibility is a precondition for the survival and prosperity of human beings. It is therefore an important aspect of social responsibility. Environmental issues are closely linked to human rights, community involvement and development, and other social responsibility core subjects (ISO/DIS 26000, 2009). Consequently, CSR education should necessarily incorporate elements of environmental education. Following from environmental education in CSR is health and safety education. Health and safety programmes are concerned with protecting employees and other people affected by an organisation’s activities, products and services against hazards. Given the potential health hazards emanating from activities of most organisations, including water, air and land pollution, toxic emissions, and potential accidents at the work place with their accompanying health implications for employees, communities and other stakeholders, it is imperative that business students are educated on the health and safety issues regarding organisational life. Such an education will equip graduates with sufficient and adequate knowledge on

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how to initiate and/or implement relevant policies and programmes to ensure the full protection of the health and safety of employees and their local communities. The core of CSR education at the foundation stage should therefore centre on the concepts, theories, principles and importance of CSR. The requirements proposed in the EC Green Paper (2001) could form the basic tenets around which core CSR curriculum could be developed.

Theoretical Studies In theoretical application, students undertake subjects or units pertaining to their major area of study, for example Marketing, Human Resource Management, Accounting and Public Relations, and apply CSR concepts to that area of study. It is regrettable that in most African universities and business schools CSR instruction is relegated to optional ethics classes, and volunteer and philanthropic extracurricular activities or electives that are not linked to core business strategy. There is a clear message that CSR is a tangential issue in postgraduate curricula at best. That is, business leaders are good people, but they have been educated to think of the economic wellbeing of their companies as being at odds with, or irrelevant to, the environmental and social health of the planet. Business schools encourage their students to comply with environmental, labour and human rights regulations but seldom suggest that there are significant benefits to be gained from going further. Their maxim is that ‘the business of business is business’ – governments or philanthropic organisations should worry about ecological and social issues. They see CSR and profits in terms of ‘either/or’ instead of ‘both/and’. However, given the current global stature of CSR and the increasing customer and community awareness of the ethical obligations of businesses, it is imperative that business students are well versed in the nature, principles, theories and models of CSR so that they are capable of making decisions based on CSR tenets, and effectively implementing them to ensure the sustainability of the business, society and the environment. As part of their studies, students should be encouraged to research CSR-related topics in their respective discipline and their operation in specific business organisations. Lecturers can also use actual cases of organisations’ ethical conduct as case studies and simulations to enable students apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations, analyse real problems as well as develop the skills of logical thinking and judgement. By so doing, university

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graduates will be able to use persuasive arguments to influence employers, employees and shareholders to initiate and implement effective CSR programmes that meet the needs of all stakeholders. Besides, studying chosen majors and exploring CSR’s application in these disciplines will equip business students with the analytical and conceptual tools necessary for developing models and strategies for tackling the economic, social, ethical and environmental obligations of firms. Apart from the traditional business courses, students desiring to specialise in CSR should have the opportunity to study CSR as their major.

Practical Application In practical application, students apply their CSR values and theoretical understandings in a real-life context. It is proposed in this chapter that business internships are an ideal mode through which CSR concepts can be studied and analysed in real life. This practical application step gives students an opportunity to see CSR concepts in action and to test the challenge of implementing CSR concepts in an organisational context. Internship helps students to combine academic study with on-the-job experience. Armed with theoretical understanding of the principles and importance of CSR, students can assess the ethical stance on specific organisations as well as acquire specific skills that are needed to pursue their professional goals and aspirations. Internship students with CSR education can also point out ethical lapses in their organisations and suggest ways of rectifying them. Some interns also find permanent, paid employment with the companies in which they interned, giving the new employees the opportunity to affect and influence fellow employees in their convictions about businesses’ responsibility towards the sustainability of the communities they operate in, their employees, other stakeholders and of course the business itself. It is expected that graduates with CSR education will be in a better position to support, promote, initiate and implement viable CSR programmes in their work environments as well as influence both their superiors and subordinates to promote ethical and responsible business values. In this paradigm, it is argued that for university education to make effective contribution to graduates’ awareness of CSR and commitment to promoting and supporting the implementation of such initiatives in their respective organisations once they have obtained employment, the university curriculum should focus on the broad learning outcomes and

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be used as guidelines to develop learning programmes for CSR that are focused on sustainability of business, social and physical environment. The development and teaching of CSR should therefore be specified in all stages of the university curriculum from the first year to the final year culminating in internship that combines theoretical knowledge with practical application.

SUMMARY OF CSR APPLICATION TO CORE BUSINESS MODULES Integrating CSR instruction into the core business modules offered in universities will require an understanding of CSR application to various business subjects. The following areas of application are worthy of note.

Strategic Management It implicitly covers most CSR issues. In particular, it should include the increasing need for companies to analyse the evolving social and ecological environment of their operations and to build into their strategic thinking their involvement in national and international public policy issues concerning the environment and human rights. Companies increasingly find themselves in de facto governance positions over such issues, and how they respond and/or actively engage is a key strategic decision.

Marketing Marketing courses tend to focus almost exclusively on customers. What risks does a company face if its marketers ignore the social impact of global brands, advertising and potentially creating unsustainable demand? How might a company’s environmental and social impact affect customer perceptions?

Human Resource Management HRM is all about people. Companies are run by people. People have consciences, self-esteem, peer groups, family and friendship pressures. Company leadership needs to understand and work with these trends to

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attract and retain the best talent. Here, the welfare of employees, fair wages, equality of treatment, health and safety issues, good working conditions and flexible work schedules that afford employees a good work–life balance are key issues to be covered. Managers need to develop methodical decisionmaking processes when facing ethical dilemmas, so that they can justify their decisions to everyone concerned, including to themselves, as opposed to making quick judgements and justifying them afterwards.

Accounting and Financial Management Students need to understand the relationship between financial and nonfinancial management issues. A key issue is how to balance traditional approaches to return on capital employed and discounted cash flow with the increasing need to take account of unpaid for and unmeasured social and environmental capital and value flows and long-term sustainability. Companies need to be accountable to all their stakeholders, and accounting courses need to cover ways in which this might be managed and how companies might be persuaded to do it better.

Economics Courses on economics touch on every aspect of the purpose and contribution of business. Economics is the study of how scarce resources can be used most efficiently to provide for our needs and wants. As more and more of the world’s resources, including water and the air we breathe, become scarce and basic needs are not adequately provided for, the environmental and social aspects of economic decision-making will affect firms increasingly. Issues of sustainability and globalisation are central to economics and CSR.

Operations Management This is often very technical and short-term focussed, but it is the essence of a company’s delivery of value. Core to the CSR thinking is how to make the vision of a sustainable future sufficiently tangible to ensure the involvement of those who have the technical expertise to make it happen. This includes important environment, health and well-being issues.

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Project Management This should include stakeholder analysis and engagement, environmental and social pre-investment and ongoing risk analysis and management techniques. These are increasingly important in project management, especially in areas of weak governance.

Supply Chain Management It provides the core context for examining a company’s degree of influence over its whole value chain and its legal and moral complicity in the environmental and social issues arising at any point in the chain, for example sustainable development and child labour.

Organisational Behaviour This provides an ideal opportunity to relate student’s personal values to the purpose of their work/life, the organisations they will lead and manage in the future and the extent to which they will embrace CSR business strategies.

Business Law While hard law may restrict companies’ legal responsibilities primarily to serving shareholder interests, students should also be aware of evolving soft law relating to the interests of other stakeholders and public expectations arising from it. Students need to explore the issues of complicity, sphere of influence and the precautionary principle.

THE CSR CURRICULUM There is no widely recognised CSR curriculum but the following comprise the main themes that most would probably agree should be included:  Mission, values, reputation, brand image What is the purpose of a company? Why it needs to be more than just maximisation of medium-term shareholder value. What are the issues of

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motivation. What does a company stand for? The business and moral value of a good reputation.  Ethical/responsible decision-making An ethical approach to doing business – doing the right thing. Ethical reasoning principles, for example rights theory, cultural relativism, gender and other forms of discrimination, etc.  Value chain, legal and moral complicity, sphere of influence What is the extent of a company’s responsibility? What is its effective sphere of influence? What is its responsibility over both sourcing issues and product use and misuse?  Stakeholder management (value added and reduced) Companies both create and destroy value. Some of the value created and much of the value destroyed is often external to the company and not part of traditional accounting processes.  Environment, health and well-being Environment is now the dominant sustainability issue. What does corporate environmentalism mean in practice? There are well-established business principles and practices for health and safety but they are often neglected.  Social impact, labour issues, human rights Labour issues have long been part of management education but they are increasingly seen in the wider context of human rights and the impact companies have on local communities and society in general. What is a company’s impact on and responsibility for poverty alleviation, nondiscrimination, freedom from slavery, torture, etc.?  National and international public policy engagement This is the ultimate stage of CSR engagement by a company. A company’s approach to CSR tends to start with philanthropy, and then defensive reputation protection, followed by a more offensive approach aimed at greater public recognition. Increasingly, large companies are thrust into a fourth stage of acting as a development agent, ameliorating government failure. This has led some leading companies to recognise their role in, and seek to manage more proactively, their engagement with public policy issues.

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Partnering with Stakeholders CSR is strictly embedded with a multitude of business actors. With the call for sustainability and the new role of business in society (Blowfield & Googins, 2006), and with increased expectations and new rules and tactics (Burke, 2005), leadership is bound to come into contact – and conflict – with key stakeholders in the arena of responsible business, global versus regional and local needs, and different national cultures. Corporations need to engage with stakeholders to develop valuable CSR-related actions. Stakeholders that face challenges and threats are more likely to succeed when a long-term vision is embraced.

Organisational Challenges and Limitations Companies face challenges and limitations as they implement CSR. These usually relate either to political issues or to organisational-level concerns and are often embedded in culture. In the new age of CSR, the needs of the stakeholders, consumers, employees, national as well as international regulators, watchdogs, NGOs and activist groups have to be satisfied (Hatcher, 2002). McGraw (2005) considers the biggest challenge in the field of CSR implementation to be the development of leaders for a sustainable global society. According to this author, the challenge will be to develop leaders for a sustainable global society by encouraging imagination and the accomplishment of a positive change.

CSR EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESS SCHOOLS The idea of integrating the CSR case in the core business school curriculum is key and important. First, a compelling and credible business case for CSR has been the ‘Holy Grail’ of consultants, business schools and corporations for years. The use of a CSR case simulator would be a first for whichever business school that seizes the opportunity. The second reason why this approach is a breakthrough is that it quantifies three human resource benefits: the ability to attract, retain and increase the productivity of top talent in the sustainability business case.

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Integration of CSR across the curriculum helps future leaders integrate sustainability into their thinking process. This applies to people with particular dedication to CSR as well as those whose main interest lies in areas such as finance, strategy and marketing. Businesses are looking for answers and tools relating to the ‘how to’ of sustainability, and business students should be the ones testing, exploring and creating these new ways of thinking. Any teaching programme of contemporary business know-how needs to be infused with CSR thinking. The only practical way to do this is in the short term may be to provide an elective module with a few special CSR events for the whole student cohort to get them thinking about the main issues.

WAYS BY WHICH BUSINESS SCHOOLS IN GHANA AND AFRICA CAN INCORPORATE CSR EDUCATION INTO THE CURRICULUM A number of options are available for business schools in Ghana and Africa to initiate CSR education. The following are worth consideration: 1. Build relationships and develop partnerships with the corporate sector Business schools in Africa need to build research partnerships with the corporate world with a long-term focus. These partnerships are critical to keeping up with emerging business practices and to feed ‘real-life’ examples into the classroom either via case studies, guest lecturers or mentoring. These activities should be done in the context of African culture and based on specific needs of each African community. 2. Better understand business needs for sustainability education Business schools should conduct research to better understand the business needs for sustainability education in Africa. They can do this by undertaking extensive needs-analysis research and by engaging in productive partnerships with the corporate sector. 3. Understand students’ needs and raise demand for sustainability courses A needs-analysis research should be conducted. This will provide a better understanding of students’ interest in sustainability issues and will teach them approaches that will effectively generate and maintain their interest over time.

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4. Build internal support for sustainability courses This will enhance effective ongoing relationships with key internal stakeholders. 5. Provide support for faculty staff to develop their knowledge and skills in sustainability It will enhance the capacity of the participants to incorporate education about and for sustainability into the schools programmes. The relationship built with staff members will enhance the learning culture within the business schools and will lead to greater incorporation of sustainability into the core and elective courses and increased support for organisational change within the business schools. 6. Revise core courses and develop new optional courses to address education for sustainability This will ensure that students are engaged in sustainability issues at various stages during their studies. Course revision should, however, provide students with the tools to explore the challenges of sustainability in a new way. This will equip them with more systematic and critical thinking skills to use back in their organisations. 7. Develop new resources (especially case studies) to support integration of education for sustainability Case studies and teaching materials should be developed based on the awareness of the needs of students, staff and the corporate sector. This will lead to a greater incorporation of relevant sustainability materials across core and elective courses which will build the skills of the graduates.

POSSIBLE TEACHING TOOLS Some CSR teaching tools that can be used include      

business speakers, CSR case studies, NGO speakers, CSR professional speakers, internships, communications/media speakers,

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 CSR journals and  other associated CSR initiatives. Since there is limited student development opportunities outside classes being offered by the higher education system, little or no practical skills and abilities are acquired during formal education. The main problem foreseen is the focus of Ghanaian and most African universities on lectures rather than on practical assignments or applied teaching, along with old curricula encompassing little or no modern concepts on societal trends such as CSR. The results are dissatisfied students, low levels of employment and the social alienation of young people because they are not being trained as responsible individuals and responsible future leaders. Teaching CSR will provide opportunities for practical skills development, exposing students not only to the concept of social responsibility, applicable at both individual and corporate levels, but also to the latest debates on the role of the business sector in society.

ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF INCULCATING CSR INTO THE CURRICULUM 1. Embedding CSR as a theme for existing courses 2. Introducing the CSR course into curricula (core and/or elective) 3. Offering within the university a combination of extracurricular CSRfocused activities (seminars, lectures, study visits, projects, practical activities, etc.) 1. Embedding CSR as a theme in the existing courses The first approach to CSR in the curricula of business schools in Ghana and Africa is embedding CSR in existing courses. This solution would assume that every course identified as a potential one for CSR education would include topics teaching knowledge of the concept and the practices of CSR. Connections should be made between CSR and the main topic of the course. Also, CSR should be integrated at a reasonable proportion into practical and/or written students’ assignments. Putting CSR knowledge within existing courses would ensure a very high number of students being exposed to CSR education as part of their formal courses already being taught, some of which can be expected to be compulsory. This approach would also allow for the integration of CSR knowledge with other core concepts for business and economics.

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2. Introducing CSR as full courses into the curricula The second solution is creating special courses with a CSR topic; these being either core or elective. Teaching a special course with focus on CSR allows an in-depth exposure to the concept and practice of CSR, ensuring unity for the concept. CSR could also be a topic for practical assignments and, given available time, other stakeholders regarding CSR development might become involved in the teaching process. 3. Extracurricular CSR teaching activities This option offers universities the opportunity to use a combination of extracurricular activities like seminars, lectures, study visits, projects, practical activities, etc. to educate students on the importance of CSR, corporate citizenship and related concepts. This option consists of providing a combination of other CSR teaching activities under a university umbrella though outside the formal curricula. This will allow for the greatest degree of diversity of approaches to CSR and for a variety of teaching methods, along with a high number of opportunities for practical skills gaining and topic knowledge; it would additionally lead to the engagement of a large number of CSR stakeholders (non-profits, businesses, media, industry, etc.) who could put themselves forward to counterbalance the lack of trained academic staff teaching CSR. For example, Central University College in Ghana has a yearly community outreach programme that gives students the opportunity to volunteer to help deprived communities. Students help as nursing assistants in community hospitals and teach in less privileged schools. Students who were interviewed on this research suggested that this programme should be made compulsory for all business students and also that it should be graded as a CSR practical core model in the business school. The three alternatives provided above should not be viewed as mutually exclusive but could be combined in various forms to enrich students’ learning of the subject. In particular, extracurricular CSR teaching activities should form part of the core activity of those offering full courses in CSR. However, the actual form that CSR education should take would depend upon the individual educational institution, their priorities and motivation.

