something different…

Units Offered by Dr Jem Bendell

Currently I can teach/facilitate 22 different units (1.5 or 2 hours each). The units can also be adapted for speeches. Scroll down to see a description of the unit.

1. Stakeholders, Partnerships and CSR: the contemporary debate
2. Stakeholder Relations and Voluntary Corporate Accountability
3. Complex Conflicts and Collaborations: The Case of the Banana Trade
4. Power in Stakeholder Relations: The case of codes and auditing
5. Stakeholder Accountability and Democracy
6. Stakeholder Negotiation Exercise I
7. Stakeholder Negotiation Exercise II
8. Stakeholders in Systemic Change: The Case of HIV/AIDS
9. Systems, Stakeholders and Self
10. Stakeholder Relations and Mandatory Corporate Accountability
11. International Governance and Corporate Responsibility
12. Responsibility and Sustainability of the Global Financial System
13. Beyond Business Ethics
14. Corporations in Development
15. Corporations and Globalisation: Pros and Cons
16. The History of Environmental Management
17. The History of Corporate Social Responsibility
18. The Future of CSR
19. International Trade Law and CSR
20. Strategy for Transforming Markets
21. Complexity, Chaos, Systems, and Organizational Learning
22. Transcending Leadership

Description of units

1. Stakeholders, Partnerships and CSR: the contemporary debate.
   Provides a recent history of the concepts of 'stakeholder' and 'partnership' and related practices, illustrating how they have become a key dimension of public policy, NGO work, and business strategy since developments in the early 1990s. Discusses the societal drivers for increasing importance of stakeholder relations, and the importance of stakeholder relations as driver of CSR, in terms of risk and innovation. Summarises the business case for managing stakeholder relations. Presents some of the arguments why corporate-stakeholder engagement can be regarded as beneficial for society in general, including social theories, as well as a theory of the quasi-regulatory role of modern stakeholder relations. Offers personal stories of the tutor's involvement in various partnerships. Outline of issues arising as these practices and ideas are mainstreamed.

2. Stakeholder Relations and Voluntary Corporate Accountability.
   Personal experiences of conflict or collaboration between organisations or stakeholders, or their experience of making decisions that affected lots of stakeholders. This frames discussion of popular arguments that stakeholder engagement, dialogue and partnership offer a means of generating organizational accountability, and thus addressing issues of trust and legitimacy in society, as well as creating other business benefits. Provides opportunity for reflection on meaning and forms of accountability. Describes the best practice of accountability through dialogue as established in the management standard AA1000. Offers critical review of what constitutes good dialogue, and the limitations of management standards in this regard. Highlights importance of intentions, and the limitations of current practices in relation to the ideal of communicative action and deliberative democracy.

3. Complex Conflicts and Collaborations: The Case of the Banana Trade.
   Provides an in depth look at one international trade that has produced much cross-sectoral and intra-sectoral conflict and collaboration, on social, economic and environmental issues. The history of conflict of banana exportation from Central America provides a backdrop to discussion of the efforts of one US NGO to improve the social and environmental aspects of banana production. The development of a certification system, and its contested successes, failures and paradoxes are described. The problems of conflict between different stakeholders are described, particularly between North and South, and NGOs and trade unions. Comparison with similar initiatives in forest and fishery sectors helps identify issues for the management of standards and certification related stakeholder engagements.

4. Power in Stakeholder Relations: The case of codes and auditing
   Provides an introduction to sociological theories of power in order to highlight how stakeholder relations relate to (non-)decision making on the allocation and control of resources. The importance of stakeholder relations in shaping discourse and hence agendas, policies, and ultimately practice, is highlighted. Structuralist and post-structuralist perceptions of power are described. These frames are applied in the context of the development and monitoring of codes of conduct on labour issues in the supply chains of Western companies, with a particular focus on Social Accountability International and the Ethical Trading Initiative. The political nature of standards development is highlighted, with reference to value chain governance and the privatization of regulation.

5. Stakeholder Accountability and Democracy
   Provides a review of recent critiques of CSR and stakeholder engagement, which suggest that these distract managers from their proper duties and empower undemocratic organizations. Outlines particular criticism of the accountability of stakeholders themselves, such as NGOs. Places this debate in the context of initiatives and research on NGO accountability, and the broader issue of the accountability of all powerful organizations in society. Questions assumptions that accountability is a good idea, and explores concepts of democratic accountability and stakeholder democracy.

6. Stakeholder Negotiation Exercise I
   The whole class participating in a stakeholder negotiation exercise, which is based on a real example from the oil industry in Ecuador. Up to seven stakeholder groups, depending on class size, are represented in a dialogue that aims at developing an agreement on the decisions the oil company should take. At the end of the session students are given updated materials and questions to investigate using the internet.

7. Stakeholder Negotiation Exercise II
   Continuing from the previous Unit, the latest real life situation in the case study is discussed, before the class attempts to identify a partner organisation for the company involved, the aims of a partnership, and a draft partnership agreement. This is followed by discussion of the issues that arise in managing partnerships, their potential and limits, and the relevance of current theories and tools.

