Transcript Titre de la Présentation

Is it wrong to teach what is right and wrong?
Is it part of a university’s job to teach its
students moral standards and social
responsibilities?
Sixth Ethical Forum of the University Foundation 29, Nov 2007
Professor Dr. Nigel Roome
Daniel Janssen Chair of Corporate Social
Responsibility, Solvay Business School, ULB
Background
As a professor of corporate responsibility it would be a denial of my
own professional existence if I claimed that I did not teach
students about the area of social responsibilities. For me the key
question is not whether this should be taught but how should it be
taught
Among other things I set out to teach:
• how companies and managers go about managing (social)
responsibilities
• how academics understand the ways managers and companies go
about managing (social) responsibilities
• The skills and competencies that underpin the management of
(social) responsibilities
However, I hope those in the audience will recognise that I am not an
ethicist or moral philsopher only a business professor
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Contention
It is a duty of managers in companies:
• to consider the effects that their choices and actions have in
terms of changes in the social, environmental and economic
fabric of the societies in which they operate
• to take responsibility for the effects of those choices and
actions by being clear and accountable for the choices they
make
In my view this approach characterises the intrinsic values and
thinking that is the basis for my teaching in corporate
responsibility
I leave it to you to judge whether - in seeking to examine
these duties and their implications - I am teaching ‘right or
wrong’
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Corporate Responsibility – a perspective
• Corporate responsibility is that set of actions that
define an enterprise’s contribution to the societal
projects we call ‘sustainable development’ and/or
‘social cohesion’
• Corporate responsibility is therefore ‘thick’ with
ethical issues and values systems. Among others
it potentially embraces:
–
–
–
–
Utilitarianism – Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
Deep ecology - Arne Naas
Stewardship – Aldo Leopold
Fairness and justice – John Rawls
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Deontology or Teleology – a bridge in CR
In my view corporate responsibility connects the clashing
views of deontological and teleological ethics
• CSR of the kind I suggest brings together the deontological
view of ethics as duties, and, ethics in consequential terms
arising from actions (teleology – as in the idea that the ends
justify the means). It also suggests that managers might
seek to surface the ethics and values systems that operate
in and around their choices
• In my work I also take the view that it is a duty of a
responsible manager to accept the need to address and
assess the consequences of their actions and choices and to
lay them open to scrutiny
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CSR in the framework of enterprise
Existence
Maintaining
relationships with
others in
economy and
society so that
the enterprise
can continue with
its purpose
Activities
Combining
human ingenuity,
knowledge and
materials
Internal - efficiency,
effectiveness,
ingenuity and
innovation
Purpose
Creating wealth
by providing
products/service
that customers
want and value
External – what you
do and what you are
CSR is not about the purpose of enterprise but about the existence of an
enterprise, where existence is a function of the ‘properties’ of the relationship
between an enterprise’s activities and other actors and things
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Key properties of relationships
• Relationships are the foundation of ‘systems’ as webs of
relationship
• Relationships are often in flux or subject to change at either
end. The decisions taken by managers have effects on
others. Indeed, if there were no effects there would only be
empty relationships
• Relationships are defined in part by the context within
which any relationship operates
• Relationships (between actors) carry attributes – trust,
disclosure, honesty, truthfulness etc
• All relationships are surrounded by ethical systems, values
and perceptions
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Implications for management education
In my work as a teacher I seek to foster in my students a:
• Systems view of the company - relationship represent a way of
‘seeing’ and a way of ‘thinking about’ companies
•
Sensitivity to context (temporal and spatial)
•
Awareness of change
•
Clarity around attributes – trust, disclosure etc
•
Concern to surface the values, ethical systems and perceptions
held by actors in a relationship
•
As ethical systems and values differ so to surface them can lead to
reflection on both one’s own values and the values of others
In general these ideas run counter to much of what is currently
taught to managers of the future
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