ALIGNING CSR WITH BUSINESS STRATEGY In finding new ways to address the social, economic and environmental effects of doing business while balancing conflicting demands on their

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attention, time and resources, it has become important to emphasise the alignment of CSR with business strategy. This programme helps one to define priorities, integrate social responsibility throughout the business and build social and business value. Also it will strengthen one’s ability to define and implement powerful CSR strategies that provide the firm its reputation and its way of doing business for enduring success. Adoption of CSR as strategic business concept will go a long way in reducing risks that may occur due to societal misunderstanding and confrontation. Every society that draws a lot of benefit from CSR activities will be a strong ally to corporate growth and development. A strong relationship or bond between society and companies will result in goodwill which will insulate or insure the company from various forms of societal unrest. Finally, equipping business students with the knowledge, understanding and importance of CSR will inculcate in them the spirit of accountability knowing that society will hold them and their organisation accountable for actions that impact their lives. Accountability is one of the processes whereby a leader, company or organisation seeks to ensure integrity. In a global stakeholder society, accountability is among the key challenges of organisations. Responsible leaders are concerned with reconciling and aligning the demands, needs, interests and values of employees, customers, suppliers, communities, shareholders and society at large. A company’s track record in terms of CSR accounting will be effective when appropriate CSR measures are included in its internal as well as its supply chain activities. CSR requires accountability by all leaders, individuals, organisations, stakeholders, customers and community members and yet accountability is complex.

CONCLUSIONS Social responsibility is the greatest challenge of this century, and societies need to be ‘well trained’ to be able to successfully face this challenge. A responsible and active citizenry is needed and a reliable and professional education system is the key. Looking at the place and role of universities in generating and sustaining this needed social change, CSR education emerges both as a need and as a tool through which to educate future business elites to be socially responsible, thus also ensuring socially responsible conduct through such formal curricula by individuals. Considering investment industry, it will be appropriate to engage people or graduates with CSR qualification to assist in implementing their CSR strategies effectively; therefore, business schools and institutions in Ghana and Africa for that

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matter should develop their curriculum in line with industry requirements in order to make the CSR courses relevant to industry and society. Using real case studies, Business schools can show how leading sustainable development companies are ‘doing well while doing good’. Current and future business leaders can learn from these case studies, can consider how the rationale and methods used by those leading sustainable development companies might apply to them and can accelerate their CSR journeys. More importantly, they can use a sustainability business case simulator as a decision-making tool, tailored to their particular situation. The business case for sustainable development should be the cornerstone of an enlightened curriculum in business schools. The compelling business case shows how advancements in environmental and social performance also result in improvements in the bottom line, including competitive differentiation and gains in market advantage. By integrating the business case into their core curriculum, business schools can help convince corporate leaders to want to capitalise on the sustainable development propositions. Thus they would be educating business leaders as if the bottom line and the world mattered. Corporations around the world are struggling with a new role, which is to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the next generation to meet their own needs. Organisations are being called upon to take responsibility for the ways their operations impact societies and the natural environment. They are also being asked to apply sustainability principles to the ways in which they conduct their business. Sustainability refers to organisational activities, typically considered voluntary, that demonstrate the inclusion of social and environmental concerns in business operations and interactions with stakeholders (van Marreewijk & Verre, 2003). Organisations that have seen the importance of CSR are getting on board graduates who have studied CSR in school.

RECOMMENDATIONS A number of recommendations are made for universities, students, businesses and other stakeholders for the effective application of CSR to their activities.  Recommendations for universities in Ghana and Africa African universities should see themselves more as competitive actors on the education market, aiming to promote diverse and high-quality educational

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offers to thereby attract good students. Teaching techniques, methods and tools should be adapted to current societal changes, and curricula should be adjusted continually to equip students with relevant theoretical and practical skills and knowledge. Integrating CSR into business and economics curricula will transform universities into triggers of social change, acting as engaged and socially responsible actors within the community. By teaching CSR, universities and specifically business and economics faculties will contribute to educating future, socially responsible business elites. More than 50% of students in the focus group said CSR should be taught as full model but that there is no need to form CSR departments in the business schools. By putting CSR at the heart of their curriculum, business schools can play their part in ensuring that tomorrow’s leaders and companies think and act responsibly, creating value for both shareholders and society at large (Craig Smith, Senior Fellow, Marketing and Management and Associate Dean, London Business School).  Recommendations for students Students should make every effort to take advantage of available opportunity to personally develop themselves, whether this takes place inside or outside the formal curricula; and they should act in a socially responsible manner both as individuals and also as members of their respective professional communities; and they should put pressures upon universities to provide high-quality educational services.  Recommendations for the business and non-profit sectors in Africa CSR is assuming very important dimension in Ghana and Africa and businesses and all organisations in Africa should take advantage of this new phenomenon to grow their organisations and also transform the African society. Both business and non-profit organisations engaged in promoting and developing CSR should engage universities as partners in CSR-related projects, using activities such as student development opportunities and implementing them in collaboration with universities. Business and nonprofit sectors might hold relevant resources that could be used for CSR teaching, for example stories that can become case studies or innovative partnerships tackling community problems that can point to the business value of CSR activities.

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CHAPTER 10 CHALLENGES OF INTEGRATING CSR INTO CURRICULA: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROMANIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM Georgiana Florentina Grigore, Alin Stancu and Rodica-Milena Zaharia INTRODUCTION In the last decade, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a significant topic on both governments’ and companies’ agendas. Moreover, the citizens and other social actors started to engage in promoting social responsibility and sustainability. This trend is reflected by the increased debate on these topics in the national and international environment. CSR is a concept that has been widely discussed, especially in terms of its definition and types of specific programmes. In an era of globalization, where information travels fast and companies are pressured to behave ethically by various groups, CSR is frequently implemented in organizations worldwide. Investments in CSR have had an upward trend in the last decade. This has led to increased social and environmental reporting. In most cases, social responsibility reporting is made voluntary by organizations and is different

Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 223–242 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004012

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from the annual reports. The upward trend of reporting has been supported by the investors’ pressure, especially non-governmental organizations, to involve both companies and governments in this process. The argument that social responsibility in a managerial context can bring long-term corporate earnings is also worth considering. This vision was developed by academics and practitioners to justify the adoption of social responsibility by companies. Subsequently this argument was criticized by researchers (Donaldson & Preston, 1995), who considered this as an attempt by managers to collect and disseminate information to improve corporate image (Valor, 2005). With Bowen’s introduction of CSR (Bowen, 1953), several concepts, such as Corporate Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Corporate Citizenship, Ethical Corporation, Corporate Social Responsiveness and Corporate Social Performance, were developed. All these concepts reflect in a better way a certain dimension of CSR. An important definitional construct is the pyramid of CSR (Carroll, 1999), in which economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic dimensions of CSR are presented. Moreover, Carroll (Carroll, 1999) states that the CSR concept will remain an essential issue in the language and business practice. An important organization which was involved in the development of the CSR concept is the European Commission. Under increasing pressure of non-governmental organizations and the requirements of demanding consumers, companies adopt codes of conduct on working conditions, human rights and environmental protection. Consumers want not only quality goods but also goods that are produced in a responsible manner. These assumptions have led to the development of a model that aims at reconciliation between a company’s competitiveness and sustainable development through more jobs and social cohesion: Green Paper: Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility. Starting with this document, European Commission was an active promoter of the concept. The first definition of CSR elaborated by the institution pointed at the voluntary basis on which the companies should get involved in solving society’s problems or supporting causes or environmental aspects. From this point of view (European Commission, 2001) social responsibility represents ‘a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis’. However in 2011, the European Commission analyses the impact of previous position document and publishes a new strategy for CSR (European Commission, 2011). The new strategy emphasizes the role of CSR in companies and also in society as a whole. CSR is a good instrument

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for sustaining the competitiveness of companies. This can help society to overcome crises periods more easily and can increase the cohesion in the business environment. Even though the latest definition of CSR is much shorter than the previous one, it brings much more clarity to the concept. By defining CSR as ‘the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society’ the European Commission highlights the necessity of integrating CSR in the business practice. By dropping out from the previous ‘voluntary’ basis of CSR, the new definition starts with the obligation of companies to obey the law. Equally important, in order to ‘maximize the creation of shared value for their owners/shareholders and for their other stakeholders and society at large’ and to ‘identify, prevent and mitigate their possible adverse impacts’ the company should increase its commitment towards stakeholders. Researchers have different opinions on CSR and there is no agreed consensus upon a definition of the concept. Christensen et al. (2007, p. 351) define CSR as ‘the voluntary actions taken by a company to address economic, social and environmental impacts of its business operations and the concerns of its principal stakeholders’. CSR is a variable concept, interpretable according to ideological views, influenced by economic, social and political trends (Snider et al., 2003). It may be said that the consensus of these multifaceted views on CSR is the good will expressed by the concept, its challenging footprints, mostly in the context of a turbulent business environment in national and international markets. Maignan and Ralston (2002) analysed the underlying principles of social responsibility activities and messages to the stakeholders, showing that there are significant differences between the United States and European countries in how companies engage and communicate about social issues, according to markets and specific national traditions. This chapter begins with a short description of the Romanian higher education. It is well known that higher education in former communist countries faced dramatic challenges when these countries pursued to get away from communist ideology, to open to internal and international competition and to prepare the higher education system to integrate into the so-called ‘European Area for higher education’. These challenges forced higher education to rediscover and to reinforce old specializations that were abandoned during the communist period, and to adapt the curricula to the new worldwide developments. The openness to CSR is an example. The second part is devoted to the social responsibility of higher education institutions. Social responsibility in higher education institutions is still debated, and the literature regarding this topic is growing. The activities of higher education institutions, even if different from companies, have

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important environmental impacts (Jabbour, 2010), involve stakeholders and need social acceptance. Moreover, higher education institutions form future generation responsible behaviour, and demand a more responsible behaviour from other participants in the social life. This part presents some characteristics of the social responsibility of higher education institutions in Romania. The third part of this chapter focuses on integrating CSR into education process. The development of CSR integration into the university curricula is a process that needs time, but its implementation can lead to spreading the knowledge towards students, professors and other stakeholders. The fourth part of the chapter is devoted to a quantitative research. This examines the way practitioners and academics respond to questions about the integration and description of CSR courses, the similarities and differences between their views, and recommends a CSR-related thematic to be implemented at different levels of education. The research was based on an online survey. Finally, the chapter ends with some conclusion regarding the CSR in the educational system in Romania, with the focus on higher education. An overall conclusion is that implementing CSR in education should be a priority for Romania, as a premise for its sustainable development.

Romanian Higher Education System Higher education in Romania is achieved through higher education institutions: universities, institutes, academies and schools of postgraduate studies under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education and Research. The mission of higher education institutions is education and/or research. Higher education institutions act under the principle of academic freedom and autonomy, meaning that each university establishes its own criteria for developing and running the academic activity. This autonomy should be in consonance with the criteria developed by the Ministry of Education and Research. Higher education institutions are private and public; the number of universities has increased with the fall of communism. Not only private universities have been established, but also new public entities have been created as a response to a huge demand for higher education studies. According to the official statistics (Romanian Statistical Yearbook – INSSE, 2010), the number of students in the Romanian universities grew from 193,000 in the first year after Revolution (1990–1991) to 907,000 in

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2007–2008, almost one-third being in private universities (380,000). The number of universities also increased from 48 to 106 in the same period. New disciplines have been introduced, new specializations have been created and the structure of higher education has faced dramatic changes. Engineering studies, for example, one of the largest higher education specializations in the communist era, featured a lack of attractiveness and encountered fewer students, while other specializations, such as economics and law, attracted more number of students. Some higher education institutions preserved the entrance exam (which was compulsory in the communist period), others, in order to attract more students, renounced this type of admission system. However, the negative evolution of the demography in Romania will influence in the future the number of students and, accordingly, the structure of higher studies. Even though the number of high schools increased from 1,198 in 1990–1991, to 1,426 in 2007–2008, the number of primary schools decreased from 13,511 to 4,737, demonstrating a decreasing birth rate in the last decades. Romania started its integration process into the EU also in the area of higher education. Bologna process implemented in Romania organizes higher education system on three hierarchical levels: undergraduate, master and doctoral studies. Bachelor degree corresponds to between a minimum of 180 and a maximum of 240 transferable study credits – the European system of transferable study credits (ECTS). The duration of education for Bachelor degree is 3–4 years. Engineering and law take 4 years, pharmacy 5 years and medicine and architecture 6 years. University education masters studies are for 2 years and provide a deeper understanding in a specific field of study. University doctoral studies are usually of 3 years and are assimilated with excellence in higher education. The main focus in doctoral studies is on the research component. An important change was brought by the new Law of National Education (LEN 1, 2011). Following the new criteria for evaluation introduced by the law, the Ministry of Education elaborated a hierarchy of universities according to their intensity in research or in education for each domain. There are three categories of universities: universities advanced in research and education, universities for education and scientific research (including universities for education and artistic creation and military education universities) and the last one, universities focused on education. According to each category, universities have specific duties and responsibilities concerning the organization of license studies, master programmes and doctoral studies.

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Social Responsibility of Higher Education Institutions Social responsibility of higher education institutions concentrates on the responsibilities of students, academics, staff and the community. This is expressed mostly through ethical behaviour of academics and staff, honesty and moral conduits, and performance of higher education institutions that should contribute to the general development of the society. Social responsibility is understood as a concept that incorporates a lot of aspects, from ethical behaviour to contribution to the sustainable development, and is expressed more as a good intention declaration and less as a consistent body of tangible actions. This attitude is the result of an unclear understanding of the role that modern university should play in the society and is reflected by a poor debate in the academic community about social responsibility, in general, and about universities’ social responsibility, in particular. The concept of university social responsibility appeared as a consequence of the roles that universities play in the society. There is not a unique understanding of what university social responsibility is. Social responsibility is a result of the tremendous pressure on higher education institutions. Increased interdependencies, global competition in higher education, developments of new attitude regarding the role and the utility of universities nowadays are only few considerations that influenced the current debates regarding university social responsibility. Some discussions concentrate on the responsibility of universities’ managers, who have to ensure the performance of their institutions or educate students to be more responsible (Gibbons, 2005; Immerwahr, 1999). Others consider that university social responsibility is part of the university mission (Badat, 2009; Fonlon, 2009; Goossen, 2009), but in a new context, university social responsibility requires universities to evolve and take on new tasks. In the last 50 years, universities have accommodated mass university education, have established and expanded professional schools, and have become research institutions in service of the nation (Fallis, 2004). The entrepreneurial approach of universities has gained a lot of importance (Clark, 1998; Etzkowitz, 2003; Gibb, 2005; Gibb & Hannon, 2007). An entrepreneurial university must have three missions: teaching, research and service for society, and is a result of the working out of an ‘inner logic’ of academic development that previously expanded the academic enterprise from a focus on teaching to research (Etzkowitz, 2003, p. 109). It is quite difficult to separate the university’s missions from the university’s responsibility. Thus, social responsibility is still a diffuse

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concept that embodies university’s missions, commitments to the stakeholders and humankind wellbeing. University social responsibility is an ethical approach towards developing a sense of civic citizenship and socially responsible students, academic staff and faculty members in order to promote social, ecological, environmental, technical and economic engagement for a long-lasting and sustainable local and global community (Arnzten, 2008). Should universities educate according to the market needs or should they concentrate on providing students with critical thinking skills? Should universities concentrate on teaching or on research? In the Romanian Higher Education System this kind of questions divides the academic world between those who are faithful to the Humboldian vision of the mission of higher education institutions and those who are supporters of entrepreneurial university. University social responsibility of Romanian universities is at the beginning of formulating and understanding the real content of the concept. Social responsibility is still vague and associated with everything that a university should do. The new Law of National Education (LEN 1,2011) is full of good intentions and impressive declarations. Thus, at the beginning, in Article 2(3), the educational ideal of the Romanian School is presented: ‘free, integral and harmonious development of the human individuality, building an autonomous personality and assuming a system of values which are necessary for personal development and completion, for entrepreneurial spirit and active citizenship participation in the society, for social inclusion and employability’ (LEN 1, 2011, p. 1). Of course, social responsibility couldn’t be included explicitly among elements that define the ideal of the Romanian School. It may be said that it is included, however, implicitly, when it mentions the active citizenship participation in the society. Social responsibility can be considered at the cross of these values. A person interested in the development of a company who acts according to civic and societal values will certainly be implementing CSR. In gymnasium cycle there are no disciplines related to CSR. According to the high school’s profile, some general disciplines may approach few aspects specific to CSR. Thus, economic profile high schools have the discipline ‘entrepreneurial education’ in their curricula for the IX class. One of the chapters is on business ethics. From 17 hours that are allocated for this discipline, 5 hours debate on issues such as freedom of action and responsibility, free initiative and business responsibility, ethical principles in

