WBS Puts Corporate Citizenship on the Agenda

Events around the world in recent times have heralded the need for organisations to examine the impacts of their operations on a broader group of stakeholders beyond employees and shareholders. New international standards such as the AA1000 (a social accounting and auditing standard) are being taken up by business and the grand concept of globalisation is being overtaken by new thinking, which puts more of an emphasis upon 'think global but act local'. Increasingly business is being encouraged to report against a 'triple bottom line'. Boards, investors, home and host governments are now interested in social and environmental performance alongside more traditional economic performance indicators.

Warwick Business School (WBS), is one of the first business schools in the world to include Corporate Citizenship as a core module in its MBA and MPA (Masters in Public Administration) programmes. It is also one of the few business schools which has a Corporate Citizenship research centre. The module focuses on the relationship between business and society and in particular the roles and responsibilities of international business operating in poor countries.

"Over the last decade, foreign direct investment in developing countries has increased tenfold and public development assistance has declined. Over the same period, governments have changed their investment regimes in order to encourage investment and at the same time they are reducing their social welfare spending",

says Professor Alyson Warhurst, Director of the WBS Corporate Citizenship Unit (CCU).

"There is also evidence to suggest that the poorest countries are becoming poorer and although economic growth prospects may be improving for some, there is growing inequity. As a consequence of these trends and growing public interest concerns about the environmental and social impacts of business activities, it has become a strategic priority for international business to address the wider and more indirect impact of their operations, particularly on local communities" she added.

The Corporate Citizenship module will explore the implications of this new international context for business strategy, expert speakers will provide current, first-hand experience and the module will also benefit from the wide-ranging research which is being carried out by the CCU with the sponsorship of both international companies and government departments such as DfID and DTI.