Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility

Course description

Modern corporations can no longer operate as autonomous, single-minded organizations. This course provides students with an introduction to the concepts of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a business context. It examines issues in CSR, emphasizing accountability for, and reporting of, the social and environmental effects of an organization’s economic actions to stakeholders. Without exception, the external environments are complex, dynamic, and unpredictable. Companies today are caught in a crossfire of external (and sometimes internal) demands related to how they manage their responsibilities to a wide range of stakeholders, including employees, investors, suppliers, customers, communities, and national governments where they operate, particularly where long supply chains exist in developing nations. As a result of these conditions, corporations can be seen creating dialogue, relationships, and formal inter-organizational ties to a broad number of other parties and constituencies. In addition, those other parties and constituencies are exerting considerable influence on the formulation and execution of strategies. In large measure, the strategic management of these relationships is a keystone to business

Course details