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business, ethics in business management, ethical codes, consumer protection and environment protection. However, in the Romanian educational system the focus is, traditionally, on information and less on formation and skills. The purpose of education seems to be to deliver as much knowledge as possible to students and not to form skills and abilities so necessary in real life nor to be concerned about the ethical implications that some scientific knowledge may have. This approach got transformed into a theory that is included in general dictionaries. Comparing different definitions of education given in the most popular dictionaries in Romania, Zait (2006, p. 781) observed that ‘the Romanian definition suggests a totally passive and neutral process [education], without any explicit participation from the subject of the education’. This approach has negative effect on teaching economic and business disciplines, too. Many times, professors underline the importance of the efficiency of a company, ignoring the social implications. The result is that many students are totally indifferent to the social consequences of the companies’ activities. In comparison with gymnasium, higher education system is more flexible and the possibility to implement new courses is growing. The fundamental unit in higher education is the department. Departments also promote different disciplines and programmes by providing educational offers to students or other groups (courses for managers of companies, representatives of local authorities etc.). Development of curricula is the responsibility of the faculty, the next hierarchical level. Faculties propose disciplines that follow their profile and their strategic vision and which in turn are integrated into the mission and vision of the university. The autonomy of universities to create and develop the courses goes to the department level, and periodically the curricula is analysed and adjusted in accordance with the Ministry of Education laws but also taking into account the needs for specific education programmes desired by the managers in business environment or academics. Mostly in the beginning of the 1990s, curricula in higher education institutions were adapted after those of similar universities from abroad and not always this ‘take over’ of disciplines from western universities was integrated with the academic profile of the universities or with the necessity expressed by the business environment. CSR is studied in many universities in Romania, as a distinct discipline (as it is in the Academy of Economic Studies), as part of other disciplines (business ethics, consumer behaviour, law) or as specific aspects of distinct topics in some disciplines (CSR of multinational corporations, when discipline, as globalization, approaches the topic of multinational corporation).1

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Integrating CSR into Education Even though, multinational companies and NGOs are the ones that integrate and promote CSR, an increasing role in developing CSR is upon the education system. By its complexity CSR is a real challenge for the education system, because in order to be fully integrated a new set of skills and competences should be gained by the young people. Moreover, in order to construct a society with socially responsible behaviour, the integration of CSR should be done not only in all stages of education, primary and secondary schools, but also in higher education. From all of this, the role of universities in providing key CSR education is highly important in terms of developing CSR skills for graduates, providing CSR education for practitioners and industries, and in the same time increasing research in the field (Matten & Moon, 2004). The development of CSR integration into the university curricula is a process that needs time, but on its implementation can lead to spreading the knowledge towards students, professors and other stakeholders. Several international initiatives are in favour of increasing the education on CSR. United National General Assembly started to promote integration of sustainable education at all education levels with the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) (UNESCO, 2002). Another initiative for universities is the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education. At the European Union level, the European Commission is supporting the research on CSR through European Union Framework Programmes, and also raising awareness through EU lifelong learning and Youth in Action Programmes (European Commission, 2001). Previous researches which explored the integration of CSR into education addressed the following issues. First of all, Christensen et al. (2007) have conducted a study to explore the way deans and directors of MBA programmes perceive the integration of ethics, CSR and sustainability in their faculties. In order to reach this objective, the authors focused on several areas, such as the evolution of these themes in business school, the way European institutions are approaching these areas and what are the best practices in teaching them. Their results show that in one-third of the top 50 schools, subjects like business ethics, CSR and sustainability are mandatory in the MBA curriculum. Also, institutions support development of these particular themes in attached specialized centres. Some of these were standalone centres, while others integrated the topics in combination. Matten and Moon (2004) developed a survey on CSR education in Europe, which highlights the means in which it is characterized and taught.

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Their results show that not all the business schools are implementing CSR or ethics in their courses. Although the respondents recognize the necessity of CSR, they also call for drivers like ‘support from business stakeholders and inclusion in programme accreditation and ranking systems’ (Matten & Moon, 2004, p. 335). Another study of the Association of MBAs (AMBA Durham Business School, 2010), which explores the trends in MBA course of study and is built on a survey of 100 business schools and 544 graduates, shows that CSR area has increased in importance over the last 40 years. On a Likert scale of 1–5 (‘very unimportant’ to ‘very important’), the degree of importance assigned to CSR by graduates increased from a mean score of 1.95 (1970s), to 3.2 (2003–2007) and 3.49 (2008–2009).

Methodology Some of the published research regarding the integration of CSR into curriculum is based on the material presented by the universities or educational institutions on their websites (Seto-Pamies et al., 2011; Wright & Bennet, 2011). An alternative approach is to explore the way individuals from universities perceive their CSR offerings (Christensen et al., 2007; Matten & Moon, 2004). With these methodological directions in mind, the authors adopted a survey to examine the perception of individuals in Romania on integration of CSR into curriculum. The strength of this approach is that it permits respondents (both academics and practitioners) to highlight themes that should be taught. This study builds upon a quantitative research and its main purpose is to explore the need to study CSR. It examines the way practitioners and academics respond to questions about the integration and description of CSR courses, and the similarities and differences between their views. Furthermore it recommends a CSR-related theme to be implemented at different levels of education. To reach these objectives an online survey was developed. The authors investigated the issues by addressing several research questions in the online survey:  Is CSR an important concept to be taught? Why?  What are the ways through which CSR knowledge can be acquired?  What are the main CSR themes that should be integrated across the curriculum?  At what level of education should different subjects be taught?

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The sample of this study is represented by practitioners and academicians from Romania. They were selected and asked to answer questions regarding (1) the importance of CSR education, (2) the best way through which CSR can be taught or (3) at what level of education aspects like minimizing the impact on the environment, business ethics, stakeholders’ involvement, supporting social causes, communities and sustainability could be integrated. A total sample of 116 respondents was collected. Out of the total sample, 60 are practitioners working in social organizations and 56 are academics teaching or researching at higher level institutions. The questionnaire was uploaded online.

FINDINGS The Need for CSR Education In order to explore the need for CSR education, we first questioned respondents on the importance of CSR education. We measured this question on an Osgood differential semantic scale (1 very unimportant to 5 very important). The results show that both academics and practitioners consider CSR education important (38.79%) or very important (47.41%) (Fig. 1). It is interesting to note that when asked to support their position regarding the importance of CSR education, the majority maintains that this will shape the future managers who will implement corporate social activities in their companies and will minimize the negative impact on society and future generations: ‘Corporate social responsibility education helps in developing a moral code of future managers’, ‘In exchange of profit, each company is responsible for the potential negative externalities related to its activities and it is each companies duty to create a better place for future generations’. Only two respondents mentioned that CSR shouldn’t be integrated as a distinctive course in the curriculum, but rather integrated within other areas like management or marketing. Another research objective is to identify what are the best ways to accumulate knowledge on CSR. The results show that the concept can be learned through the following:    

Workplace/practical experience 61.21%; Formal education 36.21%; Trainings 36.21%; Volunteering 28.45% (Fig. 2).

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Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Importance of CSR Education.

Means to Accumulate Knowledge on CSR.

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Both academics and practitioners agree that CSR knowledge is achieved in a higher degree in the workplace or by practical experience. Also, practitioners believe that volunteering and trainings can increase understanding of the concept, while academics maintain that a fundamental role is played by formal education.

CSR Themes In order to recommend a CSR them that can be implemented in education, we asked respondents about four core subjects that could be taught in CSR education. These subjects are minimizing the impact on environment, business ethics, stakeholders’ involvement, supporting social causes, communities and sustainability. The purpose of these questions is to identify at what level of education (primary school, secondary school, high school, university, masters, PhD or postdoctoral studies) they should be integrated. Table 1 presents the statistics of each question.

A MODEL TO INTEGRATE CSR INTO CURRICULA In considering the question of integrating CSR into education system in Romania, we developed a model that is based on the results obtained from the survey. We believe that it is important to implement CSR-related subjects into curricula from the early stage of education. After analysing the results, we felt that a course of study can be designed, at different levels of education, in order for pupils or students to accumulate both practical abilities and theoretical knowledge. The model includes several areas such as aspects related to minimizing the impact on the environment, supporting social causes and communities, business ethics, stakeholders’ involvement and sustainability. Tackling this subject as a process, the model can be represented depending on the level of education addressed (Table 2). Regarding the integration of CSR in the primary school, the majority of academics and practitioners stated that it is important for pupils to be involved in diverse practical activities. In this sense, aptitudes and competences can be acquired by being involved in environmental activities. The main actions that pupils can be involved in are recycling, voluntary work, etc. In this way they will learn how to protect the environment and to behave in a socially responsible manner. Respondents mentioned that in the primary schools, pupils should be taught about children rights and ways to

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Table 1.

Corporate Social Responsibility Themes.

V.U. (%)

M.I. (%)

I. (%)

V.I. (%)

Mean

(a) Minimizing the impact on environment Primary school 7.8 4.3 Secondary school 6.9 2.6 High school 5.2 4.3 University 4.3 3.4 Master 3.4 12.1 PhD, postdoctoral 7.8 10.3

2.6 2.6 1.7 8.6 12.1 13.8

39.7 44.9 51.7 57.8 50.8 49.1

45.7 43.1 37.1 25.9 21.6 19.0

4.1 4.1 4.1 3.9 3.7 3.6

(b) Business ethics, stakeholders’ involvement Primary school 24.1 12.9 Secondary school 19.0 13.8 High school 6.9 12.9 University 2.6 0.9 Master 1.7 0.9 PhD, postdoctoral 1.7 3.4

47.4 47.4 8.6 6.0 1.7 6.0

10.3 13.8 57.8 50.0 27.6 44.0

5.2 6.0 13.8 40.5 68.1 44.8

2.5 2.7 3.5 4.2 4.5 4.2

(c) Supporting social causes, communities Primary school 8.6 6.9 Secondary school 6.9 3.4 High school 3.4 2.6 University 3.4 1.7 Master 3.4 3.4 PhD, postdoctoral 4.3 4.3

6.0 5.2 2.6 1.7 8.6 12.9

54.3 57.7 54.3 56.1 55.1 52.6

24.1 26.7 37.1 37.1 29.3 25.9

3.7 3.9 4.2 4.2 4.0 3.9

(d) Sustainability Primary school Secondary school High school University Master PhD, postdoctoral

44.0 38.8 3.4 5.0 3.4 6.9

17.2 22.4 57.8 39.0 45.7 44.0

17.2 18.1 27.6 47.4 44.0 40.5

3.1 3.2 3.9 4.3 4.2 4.1

14.7 15.5 5.2 4.3 4.3 4.3

U. (%)

6.9 5.2 6.0 4.3 2.6 4.3

Note: V.I., very important; I, important; M.I., moderately important; U., unimportant; V.U., very unimportant.

reduce energy consumption. In conclusion, in the primary school learning objectives derive from practical activities. As for the secondary school, a balance between theoretical and practical activities should exist. Practical activities are more clearly stated. The respondents mentioned three types of actions: participating in tree planting and gardening, cleaning the environment, and voluntary work in support for social causes. Voluntary involvement is considered the most important activity for students to participate. The ways through which CSR can be

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Table 2.

CSR-Related Themes on Different Levels of Education. Theme

Education Level

Primary school Secondary school High school University Master PhD, postdoctoral

Minimizing the Impact on Environment 7 7 7

Supporting Social Causes, Communities

7 7 7

Business Ethics, Stakeholders’ Involvement

Sustainability

7 7 7

7 7 7

acquired are NGOs volunteering programmes, aspects related to ecology, civic education and efficient consumption of reduction. On the other hand, in high school we can observe a diversification in CSR education. In this stage, respondents are moving from the environmental protection activities towards supporting communities. Regarding social involvement volunteering is the practice preferred by the majority of academics and practitioners. Hereby, respondents believe that social causes that pupils should be familiarized with are helping elderly, integration of persons with disabilities into society and charity. An interesting aspect stated by respondents is related to voting rights. Education on CSR in the form of a topic starts becoming important. This is the stage when knowledge on consumer protection and social entrepreneurship is introduced. Environmental issues will be taught in a broader sense and will be closely linked to sustainability. At the undergraduate level, options begin to expand towards studying about sustainability, business ethics and partnership development. In terms of practical skill, respondents believe that it is important for students to learn how to implement a CSR campaign in different sectors of economy. Also learning about business ethics and developing an ethical conduct are elements to be taught. As for the doctoral and post-doctoral studies, CSR becomes a field of advanced research. In this way, an analytical approach to CSR offers benefits in terms of developing the right instrument to measure its effectiveness. This goal implies two subtasks: first, identification of the appropriate indicators required to measure this impact, and second, the ways through which these indicators can be operationalized. Another field of study is the relation with stakeholders. Particular interest should be given

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Table 3.

Integration of CSR Themes on Each Cycle of Education. To Practice

To Learn

Primary school

Practical exercises on protecting the environment

The learning is a result of the exercises in which pupils participate The role of voluntary work and NGOs Ecology issues Civic education Efficient use of resources

Secondary school

Voluntary activities Plating trees Gardening

High school

Voluntary work Involvement in environmental protection Involvement in social causes Charitable actions

Consumer protection Social entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship culture Importance of the vote The impact of economic activities Right and obligations as a citizen Introduction in ethics

University

Involvement in the community CSR promotion Voluntary work

Business ethics Sustainable development Good practices in CSR Responsible marketing

Master

Voluntary work CSR project development

Ethics in professional activity Transparency Stakeholder theory Corporate governance

PhD, postdoctoral

Models of stakeholder’s engagement Models of integration CSR into companies CSR complex projects

CSR impact indicators Measuring CSR Risk management Stakeholders’ engagement Sustainability Code of ethics

to stakeholders’ engagement and stakeholders’ management and corporate governance (Table 3).

DISCUSSION The integration of CSR into education is a complex process that involves educators and also government, authorities, companies, NGOs, parents

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and other stakeholders. Several questions have to be answered in this regard. (a) Is social responsibility an individual course/subject for teaching or is it just a theme in a broader topic? As a distinct subject, CSR can be introduced in higher education, both as a course and as a research field. This distinct subject can be implemented at the level of masters’ degree or MBA programmes, and for deepening the knowledge on CSR, doctoral and post-doctoral researches are needed. Taking into account that CSR is a vast concept and nowadays we can refer to it in every sector of the economy (medicine, constructions, tourism, etc.), the practitioners from these fields should be educated accordingly. In this regard, CSR is just a way in which business is conducted and in students’ education it is just a theme. At pre-university levels, CSR can be seen as a way through which an individual can build his/her own identity as a responsible citizen. This identity involves acquiring abilities or aptitudes towards environmental protection, learning the rights and obligations as a citizen (including the right to vote) and also assimilating knowledge about the impact of economic activities on human kind. Moreover, it is important to increase awareness in pupils towards social causes and eliminate the stigma on minority groups and people with disabilities. In this stage, the pressure is on educators who have to be models for their pupils. (b) What is the balance between practical activities on CSR and theoretical ones? In essence, CSR is a practical concept. Therefore, in primary school CSR should be integrated as a way of learning through activities such as selective recycling, reduction in resource consumption, voluntary work, etc. By this involvement pupils will understand and integrate in their daily activities how to behave in a socially responsible manner. But as we go further in the education cycle, a formal lecture in this area is necessary. Subjects such as consumer protection, social entrepreneurship, ethics should be introduced in the curricula. (c) Is CSR a subject of formal education or just a topic for trainings? If we analyse the presence of CSR in education, we can observe some discrete traces in Romania. As a training topic, CSR is very important when we address specific groups of people (employees, local authorities’ representatives, NGOs) in order to develop their knowledge and competence. This approach involves narrowing down a specific area of CSR and also

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implies that trainees should already have a mainstream in this sphere. This leads us to the fact that the basics of CSR should be taught in formal education.

CONCLUSION For Romania, the concept of social responsibility is underdeveloped and even the most prestigious universities do not have a clear understanding of what university social responsibility should be. The study regarding the need to integrate CSR in Romanian educational system brought to light the main mechanisms of its implementation. Choosing two different categories as sample, practitioners and researchers, offered a broader view of the phenomenon. On one hand, we have the practitioners’ points of view that highlighted the importance of practical activities in each level of education and, on the other hand, the researchers added the theoretical background that is needed. But integration of CSR into the education system as we propose in this chapter has impact also on how the schools and universities are governed. The first issue that needs to be addressed is the need for development of teaching methods. In this regard, experiential learning and learning by doing become highly important. Another issue is that schools and universities need to increase their partnerships with NGOs, companies and other relevant stakeholders. This way these institutions will increase their image at local level and also will bring much more relevance to the knowledge that they offer. Nevertheless, implementing CSR in education should be a priority for Romanians. All the changes at the European Union level regarding the development of CSR need to be fulfilled by well-educated people.

NOTE 1. This example is from the Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by CNCSIS-UEFISCDI; project number PN IIRU 663/2010. This article is also a result of the project POSDRU/88/1.5./S/

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55287 ‘Doctoral Programme in Economics at European Knowledge Standards (DOESEC)’. This project is co-funded by the European Social Fund through the Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007–2013, coordinated by The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in partnership with West University of Timisoara.

