Earlier this month, 164 first- and second-year commerce students at the Queen's school of business passed on their usual social activities to participate in the first Corporate Social Responsibility weekend.
They heard from corporate executives, participated in round-table and panel discussions, and formulated their own responses to actual ethical or social dilemmas that the executive speakers have faced in their careers.
"There are many definitions of corporate social responsibility," says marketing professor and weekend organizer Jay Handelman. "But basically it's how you approach and manage the social side of your business."
As Handelman, who is also director of the university's centre for corporate social responsibility, points out, running a corporation today involves a lot more than focusing on the bottom line and keeping the shareholders happy, especially in the wake of the financial scandals at Enron, WorldCom, Hollinger and other companies, all of which have contributed to widespread public mistrust of and suspicion about corporations and their motives.
The public also has access to more information about companies than ever before thanks to the Internet, which has given new importance to openness, transparency and ethical behaviour. The Internet has also given the public unprecedented power to organize boycotts and to criticize organizations for practices that are seen as bad for the environment or contrary to the rights of workers.
"More and more companies have been blindsided by changes in the social environment," Handelman notes. "There is a whole strategic dimension to this. You have to be proactive or your whole corporate identity can be slammed. You can't just leave it to the public relations department."
Even business schools can be sideswiped by external events and be forced to react. In May 2000, the Queen's school of business accepted a $1-million donation from one of its former students, David Radler, who earned an MBA in 1967, and made his fortune as right-hand man to former Hollinger chairman and CEO Conrad Black.
The school named the faculty wing of its building for Radler, but had to remove his name after he pleaded guilty last September in a Chicago court to defrauding Hollinger shareholders of $32 million between January 1999 and May 2001.
Handelman says there are many ways in which corporations can wind up on the wrong side of social issues. McDonald's learned that lesson the hard way when independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock made a documentary about obesity called Super Size Me. Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's food for a month and charted the impact on his weight and health.
"This film is a muck-raking slam against the company," says Handelman. "But how do you respond? You can't sue. One way is to do things that demonstrate that you contribute to society and that you care about the community."
That has led to something called social alliances, in which big corporations lend their support to popular causes or events, a prime example being the CIBC Run for the Cure, a fund-raiser for breast cancer that is held in communities across the country each October.
The Toronto-based bank is the lead corporate sponsor of the event, which raises money for research, public education and effective treatment. More than one million Canadians have participated since the first run in 1992, and in 2005 the participants raised a record $21 million.
Queen's is attempting to prepare a new generation of students for the broader burdens of business leadership by giving them an opportunity to earn a certificate in corporate social responsibility along with their degrees in commerce. The school of business launched the program last fall and 40 per cent of first-year students signed up, as well as 25 per cent of those in the second year of study.
The school offers a number of courses such as marketing and ethics, information systems and privacy and labour rights that students can take over their four-year program of study. They are also expected to acquire first-hand experience of the social environment by doing volunteer work with not-for-profit organizations.
"Companies still have to manage the financial side of their operations and shareholders must have a return on investment," Handelman says.
"But what makes sense for the bottom line doesn't always make sense socially. We're trying to expose our students to that dilemma so that they can gain some understanding of both sides of the equation. Corporate social responsibility is about thinking beyond the shareholders and recognizing that the external environment is real and does have an impact."
(D'Arcy Jenish cn be reached at jenish@businessedge.ca)
