asanthi Srinivasan, Associate Professor in the Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources Management area at IIMB has been working on a research project on developing teaching and learning resources on business ethics and corporate social responsibility.
The CSR Education and Research project is a partnership between British Council India, International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR) Nottingham University, UK and the Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. It is intended to enhance, expand and promote CSR education and research between Indian and UK business schools.
The broad aims and objectives of this project are to:
•Develop and strengthen CSR curriculum in business schools
•Develop and disseminate CSR teaching and learning resources
•Strengthen research capabilities between the partner schools
•Identify joint collaborative research opportunities
•Create a professional CSR network
•Engage and introduce CSR networks for students
A significant outcome of the research is the Teach CSR website: www.teachcsr.com
Vasanthi Srinivasan explains further:
Q: What was the genesis of this project?
Srinivasan: This project was initiated in April 2007 when I was at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Nottingham University for three months as a Visiting Scholar. The primary focus was to develop a curriculum on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a post-graduate programme for Indian B-schools.
I soon realized that there were different notions on CSR, depending on the particular world-view, and that the approach to the subject from the North American and European perspective is vastly different from that in India. Context, therefore, is critical. It soon became obvious that the concept of CSR was better understood when issues were related to the local context, with citations of real people, real companies and real situations. For example, climate change is interpreted differently in the developed world and in third world countries, with different implications for policy-making and engagement with civil society - take the case of carbon emissions and their control and the stance taken by developing countries.
Further, the standardized approach to CSR by multinational and transnational companies in different parts of the world was often not found to be adequate when dealing with local issues. Indian companies also understand CSR better when the concepts relate to their areas of interest.
Q: How did the project evolve?
Srinivasan: A significant transition came when the focus of CSR was enlarged to "Responsible Business" - a concept that is more holistic and takes into consideration the different stakeholders and their attitudes to ethics in a broader sense. It involves the individual, the corporation and society at different levels. So we have now incorporated the teaching of business ethics and CSR in a model and a package that we believe is more comprehensive and meaningful. The key delivery mechanism is the Teach CSR website, which is essentially a teaching and learning resource.
Q: What are the key motivations?
Srinivasan: The basic premise is that there is a need to sensitize students to Responsibility: teaching Responsibility is both multi-functional and inter-disciplinary.
Looking at the state of Corporate Responsibility education across the world, we find that it is generally piece meal and fragmented in most business schools; some schools offer experiential learning on responsibility through internships. Four types of courses offered under this umbrella - CSR, Business Ethics, Corporate Governance and Business and Society.
In India, a national survey on Corporate Responsibility teaching and research in management schools in India by the NGO, Partners in Change (2007) indicated that about 57% of the institutions had a core module or course on CSR. Regrettably, lack of industry support and lack of understanding or interest in Corporate Responsibility amongst academicians are two critical reasons for not offering courses.
While we have examples of corporations demonstrating very high responsibility, corruption levels in society are also very high, and there is great need to develop critical thinking among students.
Given this background, sensitizing and orienting students to the issues is not easy. There is also the prevalent ethos of Corporate Social Responsibility as ‘charity' rather than responsibility for its own sake.
Q: Explain the main aspects of the Teach CSR website?
Srinivasan: The Teach CSR website hosts original resources for faculty to draw up on for teaching and research. The objective is to build capability among business school teachers to create awareness, and facilitate sensitization to these larger issues.
The core philosophy of the project, and the pegs of the Teach CSR website are:
• To build a perspective around the larger role of business in society
• Sensitize students to their roles as managers in organizations and the ethical choices they make
• To engage students to the structures and processes within organizations that enable discharge of responsibilities
• To stimulate critical thinking in the dominant paradigm in management in the context of emerging nations like India
• AACSB /Global Compact calls for a more inclusive and integrative curriculum http://www.aacsb.edu/
Q: How are you informing prospective users about the website?
Srinivasan: With sponsorship support from the British Council, we have held workshops in Delhi and selected cities in South India, in which around 400 faculty members from various B-Schools and universities have participated so far (July 2009). We plan to hold more workshops in North and East India, and take the coverage to at least 1000 faculty members. The one-day workshop covers a lot of ground, explaining the project background and also involving the faculty towards developing a community network.
Q: What are the emerging issues?
Srinivasan: The feedback that we have received at the workshops, as well as inputs from users of the website, indicate that building case studies of relevance to the students in the particular area where the institute is located, is of prime importance. We also need to have more faculty development workshops, and explore alternate methods of teaching. Going forward, we also plan to share course outlines on the Teach CSR website.
Professor Vasanthi Srinivasan
Vasanthi Srinivasan is an Associate Professor in the area of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at IIMB. She is a member of the Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship at IIMB. She holds an MBA in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI Jamshedpur, and is a Fellow in Management from the IIM Bangalore. She was a Visiting Scholar at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at the Nottingham University Business School on a British Council Scholarship. The website www.teachcsr.com, an outcome of the scholarship, is intended to promote teaching in Business Ethics and CSR among faculty of business schools in India. She was an Executive Committee Member of the International Society of Business, Economics & Ethics (ISBEE) and is also on the Board of Directors of a few international not-for profit social and non-governmental organizations. She is a member of two working groups on "Corporate Social Responsibility" and "Disability and Employment" set up by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Bangalore.
She has published in several journals such as the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management and has a paper in the forthcoming issue of "International Journal of Human Resource Management".
