M: Business 3rd Edition by O. C. Ferrell, Geoffrey Hirt, Linda Ferrell

Exercise 3

With corporate social responsibility becoming a hot topic in the business world, companies are looking for talented individuals to create a positive impact on society. As this focus has grown, corporations have begun working with universities to incorporate social responsibility and sustainability into curriculum as a way to train potential employees before they leave campus. Some, such as Campbell Soup Co., are partnering with universities to offer students real-world projects involving these issues. Others, such as Dow Chemical Co. and Intel Corp., are sending their social responsibility and sustainability experts to lecture on university campuses. These experiences offer students perspectives that go beyond academic theory, focusing instead on real-world situations. This involvement has the potential to change organizational cultures by changing values about social responsibility.

Taking this movement one step further, IBM and Columbia University have joined forces through Smarter Students for a Smarter Planet, an initiative aimed at training students to one day enter positions within the green sector. IBM will donate the technology needed to train such students. Graduate students will have opportunities to work side-by-side with IBM researchers and other professionals in their chosen fields. With the green tech industry growing, corporate responsibility as a whole is generating new opportunities for business majors.

Despite these partnerships, specialization in social responsibility and sustainability is rarely featured in many traditional recruiting interviews, causing some to question the point of such educational initiatives. On the other hand, some of the world’s most ethical and socially responsible companies are the most profitable. Training individuals to think and act more responsibly will likely yield positive results in corporate America. Many students involved in these programs are looking to utilize what they learn to make business, and the world, a better place.

How do real-world social responsibility projects help students prepare for their business careers?

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The real world social responsibility project based learning will focus on the relevance of efforts put by students. It will compliment and connect two significant trends in education system; one is the use of external social standards in their academic curriculum and organization and another one is creation of social community – the real world social responsibility projects will provide the students with an opportunity to immerse themselves in the social world of work and learning.