REFERENCES AMBA Durham Business School. (2010). The post-downturn MBA: An agenda for change. AMBA-Durham Business School [online]. Retrieved from http://www.mbaworld.com/ postdownturnmba. Accessed on August 23, 2011. Arnzten, A. A. B. (2008). The influence of information communication technology on university corporate responsibility. Retrieved from http://www.usralliance.org/resources/Aurilla_ Presentation_Session6.pdf. Accessed on August 20, 2011. Badat, S. (2009, September 13–19). The role of higher education in society: Valuing higher education. HERS-SA Academy, University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business, Cape Town, South Africa. Retrieved from http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1502/ Bowen, H. R. (1953). Social responsibility of the businessman. Harper. Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of a definitional construct. Business & Society, 38(3), 268–295. Christensen, L. J., Peirce, E., Hartman, L. P., Hoffman, W. M., & Carrier, J. (2007). Ethics, CSR, and sustainability education in the financial times top 50 global business schools: Baseline data and future research directions. Journal of Business Ethics, 73(4), 347–368. Clark, B. R. (1998). Creating entrepreneurial universities: Organizational pathways of transformation. Issues in Higher Education. Elsevier Science. Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. E. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 65–91. Etzkowitz, H. (2003). Research groups as ‘quasi-firms’: The invention of the entrepreneurial university. Research Policy, 32, 109–121. Available at http://www.rdisa.org.mx/ documentos/Articulos/05%20Etzkowitz%202003.pdf European Commission. (2001). Green Paper: Promoting a European framework for corporate social responsibility [online]. Retrieved from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/ com/2001/com2001_0366en01.pdf. Accessed on September 20, 2011. European Commission. (2011). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A renewed EU strategy 2011–14 for corporate social responsibility [online]. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/_ getdocument.cfm?doc_id¼7010. Accessed on November 1, 2011. Fallis, G. (2004). The mission of the university. Retrieved from http://www.cou.on.ca/content/ objects/The%20Mission%20V3.pdf Fonlon, B. N. (2009). Genuine intellectuals. Academic and social responsibilities of universities in Africa. Langaa RPCIG. Gibb, A. A. (2005). Towards the entrepreneurial university? Retrieved from http://ncge.com/ files/biblio593.pdf

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Gibb, A. A., & Hannon, P. D. (2007). Towards the entrepreneurial university. International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, Senate Hall Academic Publishing., 4, 73–110. Gibbons, R. (2005). Four formal (izable) theories of the firm? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 58(2), 200–245. Goossen, R. (2009). Universities and corporate social responsibility: A competitive advantage? Retrieved from http://www.avantage.com/content/universities-and-corporate-socialresponsibility-competitive-advantage Immerwahr, J. (1999). Taking responsibility: Leaders’ expectations of higher education. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. http://www.highereducation. org/reports/responsibility/responsibility.shtml Jabbour, L. (2010). Offshoring and firm performance: Evidence from French manufacturing industry. World Economy, 33, 507–524. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2010.01265.x LEN 1 – The New Law of National Education. (2011). [online]. Retrieved from http://docs. ad-astra.ro/Legea_Educatiei_Nationale_04-01-2011.pdf. Accessed on November 1, 2011. Maignan, I., & Ralston, D. (2002). Corporate social responsibility in Europe and the US: Insights from businesses ‘self presentations’. Journal of International Business Studies, 33(3), 497–514. Matten, D., & Moon, J. (2004). Corporate social responsibility education in Europe. Journal of Business Ethics, 54, 323–337. Romanian Statistical Yearbook – INSSE. (2010). Education [online]. Retrieved from http:// www.insse.ro/cms/files/pdf/ro/cap8.pdf. Accessed on November 1, 2011. Seto-Pamies, D., Domingo-Vernis, M., & Rabassa-Figueras, N. (2011). Corporate social responsibility in management education: Current status in Spanish universities. Journal of Management & Organization, 17, 604–620. Snider, J., Hill, R. P., & Martin, D. (2003). Corporate social responsibility in the 21st century: A view from the world’s most successful firms. Journal of Business Ethics, 48(2), 175–187. UNESCO. (2002). UN decade of education for sustainable development, 2005–2014 [online]. Retrieved from http://www.desd.org/About%20ESD.htm. Accessed on September 20, 2011. Valor. (2005). Corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship: Toward corporate accountability. Business and Society Review, 110(2), 191–212. Wright, N. S., & Bennett, H. (2011). Business ethics, CSR, sustainability and the MBA. Journal of Management & Organization, 17, 641–655. Zait, A. (2006). Lonely thoughts on the meaning of education. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 19(6), 780–782.

CHAPTER 11 STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING ACADEMIC ABILITIES FOR CORPORATE EDUCATION: RELEVANCE OF OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES B. PanduRanga Narasimharao INTRODUCTION Maladies afflicting the higher education system in developing countries are well represented by what is happening in India and have been discussed in detail by many researchers and educationists (Anandakrishnan, 2008; Balram, 2005, 2008). The Government of India has formulated different projects and programmes for improving the education scenario in the country. The successive education commissions from Radhakrishnan (1949) through Kothari commission (1966) discussed various issues related to the higher education system and suggested many steps to resolve them. Recently, the Committee to Advice on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education (2009) headed by Yash Pal discussed the challenges faced by the Indian higher education system and recommended complete Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 243–265 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004013

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revamping of the higher education system and evolving it as an Indian model. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC, 2006–2009) in 2007 while recommending several measures to keep up the pace of higher education with the developments of knowledge society and knowledge economy observed that ‘We recognize that a meaningful reform of the higher education system with a long-term perspective is both complex and difficult. Yet it is imperative.’ The view that the reforms cannot easily be carried out is more strengthened by the fact that the vision and recommendations of the Kothari Commission of 1966 (based on which the 1968 educational policy was formulated) are still valid and useful even now (Sam Pitroda, 2007). For establishing connection between university and society, different concepts and models are proposed and practised by different countries of the world.1 All these developments though are good, there are dangers of more emphasis on economic development and not on social and political development (see Kezar, 1999), commoditization of knowledge in the society and turning our universities into vocational factories producing corporate drones (Hedges, 2009), threat to the institutional integrity of the university and the future of scientific research due to commoditization of knowledge (Nelson, 2004). It is necessary to develop a balanced approach between the academic scholarship in higher education and knowledge economy requirements. This is not an easy task and cannot be achieved through any regulatory or controlling authority. The change in the approach should come from within for its sustainability and effectiveness. The crucial role academics can play in this can be understood from what Beteille (1990) states ‘y academics could have done better to protect those institutions from the forces by which they were threatened.’ He adds that bureaucratization and politicization, by which academic life is being squeezed out from two sides, have been encouraged to grow in the universities by academics themselves. In order to cultivate the balanced approach, we may need to expand the horizons of scholarship and activities of academics from the narrow horizons like territorial behaviour of departments/disciplines (Rudolph, 1984); traditional promotion policies, tenure and research protocols protecting and focusing more on academic culture than community-based work (Dickson, Gallacher, Longden, & Bartlett, 1985); own research specialism as a mechanism for career progression (Topal & Crowther, 2005). This chapter examines the relevance of university outreach and engagement concept for boundary expansion of academics and how corporate education can help in this regard. We begin our discussion defining outreach and engagement in the present context.

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OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT Though outreach and engagement is widely practised by many institutes of high repute, they are still in nascent form and need to evolve in developing countries like India. The terms outreach and engagement are loosely used in many contexts. For outreach, we use the definition given by Narasimharao (2009): The university outreach should be based more on the concepts of collaboration and cooperation with all the players as equal partners with free flow of information between all the players. Universities with their academic expertise evolve programmes/research that focuses more on knowledge integration and knowledge management at all levels and facilitates the use of academic capacity in practice and also in developing academic capacity based on the practice in real life situations.2

As per Sandmann (2008) the term ‘scholarship of engagement’ (SOE) may include various concepts like outreach, public service, civic engagement, community engagement, participatory action research and even community development. She also states that higher education leaders have used the term ‘engagement’ to describe a renewed relationship between higher education and the public it serves (Sandmann, 2008). The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2007) defines community engagement as ‘the collaboration between higher education institutions and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national and global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity’.3

CHALLENGES OF KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY TO ACADEMICS The advent of knowledge era is seen as different from all that came earlier. Drucker (1994) states: Despite the factory, industrial society was still essentially a traditional society in its basic social relationships of production. But the emerging society, the one based on knowledge and knowledge workers is not y This is far more than a social change. It is a change in the human condition. (p. 54)

In this context, one can find much literature on knowledge society and knowledge economy and the prominent role the universities have to play (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000; Narasimharao, 2009; Peters & May, 2004; Schiller & Brimble, 2009; Shahid & Nabeshima, 2007). However, what is

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important for developing countries is to identify the challenges universities and their academics may face in fulfilling this role. In India, for instance, there are 634 university/university-level institutes and 33,023 colleges (UGC report, 2012). The challenge for these higher education institutions in the context of knowledge economy is whether they are able to act as an educational enterprise using the educational talents available within its faculty and staff not just for university needs, but also for community needs (see Magrath, 2006). This may be possible only with more expanded and broader involvement of academics with society. Under the convergent impacts of population explosion, knowledge explosion, revolutionary developments in ICT, science and technology explosion, globalization and commercialization, and massification of education, academics need to produce more knowledge, relevant knowledge, and also become responsible for the transfer of that knowledge to those parties who need it. Another challenge for academics, in the knowledge era, is that knowledge creation is no longer the unique domain of universities (Beerkens, 2009). This means academics need to have more close interaction with other stakeholders of higher education. Other challenges for academics may include integrating teaching, research and outreach in order to take on world problems through disciplinary means (see Barker, 2004; Beerkens, 2009); interpreting all needs in our own image: more courses, credit hours, campus classes and classical curricula (Guzzetta, 1982); within the paradigm of modernity each discipline continuing to distance itself from other disciplines (Crowther & Carter, 2002); knowledge being broken up into narrower and narrower cubicles and failure to look beyond the boundaries created by the disciplines (Cech, 1999; Ghose, 2006; Yash Pal, 2009); integrating entrepreneurial and traditional functions to meet the demands of knowledge society and knowledge economy (Narasimharao & Nair, 2010); combining good science with the complexities of business, intellectual property protection, social sciences and a regulatory environment. One of the major challenges the academics may face in the knowledge society is the need to deal with several oppositely placed issues. Some of the major issues are:  Knowledge explosion versus knowledge management  Designing subject areas in isolation versus multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary trends

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 Universities as knowledge houses versus increasing tendencies to treat teaching and research as separate activities  Learning across disciplines versus specialized studies  Convergence of technologies and knowledge  Globalization of knowledge versus regional/local/traditional knowledge  Vocational education versus university education  Sustainable and integrated development versus temporary and compartmentalized development  Commoditization of knowledge versus community development It is difficult to visualize that academics will be able to address all these challenges without developing the ability to expand the boundaries of scholarship. Expanding Boundaries For expanding the boundaries of scholarship it may be necessary to impart new values and goals among academics in tune with the knowledge society. This cannot be done very easily as the faculty may think their territories are invaded and have to protect in the interest of their own discipline and for the ‘good’ of the university. Levine (1980) argued that, if the conditions of compatibility and profitability are not satisfied, boundary expansion can occur but with the innovation modified to adhere to institutional compatibility and profitability. However, if the innovation does not satisfy organizational norms, boundaries will contract and the innovation will be terminated (Table 1). One can extend these boundary expansion concepts to individual departments or even to individual faculty. What may be necessary is to see how one can impart new values and goals among academics that can cause boundary expansion through compatibility and profitability discussed by Levine (1980). For instance, there was a time when it was believed that academic ability achieved through university education by a person can make him/her succeed in business. Universities in their own right used to focus on academic aspects with less focus on the problems and issues faced by society in general. However, in the present knowledge era, people have started arguing about the need for more close interaction between universities and society.4 Narasimharao, Nair, and Naidu (2011) discussed how corporate education concept at universities can expand the boundaries of scholarship. They argue that corporate education in universities should be broad-based covering the ‘whole’ university for the benefit of society.

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Table 1.

Compatibility Profitability

Profitability – self-interest

Profitability – general

Levine’s (1980) Model of Boundary Expansion or Contraction of an Innovation. Boundary Expansion: Accept the Innovation

Boundary Contraction: Reject the Innovation

Innovation is compatible with mission, norms, etc. Innovation is profitable to individuals or an institution as a whole. Innovation provides value to individuals who adopt it. Results in diffusion: Innovation permeates entire institution and becomes part of daily practice. Innovation provides value to institution as a whole. Results in enclaving: Innovation is housed in a separate unit and regarded as a symbolic commitment to innovation.

Innovation is incompatible with mission, etc. Innovation is not profitable to individuals or the institution.

Corporate Education for Imparting New Values and Goals Many universities offer industry-related courses, which are considered to be part of corporate education. However, corporate education should develop beyond just offering courses. One of the important things is to provide objectivity to a corporation and challenge traditional thinking and paradigms, if required. The focus should be on academics using their academic abilities towards this end. When academics start working in close collaboration with the corporations, they may realize that they need to adopt flexible approach in designing courses for local needs. In the emerging literature on the third role of universities to reach out to society, the novel feature is interaction of the university’s traditional role in education with regional imperatives in order to align their core functions with regional needs (Barraket, 2001). In this scenario the academics not only have to involve all stakeholders of higher education but also have to use their academic and disciplinary knowledge in this direction. In fact, the academics may use the corporate education concept to cover the four pillars of knowledge-based economy (KBE) as identified by World Bank5 to expand their values and goals.

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Some of the strategies suggested by Narasimharao and Nair (2010) for corporate education in universities may indicate the direction in which the values and goals of academics can be expanded. These are (a) developing hybrid disciplines for the benefit of society including industries; (b) integrating various fields of study for which the university has the expert faculty by collaborating with relevant sections of the society having more practical and real-life exposure in that particular field; (c) developing the ability of the universities to organize the traditional disciplines differently; (d) developing courses relevant to different regions or adopting a flexible approach for changing the course dynamically; (e) integrating corporate education needs into the traditional universities; (f) developing capabilities to generate knowledge, or to effectively select, absorb, adapt and use imported knowledge and creation of endogenous or local capacity; (g) imparting subject domain skills, general work skills, industry-related skills, industry-related knowledge and attributes besides generic skills; (h) integrating liberal arts into the competency models. Before discussing the potential of outreach and engagement for expanding values and goals in this direction, it is relevant to briefly touch on the Indian context.

Challenges in the Indian Context There are several papers published on major issues faced by the Indian higher education system in relation to quality and relevance, access and equity, infrastructure and dealing with larger numbers. Though, considering the enormous size of the country, there is a need for more number of universities (NKC, 2006–2009), the major issue is about maintaining the quality of education. A very few institutes of higher learning in India can be compared to other best institutes of the world (Thimmappa, 2007). Taking the example of University of Chicago which continues to be a small graduate school among American Universities, Baskaran (2007) argues that quality of an institution depends on its teachers and their self-determined goals. Though India has developed some excellent world-class institutes in Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Indian Institute of Science (IISC), All India Institute of Medical sciences (AIIMS), Birla Institute of Technologies (BITS), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), most of these are outside the conventional system in the country. The need for reforms is felt by many educationists and education commissions. For

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instance, Balram (2005) gives an account of how the state-funded universities in India are sinking with politicization (as evident from the controversies that dog appointment of vice-chancellors), little importance given for academic excellence, mechanization of education through hard steel moulds of syllabuses and examinations, and routine teaching. The recent committees on higher education (Yash Pal, 2009) and knowledge commission (NKC, 2006–2009) expressed their concern on the Indian higher education system being subjected to complex and dysfunctional regulatory arrangements.6 The committee identified several issues and suggested many reforms including the necessity to make disciplinary boundaries more porous to hear the voices outside universities, and creating sufficient room for the use of local data and resource to make the knowledge covered in the syllabus of universities come alive as experience. Similarly the National Knowledge Commission in its summary of recommendations stated that it is essential to revitalize and expand the reach of knowledge in society. Some of its recommendations in relation to higher education include diversifying the sources of financing; industry linkages; frequent curricular revisions; restructuring the system of affiliated undergraduate colleges; developing models for community colleges; production of quality content and leveraging global open educational resources; increasing the flexibility of vocational education within the main stream of education. However, the major challenge the Indian higher education system faces is implementation of reforms suggested by various committees/commissions as evident from the fact that what Kothari commission suggested in 1966 is still valid. As per UGC report of February, 2012 there are 14,616,473 (36% of total) students enrolled in graduate studies and 2,049,124 (12% of total) for postgraduate studies. However, there is a widespread concern that the system is preparing more unemployable graduates who sometimes even lack the basic knowledge of subject (Ghose, 2006; Lal, 2010; Vijyendra & Narasimharao, 2011). Narasimharao (2010a) points out that on one hand the biotechnology industry is starved of talent and on the other hand there are many unemployable biotechnologists and general graduates. There is a need for efficient teachers in the system as they alone can change the whole scenario. In the Indian tertiary education system there are 8.17 lakh teachers as per the estimate of 2010–2011. Though there are outstanding examples of persons who made world-class contributions to knowledge in each field (Sir CV Raman, JC Bose, SN Bose, S. Chandrasekhar, Homi Bhabha to mention a few), the general observation is that the quality of teachers is on reduction due to several factors including inbreeding in the faculty recruitment, other than academic considerations in the appointment of

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teachers, and using orientation programmes and other schemes introduced by regulatory bodies just for promotion and/or for personal gains. In order to improve the quality of teachers in relation to knowledge society needs, the universities should adopt strategies to give faculty a chance to improve their abilities in the following areas:  Determining what knowledge and how much knowledge should go where.  Organizing the traditional disciplines according to the needs of the society.  Developing abilities like participating in cross-disciplinary areas (thus converging knowledge and technologies), building relationships between the academics and business community facilitating technology transfer, creating a base of operations for a number of workforce development programmes, etc.  Integrating the global-level knowledge acquired with regional/local/ traditional knowledge.  Combining theory with the skill-imparting practice, which can happen only by developing the ability to collaborate with local organizations for building local capacity.  Using the ‘whole’ university in all their activities for societal needs.  Taking care of knowledge for economic purpose (commoditization) as well as for social and political development (community development). One can say that the introduction of corporate education7 may help the universities to expand values and goals of academics. The question is how to imbibe corporate education concept without changing the traditional values among academics. Sandmann (2006) discusses on how the outreach concept can benefit not only the universities and their faculty but also the stakeholders of higher education including industries.

