Corporate, Social and Environmental ResponsibilityModule Details

Rationale
Businesses that practice corporate social responsibility aim to improve communities, the economy or the environment. Through this course students will evaluate and discuss the different ways through which businesses can practice corporate social responsibility. Also, it will be examined how environmental and social concerns have affected organizations in the private sector, and how such organizations have affected the content, shape and direction of the public debate. Emphasis will be given to corporate sustainability strategies, the distribution and administration of roles within an organisation, the contribution of different departments, as well as the industrial perspective towards industrial ecology and sustainable consumption and other recent ideas that lie beyond the traditional boundaries of an organization, such as product-based sustainability management. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the course work combines a conceptual review of the relationships among business, industry, environment, policy and society, with a much more applied examination of the wide range of initiatives that relate to environmental management and sustainable economic development.

Learning outcomes
At the end of the course students will be expected to:

(i) Distinguish the complex ethical, managerial, organisational and economic issues involved with sustainability in a private sector organisation.
(ii) Identify and apply a range of corporate strategies and control mechanisms.
(iii) Develop appropriate action to address a specific set of environmental issues.
(iv) Define key literature and networks with which to support further study and application in this field.
(v) Develop a strong green entrepreneurial and business culture.
(vi) Identify a variety of analytical frameworks for understanding and exploring the nature of public policy and its influence on the operations of firms and other institutions in developing contexts.
(vii) Contextualise specific company operations in terms of CSR.