The action aims to train (present and future) managers in the use of non-financial performance criteria, directly linked to corporate social responsibility in different cultures. The trainees will acquire the necessary skills to apply these tools in their future career in the corporate or public sector. Opportunities for long-life learning are offered through Bachelor/Master and Certificate/Diploma programmes. Action’s activities include: collecting case material in South Asia and Europe, case writing (including training), literature assessment, need assessment of job opportunities for trainees, writing a textbook, preparing teacher’s manuals, exchange of teachers’ experiences to create a common teaching platform and promotion activities to broaden the network.
Coordinator: Luuk van Kempen. Lead organisation: IVO. Client: A consortium of universities in Europe (Italy and the Netherlands), India and Bangladesh. Donor organization: The European Commission (Asia-Link), partners in the project. Results: A common platform of case material and teaching methods will be made according to the following objectives: 95 case descriptions will be collected and included in an electronically accessible database. This will be available to staff and student as basic reference material for the teaching programmes. In the English language, it will be continuously updated when after launching the database new case descriptions become available or improved information becomes available. Each description will be roughly 10 pages. 35 of these cases will be transformed into cases to be used in classroom teaching, again to be accessed by both staff and students. The format is such that the cases can be used “from the shelf” for immediate use. The English language cases will be 10-15 pages in length and again regular updates will be made. These cases will be accompanied by a teacher’s manual with instructions for teachers on how to use the case material. This will be an on-line booklet of some 25 pages, to be accessed only by teaching staff. Its purpose is to instruct teachers on different ways to use the case material and to provide them with guidelines on either curriculum revision or less ambitious ways to use the information for teaching. Teaching will be supported with an Internet site to facilitate the addition of new or revised cases and to provide links to other sources of information. Apart from important cost-savings (both in printing and shipping) and speed of delivery, this site will also be used to create a “CSR community” among the staff members of the participating institution. A database of literature (articles) relevant to the main topics of the subject area. The debate on CSR is taking place at very different levels in academia, in the policy arena and in daily business activities. To keep the participants abreast of ongoing developments an electronic reference guide will be developed, not to cover each and every item, but to cover the main written sources and to refer to relevant websites. Formalised curriculum outlines will be prepared for a course at the master’s level and a diploma course. These are meant to assist teaching staff with the design of courses tailored to their own purposes. It is expected that the participating institutions will use a variety of teaching modes to cover the subject. These outlines are meant to provide a common point of reference in the exchange of teaching practices. From the third year onwards, in each of the partner institutions at least 20 students per year will participate in the teaching programme. From the second year onwards, the three South-Asian participants will also offer diploma courses to each 20 students per year. In this way, a new generation of managers will be created, equipped with appropriate tools to work in a rapidly changing environment.