BOUNDARY EXPANSION AND NEW POSSIBILITIES THROUGH OUTREACH Fig. 1 shows how university outreach can expand the potential of the universities. One of the important aspect is that it can encompass corporate education as well as traditional education. It can also cover traditional as well as open distance learning methodologies. Directly or indirectly the importance of outreach was emphasized by various education commissions in India. For instance Kothari commission (1966) states that extension is essential – for making education relevant in

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Course Management

Basic courses

Curriculum Development & Research

Production

Policy matters

Individual target group needs

Balancing between basic & applied Knowledge Community development models

Faculty, Managers,

University

Students Faculty

Society

University Outreach Programmes

student

University Departments

Faculty

Managers workers

Resources sharing Govt. Priorities / Programmes

Industries Feed back

Community Leaders

Industry relevant programs

Real Life Issues

Local skills development

Equipment & Product

Govt. officials

Life long learning

Knowledge explosion

Blended

Solved issues

New skills

Corporate training

Type of Delivery

On line

New technologies

Face to face

Open distance

Is provided by in Collaboration with

Are provided by

Private extended campus

Fig. 1.

University

State Institution

Corporate or Industry

Industries & corporations

Outreach and Various Issues in Source: Narasimharao (2009).

Higher

Education.

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real-life situations; for preventing the alienation of the educated from society; for developing in the educated a sense of responsibility towards society; for deepening teachers’ knowledge through a wider exposure to real life. Similarly the main objectives of recommendations of knowledge commission of India (2006–2009) – expansion, excellence and inclusion for higher education – are all directly relevant to the outreach concept. However, it cannot be said here that the focus is on the collaboration and cooperation as covered in the modern outreach concept, defined earlier in this chapter. It may be argued that the faculty has to take care of knowledge both for economic purpose (commoditization) and for social and political development (community development). Narasimharao, Shashidhara Prasad, and Nair (2011) while discussing corporate education in natural sciences discuss about the importance of balancing between pure basic education, useinspired education and application-oriented education. This may be achieved through outreach programmes, as the faculty will need to plan their work including teaching and research as per the societal needs and demands. At the same time they may need to protect their discipline or subject through its further development as per the field experience. Potential of Outreach in Broadening the Horizons of Scholarship The potential of outreach lies in its key feature of knowledge sharing. Further in this concept universities are not considered to be the only place where knowledge is available and advocates knowledge sharing between all shareholders. We can say that the outreach concept helps universities to link to their places and the shareholders of higher education. It also helps universities to think beyond the requirements of degree students and research specializations of academics. All these features help in addressing boundary expansion needs of the knowledge society identified above. Applying Academic Capacity in Practice and Dealing with Real-Life Issues When the academics get involved in outreach they will have to deal with real-life issues, balancing between basic and applied knowledge, corporate education and training, knowledge explosion through lifelong learning, etc. (Fig. 1). It will become necessary for academics to collaborate with various stakeholders of higher education, such as industries, community leaders, nongovernmental organizations (NGO), government organizations, local

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civic bodies, etc., and design the curriculum for their needs. This may make the academics to orient their knowledge in the direction of the requirements of these target groups and as per real-life situations (Fig. 1). Since under the outreach concept academics need to treat other stakeholders as equal partners in the knowledge creation, some of the traditional knowledge and tacit knowledge available in the society can be imbibed by the academics. For instance, in the University of Mysore under the outreach concept a specialized course for non-profit management was developed by involving an active NGO and other stakeholders. What is required at the field level is decided on the basis of the experiences of all stakeholders including faculty from different disciplines. Each discipline was treated in an integrative way with other disciplines and hence many courses are actually a combination of two or more subjects or disciplines as per the requirement (Dongre & Narasimharao, in press). Similarly, the college of St. Catherine, Minneapolis, United States while designing an interdisciplinary service learning course involved all stakeholders of the course including community partners, academics, academic institutions and students. This has helped them in not only addressing the needs of the community partner/students and learning outcomes but also in contributing to all the five disciplines their unique knowledge, skills and perspectives on the issues identified (Connors, Cora-Bramble, Hart, Sabastian, & Seifer, 1996; Gupta, 2006).

Benefits to the Discipline or Profession In outreach and engagement the basic concept of a major state university being in partnership with community, its state and region, and even with wider world (Magrath, 2006) brings many benefits to the discipline or profession (Sandmann, 2006). The basic concept of feedback and inputs from all the stakeholders under outreach makes the academics balance between basic and applied knowledge through an integration between course management, basics required, skills required for dealing with equipment and products and individual target groups’ needs (Fig. 1). For instance Auplat (2006) explains the greater role NGOs can play for influencing entrepreneurship for the development of biotechnologies and nanotechnologies. NGOs can act as linker units for universities to interact with communities (Narasimharao, 2009). Narasimharao and Sridhar (2007) discussing the potential of outreach programmes to meet the societal demands quoted the example of how biology is related to society and the need for moving from subject-based

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approach to need-based approach. The discipline can become more dynamic by integrating explicit and implicit knowledge with theory and practice. One can get help from the outreach approach in organizing the traditional disciplines differently. For example, at the University of Mysore under the outreach concept the traditional discipline of management is organized to form a new non-profit management course for NGOs where there is integration of even the life science subjects and economics (Dongre & Narasimharao, in press). The advantage will be the knowledge available at the field level is directly available for faculty to reorient their disciplines to the benefit of the society. However, there is a need to apply the outreach concept in its full form, as many corporate bodies have a tendency of looking at collaborations with universities as another business opportunity. Universities need to take a lead role in this regard. It is observed that while academics on one hand propose to cover basic to most modern areas of the subject (dealing the subject in a traditional way), industry partners on the other hand fear to deviate much from established subject areas as it may hinder the marketing of the course (Narasimharao & Nair, 2010). All these may hinder real integration of subjects as per the needs of the target groups.

Integrating Teaching, Research and Practice Boyer (1996) while defining successful professorate or a complete university highlighted the importance of outreach by saying teaching not grounded in research and practice is hollow. He stressed the importance of integrating the scholarship of discovery (basic research), scholarship of integration (placing discoveries within a larger context), scholarship of sharing knowledge (communal nature of scholarship) and application of knowledge (as a reflective practice in which theory and practice inform each other). Braskamp and Wergin (1997) argue that the higher education institutions need to reorient themselves as active partners with parents, teachers, principals, community advocates, business leaders, community agencies and general citizenry. In the Indian context a similar kind of reorientation of universities was highlighted by Yash Pal (2006) when he observes that the connection between the community (read the village) and education has already broken down in our formal system and there is a need to search for new possibilities which can help to re-establish this contact. He also suggests that the global can be encapsulated in the local; just the globalization version of the global might prove to be toxic.

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For this to happen it is necessary that Levine’s (1980) boundary expansion concept is applied to individuals as well as departments in the higher education system. In the whole concept the integration of teaching, research and practice may be crucial. It is necessary that the faculty is closely linked to their place and uses their teaching and research experience in practice, as one of the requirements of the 21st century universities is how they are linked to place (Gunasekara, 2006). This kind of boundary expansion can easily be achieved through outreach concept as it is beneficial to all stakeholders of higher education – students, faculty members, external partners including industries, institutions and units, and government (Fig. 1).

Catering to Knowledge Economy Needs It is argued that through integration of university activities, curriculum development and societal needs with outreach and knowledge economy (Fig. 2) we may be able to orient academics in balancing both economic and traditional functions of the university from within.

Role of University Outreach in Knowledge economy Development

- Health & Social well being - Urban & rural development - High tech industries - Globalization - Regional competitiveness - Optimum use of resources

SOCIETY

- Capacity building & technology transfer - Expanding capacity of tertiary Education - Science technology & innovation - Reducing inequality of access - Relevance of education & Research - Coupling education & Research - Modern Communication

Fig. 2.

- Technical innovation - Economic productivity - Growing markets - Foreign industrial investment - Competitive use of

KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

UNIVERSITY

OUTREACH

CURRICULUM

-

Life long learning Employability Innovative programme Training Life skills & soft skills Flexibility in adaptation to new needs - Graduate competency - Life span of knowledge

Role of University Outreach in Knowledge Economy Development.

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Narasimharao and Nair (2010) proposed integration of corporate education into traditional universities as one of the effective strategies for influencing the expansion of values, goals and norms of universities in developing countries. Sandmann (2008) applying and exploring punctuated equilibrium theory in the context of conceptual development of scholarship of engagement which may be said as a forerunner to outreach and engagement and staff development suggests that punctuated equilibrium theory provides an interesting perspective to complex institutional dynamics, particularly for institutions that are highly disaggregated in nature like higher education. Outreach and engagement when introduced in its conceptual frame work can address many issues that face higher education system in developing countries like India through staff development in that direction from within. It can orient the academics in dealing with various issues, such as fragmentation of knowledge, seeing university education in totality, failure of universities relating to the world outside, dealing with multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary trends, the need for convergence of technologies, learning across disciplines, integrating vocational education and higher education, commoditization of knowledge, through the concept of boundary expansion of Levine (1980).

Outreach in India In Indian context we can quote several examples of the efforts to bring the university activities closure to society. As discussed by Narasimharao (2009), there are several examples of collaborations between universities and other organizations. For instance, University of Mysore, Mysore established a separate centre for outreach programmes and entered into memorandum of understanding (MOU) with various organizations covering business schools, NGOs, finishing schools, education trusts in rural areas, hotel management institutes, IT industries, infrastructure management and software development training institutes, clinical research organizations, animation industries, and so forth (Narasimharao, 2009). Similarly, Indira Gandhi National Open University has established a separate centre for corporate education and entered into MOU with many corporate bodies for offering programmes relevant to them. IGNOU also started the concept of establishing community colleges with the help of different organizations. Some other examples may include off-campus centres of BITS, Pilani; public outreach

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programme conducted by Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune; Avinashlingam University for women, Coimbatore; SNDT Women’s University, Calicut University, Calicut; University of Allahabad (see Narasimharao & Sridhar, 2007). Though many times whatever university does beyond its normal framework like adult education, extension education, community education, collaborations with industry to offer certain courses, off-campus centres and programmes, etc., are referred to as outreach, these cannot be considered outreach (Narasimharao, 2009) in true sense. Similarly the participatory action research referred to by Couto (2000) cannot be equated with outreach, as outreach and engagement are more broader cutting across teaching, research and service (Bargerstock, Doberneck, & Zimmerman, 2007) while focusing more on knowledge generation with public participation and participatory collaborations rather than passive collaborations. In a similar vein though service learning can be argued as a vehicle for academic renewal in universities (Zlotkowski, 1997), it is less broad in its scope than outreach and engagement.

CONCLUSIONS When it comes to professional development practices in higher education we can identify two major strands – activities that support research and scholarship and staff development concerned with learning and teaching. However, there is a deep split between these two major activities in modern university life and often the former is not considered as continuing professional development (CPD) as such (Clegg, 2003). This kind of split may make universities more like isolated towers and alienated from place. This is against the requirement of the 21st century universities to be linked to their place (Gunasekara, 2006; Narasimharao & Nair, 2010). In our argument on academic development we follow what Boyer (1996) said about successful professorate highlighting the importance of integrating research, teaching, practice and relating those to real world problems (outreach). Two major shifts of higher education – one towards mass higher education and the other university’s role in the knowledge society – are attributed to the split between teaching and research (Barnett, 2003). We argue that knowledge society and mass higher education are inter-related and are to be seen in an integrated way. Since the advent of knowledge society there is a need for more and more people getting educated in various fields and in

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various ways. The academics naturally are to be trained to deal with these demands and this can be done through some internal mechanisms. In general, the academic staff focus much on subject-based activity through network of conferences/seminars, publications, peer review, professional collaborations, research projects, online discussion groups, email exchanges, etc. Becher (1999) showed that many of the core orientations of academic staff are based in the disciplinary practices. He distinguishes between different forms of professional development – resource-based, practice-based (on the job or at the work spot), practice-related (out of the work spot but encompassing many of the activities as scholarly activity) and interpersonal (networking). Similarly, Clegg (2003) quoting literature draws the attention to the informal learning that takes place in workplaces leading to academic professional development. By introducing the concept of outreach and engagement we not only design the academic orientation around disciplinary-based activities but also cover many core orientations mentioned by Becher including informal learning and social learning systems. We also argue that this also helps in knowledge integration which can take care of multiple accountabilities in the knowledge production mentioned by Beerkens (2009). For instance Narasimharao (2010a) summarizing the knowledge integration elements related to biotechnology observed that it can be more complex with many players, elements and factors, and cannot be taken in isolation. There is a need for active contribution from all the players. University outreach has the potential in this direction with academics getting trained in collaboration and integration of knowledge from various stakeholders. The academics need to be trained in balancing both economic and traditional functions of the university, and this is possible by integrating university activities, curriculum development and societal needs with outreach. Fig. 2 presents the relation of this integration to knowledge economy. Bargerstock et al. (2007) compared traditional academic activity of teaching, research and service with outreach scholarly engagement activity of teaching, research and service. Sandmann (2008) applies punctuate equilibrium theory and explores four punctuations in the conceptual development of scholarship of engagement which may be said as a forerunner to outreach and engagement and staff development. She suggests that punctuated equilibrium theory provides an interesting perspective to complex institutional dynamics, particularly for institutions that are highly disaggregated in nature-like higher education. University outreach and engagement is in its nascent stage in developing countries like India. This can be of both strength and weakness for these

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countries while coming to terms with the forces of knowledge economy and knowledge society. One of the strengths can be that they can learn from what is happening with regard to this concept elsewhere in the world and evolve their own models suitable for their own context. Kliewer, Sandmann, and Narasimharao (in press) discussing the relevance of outreach and engagement for developing effective university–corporate partnerships for societal development quoted the example of Southside Virginia which had become a region with less talent, more unemployment, economically backward with limited resources. The region revitalized itself within a very short time when a committed group of private citizens invited Virginia Tech to be a strategic partner in a business-led coalition. In the whole process, knowledge is co-produced through acts of teaching, research and service and each stakeholder contributed through engaged partnership. This engaged partnership created a dynamic economic transformation model that is responsive to specific need of rural Virginia. We conclude by saying that in developing countries like India introduction of the outreach and engagement concept in a systematic way in universities is beneficial in many ways – bringing the change from within the system in universities (as per the recommendations of various education commissions), universities getting linked to place (serving the societal demands under knowledge economy requirements), developing an Indian model, and boundary expansion of scholarship through expansion of values, goals and norms of academics. India has to develop its own model of outreach and engagement taking the lessons from the Virginia tech partnership with local community as it did when it introduced Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) taking cue from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of United States. The academic community will be able to link to their place and will be able to use their academic capacities for the development of a region to the full extent.

NOTES 1. Some of the important ones are mode 2 thesis (Gibbons et al., 1994; Nowotny, Scott, & Gibbons, 2001), university–industry linkages (Schiller & Brimble, 2009), Triple Helix (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000), Regional innovation systems (Gunasekara, 2006; Rip, 2002), higher education for sustainable development (Barth, Godemann, Rieckman, & Stoltenberg, 2007), Centres of excellence and relevance (Beerkens, 2009; Rip, 2004), National Innovation Systems (Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993), University engagement (Bargerstock et al., 2007; Boyer, 1996), Consortia and Clusters (Chaminade & Vang, 2008; Porter, 1998).

