06211154 - Social Responsibility and Business Ethics

The environment of our organizations is becoming more and more complex. The classical and
dominant management systems are being seriously challenged. This course will propose an
in-depth look at the paradigms from which the main existing management models have been
generated, in order to understand their contexts and evolution.

More recently introduced organizational- and management models integrate a certain awareness
of our organizations being living systems. This course will analyze parallels between other living
systems and human organizations in their way of emerging and functioning.

Design thinking will be presented as a tool to build on this knowledge to design ecosystemic
interactions for more sustainable organizations, achieving positive results in terms of a triple
bottomline (3BL): social, environmental, economical.

The course will evaluate practical applications for sustainable organizations which are found in
innovative socioeconomic concepts and principles like Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) performance, Social Entrepreneurship, Business Ethics and Social Marketing.

Estimation of private study (outside of contact hours): 20 hours

DIMENSION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

This course will look at the enterprise as a socially and environmentally responsible citizen and question the opportunity for purpose and economic steadiness in order to be performant and sustainable.

TARGETED KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS 

Apply an ecosystemic analysis to working organizations and their environment
Develop a critical view and analysis of the organization at all levels: individual, group
(team), organizational, cultural and managerial.
Use design thinking, as a tool to conceive responsible and sustainable organizations
Assess the opportunity for organizations of combining business goals with ethics, purpose and triple bottom line results (economical, social, environmental)
Familiarize with innovative socioeconomic concepts like: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) performance, Social Entrepreneurship, Business Ethics and Social Marketing and respective standards, labels, certifications.

EMBLEMATIC BOOKS OR RESEARCH PAPERS REGARDING THE SUBJECT OF THE COURSE

Huczynski, Andrzej A. and Buchanan, David A., Organizational Behaviour, Pearson Education, Limited, 9th edition 2017
Laloux, Frédéric, Reinventing Organizations, Les Editions Diateino, 2015
Scharmer, C. Otto, Theory U, 2nd edition, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2016
Wahl, Daniel-Christian, Designing Regenerative Cultures, Triarchy Press, England 2016
Wolfe, Norman, The Living Organization, Quantum Leaders Publishing, USA 2011
The Past, Present and Future of Sustainable Management (From the Conservation Movement to Climate Change), Stephen Cummings, Todd Bridgman, Springer Nature Switzerland, 2021
The concept of the corporation, Peter F. Drucker, New American Library, 1964
The human side of the enterprise, Douglais McGregor, The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 2006
The extraordinary power of Leader Humility, Marylin Gist, Berrett-Koehler Publisher, 2020 
Smart simplicity, Yves Morieux, Peter Tollman, The Boston Consulting Group Inc, 2014
Article: The Big Idea : The wise leader, Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotake Takeuchi, HBR magazine, 2011

Individual grade
Written essay

Other grade(s)
Grading during class, group workshops and presentations

Weight: 50%