The article by Stuart Hart of Cornell University in the url below contests the notion that issues of CSR and sustainability are becoming more established within the business school curricula (Issues: Ethics, p227):
“… in spite of the apparent surge in activity, little has changed within schools. Core courses continue to be organised along conventional functional lines - finance, accounting, marketing, operations, strategy - with little exposure to emerging challenges such as climate change, global poverty or inequity.”
Hart takes his argument a step further by implying that this is not simply a case of oversight, or even ignorance, but is a more conscious effort to gather the credit for appearing to respond to the increased importance of CSR today, without instituting any fundamental changes:
“The truth is that the apparent "greening" of business schools is a form of "greenwashing". Even the most highly ranked of such programmes consist of a few dedicated faculty and support staff. Rather than being integrated into the fabric of the business school, sustainability initiatives "hang off the side" of the existing academic edifice. High-profile donors may draw attention to these programmes, yet few have penetrated the entrenched interests of the function-based senior faculty.”
Backtracking slightly from this attention-grabbing claim, Hart suggests there is, in fact, hope. He argues that CSR classes are “among the largest enrolment electives in many business schools” and that it is relatively easy, given the will, to integrate these issues within existing core courses. The real hope for the future is the demand for CSR classes Hart sees from existing students and the growing realization by firms that CSR is an issue they need to take seriously. It is this bottom-up demand that Hart envisions dragging business schools reluctantly into the twenty-first century.
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
Sustainability must be integral to schools' DNA
By Stuart Hart
634 words
13 October 2008
Financial Times
London Ed1
15
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto101320080535335879