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2. Though we can include many programs like adult education, extension education, community education, continuing education, awareness programmes, offcampus centres and programmes, and training programmes as outreach programmes, these do not really fully reflect what Boyer said on outreach (Narasimharao, 2009). 3. The traditional concept of service learning is different from outreach and engagement, in that the latter emphasizes bidirectional interactions, reciprocity and mutual respect (Byrne, 1998; Ray, 1999; Simpson, 2000) instead of one-way assistance or direction. This is considered ‘a new twist for higher education: the twoway street of interactions or partnerships between the academy and the outside world’ (Roper & Hirth, 2005, p. 12). 4. It is proposed that the necessity for greater closeness between universities and industries is driven by five broad forces – complexity of productive process, need for more number of qualified people (massification), pressure on academy to address the needs of its consumers and to consider the process of higher education as an enterprise shared with many others, changing needs of the society and globalization pressures (Wright, 1990). 5. The four pillars identified by World Bank are building skilled work force, national innovation system, knowledge network and regulatory environment (see Narasimharao, 2010b). 6. Major regulatory bodies of the Indian higher education system are University Grants Commission (UGC) 1956, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) 1987, Distance Education Council (DEC) 1985, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Bar Council of India (BCI) 1961, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) 1993, Medical Council of India (MCI) 1956, Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) 1948, Indian Nursing Council (INC) 1947, Dental Council of India (DCI) 1948, Central Council of Homeopathy (CCH) 1973, Veterinary Council of India (VCI) 1984, Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) 1992, Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) 1970, Council of Architecture (CoA) 1972 and State Councils of Higher Education (SOHE). Besides these, there are regulatory bodies at state government levels as education is a state subject. 7. The knowledge society is evolving a new model of university with plurality of actors and interests described and prescribed under different terms like innovative university (Clark, 1996), entrepreneurial university (Clark, 1998), enterprise university (Marginson & Considine, 2000), post-modern university (Rip, 2004), the responsive university (Tierney, 1998), the service university (Buchbinder, 1993; Tjeldvoll, 1997), the stakeholder university (Jongbloed & Goedegebuure, 2001).

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CHAPTER 12 BEYOND THEORY AND PRACTICE: A MALAYSIAN CASE STUDY Jamilah Ahmad and Suriati Saad The importance of CSR is certainly making its presence known in the share prices of companies around the world, especially in the more developed markets. This is a trend we expect to be mirrored in Malaysia. Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop Minister of Finance II Budget 2007 Speech

OVERVIEW The goal of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to ensure that organisations embrace social responsibility and cultivate activities that provide positive impact on the environment, society, consumers, employees, communities and all other members of the public sphere. Therefore, it is highly important to enhance and augment the teaching of CSR across various disciplines in higher learning institutions. Since 2006, most organisations in Malaysia have been highly encouraged to carry out their Social Responsibility activities, with the government providing support for CSR policies through its tax reduction incentives. Various CSR awards and acknowledgement of the awards provide high value and positive reputation to the organisations that implement CSR-related activities. As a result there

Education and Corporate Social Responsibility: International Perspectives Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Volume 4, 267–296 Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 2043-0523/doi:10.1108/S2043-0523(2013)0000004014

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is an increasing awareness among businesses to focus beyond compliance with laws in order to respond to the dynamic economic, societal and environmental changes. However, when talking about social responsibility, major concerns are often put directly on organisations, and little is mentioned about how a university can contribute in developing social responsibility. The fact is that the society of tomorrow begins today. Therefore to develop a socially responsible society, the university needs to have a drive, compassion, commitment and persistence towards achieving this goal. It is crucial for a learning institution to cope with the present contextual demands, as a way to replenish its own actions and enlarge its source of reference, becoming an institution that can help and be partly involved in shaping stakeholders involvement in socially responsible engagement. This can be done through teaching and educating future employees to become more ethical, transparent, engaged and socially responsible for their community and surroundings. A university needs to offer a more strategic CSR approach in its courses by proposing a framework that embeds both theory and practice by incorporating four main stakeholders into these efforts: organisations, community, government or policy makers and media. By furnishing the curriculum with these elements it will allow higher learning institutions in Malaysia to prepare graduates to work for their organisations and to serve their communities effectively in future. Good CSR practices will enable companies to attract better quality investors and to better meet the challenges posed by increased competition for markets and capital... resulting in improved reputation and branding of Malaysian companies, whose enhanced performance will contribute towards our goal of establishing a premier capital market that will play a significant role in generating greater economic growth for Malaysia. Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar Chairman 2006 Securities Commission Malaysia

INTRODUCTION An increased awareness and demand concerning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has urged organisations to improve their CSR practices and it has also made it mandatory for many organisations to practise the CSR policies. This is because CSR has already emerged as a relevant concept to organisations worldwide. Organisations regard CSR from various

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dimensions such as corporate governance, ethics, human rights, corporate citizenship, company disclosure, global reporting index and many more. Higher learning institutions on the other hand are still struggling with one common interpretation and definition of CSR across their disciplines. Therefore, it is highly important for higher learning institutions teaching a CSR curriculum to conceptualise the more strategic ideas of CSR across disciplines be they business, communication, finance, management, economics, humanities, accounting, law etc. With an increasing number of organisations claiming to be CSR oriented, more awards, recognition, benefits and incentives are being given by government to organisations that carry out CSR-related activities. Organisations also gain positive reputation and branding for their CSR-inclined activities. Higher public demand for more responsible and accountable organisations, which work towards preventing further depletion of environment, incorporate sustainability elements in their business operations etc., means higher learning institutions have more responsibility to introduce courses and programmes with regards to CSR. It is time to expose and engage university students in Malaysia to understanding the concepts underpinning CSR because they are going to be the future employees, and therefore it is important to know how CSR initiatives can impact stakeholders. Today, business charity is an important element of any organisation. The one aspect of it has come to be known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) which gives much attention to fulfilling accountability to stakeholders by integrating social, environmental, legal and economic concerns in organisational business. The emergence of social media through Blog, Twitter, Facebook, You tube, Webpage and many more social media has led to a veritable explosion of organisational and business conduct. Due to the interest of consumers on issues surrounding business ethics, organisational transparency and financial reporting and organisational effort on sustainable environmental practice, it is essential for an organisation to give emphasis to the needs of social responsibility initiatives and practices so that they create a good relationship with their stakeholders. According to Aras and Crowther (2010) good corporate governance is fundamental to the successful operation of any corporation. This is because good governance can create an environment of trust among stakeholders. It is essential for an organisation to manage its ethical behaviour, and CSR can have significant, positive consequences for employees, customers, shareholders and communities. In contrast poor managerial ethics and CSR can generate negative publicity or even crisis that hurts a company’s stock price, destroys shareholder values or makes it difficult for the firm to

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recruit high quality employees (Michael, Steward, & Lyman, 2004). This has been proven by the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of The World, Britain’s best selling newspaper owned by media mogul Rupert Murdock after operating for 162 years. The scandal affected the reputation and strong image of Rupert Murdoch and his media company. He also lost the bidding for tender of BSkyB in the United Kingdom, which affected his companies’ share market. With this he lost the trust of his investors and other stakeholders including the general public. The phone hacking misconduct also spread to other parts of his media empire in the United States and Australia (The Straits Times, 2011).

CSR CONCEPT The most defined concept of ‘corporate social responsibility’ is the one introduced by Archie B. Carroll (1979), who reflects on the economic paradigm as the basic layer of a pyramid in all cultural settings as economic responsibility. Carroll depicts the complexity that also shows the development of increasing firm responsibilities over time through four concept of responsibility: Economic responsibility, Legal Responsibility, Ethical Responsibility and Philanthropic which he also named as ‘altruistic’ or ‘humanitarian’ CSR. According to Welford (2004) CSR is a broad concept that companies should consider due to the direct impact on investors, shareholders, employees, consumers and local community, while Wood (1991) defines CSR as a business organization’s configuration of principles of social responsibility, processes of social responsiveness, and policies, programs, and observable outcomes as they relate to the firm’s societal relationships. Dahslrud (2006) suggested that CSR involves economic, environmental, social, stakeholder and voluntary dimensions. Most definitions reviewed emphasise the duty businesses have towards society (to do social good) and reveal the multifaceted nature of CSR. Other scholars have developed the idea of CSR based on the basic concept by Caroll, and have adapted additional categories such as economic dimension, law, discretionary activities and even corporate behavior of a business entity as adapted to the values and expectations of society (Aras & Crowther, 2012; Joyner, Payne, & Raibom, 2002; Post, Preston, & Sachs, 2002; Shafiqur Rahman, 2011) (Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1.

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CSR Concept.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ASIA The significance of CSR in Asia has emerged tremendously in the past decade. In developing countries like Malaysia, the importance of CSR has been recognised by most corporations to ensure long-term business success (Siwar & Harizan, 2008). CSR is how businesses organise their values and behaviour with the expectations and prospects of their stakeholders (CSRNetwork, 2007). According to CSR Asia (2008), CSR is defined as a company’s commitment to operate in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner whilst balancing the interests of its stakeholders. Today corporations not only are required to make profits but also to obey the law and act ethically. Corporations and businesses are encouraged to be responsible towards the environment, workplace and the community because by balancing the needs and wants of all stakeholders they can discover real business benefits and, thus, maximise profits (Crowther & Rayman-Bacchus, 2004). Although CSR is a globally relevant concept, its interpretation varies from country to country, industry to industry and company to company because there are different local situations with different stakeholder demands in different locations and industries (CSR Asia, 2008). Stakeholders in different

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countries have various interests and power and might assert different demands from companies (Haniffa & Cooke, 2005). Globalisation appears to be the single largest factor that has propelled the CSR movement in Asia (Chambers, Chapple, Moon, & Sullivan, 2004). Corporations based in Asia that venture into international markets have to improve their CSR standards to measure up to the expectations of their global stakeholders in order to remain competitive (Khanna, 2004). Even though there are significant differences, CSR practices in Asia are not necessarily less developed than their western counterparts. The main difference lies in differences in cultures and values. The Asian context of CSR may be different due to its core values and locally defined cultural norms (CSR Asia, 2008). For instance, human rights described in China will most likely be different from that defined in America. Compared to the West, Asia does not have aspirations to end child labour or improve the role of women. The results from a study examining attitudes towards CSR in Malaysia showed that the most influential factor determining the attitude towards social responsibility was family upbringing. The other important factors were traditional beliefs and customs, and common practices in the industry (Abdul & Ibrahim, 2002). A survey of 50 companies in seven Asian countries – Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand – proved that CSR does vary considerably, but that this variation is not explained by development but by factors in the respective national business system (Chapple & Moon, 2005).

KEY INDICATORS THAT INFLUENCE DEVELOPMENT OF CSR GLOBALLY There are many factors that influence the development of CSR worldwide such as globalisation, deregulation, mergers, privatisation, governance, ethics, positive brand reputation, customer loyalty, good employee relations, good customer services, environment-inclined products, products that are value for money, transparent financial disclosure, good practice of business ethics, changing social expectations and technological innovation. However, there is no global framework or model of CSR that can fit national or regional organisations from other countries because of different interplay factors such as social background and lifestyle, political structure and governance policy, cultural values and economic stability of one country (Fig. 2).

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Fig. 2.

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Influential Factors of CSR Development Globally.

Many internationally recognized elements of good CSR can be applied globally, such as protection of the environment, contributions to local communities, ethical procurement and non-discriminatory policies. Nevertheless, CSR by definition must be viewed in the context of the community and environment in which the corporation operates. Thus, the priorities for CSR in Malaysia context, should take into consideration the nation’s social aspirations and socio-economic objectives. Such as, developing local and Bumiputera (aboriginal) vendors, ensuring ethnic diversity of employment, developing human capital through Adopt a School programmes, as well as supporting charitable institutions, like drug rehabilitation centre. Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop Malaysia Minister of Finance II Launch of Bursa Malaysia’s CSR Framework for PLCs (2006)

Organizations worldwide have put in efforts and taken initiatives towards fulfilling the demand of CSR. Higher learning institutions will have to take up the role of equipping the workforce with the appropriate level of CSR knowledge. Basically, the fundamental role of higher learning institutions is to supply organisations with skilled and professional labour. However with effective CSR programmes and courses offered by higher learning institutions, these skilled labour or graduates that come from various disciplines can apply their tacit CSR knowledge in various projects that they implement or plan for their organisations. In a way CSR is already embedded as part of their strategy and process in their services to their consumers or stakeholders. This will add on to not only good business ethics, economic viability, socially responsible but also voluntary attitude without making social responsibility mandatory but rather making it an

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socially conscienced action. This will also create a long-term investment and affect the triple bottom line dimension, which looks after People, Planet and Profit (Fig. 3). By implementing effective CSR education, higher learning institutions in Malaysia are playing their role in university social responsibility (USR) that invests in the needs for social well-being, and economic, legal, environmental and philanthropic responsibilities. This would help organisations in implementing CSR as part of their strategy and is also in line with government policy and national agenda. Simultaneously, higher learning institutions also cultivate the good values of socially responsible attitude within the university’s environment/atmosphere. This is in line with a higher learning institution’s role at the forefront of the sustainability movement, that is working to increase public awareness regarding environmental issues, and fulfilling and engaging industries with community needs through selfempowerment which in the end will create a sustainable future to the benefit of society. These movements however are heavily influenced by the main stakeholders in CSR education. There are four influential stakeholders that university must engage in USR efforts. They are the government or policy

Effective CSR module/ Education

Positive output for Product and stakeholders

Triple Bottom line strategy

Create better work force/Skill workers

Fig. 3.

Output of CSR Education Process.

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Fig. 4.

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Main Stakeholders in CSR Education in Malaysia.

makers; Organizations/Industries/MNCs and SMEs; Community and NGOs and Media as illustrated in Fig. 4.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN MALAYSIA In developing countries like Malaysia, the importance of CSR has been recognised by most corporations to ensure long-term business success. CSR has been adopted within company’s policies, strategies, programmes and commitments towards society and environment. Over the past few years, Malaysia has made enormous strides in CSR development. Good CSR practices are encouraged by the government and frequently heard in speeches given by authorities. CSR practices in Malaysia are also evident in the National Integrity Plan, the 9th Malaysia Plan and the Capital Market Master Plan (Raslan, 2007).

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According to Williams (2008), Malaysia is one of the leading countries in CSR among Southeast Asian countries due to the fact that CSR is part of the National Integrity Plan and the Government Linked Companies’ transformation programme. Government tax incentives for the companies in Malaysia are some of the factors why Malaysian organisations stay competitive in the rapidly changing global landscape. The Malaysian business community’s adoption of CSR practices is far-sighted and many Malaysian companies are now ahead in comparison with other Asian countries. This is parallel to the global trend towards more responsible and responsive corporate behaviour (Williams, 2008). In November 2006, CSR Malaysia was established. CSR Malaysia is a network of corporate and academic organisations dedicated to improving responsible business practices. The goal of CSR Malaysia is to raise the level of CSR consciousness among corporations in Malaysia and to increase capability to tackle social issues aimed to promote responsible business (Raslan, 2007). In the 2007 Malaysian Budget, Prime Minister (Tun Abdulah Ahmad Badawi) announced the mandatory requirement for Public Listed Companies to report their CSR practices. Following this, Bursa Malaysia launched the CSR framework for Malaysian PLCs (public limited companies) to adopt the practice of reporting their CSR initiatives. Khazanah Nasional Berhad produced The Silver Book containing CSR guidelines for GLCs (government-linked companies, or corporations). The guidelines for CSR framework and practices are developed based on the four important pillars as illustrated in Fig. 5: environment, community,

The Environment

Organisations involvement with energy saving and consumption issues.

The Community

organisations supporting employees involvement for community enriches and projects.

The Marketplace

organization take - up raising their standards of Corporate Governance to meets shareholder expectation.

The Workplace

Fig. 5.

organization give quality working environment such as health, safety, training etc that benefits the employees.

Focal Areas of CSR Practices.

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marketplace and workplace. These elements represent the overall aspects of an operation not limited to industry or type of organisation. Among other initiatives created in Malaysia to enhance the CSR agenda are: 1. Establishment of Malaysia Institute of Integrity (IIM) under the National Integrity Plan in 2004 to promote the practice of ethical principles, good values and integrity in both public and private sectors. 2. Inception of Institute of Corporate Social Responsibility Malaysia (ICRM), a not-for-profit network of corporations. 3. Existence of regulatory institutions such as Securities Commission, Bursa Malaysia Berhad and Khazanah Nasional Berhad with the commitment to promote the development of socially responsible business practices. This resulted in the launch of The Silver Book in 2006, containing guidelines for GLCs. This book is helping organisations implement CSR practices. It is designed to deliver sustainable value to society at large by looking at four main focal areas for CSR practices namely the environment, workplace, community and marketplace. 4. Recognition given to organizations through CSR awards such as The Prime Minister’s CSR Awards; Starbiz, namely ICR award which aims to give recognition to the companies which make an impact on the communities; MESRA awards and many more.