E mail id: vasanthi@iimb.ernet.in
asanthi Srinivasan, Associate Professor in the Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources Management area at IIMB has been working on a research project on developing teaching and learning resources on business ethics and corporate social responsibility.
The CSR Education and Research project is a partnership between British Council India, International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR) Nottingham University, UK and the Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. It is intended to enhance, expand and promote CSR education and research between Indian and UK business schools.
The broad aims and objectives of this project are to:
•Develop and strengthen CSR curriculum in business schools
•Develop and disseminate CSR teaching and learning resources
•Strengthen research capabilities between the partner schools
•Identify joint collaborative research opportunities
•Create a professional CSR network
•Engage and introduce CSR networks for students
A significant outcome of the research is the Teach CSR website: www.teachcsr.com
Vasanthi Srinivasan explains further:
Q: What was the genesis of this project?
Srinivasan: This project was initiated in April 2007 when I was at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Nottingham University for three months as a Visiting Scholar. The primary focus was to develop a curriculum on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a post-graduate programme for Indian B-schools.
I soon realized that there were different notions on CSR, depending on the particular world-view, and that the approach to the subject from the North American and European perspective is vastly different from that in India. Context, therefore, is critical. It soon became obvious that the concept of CSR was better understood when issues were related to the local context, with citations of real people, real companies and real situations. For example, climate change is interpreted differently in the developed world and in third world countries, with different implications for policy-making and engagement with civil society - take the case of carbon emissions and their control and the stance taken by developing countries.
Further, the standardized approach to CSR by multinational and transnational companies in different parts of the world was often not found to be adequate when dealing with local issues. Indian companies also understand CSR better when the concepts relate to their areas of interest.
Q: How did the project evolve?
Srinivasan: A significant transition came when the focus of CSR was enlarged to "Responsible Business" - a concept that is more holistic and takes into consideration the different stakeholders and their attitudes to ethics in a broader sense. It involves the individual, the corporation and society at different levels. So we have now incorporated the teaching of business ethics and CSR in a model and a package that we believe is more comprehensive and meaningful. The key delivery mechanism is the Teach CSR website, which is essentially a teaching and learning resource.
Q: What are the key motivations?
Srinivasan: The basic premise is that there is a need to sensitize students to Responsibility: teaching Responsibility is both multi-functional and inter-disciplinary.
Looking at the state of Corporate Responsibility education across the world, we find that it is generally piece meal and fragmented in most business schools; some schools offer experiential learning on responsibility through internships. Four types of courses offered under this umbrella - CSR, Business Ethics, Corporate Governance and Business and Society.
In India, a national survey on Corporate Responsibility teaching and research in management schools in India by the NGO, Partners in Change (2007) indicated that about 57% of the institutions had a core module or course on CSR. Regrettably, lack of industry support and lack of understanding or interest in Corporate Responsibility amongst academicians are two critical reasons for not offering courses.
While we have examples of corporations demonstrating very high responsibility, corruption levels in society are also very high, and there is great need to develop critical thinking among students.
Given this background, sensitizing and orienting students to the issues is not easy. There is also the prevalent ethos of Corporate Social Responsibility as ‘charity' rather than responsibility for its own sake.
Q: Explain the main aspects of the Teach CSR website?
Srinivasan: The Teach CSR website hosts original resources for faculty to draw up on for teaching and research. The objective is to build capability among business school teachers to create awareness, and facilitate sensitization to these larger issues.
The core philosophy of the project, and the pegs of the Teach CSR website are:
• To build a perspective around the larger role of business in society
• Sensitize students to their roles as managers in organizations and the ethical choices they make
• To engage students to the structures and processes within organizations that enable discharge of responsibilities
• To stimulate critical thinking in the dominant paradigm in management in the context of emerging nations like India
• AACSB /Global Compact calls for a more inclusive and integrative curriculum http://www.aacsb.edu/
Q: How are you informing prospective users about the website?
Srinivasan: With sponsorship support from the British Council, we have held workshops in Delhi and selected cities in South India, in which around 400 faculty members from various B-Schools and universities have participated so far (July 2009). We plan to hold more workshops in North and East India, and take the coverage to at least 1000 faculty members. The one-day workshop covers a lot of ground, explaining the project background and also involving the faculty towards developing a community network.
Q: What are the emerging issues?
Srinivasan: The feedback that we have received at the workshops, as well as inputs from users of the website, indicate that building case studies of relevance to the students in the particular area where the institute is located, is of prime importance. We also need to have more faculty development workshops, and explore alternate methods of teaching. Going forward, we also plan to share course outlines on the Teach CSR website.
Professor Vasanthi Srinivasan
Vasanthi Srinivasan is an Associate Professor in the area of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at IIMB. She is a member of the Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship at IIMB. She holds an MBA in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI Jamshedpur, and is a Fellow in Management from the IIM Bangalore. She was a Visiting Scholar at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at the Nottingham University Business School on a British Council Scholarship. The website www.teachcsr.com, an outcome of the scholarship, is intended to promote teaching in Business Ethics and CSR among faculty of business schools in India. She was an Executive Committee Member of the International Society of Business, Economics & Ethics (ISBEE) and is also on the Board of Directors of a few international not-for profit social and non-governmental organizations. She is a member of two working groups on "Corporate Social Responsibility" and "Disability and Employment" set up by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Bangalore.
She has published in several journals such as the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management and has a paper in the forthcoming issue of "International Journal of Human Resource Management".
E mail id: vasanthi@iimb.ernet.in