Social Responsibility:The Unexpected Change of Paradigm

Towards a new CurriculumMazen F. Rasheed, Michael von Gagern, Muhammad Sharafat Waheed

The National Commercial Bank Chair for Corporate Social Responsibility, King Saud University, Riyadh

Business Responsibility for: Profit – People – Planet

A New Challenge for ManagersAnd how Universities may want to Respond:

1. What is new?2. How does it affect the Educational Institutions?3. What can the University do?

Business Responsibility for: Profit – People – Planet

1. What is new?

1.1 The Change of Paradigm in Business

1.2 The New Competence Needed

1.1 The Change of Paradigm in Business

• From Profit only to People, Planet, and Profit• From Hidden Agendas to Transparency• From Covering up to Accountability• From Legal to Legitimate• From Shareholders to Stakeholders• From the Product to the Supply Chain• From Local to Global, One World, The Seven

Migrants (Air, Water, Resources, Products, People, Ideas,

Epidemics)

The Seven Problematic Migrants

• Air• Water

• Resources• Products• People• Ideas

• Epidemics)

1.2 The New Competence Needed

1.2 THE NEW COMPETENCE NEEDED

1.2 The New Competence Needed

2. How does it affect the Educational Institutions?

2.1 Vision of University Leadership

2.2 Communication of Vision

2. How does it affect the Educational Institutions?

2.3 Student Awareness of University SRThe concepts of CSR and USR are relatively new to the

University establishment. It is therefore not astounding that Universities, even if they have a vision of institutional renewal according to SR principles have not yet been very successful in communicating this vision to their students.

But what about student involvement in actual SR activities?

2. How does it affect the Educational Institutions?

2.3.1 Environment

2. How does it affect the Educational Institutions?

2.3.2 Community

2. How does it affect the Educational Institutions?

3. What can the University do?

3.1 Create Awareness through Communication of Vision, Implementation and Student Involvement

We will not go into the details of the tools, procedures and performance measurement of all the steps involved in these important tasks. This will be done in a later stage of the project.

3.2 Curricular Renewal as a point of departureLet us look at one crucial task, which combines some of these

steps: the curriculum

Op

era

tion

s / Q

uality

Man

ag

em

en

t

Marketing

HR / Organizational Behavior

Econ

omic

s

Eth

ics /

Politi

cs

Finance/ Accounting/Control

Business Inform

satics / BPM

Strate

gy / B

usiness

Deve

lopm

ent

Responsibilities

Resp

on

sib

ilit

ies

Res

pon

sibili

ties

Responsibilities

Responsibilities

Resp

on

sib

ilitiesTransparency

Transp

arency

Accountability

Accounta

bility

Accountability

Responsibilities

Accou

nta

bilit

y

Acc

ount

abili

ty

TransparencyA

ccou

nta

bility

Tra

nsp

are

ncy

Accountability

Accountability

Transparency

TransparencyTra

nsp

are

ncy

Transparency

Responsi

bilitie

s

People

Planet

Profit

The Round Table of CSR Management Issues

The discussants of this round table agree on the corner stones for this new Mgt. Approach:

• A Strong Sense of Responsibility• Technical and Moral Accountability• A True Commitment to Transparency

Corner Stones of CSR

According to ISO Standard 26000

Responsibility derives from sources of influence like:

• ownership and governance;• economic relationship • legal/political authority • public opinion • An organization's influence may depend on a number of

factors, including physical proximity, scope, length and strength of the relationship.

Corner Stones of CSR

According to ISO Standard 26000

Accountability„state of being answerable for decisions

and activities to the organization's governing bodies, legal authorities and, more broadly, its stakeholders“

ISO 26000, p. 13

Corner Stones of CSR

According to ISO Standard 26000

Transparency: Information should be• Complete and address all significant activities and impacts • Understandable i.e.provided with regard for the knowledge and the cultural, social,

educational and economic background of those who will be involved in the communication.

• Both the language used, and the manner in which the material is presented, including how it is organized, should be accessible for the stakeholders intended to receive it

• responsive to stakeholder interests• Accurate, i.e.factually correct and with sufficient detail • Balanced and fair and should not omit relevant negative information concerning the

impacts of an organization's activities • Timely; out of date information can be misleading. • Accessible specific issues should be available to the stakeholders concerned.

All the core subjects, but not all issues, have relevance for every organization.

An organization should review all core subjects to identify which issues are relevant. To start the identification process, an organization should, where appropriate:

• list the full range of its activities; • identify stakeholders• identify the activities of the organization itself

and of the organizations within its sphere of influence.

All the core subjects, but not all issues, have relevance for every organization.

• The decisions and activities of suppliers and contractors can have an impact on the social responsibility of the organization

• Determine which core subjects and issues might arise when the organization and others within the sphere of influence and/or the value chain carry out these activities, taking into account all applicable legislation.

All the core subjects, but not all issues, have relevance for every organization.

• Examine the range of ways in which the organization's decisions and activities can cause impacts on stakeholders and on sustainable development

• Examine the ways in which stakeholders and social responsibility issues can impact the decisions, activities and plans of the organization;

All the core subjects, but not all issues, have relevance for every organization.

• Identify all issues of social responsibility that relate to day-to-day activities as well as those that arise only occasionally under very specific circumstances.

• One way of doing this is to review the typical advanced MBA Curriculum (as follows)

Strategy / Business Development

HR / Organizational Behavior

Finance / Accounting / Control

Business Informatics / BPM

Operations / Quality Management

Marketing

Objectives Moral Values

Balance ofPower

Social Compact / Constitution

People 1: Compete

Fairness Trans-parence will make a shared decision process possible. Division of powers can avoid concen-tration of privilege, efficiency needs freedom, and there is no peace without Justice

Scarcity as incentive

People 2Innovate

Incentive Freedom neededFor innovation

Planet 1Resources

RenewableReplaceable

Use and not abuse, exhaustion

Planet 2 Sustainability

Stewardship Future Generations

Profit 1Shareholders

AppropriateShare

Ownership

Profit 2 Stakeholders

Appropriate Share

DistributiveJustice

Ethics / Politics

Concluding RemarksThe existing values and culture of an organization can have a significant effect on

the ease and pace with which social responsibility can be fully integrated throughout the organization.

For some organizations, where the values and culture are already closely aligned to those of social responsibility, the process of integration may be quite straightforward.

In others, some parts of the organization may not recognize the benefits of social responsibility and may be resistant to change.

Systematic efforts over an extended period may be involved in integrating a socially responsible approach in these areas.It is also important to recognize that the process of integrating social responsibility throughout an organization does not occur all at once or at the same pace for all core subjects and issues. It may be helpful to develop a plan for addressing some social responsibility issues in the short term and some over a longer period of time. Such a plan should be realistic and should take into account the capabilities of the organization, the resources available and the priority of the issues and related actions

Concluding Remarks ctd.

• Systematic efforts over an extended period may be involved in integrating a socially responsible approach in these areas.

• It is also important to recognize that the process of integrating social responsibility throughout an organization does not occur all at once or at the same pace for all core subjects and issues.

• It may be helpful to develop a plan for addressing some social responsibility issues in the short term and some over a longer period of time.

• Such a plan should be realistic and should take into account the capabilities of the organization, the resources available and the priority of the issues and related actions

End

Thank you for Listening