HOW CSR IS BEING PERCEIVED IN MALAYSIA Getting CSR right is a journey not a destination. Leaders face tough decisions with increasing pressures to improve their bottom line and to be good corporate citizens. But we must persevere because the fruits of our labour today will make for a better tomorrow. YBhg Dato’ Zarinah Anwar Chairman, Securities Commission Malaysian Corporate Social Responsibility & Governance Conference (2006)

Research was carried out in Malaysia (Jamilah & Suriati, 2011) to identify how CSR is defined by academicians, senior management and students who are exposed to and aware of CSR concept and activities. Results from the research indicated that respondents define CSR as synonymous with 19 categories. As illustrated in Table 1, the three highest-ranked categories were Social Engagement and Welfare; Corporate Citizenship and Community Engagement and Partnership, and .the lowest were Human Rights, Women Empowerment and Culture and Heritage. This shows that CSR is often associated with philanthropic responsibility as compared to its legal obligation.

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Table 1. Response to ‘What is CSR’. What is CSR

Response Rate

Sustainable practices Environmental-related activities Organisation reputation and image building Culture and heritage Social engagement and welfare Best work practice Stakeholder engagement Reputation/image building Women empowerment Sponsoring/philanthropic Financial disclosure and reporting Business ethics Legal responsibilities Media relations and publicity Community engagement and partnership Government policies and legislation Corporate citizenship Corporate governance Human rights

84 84 72 54 86 44 50 58 32 72 64 72 72 64 81 58 84 54 31

Due to various interpretations of CSR, it becomes crucial for academicians to ensure that a proper understanding of CSR is conveyed to students. The theoretical knowledge of CSR must be accompanied with a holistic yet practical approach in managing activities pertaining to CSR. Many CSR research and development projects have been conducted in Malaysia. From this research we will able to track the trends, issues and concerns related to CSR development in Malaysia. Table 2 illustrates the CSR issues investigated by year and theme.

INTEGRATING CSR EDUCATION INTO CURRICULUM Learning is experience. Everything else is just information. Albert Einstein

An increased demand to improve CSR practices in organisations creates an important gap to be filled. According to Gardiner and Lacy (2005) the interest in CSR education is within the areas of social and environmental

1999–2004

1980–1990s

Year

CSR integration in Business strategies

Business

Legislation on CSR

Human Resource and Product/ Service Contribution Accounting

Business

CSR Research Theme

Table 2.

Issue on lack of legislation on CSR and organisation non-disclosure that will not contribute to investors or community. Firm size and industry classification among factors that influence level of CSR disclosure. The most disclosed CSR issues were human resource, product, community involvement, environment, energy and others. Low number of companies are involved in CSR disclosures. Activities are only as in common reporting and tend to be selflaudatory. Developing countries are slower in responding to the increased

Domination of accounting perspectives and corporate social reporting literature.

Increase practice of reporting social issues by companies especially by foreignowned corporations. CSR disclosure process and from annual reports of the related companies.

Debated Issues

References

Nik Ahmad and Abdul Rahim (2003), Williams and Ho (1999). Mustaruddin Saleh, Norhayah Zulkifli, Rusnah Muhamad, Nik Nazsli bt Nik Ahmad, Maliah bt Sulaiman and Dodik

Foo and Tan (1988), Hossain, Tan, and Adam (1994), Low, Koh, and Yeo (1985), Kidam and Cheong (1990), Teoh and Thong (1984), Tsang (1998), Zeghal and Ahmed (1990), Mustaruddin Saleh Teoh and Thong (1984). In Mustaruddin Saleh, Norhayah Zulkifli and Rusnah Muhamad Foo and Tan (1988). In Fathilatul Zakimi Abdul Hamid and Ruhaya Atan Andrew et al. (1989). In Fathilatul Zakimi Abdul Hamid and Ruhaya Atan

Teoh and Thong (1985)

Andrew et al. (1989), Foo and Tan (1988), Teoh and Thong (1984)

CSR Research and Development in Malaysia.

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2006–current

1999–2004

Year

CSR Business

CSR Mandatory 2006 disclosure by PLC economy

CSR awareness

Business

CSR Research Theme

Change of attitudes of Malaysian managers and executives towards social responsibility issues, most of them agreed and support their companies involvement in socially responsible activities. The studies on CSR development in Malaysia stated that the level of awareness appears to be growing CSR has over time moved to higher levels and Malaysia is recognised as being among the most active emerging economies in relation to corporate responsibilities. CSR is defined as open and transparent business practices that are based on ethical values and respect for the community, employees, the environment, shareholders and other stakeholders.

concern about the issue of CSR. That despite increase in research studies in this area in the developing countries is still scarce. CSR attracts public attention in Malaysia where many corporations integrate CSR into their business strategies.

Debated Issues

Table 2. (Continued )

Sharifah Buniamin et al. (2008)

Abdul Hamid (2004), Che Zuriana et al. (2002), Nik Ahmad and Abdul Rahim (2003), Thompson and Zakaria (2004) Bursa Malaysia (2008)

Chan Shirley, Ang Gaik Suan, Chan Pau Leng, Maurice O.A. Okoth and Ng Bee Fei (Md Zabid & Saadiatul, 2002). In Lee Hong Sharon Yam and Maziah Ismail Nik Ahmad and Abdul Rahim (2003), Rashid and Ibrahim (2002). In Mustaruddin Saleh

Siswantoro (2003). Abu-Baker and Naser (2000), Belal (2001), Imam (2000), Tsang (1998)

References

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2006–current

CSR dichotomy between perceptions and realities CSR reporting

Community

Corporate Governance

Sustainability in business

CSR framework

Giant companies’ scandals worldwide appears to be a primary motivating factor for companies to involve with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and one of the CSR facets is the corporate environmental reporting. Increase research on CSR and Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) to integrate sustainability issues into all of its business processes, e.g. Rabobank. Malaysian firms incorporate CSR into their corporate governance agenda to become good corporate citizens in the Malaysian capital market. Issue on CSR as the ways in which corporations meet their obligations towards employees as well as their wider communities. Dichotomy between perceptions and realities in CSR. CSR perceived as rather too simplistic, in contrast to the realities (complicated). The amount of social activities disclosed in corporate annual reports. Amran and Devi (2007). In Mustaruddin Saleh, Norhayah Zulkifli and Rusnah Muhamad

Nazli (2007). In Norhayah Zulkifli (PhD), Haslida Hasan (PhD) and Zakiah Saleh (PhD)

Zulkifli and Amran (2006). In Norhayah Zulkifli (PhD), Haslida bu Hasan (PhD) and Zakiah Saleh (PhD)

Tay (2005). In Rahizah Abd Rahim, Farah Waheeda Jalaludin and Kasmah Tajuddin

Saleh (2009). In Rahizah Abd Rahim, Farah Waheeda Jalaludin and Kasmah Tajuddin

CSR Malaysia (2007)

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responsibility, and in business ethics due to rampant issues of corporate scandals combined with external pressure from NGOs, policy-makers, consumers and the media. However whilst the business world considers the benefits of CSR and business ethics specialists versus mainstream generalists there is an increasing need for business schools to address the issue as part of the curriculum. The fulfilments of social responsibility in the high education institution is not done only by the courses and services it provides to society, but also by the needs of the social context in which the learning institution is involved. It is about bringing the industry and community together to complement each other’s functions towards sustainable development. This partnership between the industry and the community will be responsible for the positive social impact, resulting from the quality of life practised. Subsequently the culture of conserving the environment can be more readily instilled if the learning institution itself acts as a role model. Therefore it is crucial for learning institutions to cope with the present context demands, not only as a return to the community, in the form of community involvement through student’s project, but also as a way to replenish its own actions and enlarge its source of funding, becoming an institution that helps and is partly involved in shaping a new society that is more ethical. Matten and Moon (2004) identify that the increased role of corporate social responsibility in organisations raises questions of what and how learning institutions need to do in terms of:    

Providing graduates with CSR skills, Supplying CSR education to practitioners, Providing specialist education for industry and Conducting research to advance knowledge in CSR.

CSR is a firm’s contribution to society while Business Ethics, which is Business School course, is the ethics applied to business and business situations (Nada Ell-Hajj, 2008). Based on Sims Ronald and Serbrenia (1991), core course and moral issues specified in Business Ethics are based on moral ethical issues facing individuals and organizations, incorporate the guidance of ethical philosophies such as utilitarianism, and fit or enhance the mission of business schools. In communication schools, CSR subjects or programmes range from contextual questions to the understanding of CSR, business ethics and organisation’s roles in society (Sunway University, 2011). Modules range from one higher learning institution to another with issues focused on

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environment, sustainability, communication and community engagement. Among modules offered are CSR & Sustainability Development, Trends and Legislation on CSR & Climate Change, The Stakeholder Approach & Triple Bottom Line, Green Marketing and Cause Related Marketing, Sustainability (CSR) Strategy & Reporting (GRI guidelines), The role of Sustainability, Designing a CSR strategy, Building CSR programmes and campaigns, Community engagement, Employee volunteering, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Communication (Duquesne University, 2011 and University of Kwazulu-Natal, 2009). Samples of CSR courses and projects carried out by universities in Malaysia are given in Table 3.

Table 3. CSR Projects/Courses Carried out by Universities in Malaysia. Name of University Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

Program Title Bachelor of Social Science – Anthropology and Sociology

School of Communication Final Year Students – ‘The CSR Effort by University for the environment’ (in Colloboration with Malakoff and IPRM)

School of Management‘What CSR Programmes Are Relevant for SMEs

Synopsis of the Program SAU316/4 Work Organisation, Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy. This course explores the world of work organisation from three different perspectives: the organisational standpoint; corporate social responsibility; and philanthropy. This seminar organised by Nemgrads has brought together practitioners and students to address key issues on the environment and the university’s CSR efforts towards preserving the environment. This is to develop CSR initiatives in universities especially in the area of environmental awareness, preservation and rehabilitation. This project is a niche Research Grant: Understanding the problems faced by SMEs in

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Table 3. (Continued ) Name of University

Program Title

Synopsis of the Program

That Will Influence Their Success and Sustainability’

the specific context and provides necessary background for the government to develop policies for supporting SMEs in the northern region. This activity is in collaboration with STIE Perbanas Surabaya, Indonesia with the School of Social Science, USM. Cooperation is focused on CSR issues. In the event internships, involvement of students in the role is as change agents in society. Ethics and CSR (Etika dan Tanggungjawab Sosial Korporat) course offered for second-year students in Bahasa Malaysia. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) collaborated with Pantai Intergrated Rehab on a case study where it evaluates the use of virtual reality games to improve balance and reduce the risk of falls among older women as compared to the conventional exercise. The equipment used for the tests and intervention were contributed from all three parties. This program was established in 2010 and comprises two phases: Climate Change Programme (Phase 1) and Composting Programme (Phase 2) and is targeted at Year Four and Year Five students.

CP-TAG USM: CSR and Philanthropy Transdisciplinary Group – Internship program

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

EPPM2063 Subject: Ethics and CSR (Etika dan Tanggungjawab Sosial Korporat) UKM Community Industry Project (Singapore Nanyang Polytechnic and Pantai Integrated Rehab Services Sdn Bhd)

CSR Program: UEM Land and UKM collaborates to inculcate green habits amongst its PINTAR(smart) students

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Table 3. (Continued ) Name of University

Program Title

Synopsis of the Program

Universiti Malaya (UM)

Seminar: ‘CSR and The Law’ by Faculty of Law UM

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

CSR for UTM SPACEProgram

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)

Master of Commercial Law by Coursework

Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM)

University CSR Program

The University of Nottingham (Malaysia)

Master of Business Administration – CSR

Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR)

Centre for Sustainable Development and CSR in Business

This seminar was organised to look at legal expect of CSR, such as issues on how law in its current expression stands as a barrier to CSR practise in organisations. SPACE UTM was mooted as initiative by UTM to contribute their CSR engagement for their students. During this program students are taught soft skills to ensure they are market driven. GMUP5134 is one of the MA subjects on Legal and Ethical Issues in Corporate Social Responsibility. UiTM is offering needy workers the opportunity to pursue diploma courses for free through long distance and off-campus programmes nationwide. Master of Business Administration – CSR is one of the programmes offered among many MBA programmes. Courses includes including private, public and not-for-profit organisations, internal and external environment in which they operate. This centre develops research to help business, SMEs, local authority etc. with issues related to climate change, carbon economy, lean and clean manufacturing and capacity building of communities towards sustainable development.

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RECOMMENDATION How Should CSR Courses be Incorporated? There are several ways of incorporating CSR courses into university education. This can be done by looking at several areas: 1. Components of courses must embed CSR skills. 2. Objectives of each course and what to develop through teaching based on local and global scenarios. 3. Components of CSR dimension and concepts. 4. Expected result and outcome. 5. Continued research and development to advance knowledge in CSR and find the gap. This has these implications: 1. CSR courses should incorporate combination components of elements as illustrated in Fig. 6. 2. Objectives of each course and what to develop through teaching:  Aligning social responsibility strategies with organizations’ mission and vision and government policies;

Fig. 6.

CSR Courses Component.

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 Embedding CSR as organisational strategy for short-term and longterm planning;  Building CSR expertise through partnerships with relevant stakeholders;  Disseminating information on CSR through effective medium;  Integrating organisation’s CSR initiative through government policy, national agenda, regulations and business ethics;  Evaluating and communicating CSR impact on internal and external stakeholders (Fig. 7). 3. It is very important to adapt Caroll’s Model (1979) with a combination of the Triple Bottom Line that looks at the basic CSR dimension and concepts to integrate in this process (Fig. 8).

Strategies include org. mission and vision

Short term and long term

Partnership

Evaluate and Communicate impact

Integrating CSR initiatives

Effective Medium Booking

Fig. 7.

CSR Course Content.

Legal responsibility Environmental responsibility

Economic responsibility

Planet People Place

Social responsibility

Fig. 8.

CSR Dimension Concept.

Philanthropic

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4. Expected output (result/outcome):  Organisations  Making profit without neglecting CSR initiatives;  Improving organisational philanthropic effort from donation of money for charity and welfare to voluntary;  Creating a positive image and relationship which can attract investment;  Creating stakeholders’ loyalty and increasing companies’ revenue and profits;  Increasing productivity through employee best practices;  Increasing social well-being and economic productivity;  Creating more opportunities and rewards for business, community, government and stakeholders involved;  Universities  Playing their role as mediator to engage and create links (marry) between industries and community to give empowerment and ensure sustainability elements between the two;  Developing research on CSR and educating students about the CSR role, function and development;  Creating sustainability for universities’ research and role in developing, identifying and suggesting how organizations can collaborate effectively with end users or society;  Providing support for the government’s CSR master plan;  Providing greater exposure to students so that they improve their managing risk and decision-making skills;  Nurturing students with theory and practice to real-life situations which can attract future employees. A hands on learning module will enable students to understand beyond theory and practice. It will allow students to be part of the contribution by understanding and making sense from what is happening around them. By analysing the needs of the community, students will acquire knowledge that is not attainable from any textbook.

CASE STUDY: MOTIVATING COMMUNITY TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY: AN EDUCATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS CAMPAIGN This project was initiated upon the request of Hj. Romli b. Bakar, the founder of Kelab Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Puncak, Lembah Bujang. He

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approached The Corporate Conscience Circle, Division of Industry and Community Network, Universiti Sains Malaysia (3C – BJIM) to highlight the plight of the poor and the need for community involvement to render aid at the village. Among the issues he raised were poverty, environmental pollution and the lack of awareness on the importance of education. After several visits to the village, the students decided to organise a campaign towards creating educational, health and environmental awareness among the villagers (Figs. 9 and 10).

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

Free Health Check.

Health and Environmental Talk.

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Fig. 11.

Pre-event Voluntary Service.

The main objectives of the campaign were to highlight the significance of culture and knowledge, to share the importance of preserving the environment and to raise awareness of self-sufficiency among the community. This project was carried out in two phases. The first was a pre-event voluntary service where USM communication students helped to paint and cement a former cold storage and kitchen area which would be converted into an educational hub for the village children. The second phase of the project was the two-days-one-night campaign which consisted of workshops and activities for the village adults and children. Students are trained in project planning and execution as well as sourcing and managing sponsorship (Fig. 11). In addition, research was carried out at the village to determine the level of environmental and educational awareness among the villagers. The methodology employed was a survey questionnaire, which contained questions concerning demographics, socio-economic development and perceptions towards the environment and children’s education. The campaign was successfully carried out on 22 and 23 October 2010 at Kampung Sungai Batu Besi. There was an overwhelming response from the village children and adults. Research results indicate that most families in the village are struggling with poverty and are dissatisfied with their living conditions. However, there was sufficient awareness on the importance of education and the environment.

