MBA M751 Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Fall 2012 Course Outline

Transcription

1 M751 - Fall of 10 MBA M751 Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Fall 2012 Course Outline COURSE OBJECTIVE Marketing Area DeGroote School of Business McMaster University As the capstone to McMaster s MBA program, this course is designed to unify your learning experience at the School of Business. This course builds on your previous learning, and acts as a stepping-stone to the real world of business. The purpose of this course is to enhance your capacity to do the job of a general manager responsible for strategic performance. INSTRUCTOR AND CONTACT INFORMATION Class: Mon 11:30 2:20 Lynn Fergusson Anna Sadovnikova Instructor TA TBD sadovna@mcmaster.ca Office: RJC 217C Office Hours: Start Oct 1. Office Hours: after class for appointment Tel: (905) x20690 Tel: (905) x26167 Class Location: RJC 263 Course Website: COURSE ELEMENTS Avenue: Yes Leadership: Yes IT skills: No Global view: Yes Participation: Yes Ethics: Yes Numeracy: Yes Written skills: Yes Evidence-based: Yes Innovation: Yes Group work: Yes Oral skills: Yes Experiential: Yes Guest speaker(s): Yes Final Exam: No

2 M751 - Fall of 10 COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is taught primarily through the case-method but also includes readings, lectures, videos, workshops, guest speakers and a hands-on project. The materials used in the course encompass a wide range of industries, businesses and issues in order to provide the greatest depth and breadth of experience. LEARNING OUTCOMES Upon completion of this course, students will be able to complete the following key tasks: Understand the historical background and context of Sustainability and CSR (sustainable development, social responsibility, sustainable consumption, technology, regulations, etc.) Understand sustainability marketing and societal marketing concept Understand concepts and definitions of Sustainability and CSR as applied to business Understand commercial, institutional, ecological and social perspectives of Sustainability. Understand systems thinking and other strategic concepts as they relate to integration of CSR and Sustainability into business. Understanding the relationship between CSR and sustainability performance and financial performance Demonstrate knowledge of a range of tools for developing a Sustainable business model, product, service, design and packaging (Life Cycle Analysis, Design for Environment, ecological footprint, environmental checklists, etc.) Demonstrate knowledge of tools and frameworks to make supply chain and business processes (supplier audit, ISO etc.) Understand frameworks and models of social and environmental alliances, partnerships, collaboration and networks for Sustainability and CSR Demonstrate knowledge of internal and external certification for green products (sustainability index, eco-labelling, metrics, etc.) Demonstrate global knowledge of Sustainability impacts (e.g. developing world, bottom of the pyramid-bop). Demonstrate communication strategies for Sustainability and CSR

3 M751 - Fall of 10 REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS AND READINGS Avenue registration for course content, readings and lecture handouts Custom Courseware purchase a copy at the bookstore $ FREE $ TBA OPTIONAL COURSE MATERIALS AND READINGS Umair Haque, The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business Bob Willard, The New Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line Simon Dresner, "Principles of Sustainability, 2nd Edition" Joel Makower, Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business" Paul Hawken, Amor Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, "Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution" Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston, "Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage" Frank-Martin Belz, "Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective" EVALUATION Learning in this course results primarily from in-class discussion and participation of comprehensive business cases as well as out-of-class sustainability exercise. The balance of the learning results from the lectures on various topics on sustainability, concepts, from related readings, and from researching your presentations, cases, assignments, and projects. All work will be evaluated both on group as well an individual basis as specified. In these cases group members will share the same grade adjusted by peer evaluation. Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

4 M751 - Fall of 10 Components and Weights Assignment #1 Written Case Report (group) 20% Assignment #2 Case Presentation (group) 20% Assignment #3 CSR & Sustainability Project (group) 40% Participation In-class Contribution (individual) 20% Total 100% Grade Conversion At the end of the course your overall percentage grade will be converted to your letter grade in accordance with the following conversion scheme. LETTER GRADE PERCENT A A A B B B F Communication and Feedback Students that are uncomfortable in directly approaching an instructor regarding a course concern may send a confidential and anonymous to the respective Area Chair or Associate Dean: Students who wish to correspond with instructors or TAs directly via must send messages that originate from their official McMaster University account. This protects the confidentiality and sensitivity of information as well as confirms the identity of the student. s regarding course issues should NOT be sent to the Administrative Assistant. Instructors are encouraged to conduct an informal course review with students by Week #4 to allow time for modifications in curriculum delivery. Instructors should provide evaluation feedback for at least 10% of the final grade to students prior to Week #8 in the term.

