Corporate Social Responsibility (Names from F to N)

Teacher(s)

Desmet Carlos; Truyens Vincent;

Language

English

Main themes

The course aims at providing tools enabling the students to elicit critical thinking on ethical, social and environmental issues raised by contemporary organizations. The specificity of the firms' impact on economic life will be addressed by analyzing the principles and practices covered by the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR will be studied as a reflector of the modern firms' self-awareness process in terms of social responsibility and as a source of innovation in the face of today's challenges of competitiveness, sustainable development and transparent corporate governance. The theoretical references will moreover give way to more personal questioning periods developed by the students in terms of their own aspirations, perceptions and observations as citizens. All these elements foster personal change that in its turn conveys transformations within the chosen organizations.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	The course is designed to develop competent and responsible practitioners. The final aim is to develop leaders who are capable of using academic knowledge to analyze and solve complex business dilemmas and drive change in companies and management towards sustainable and responsible organizations. At the end of the course, students should be able to: adopt a critical perspective on managerial practices related to societal issues; understand the background of CSR and the local, European and global contexts in which CSR is currently developing; analyze organizational challenges companies are facing, diagnose critical situations and evaluate different scenarios for the organization in order to propose decisions; co-create CSR projects with practitioners and get a feel for complex stakeholder dialogue in developing responsible and sustainable solutions; know their personal ethical values which can help you in the future to make better choices and give meaning to private and professional life. The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled 'Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit'.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

Macro-trends with respect to sustainability (Main social, environmental, ethical, governance issues, Sustainable Development Goals')

• Definitions and origins of the CSR concept
• Risk & Opportunity management
• Stakeholder management
• Stakeholder dialogue & co-creation
• Global responsible leadership
• Coping with ethical dilemmas
• CSR strategy design and implementation
• Governance

Teaching methods

The main goal of these courses is to develop the critical thinking skills of students. The emphasis is made on an intellectual and personal approach in order to familiarize the students with the various aspects of CSR while taking into account the wide range of sectors and contexts wherein the companies operate and exercise their influence. To this purpose, three means are used

• General and interactive courses implying direct contacts with practitioners (managers, activists, lawyers...);
• e-learning
• Team work and presentation on a CSR project;
• Personal observations and testimonies likely to forge and articulate know-how and well-being conveying sense and creativity.

Evaluation methods

Continuous evaluation

• Date: Yes
• Type of evaluation: Case study preparation in group , Participation Sulitest
• Comments : This work involve a written report, an oral presentation and a peer review of another work. It accounts for 60% of the total.

Evaluation week

• Oral: No
• Written : Yes (2 hours)
• Unavailability or comments: The written exam accounts for 40 % of the total.
• Students with a second session have three choices, they can either keep the marks from the continuous evaluation and pass the written exam again, or table an improved report by mid August latest and keep the written examination marks or presents both an improved report and present the written exam again

Examination session

• Oral: No
• Written: No
• Unavailability or comments: No

Other information

Link with the LSM competency framework :

• Priority in this course is given to

1. corporate citizenship to enhance your ability to act consciously, aware of your responsibilities, placing human and ethical considerations at the very heart of your thinking and actions
2. master a multidisciplinary body of knowledge (contents, methods, models and conceptual frameworks) related to CSR and sustainable development; and
3. personal development to enhance your self-knowledge and independence, to better prepare yourself to deal with ethical dilemmas common in the practices of organizations.

• Secondary competences also developed in the course are

1. to manage a project by working in a team under conditions of resource constraints, to provide comprehensive analyses of challenging corporate situations related to the impact of companies/organizations on the natural environment or society at large; and
2. to communicate your analysis effectively to different stakeholders.

Faculty or entity

CLSM