8. Stakeholders in Systemic Change: The Case of HIV/AIDS
   Provides an introduction to the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration for addressing intractable social and environmental problems, with the example of HIV/AIDS. Role play highlights the dilemmas facing different stakeholder groups. Discussion of the importance yet limitations of current partnership initiatives, and the challenges of scaling up responses. The systemic causes of the scale and impact of HIV/AIDS are described to suggest a systemic not piecemeal approach, and thus the potential for a new era of partnership and CSR thinking, oriented towards systems change, and addressing issues such as finance and public governance.

9. Systems, Stakeholders and Self
   Provides an opportunity for reflection on current mainstream work on stakeholder relations, and the paradoxes of efficacy of different types of stakeholder relations for the participating organizations and wider society. Offers participants an opportunity to discuss why they might work on multistakeholder partnerships. Explores what the complexity and paradoxes imply for the importance and nature of personal values. Introduces 'systems thinking' as a way of looking at both oneself and the organisations one works in or relates to. Relates this to other philosophies of the self, organization, society, and the world, from various cultures. Involves students in a 'personal values exploration exercise', and a 'systems game'.

10. Stakeholder Relations and Mandatory Corporate Accountability
    Explores the criticisms of voluntary CSR, voluntary accountability, and well-managed stakeholder relations, from a perspective that questions the current extent of corporate power. Summarises a variety of campaigns that call for mandatory accountability, through national and international law. Reflects on the nature of the corporation, capital, private property, and the social relations enshrined in these concepts and systems. Open discussion of which parts of the private sector could engage with this, what the barriers to action are, and what the partnerships of the future may look like if there is action on this agenda.

11. International Governance and Corporate Responsibility
    Provides a review of the increasing promotion of multi-stakeholder dialogues and partnerships at the international and intergovernmental level, and the benefits, drawbacks and management challenges this new era of international cooperation presents. Describes cases of poverty reduction partnerships, including the rationale for corporate involvement and the problems this poses. Focuses on the United Nations relations with the private sector, including the Global Compact, and the positive and negative assessments of this. Provides insight into the dilemmas and potential from specific cases within the UN system. Contextualises this with information on the power of corporations in influencing intergovernmental policy making. Reflects on themes of power and democracy, and the importance of assessing stakeholder relations from a broader perspective.

12. Responsibility and Sustainability of the Global Financial System
    Provides an overview of the way the private financial services sector influences sustainable development worldwide. The limits of voluntary corporate responsibility are explained, and hence the important role of investors and shareholders. This sets the context for an analysis of current initiatives on corporate responsibility in the financial sector. Systems theory and rights theories are introduced to aid reflection on the role of capital and property rights in shaping the current context for corporate practice.

13. Beyond Business Ethics
    Reviews the current mainstream understanding of and approach to business ethics in management studies and in management practice, and critiques this in the context of new understandings about CSR, and the ability of business people to lead change, not only react to ethical dilemmas.

14. Corporations in Development
    Reviews the history of the corporation and the concept of international development, including the relationship of the two in a post-colonial context. Then outlines the recent emphasis on corporate involvement in international development projects, and accessing poorer consumers. Presents some case studies of serving bottom of the pyramid markets and critical analysis of the development paradigm these assume. Corporate involvement in the work of the UN and other agencies is also discussed.

15. Corporations and Globalisation: Pros and Cons
    Reviews conceptions of globalization and the relationship between corporations and the processes described. Then presents positive and negative analyses of these phenomena and the various different proposals and movements for change, and the challenge they pose for businesses and business people.

16. The History of Environmental Management
    Outlines a variety of ways of thinking about the natural environment and our relationship to it. The evolution of the term sustainable development is placed in this context. This provides a background to examining how companies have engaged in the environmental challenge during the past 10 years.

17. The History of Corporate Social Responsibility
    Presents an overview the last ten years of activity and debate on CSR, highlighting some of the learning and the paradoxes. Covers environmental issues, social development, human rights, reputation, supply chains, stakeholder relations, ethical investment.

18. The Future of CSR
    Presents an overview the last ten years of activity and debate on CSR, highlighting some of the learning and the paradoxes. This frames a group discussion of the challenges and ways forward. Then the tutors' own analysis of the unfolding agenda is presented.

19. International Trade Law and CSR
    Explores the implications of bilateral and multilateral trade law and trade negotiations for the relationship of business and society, including the impact of those trade laws on CSR initiatives and standards, with particular reference to social and environmental labeling. This is explored in the context of the tourism industry.

20. Strategy for Transforming Markets
    Reviews some of the mainstream theories on management strategy and how these relate to the challenge of transforming markets in order to incentivize responsible professional practice.

21. Complexity, Chaos, Systems, and Organizational
    Learning Introduces students to complexity, chaos and whole systems theories, and what they imply for processes of organizational learning for innovation. Provides examples of how organizations are embracing this.

22. Transcending Leadership
    Reviews a variety of understandings of and approaches to leadership, and highlights their limitations in enabling executives to lead the transformation of markets and societies. Introduces the concept of 'transcending leadership', which involves transcending narrow organizational roles, transcending a limited sense of self, and transcending the need for ones own leadership by enabling others to lead. Provides examples of such leaders in corporations and social enterprises.