Corporate Social

Responsibility and Ethics1

Introduction. Requirements. Literature. Significance of CSR and
Business Ethics in contemporary business
Dr. phil. Velga Vēvere,
EKA professor
University of Latvia senior
researcher
Turība guest professor
velga.vevere@gmail.com
Tel.: 26463584
Consultations: by
appointment
Goal of the course
To provide students with knowledge about the role of corporate social
responsibility in today's global business environment in relation to the
strategic tasks of corporate governance and sustainability; to provide
an understanding of the business ethics of the basic issues.
Course tasks
1. To create an understanding of the corporative social responsibility
principles.
2. To provide an understanding of the role of business ethics in ensuring
the company's sustainability and strategic management.
3. To introduce the main concepts of corporate social responsibility.
4. To introduce ethical theories and basic concepts.
5. To develop an understanding of corporate social responsibility and
business ethics as strategic management of corporate governance
 Requirements

• 3 ECT credits
• 1 current test, consists of 3 parts:
a) Group/individual work (2 students, 15 min., 1 student 10 min.)
analysis of CSR acitivities in a company (title slide, justification,
characteristics of organization, analysis of CSR activities, conclusions
and recommendations, literature)- 20 %
b) Group/individual work – analysis of harassment/discrimination case
in organization X (title, justification, case description, case analysis,
literature, conclusions and recommendations) – 20%
c) Class/home activities, case studies – 20% (mandatory)
Requirements
• Written examination – 5 questions from the examination questions
list (40%)
Class/home works
1. Articles on CSR trends
2. Article/case study on discrimination
3. Article on CSR in business
Literature
• Vevere V., Svirina A. (2020). Business ethics and corporate social
responsibility. R.: EKA
• Business ethics and corporate sustainability / [editedby] Antonio
Tencati, Francesco Perrini. - Northampton, MA : Edward Elgar Pub.,
2011
• McDaniel, Charlotte. Organizational ethics : research and ethical
environments / CharlotteMcDaniel. - Aldershot : Ashgate, 2004
• Corporate ethics and corporate governance / Walther Ch. Zimmerli,
Klaus Richter, Markus Holzinger. - Berlin : Springer ; NewYork, 2007
Literature
• Sims, Ronald R.Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility : why giants
fall / Ronald R.Sims. - Westport : Praeger Publishers ; London, 2003
• Werther, William B.Strategic corporate social responsibility :
stakeholders in a global environment / William B. Werther, David B.
Chandler. - London : Sage Publications, 2006
• Horrigan, Bryan. Corporate social responsibility in the 21st century :
debates, models and practices across government, law and business /
BryanHorrigan. - Cheltenham, UK : Edward Elgar ; Northampton, MA,
USA, 2010
Literature
• Visser, Wayne. The Age o fResponsibility : CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of
Business / WayneVisser. - Chichester, West Sussex : John Wiley & Sons ;
Hoboken, NJ, 2011
• Urip, Sri. Corporate social responsibility strategies / SriUrip. - Singapore :
John Wiley &Sons, 2010.
• Benn, Suzanne. Key concepts in corporate social responsibility / Suzanne
Bennand Dianne Bolton. - LosAngeles : SAGE, 2011
• Gossling, Tobias. Corporate social responsibility and business
performance : theories and evidence about organizationalr
esponsibility / Tobias Gossling. - Cheltenham : Edward Elgar ;
Northhampton, 2011
Contemporary tendencies in CSR
and Business Ethics
A few questions

Can you define

such concepts
as:

Corporate
Sustainability? Social Corruption? Discrimination?
Responsibility?
Strategic changes in corporate philantrophy
• Traditionally the corporate philantropy meant finding groups for
charity donations of money or services. Today a focus is on the
strategic philantrophy – charity should be related to company’s
mission and vision, targeted to the audiences that use the
corresponding produce
Social contract between employer and
employee
• New definition of the contract between employee and employer. It is
important to recognize employees’ role in the CSR projects – creation
and realization. Main aspects of the social contract: compensation,
management, culture, training and development
• Compensation: companies should admit that empolyees do not work
with them for decades. Therefore, the structure of compensation
should be changed, in order to praise short-term results and change
the structure of compensation
• Management: how to retain employees, changes in loyalty politics,
realistic aims (career oportunities, social benefits), flexibility, fairness,
transparency, flexible salary system
• Culture: understanding of company values, reputation capital
• Development: development of technology changes working
environment, relations, possibility of workong from home. Training
and education of employees, engagement for specific projects
Changes in leadership paradigm
Global ethics and corporate responsibility
• Local traditions, process of globalization, economic and social
responsibility. Delegating responsibility, training of local labor force.
There could be contradiction between local and international
legislation.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U0N7tVcy5s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbdipZ0IO6E
High standards for suppliers
• Sustainability, sustainability principles, sustainability index, fair-trade
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaG10sqw9fk
What is sustainability?
• Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs. In addition to natural resources, we
also need social and economic resources. Sustainability is not just environmental-
ism. Embedded in most definitions of sustainability we also find concerns for
social equity and economic development.
Environmental sustainability
• Ecological integrity is maintained, all of earth’s environmental systems are kept in
balance while natural resources within them are consumed by humans at a rate
where they are able to replenish themselves
Economic sustainability
• Human communities across the globe are able to maintain their independence
and have access to the resources that they require, financial and other, to meet
their needs. Economic systems are intact and activities are available to everyone,
such as secure sources of livelihood
Social sustainability
• Universal human rights and basic necessities are attainable by all people, who
have access to enough resources in order to keep their families and communities
healthy and secure. Healthy communities have just leaders who ensure personal,
labor and cultural rights are respected and all people are protected from
discrimination
Global sustainable development challenges
• The impact of climate change threatens to escalate in the absence of adequate
safeguards and there is a need to promote the integrated and sustainable
management of natural resources and ecosystems and take mitigation and
adaptation action in keeping with the principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities
Global sustainable development challenges
• Hunger and malnourishment, while decreasing in many developing countries,
remain persistent in other countries, and food and nutrition security continues to
be an elusive goal for too many
Global sustainable development challenges
• Income inequality within and among many countries has been rising and has
reached an extremely high level, invoking the spectre of heightened tension
and social conflict
Global sustainable development challenges
• Rapid urbanization, especially in developing countries, calls for major changes in
the way in which urban development is designed and managed, as well as
substantial increases of public and private investments in urban infrastructure
and services;
Global sustainable development challenges
• Recurrence of financial crises needs to be prevented and the financial system has
to be redirected towards promoting access to long-term financing for in-
vestments required to achieve sustainable development
Global sustainable development challenges
• Energy needs are likely to remain unmet for hundreds of millions of house-holds,
unless significant progress in ensuring access to modern energy services is
achieved
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United
Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and
prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart
are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call
for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global
partnership.
Agenda for sustainable development.
Historical view
• In June 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, more than 178
countries adopted Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action to build a global
partnership for sustainable development to improve human lives and protect the
environment.
Agenda for sustainable development.
Historical view
• Member States unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration at the
Millennium Summit in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York. The
Summit led to the elaboration of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to
reduce extreme poverty by 2015.
Agenda for sustainable development.
Historical view
• The Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development and the Plan of
Implementation, adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
South Africa in 2002, reaffirmed the global community's commitments to poverty
eradication and the environment, and built on Agenda 21 and the Millennium
Declaration by including more emphasis on multilateral partnerships.
Agenda for sustainable development.
Historical view
• At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, Member States adopted the
outcome document "The Future We Want" in which they decided, inter
alia, to launch a process to develop a set of SDGs to build upon the MDGs
and to establish the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable
Development. The Rio +20 outcome also contained other measures for
implementing sustainable development, including mandates for future
programmes of work in development financing, small island developing
states and more.
• https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/
The Global Sustainable Competitiveness
Index
• The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index (GSCI) measures competitiveness
of countries in an integrated way. It is calculated based on 111 measurable,
quantitative indicators derived from reliable sources, such as the World Bank, the
IMF, and different UN agencies. The 111 indicators are grouped into 5 sub-indexes
- Natural Capital, Resource Efficiency & Intensity, Intellectual Capital, Governance
Efficiency, and Social Cohesion.
• Natural Capital: the given natural environment, including the availability of
resources, and the level of the depletion of those resources.
• Social Capital: health, security, freedom, equality and life satisfaction within a
country.
• Resource Management: the efficiency of using available resources as a
measurement of operational competitiveness in a resource-constraint World.
• Intellectual Capital: the capability to generate wealth and jobs through innovation
and value-added industries in the globalised markets
• Governance Efficiency: Results of core state areas and investments –
infrastructure, market and employment structure, the provision of a framework
for sustained and sustainable wealth generation
• http://solability.com/the-global-sustainable-competitiveness-index/the-index
General Data Protection Regulation
• https://gdpr-info.eu/
• For the next time read chapter 2 (articles 5-11)
• There will be discussion in the classroom, and they will be included in
the examination questions
• The main questions for discussion:
1) What impact GDPR have on the marketing activities (including
digital marketing)?
2) Impact in Human Resource Management
Climate changes

• Innovative technologies
• New materials for packaging
• Eco-produce
• New business models

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaPRWLsD2KE
Discrimination and sexual harassment
Harassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It
is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or
embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its
unlikelihood in terms of social and moral reasonableness. In the legal
sense, these are behaviors that appear to be disturbing, upsetting or
threatening. They evolve from discriminatory grounds, and have an
effect of nullifying or impairing a person from benefiting their rights.
When these behaviors become repetitive, they are defined as bullying.
What Is Mobbing at the Workplace?
• Sometimes known as “group bullying,” mobbing in the workplace
involves groups of people targeting a coworker for isolation,
humiliation, and aggression. The impact on mobbing targets, as well
as the business itself, can be serious. Small business owners should be
aware of the signs of mobbing and take steps to foster a healthy work
environment.
 For the next time find CSR
tendencies for 2023, summarize
and submit in writing, be ready
to discuss in the class. Will be
evaluated

Home tasks During the next lecture there will

be a seminar

Read chapters 1,2,3 from the

textbook (available on BATIS)