5 M751 - Fall of 10 Assignment #1 Written Case Report This assignment is worth 20% of your final grade. Group members will share the same grade adjusted by peer evaluation. Your group of 3-5 will be responsible for reading, analyzing and documenting a solution to the case. Your case should be no more than ten pages (twelve point font, double-spaced and with one-inch margins all around) plus title page, table of contents and any appendices that you choose to include. It should be submitted electronically as a pdf file. The report should include an executive summary of the problem/opportunity and the solution you recommend. It should then provide a thorough analysis of the situation (internally and externally), and possible options considered. It should address how the solution would be implemented, and challenges with this recommended path. Of course, it should answer any questions posed in the assignment. Factors such as whether your report is convincing, logical in its arguments and segues, and exhibits business and sustainability insights and maturity, are extremely important in determining your final marks. Assignment #2 Case Presentation This assignment is worth 20% of your final grade. Group members will share the same grade adjusted by peer evaluation. In your group of 3-5, you will be responsible for presenting your analysis of the case and recommendations. You are encouraged to engage the class in the presentation, but present your own findings. Your grade will be based on this presentation both as presented in class, and the submitted presentation. Assignment #3 Team CSR & Sustainability Project This project is worth 40% of your final mark. Group members will share the same grade adjusted by peer evaluation. In groups of 3-5, students are to take on a finite Sustainability/CSR project working with a local organization and its stakeholders to truly understand Triple Bottom Line issues. It should be of a scope to be reasonably accomplished within about 8 weeks, including allowing about 4 weeks for implementation and observation - to observe, understand, explore and feel the CSR and sustainability impacts. In identifying an organization to work with, ensure the organization is prepared to spend some time up front with students to provide the necessary background on the organization and the specific project, and make available any additional employees or other stakeholders, as appropriate. They will also need to be prepared to allocate some time for ongoing discussion, questions, and clarifications, as well as potentially participating in the project implementation, depending on the nature of the project. In return, the organization will benefit from the insights and actions of the MBA student team, as well as the outcomes and learning.

6 M751 - Fall of 10 Some project proposals will be put forth in the second week of classes for students consideration or students may develop their own projects. Students are encouraged to select a project in an area of particular interest. Project proposals must be approved by the instructor before proceeding. The project overview and findings will be presented to the class, with an emphasis on the impact made, challenges, and learning, and the grade will be based on this presentation both as presented in class, and the submitted presentation. Participation Participation is worth 20% of your final grade, and is marked individually. Name cards and class pictures are used to help give credit for your participation. You must have a name card with your full first and last name clearly written and displayed in front of you for every class. A photograph of the class will be taken during class. This photograph will be used by the TA and the instructor to evaluate your participation. Highly interactive environments stimulate ideas, enhance communication skills, improve analytical processes, foster collaborative networks, test assumptions, and in general make learning a fun experience! This is also the time and place to develop the assertiveness and communication skills that are necessary for success in business. Consequently, we value and reward contribution. In-class case analyses, exercises, discussions, and group work are the opportunities for participating and contributing. For our class, this means: - Being prepared for class discussion demonstrate good knowledge of case content; - Offering case analysis in a critical and constructive manner; - Eager / willing to debate issues using logic and integrating knowledge of business and sustainability concepts; Listen and react to comments made by other students - Your ability to communicate clearly (i.e., quantity of dialogue is not the same as quality) - Demonstrate initiative to bring new and relevant knowledge to case / class discussion - Active participation in completing class exercises and assignments Instructors and TAs will feel free to cold-call on anyone at any time. Hence, it is imperative that you prepare for each and every case and reading. Interim participation marks will be posted about half way through the course. Come to see me then if your mark is low, or well before if you are concerned that it might be low, to discuss how you might participate more effectively. You obviously can t participate if you re not in class. If there are legitimate reasons for you to miss class, provide documentation within one week of returning to school to the Academic Programs Office. The key to high contribution grades is making a quality contribution to every class. NO marks are awarded for attendance. Participation will NOT be graded by counting each contribution a student makes, but by examining the quality of contributions in each class.

7 M751 - Fall of 10 ACADEMIC DISHONESTY It is the student s responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. Please refer to the University Senate Academic Integrity Policy at the following URL: This policy describes the responsibilities, procedures, and guidelines for students and faculty should a case of academic dishonesty arise. Academic dishonesty is defined as to knowingly act or fail to act in a way that results or could result in unearned academic credit or advantage. Please refer to the policy for a list of examples. The policy also provides faculty with procedures to follow in cases of academic dishonesty as well as general guidelines for penalties. For further information related to the policy, please refer to the Office of Academic Integrity at: In this course we will be using Turnitin.com which is a plagiarism detection service. Students will be expected to submit their work electronically to Turnitin.com so that it can be checked against the internet, published works and Turnitin s database for similar or identical work. If a student refuses to submit his or her work to Turnitin.com, he or she cannot be compelled to do so and should not be penalized. Instructors are advised to accept a hard copy of the assignment and grade it as per normal methods. The assignment can be subjected to a Google search or some other kind of search engine if the instructor wishes. To see guidelines for the use of Turnitin.com, please go to: MISSED ACADEMIC WORK Missed Mid-Term Examinations / Tests / Class Participation Where students miss a regularly scheduled mid-term or class participation for legitimate reasons as determined by the MBA Academic Services Office, the weight for that test/participation will be distributed across other evaluative components of the course at the discretion of the instructor. Documentation explaining such an absence must be provided to the MBA Academic Services Office within five (5) working days upon returning to school. To document absences for health related reasons, please provide the Petition for Relief for MBA Missed Term Work and the McMaster University Student Health Certificate which can be found on the DeGroote website at Please do not use the online McMaster Student Absence Form as this is for Undergraduate students only. University policy states that a student may submit a maximum of three (3) medical certificates per year after which the student must meet with the Director of the program.

