Sustainability as Strategy

The increasing demand for sustainability in business, as result of enhanced social, ethical and environmental responsibilities, has turned sustainability strategic to corporations. Sexty (2017) defines sustainability strategy as “a plan that views economic, ethical, social, and environmental responsibilities more intensively and integrates corporate social responsibility (CSR) into all facets of the corporation’s operations.” The integration of ethics into corporate strategy would fulfill the corporations’ responsibilities to the society and make an enduring trust level between the society and the corporations. The corruptions and unethical behaviors of some corporations demonstrate that ethics is not widely practiced in some organizations.

There are several reasons for unethical behaviours, but lack of knowledge and understanding could be the main one. The increasing focus on sustainability and the existence of corruptions and unethical behaviours all suggest the need for ethics educational programs at schools to uplift the public knowledge and to increase awareness about ethical behaviours merits.

Corporate code of ethics comprised of organization’s primary values and the ethical rules it expects the employees to follow and to adhere when they make decisions for the business. The ethics program in a corporation does not necessarily guarantee ethical behaviour. The leaders and employees training at school help to increase effectiveness of the corporation’s ethics program. In other words, corporations are stakeholders of business schools that teach ethics to the students.

Designing, implementing, controlling and monitoring of the corporate’s social responsibility (CSR) programs require a level of expertise to ensure effectiveness of the program. The strategic values of the CSR programs have increased the demand for knowledge-based socially responsible leadership programs at schools to advance ethics and responsibilities of a corporation.

Finally, the business schools paly a key role in developing sustainability and creating a long-term value for corporations by benchmarking the ethical business codes, boosting academic research and developing progressive training programs to meet the corporations’ and industries’ needs.

References:

Sexty, R. W. (2017). Canadian Business and Society Ethics, Responsibilities, & Sustainability. McGraw-Hill Ryerson.