An Interactive Method for Teaching Business Ethics, Stakeholder Management and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

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An Interactive Method for Teaching Business Ethics, Stakeholder Management and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

Roskilde University, Denmark

Volume 12: 2015 Special Issue, pp. 93-106: ABSTRACT

This paper presents a theoretical and practical approach to teaching business ethics, stakeholder management and CSR within the framework of the thematic seminar on business ethics and corporate social responsibility at Roskilde University. Within our programs in English of business studies and Economics and Business Administration the author of this article is responsible for this seminar that integrates issues of CSR and the ethics of innovation into the teaching of corporate social responsibility, stakeholder management and business ethics. This research oriented seminar provides a unique possibility for teaching CSR with an integration of methodological, theoretical and practical dimensions of business ethics (Rendtorff 2009). The idea is that the thematic seminar represents a tutor supported frame for extended studies of business ethics, stakeholder management and the social aspects of business and entrepreneurship. Each student shall present a paper on the basis of a collection of articles on the topic of ethics and social dimension of business. Moreover, it is required that the student is discussant of two other papers during the course. In addition, students shall prepare interactive participation in discussion of each paper. The sessions begin with a short introduction to the topic by the professor, then student presentations, after this discussant remarks, and finally general discussion followed by an evaluative assessment by the professor. During the seminar the student shall present both theory and case discussion so that we find a close interaction between theory and practice in the presentation. In the following, the paper elaborates on this development, in particular in the relation between theory presentation and case studies.