8 M751 - Fall of 10 To document absences for reasons other than health related, please provide the Petition for Relief for MBA Missed Term Work and documentation supporting the reason for the absence. STUDENT ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES Student Accessibility Services (SAS) offers various support services for students with disabilities. Students are required to inform SAS of accommodation needs for course work at the outset of term. Students must forward a copy of such SAS accommodation to the instructor normally, within the first three (3) weeks of classes by setting up an appointment with the instructor. If a student with a disability chooses NOT to take advantage of an SAS accommodation and chooses to sit for a regular exam, a petition for relief may not be filed after the examination is complete. The SAS website is: POTENTIAL MODIFICATIONS TO THE COURSE The instructor and university reserve the right to modify elements of the course during the term. The university may change the dates and deadlines for any or all courses in extreme circumstances. If either type of modification becomes necessary, reasonable notice and communication with the students will be given with explanation and the opportunity to comment on changes. It is the responsibility of the student to check their McMaster and course websites weekly during the term and to note any changes. Additional guest speaker bookings are expected. RESEARCH USING HUMAN SUBJECTS Research involving human participants is premised on a fundamental moral commitment to advancing human welfare, knowledge and understanding. As a research intensive institution, McMaster University shares this commitment in its promotion of responsible research. The fundamental imperative of research involving human participation is respect for human dignity and well-being. To this end, the University endorses the ethical principles cited in the Tri- Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans: McMaster University has mandated its Research Ethics Boards to ensure that all research investigations involving human participants are in compliance with the Tri-Council Policy Statement. The University is committed, through its Research Ethics Boards, to assisting the research community in identifying and addressing ethical issues inherent in research, recognizing that all members of the University share a commitment to maintaining the highest possible standards in research involving humans.

9 M751 - Fall of 10 If you are conducting original research, it is vital that you behave in an ethical manner. For example, everyone you speak to must be made aware of your reasons for eliciting their responses and consent to providing information. Furthermore, you must ensure everyone understands that participation is entirely voluntary. Please refer to the following website for more information about McMaster University s research ethics guidelines: Organizations that you are working with are likely to prefer that some information be treated as confidential. Ensure that you clarify the status of all information that you receive from your client. You MUST respect this request and cannot present this information in class or communicate it in any form, nor can you discuss it outside your group. Furthermore, you must continue to respect this confidentiality even after the course is over.

10 M751 - Fall of 10 COURSE SCHEDULE MBA M751 Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Fall 2012 Course Schedule WEEK DATE ASSIGNMENT 1 Mon. Sept 10 2 Mon. Sept 17 3 Mon. Sept 24 4 Mon Oct 1 Discuss: Class Outline, Schedule, Expectations, Participation, Courseware, Selecting team members, Case Assignment process, Project Activity: Introductions Discuss: Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility Prepare Case 1: Adapting to Climate Change: The Case of Suncor Energy and the Alberta Oil Sands Watch in Class: Rachel Carson s Silent Spring Guest Speaker: Kate Whelan & Katie Ferguson, McMaster Sustainability Office Guest Speakers: Project Opportunities Lecture: Introduction, History and Importance of Sustainability DUE: Team Assignments by to TA, by 11:20am Prepare Case 2: FIJI Water and Corporate Social Responsibility Green Makeover or Greenwashing? Guest Speaker: Bob Willard, Author, The New Sustainability Advantage Prepare Case 3: Scandinavian Airlines: The Green Engine Decision Group Presentation: Case 3 Watch in Class: Video (TBD) Lecture: Environment 5 Mon Oct 8 HAPPY THANKSGIVING! NO CLASS

11 M751 - Fall of 10 6 Mon Oct 15 7 Mon Oct 22 8 Mon Oct 29 9 Mon Nov 5 10 Mon Nov Mon Nov Mon Nov Mon Dec 3 Prepare Case 4: Clarke: Transformation for Environmental Stability Group Presentation: Case 4 Lecture: Environment Due: Assignment #1, by to TA by 11:20am. Prepare Case 5: Sustainability at Tetrapak: Recycling Post- Consumer Cartons Group Presentation: Case 5 Guest Speaker: TBD Prepare Case 6: Honey Care Africa: A Tripartite Model for Sustainable Beekeeping Group Presentation: Case 6 Lecture: Partnerships & Collaboration Prepare Case 7: VEJA Sneakers with a Conscience Group Presentation: Case 7 Lecture: Social Enterprises and other Business Models Guest Speaker: TBD Prepare Case 8: New Balance: Developing an Integrated CSR Strategy Group Presentation: Case 8 Lecture: Sustainability Metrics and Reporting Prepare Case 9: Pepsico s Turning Point: Establishing a Role in a Sustainable Society Lecture: Managing Sustainability and Engaging Stakeholders Guest Speaker: TBD DUE: Today s project presentations due by to TA before class Presentation: Projects DUE: Today s project presentations due by to TA before class Presentation: Projects