CONCLUSION As the world’s communication development is moving into the world of social media, the news spreads around the globe in a split second with just a single click. It is also an important mission of any organisation to portray a

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positive image to its stakeholders. One way of achieving this is by doing good to the community and environment, being ethical and upholding legal responsibility for people, planet and product. All these efforts can be promoted and translated through the efforts of CSR. The higher the stability in economy, with transparent business operation and more engagement in social responsibility efforts, the higher the chances of any organisation to get favourable support from all stakeholders. In order for the organisation to have people that are genuinely looking at the betterment of its natural environment and community, the moulding of these qualities should start from as early as possible in the education syllabus. Tertiary learning institutions such as universities and colleges are fully responsible for instilling good values to produce quality graduates to lead the future. This is particularly true when in this preliminary study researchers identified significant correlation between: 1. Why is it important to teach CSR at university? The top answers are a need because of customer and stakeholder’s expectations. 2. How CSR should be taught? The top answers are a syllabus that focuses on community and organisation engagement. 3. Significance of CSR topics. The top answers are for social engagement and welfare. From this research we can draw a basic conclusion that the general public at large are aware that organisations have a duty to contribute, engage and give back to society. At the same time organisational ethics remain important; consumer demand in favour of value for money; better services; and strong stakeholder engagement. The challenges faced by organizations these days have driven them towards seeking for an integrated approach to battle these concerns. Stakeholders not only demand good company products and services but an organisation that indulges in charity work whilst producing safe products and providing ethical services. Therefore implementing CSR is an all over exercise that needs to be practised with great care and caution as is will not only benefit the organisation but also the stakeholders, community and its surrounding environment. As the needs for CSR for each organization become increasingly important in determining the positive branding and reputation, there is an urgent need for CSR syllabus to be embedded into the teaching curriculum. In teaching CSR, the values and understanding of the concept are more intense and have higher impact through exposure.

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Teaching of CSR will not be an excellent task if only the theoretical aspects are emphasised. Exposing the students with the practise of community work and any other activities that are grounded in the intention of being socially responsible to community and environment helps to prepare the graduates in fulfilling the needs of a demanding world as well as in facing the challenging social issues that may arise. The social issues are varied, including the benefits offered in terms of training related to safety, health and environment, conservation and preservation effort, social work, education scheme, medical benefits and many more. Nevertheless economic pressure is the main reason for an organisation to pursue CSR. However the need to have a good relationship with the community, good image and profits are the main aspects that drive an organisation into CSR practices. Subsequently, it gives more reasons for the education system to implement CSR syllabus in preparing graduates from all disciplines to be equipped with CSR awareness, knowledge and skills. The expansion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Malaysia on the other hand is linked to efforts to attract the rapidly growing global socially responsible investment market and further the country’s economic development (Zarinah, 2006). As a result, in 2006 the former Prime Minister (Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) announced during a budget-related speech that it is mandatory for publicly listed companies (PLCs) in Malaysia to disclose information on their CSR practices. The policy supported by Bursa Malaysia’s listing requirements had moderate impact on the CSR disclosure of Malaysian PLCs, although it has relatively little effect on increasing impact investment via public equities according to Zarinah (2006). This is where CSR in the university curriculum or courses across discipline will help to generate information, knowledge and expertise which is not only to disclose CSR activities but to make sure the CSR allocated budget is being spend well and not merely looking at philanthropic and promotional dimensions which only create a surface effect of positive image for the organisation. It is essential for students to be exposed to experiential learning as an inter-disciplinary approach regardless of which discipline they are studying as CSR elements become embedded in their curriculum. Exposure for students beyond theory and practice will give an effective learning outcome and a holistic approach dimension to their learning experience. No doubt that cognitive or conventional learning cannot defeat practice because behavioural learning never excludes subjectivity. This is what has been said by Kolb (1984): learning appears as ‘the combination of grasping and

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transforming experience’ and his model emphasises the link with Dewey, Lewin and Piaget (Smith, 2001).

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Ruby Melody Agbola is a lecturer at Department of Management Studies, Central Business School, Ghana. Jamilah Ahmad, PhD, is an associate professor at School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia. George K. Amoako works at Department of Marketing, Central Business School, Ghana. Denise Baden, PhD, is a lecturer in ethics, entrepreneurship and CSR at Southampton Management School, UK. David Crowther, PhD, is a professor of corporate social responsibility at De Montfort University, UK. Caroline Ditlev-Simonsen, PhD, is a researcher in Department of Accounting – Auditing and Law, BI Norweigian Business School, Norway. Robert K. Dzogbenuku works at Department of Marketing, Central Business School, Ghana. Lina M. Gomez studies for PhD in organizational sustainability at Universitat Jaume, Spain. Helen Goworek, PhD, is a senior lecturer in marketing at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Georgiana Florentina Grigore, PhD, is a lecturer in corporate & marketing communication at Bournemouth University, UK. Saranda Hajdari is a student at Anglia Ruskin University.

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Debbie Holley, PhD, is a reader at Faculty of Education, Anglia Ruskin University. Dianne Hummal is a student at Anglia Ruskin University, UK. Khosro S. Jahdi, PhD, is a senior lecturer in marketing and CSR at Business and Law School, Bradford College, UK. Petra Molthan-Hill, PhD, is a senior lecturer in Business Sustainability, Accounting and Finance at Nottingham Trent University, UK. B. PanduRanga Narasimharao, PhD, is formerly the director at Centre of Outreach programmes, University of Mysore, India. Lucely Vargas Preciado, PhD, is a coordinator at Johannes Kepler University, Austria. Suriati Saad is a researcher and studies for a PhD at School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Tomasz Scibior is a student at Anglia Ruskin University, UK. Shahla Seifi studies for a PhD at Universiti Putra Malaysia. Evans Sokro is a lecturer at Department of Human Resource Management, Central Business School, Ghana. Alin Stancu, PhD, is an assistant Professor at the Faculty of Marketing, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania. Rodica-Milena Zaharia, PhD, is a professor at the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania.

INDEX Accountability, 27–30, 164, 171, 177, 217, 269 accounting practice, 20, 88 Africa, 11, 186–189, 193–195, 200, 203–204, 213, 215, 217–219 African indigenous concepts, 194, 204 agency theory, 24 Agenda, 21, 26 assessment and evaluation, 45 Association of MBAs (AMBA), 112, 232 behaviour change, 79–80, 82–83, 87, 91, 148 Beyond Grey Pinstripes, 164 bioengineering, 22 Bologna process, 227 boundaries of scholarship, 247 Brent Spar, 39 Brundtland Commission, 158 business schools, 10–11, 20–21, 36, 77–80, 82, 112–113, 115, 127–129, 140–144, 146–147, 149, 155–157, 159–173, 175–181, 186–188, 201, 204, 206, 212–215, 217–219, 232, 257, 282 business studies, 115, 129–130 carbon management, 58, 64, 69, 72 case-based education, 37 Chile, 112, 118–121, 123, 126 299

citizenship, 7, 23, 81, 114, 143, 156, 168, 190, 200, 203, 216, 224, 229, 269, 277–278 classical liberalism, 20 climate change, 44, 60, 65–67, 69, 77, 101, 160–161, 165, 170–171, 174, 177, 283–285 community, 12, 18–19, 80–81, 92–93, 96, 99, 113, 117–118, 130, 141, 145, 155, 160–162, 164, 166–167, 170–173, 175–179, 188–190, 193–194, 197, 201–202, 204–206, 213, 216–217, 219, 228–229, 238, 244–247, 250–255, 257–258, 260–261, 268, 270–271, 273–284, 288–292 community engagement, 80, 167, 173, 245, 277–278, 283 competitive advantage, 155, 158, 169, 192 competitive individualism, 78 consumer issues, 160–161, 166, 168, 170–171, 173–176, 180 corporate citizenship, 156, 168, 190, 200, 203, 216, 224, 269, 277–278 corporate education, 11, 214, 243–245, 247–249, 251, 253, 255, 257, 259 corporate governance, 1, 17, 21, 35, 39, 57, 77, 111, 130, 139, 155, 163, 168, 171–172, 185, 200,

300

223, 238, 243, 267, 269, 276, 278, 281 corporate theft, 121 coursework and assessment, 72 CSR Malaysia, 276, 281 CSR practices, 158, 268, 272, 275–278, 292 curricula, 10–12, 60, 66, 72, 74–75, 127–128, 130, 143–144, 149, 156, 163, 165–166, 186, 200, 206, 215–217, 219, 225–226, 229–231, 235, 239, 246 curriculum, 8–12, 26, 35, 57–67, 69, 71–73, 75, 77, 79–81, 83, 85, 87, 89–91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 111, 113, 129, 141–144, 149–150, 156–157, 162–172, 174, 176, 178–179, 187, 198–199, 201–206, 208, 210, 212–213, 215, 218–219, 223, 225, 227, 229, 231–233, 235, 237, 239, 252, 254, 256, 259, 268–269, 278, 282, 291–292 decade of education for sustainable development, 231 decision usefulness theory, 24 Deepwater Horizon, 43 Diversity Australia, 189, 192 education, 1, 5–13, 17–20, 25–26, 35–38, 46–47, 57–61, 63, 74–75, 77–81, 87–88, 90–91, 100–101, 111–114, 127, 129–130, 139–141, 143–145, 147, 149, 151, 155, 157, 160–162, 165, 168, 170, 175, 177–180, 185–189, 191, 193, 195, 197–199, 201–207, 209, 211–219, 223, 225–235,

INDEX

237–240, 243–253, 255–261, 267, 274–275, 278, 282, 286, 289–292, 298 education initiatives, 165 engagement, 11–12, 28, 55, 58, 66, 80, 85, 93, 156, 160, 164–165, 167, 173, 177, 187, 199–200, 210–211, 216, 229, 238, 243–245, 249, 254, 257–261, 268, 277–278, 283, 285, 291 environment, 7–8, 11, 17–18, 20–21, 23–24, 27, 41, 43, 49, 58–60, 82, 84, 91–92, 97, 100–101, 111, 113, 118, 121–122, 144–147, 156–162, 164, 166, 168–171, 173–176, 178, 180, 185–186, 189–191, 193–194, 196–198, 201, 206, 208–209, 211, 218, 223, 225, 230, 233, 235–238, 246, 261, 267, 269, 271–277, 279–280, 282–283, 285, 290–292 environmental ethics, 65, 67–69 environmental studies, 204–205 Estonia, 111, 113–114 ethical decision-making, 68, 84, 86 ethical marketing, 64, 66, 71 ethics, 6, 9–10, 23, 41, 62, 64–65, 67–69, 71, 77–83, 85, 87–91, 93, 95, 97, 99–101, 111–113, 115, 117, 119, 121, 123, 125, 127–129, 139–147, 149–150, 156, 162–169, 171–173, 180, 190–191, 196, 198, 200–201, 203–204, 206, 229–233, 235–239, 269, 272–273, 278, 282, 284, 287, 291, 297 EU Commission, 231 EU ‘low-carbon roadmap’, 43–44 European Area for Higher Education, 225

Index

European Centre for Higher Education, 199 European Commission, 22, 158, 189–190, 196, 224–225, 231 EU’s climate policy, 43 experiential learning, 5, 67, 80, 240, 292 feedback, 46, 54, 65–66, 69, 94, 149–150, 254 financial crisis, 17, 77, 112, 141–142, 157 Freire, 13 global framework, 272 governance, 1, 17, 21, 26, 35, 39, 51, 57, 77, 111–112, 130, 139, 142, 155, 159, 161, 163–164, 166, 168, 171–173, 177–178, 180, 185, 190, 193–194, 199–200, 208, 210, 223, 238, 243, 267, 269, 272, 276–278, 281 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management, 63, 66, 69–70, 72–73 GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), 158 healthcare, 195 higher education, 7, 9–10, 17–20, 25–26, 78, 81, 112–114, 130, 143–144, 151, 162, 199, 215, 225–231, 239, 243–246, 248–253, 255–261 higher education institutions, 17–18, 130, 225–230, 245–246, 255 higher learning institution, 10, 267–269, 273–274, 282 holistic philosophy, 2 human individual, 1, 229

301

human rights, 28, 49–50, 115, 159, 161, 164–166, 168, 170–171, 173, 177–178, 180, 197–198, 201, 205–206, 208, 211, 224, 269, 272, 277–278 Indian Higher Education system, 243, 249–250, 261 Institute of Corporate Social Responsibility Malaysia (ICRM), 277 International Education Finance Corporation, 19 International Standards Organization (ISO), 10, 29, 156, 158–162, 166–167, 170–171, 189, 205 ISO 26000, 10, 29, 156, 158–162, 166–167, 170–171 knowledge, 7, 10–11, 19, 29, 36, 38, 44, 60, 78–79, 81–84, 94, 97–100, 112–113, 117, 141, 146–147, 150–151, 156, 160, 162, 176, 179–180, 186, 199, 203, 205–206, 208, 214–217, 219, 226, 230–235, 237, 239–241, 244–261, 273, 278, 282, 286, 288, 290, 292 knowledge economy, 199, 244–246, 256, 259–260 Knowledge Society, 244–247, 251, 253, 258, 260–261 Kosova, 115–116 Kyoto Protocol, 26 Law of National Education, 227, 229 legitimacy theory, 24

302

Malaysia Institute of Integrity (IIM), 277 management education, 5, 8, 37, 80, 101, 112, 211, 231 manager, 63, 68, 112, 144 materialism, 78 Montessori, 13 motivation, 9, 49, 78, 80, 82–83, 88–90, 95, 98, 101, 145, 147, 192, 204, 211, 216 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), 18, 25, 36, 41, 48, 185, 204, 212, 231, 237–240, 254–255, 257, 275, 282 Our Common Future, 158 outreach, 11, 173, 178, 216, 243–246, 249, 251–261, 298 partnership, 115, 118, 126, 177, 186, 237, 241, 245, 254, 260, 277–278, 282, 287 pedagogy, 113 People and Planet Green League table, 58 philanthropy, 191–193, 195, 211, 283–284 philosophy of sustainability, 65–68 Piaget, 293 Poland, 111, 116 problem-based learning (PBL), 37–38 profits, 59, 122, 125–126, 145, 190–192, 196, 206, 216, 271, 288, 292 promoting a European framework for corporate social responsibility, 189, 224

INDEX

Quaker companies, 191 role models, 10, 81, 86–88, 91, 95, 97, 99, 101, 113, 146 role-play education, 36–37, 46 role-play simulation, 37–38 Romania, 11, 226–227, 230, 232–233, 235, 239–240, 298 self-efficacy theory, 89 self-empowerment, 274 self-interest, 7, 23, 77, 85, 248 Skype, 114 social and environmental reporting, 223 social contract, 7, 23–24 social enterprise placements, 92, 95–96, 100–101 social impact, 99, 164, 187, 193, 208, 211, 282 social learning theory, 82, 86 socially responsible investment (SRI), 9, 36–37, 40, 46–49, 51–52, 267–268, 273, 281, 292 socially responsive knowledge, 81 stakeholder theory, 24, 40–41, 238 stakeholders, 5, 7, 9, 12, 17–18, 23–25, 27–30, 36–38, 40–42, 44–47, 49–51, 91, 122, 124, 128, 130, 143, 145, 148, 155–159, 162, 165, 179, 185–192, 196–199, 205, 207, 209–210, 212, 214, 216–218, 224–226, 229, 231–233, 235–240, 246, 248, 251, 253–254, 256, 259, 268–275, 280, 287–288, 291 stakeholders’ loyalty, 288 student-centred learning, 19

303

Index

supply chain, 28, 51, 58, 62, 64, 66, 70, 111, 118, 120, 124, 163–164, 171, 193, 210, 217 sustainability, 9, 25–30, 39, 57–75, 90, 98, 101, 113, 148, 156, 158–159, 163–169, 171–172, 174–175, 178–181, 186, 189–190, 196, 198–200, 206–209, 211–214, 218, 223–224, 231, 233, 235–238, 244, 269, 274, 281, 283–284, 288, 297–298 sustainable development, 10, 18, 24–26, 41, 65, 77, 81, 99, 101, 158–159, 165, 169, 171, 185, 189–190, 192, 196–197, 210, 218, 224, 226, 228, 231, 238, 260, 282, 285 sustainable supply chain management, 66, 70 systems thinking, 65, 67–68, 74 theory of planned behaviour, 88–90, 92, 94 theory of reasoned action, 83, 88–89 transparency, 25, 27–30, 54, 192, 196, 238, 269

triple bottom line, 8, 59, 97, 156, 165, 196, 198, 274, 283, 287 UN Global Compact, 158 UN Principles of Responsible Management Education, 80 UNESCO, 165, 181, 199, 231 United Kingdom (UK) Royal Mint, 8–10, 17–19, 22, 26, 44, 57–58, 111–112, 114, 116, 119, 121–123, 129–130, 144, 148, 162, 297–298 value chain, 28, 161, 164, 170, 210–211 virtue ethics, 87 water, 42, 53, 67, 84, 121–122, 148, 150, 172, 174–177, 205, 209 welfare, 147, 159, 185, 189, 209, 277–278, 288, 291 Western Europe, 186 workers’ rights, 121 World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), 41, 189–190 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), 158