The three areas of focus through the GRLI's collective and individual actions are the following. Under each of the themes, you find a list of ongoing and completed actions. - Reframing the Purpose of Management Education
- The Corporation of the 21st century (Reframing the Purpose of the Firm)
- Cultural change in organisations ♦ Reframing the Purpose of Management EducationThe project will engage institutions committed to review their missions and operations based on the perspective of a changed world order and enhanced responsibilities for businesses and their management. The research will include conceptual framing regarding the role of the business school, but will have a focus on the process of bringing about changed practice in the operations of the school. As far as the role is concerned we will discuss the necessity to enlarge the purpose of the school: not only training professional managers but also educating responsible leaders. Improving the change process involves identifying drivers and barriers of change, strategies to bring about change, key areas to be addressed in such a change process, - organizational values, faculty development, learning philosophy and methodology, curriculum issues, the role of students, clients and other stakeholders, governance, etc. The ultimate aim is to develop a pro-active discussion on the raison d’être of a Business School and an understanding of key issues in bringing about change in this context; and how to deal with these issues in a constructive and successful way. There are specific research projects currently being developed regarding different aspects of this theme. LINKS to "Reframing the Purpose of Management Education" Actions: ♦ The Corporation of the 21st Century (Reframing the Purpose of the Firm)The project will engage academics and corporate leaders to elaborate the new concepts necessary to build a new 'model' for the corporation of the 21st century. This will be based on a multi-disciplinary approach. Many companies are beginning to care about environment, human rights, transparency and dialogue with civil society. Many initiatives have been launched: UN Global Compact, Global responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI), World Business Council for Sustainable Development, CSR Europe, etc…. Are they sufficient and are they going far enough and fast enough to face 21st century challenges? The firm can play a decisive role in sustainable development, but that presupposes a much more profound transformation than most business leaders imagine. There can be no sustainable development unless the firm broadens its raison d’être and abandons the conventional wisdom, which has resulted in one- dimensional thinking and locked the firm into a logic of means rather than ends. The firm will only become responsible if it transform its culture by adopting new ethical values and engaging in political debate with the new players in the globalizing world. The required changes demand profound reflection and go well beyond a new coat for an old system. If the movement for social responsibility just sticks new labels onto old practices it will not be taken seriously; if it puts old wine into new bottles it will be reduced to a public relations operation. The movement will only be credible if it renews the concept of enterprise and reassesses its role in the construction of our shared future. This new vision for the corporation of the future will combine three major dimensons : - entrepreneurship for economic and societal project
- leadership and ethics for the future
- statemanship and societal debate
LINKS to "The Corporation of the Future" Actions: ♦ Cultural change in organisationsMany CEOs accept the necessity of enlarged societal responsibilities but they do not know how to implement them into their organization. How to transform their corporate culture in order to imbed those new responsibilities in concrete strategies, policies, practices and behaviour? The project will be based on action-research made by academics and practioners in existing organizations. It will study innovative change and systematically use various data banks of corporate 'best practices'. It will aim at better understanding the process of collective change. The objective is to help organizations to manage the subtile process of cultural change. The main ethical question for our time is to choose what kind of world we want to build together with the immense resources we master. This involves a dialogue with new actors and a large set of stakeholders in a globalizing world. By enhancing its responsibilities and developing its culture, the responsible company accepts a debate whenever its actions can have major societal and environmental consequences. New types of dialogue, which include new representatives of civil society, (such as NGOs, universities, religions) and international institutions, will be added to the old type of discussion with social partners and governments. A specific project on cultural change in a large organisation is being prepared with a corporate partner. LINKS to "Cultural change in organisations" in Actions: ♦ Emerging ThemesLINKS to "Emerging Themes" Actions: This is by no means an exhaustive list. We are constantly awake for new themes emerging from actions that GRLI partners are undertaking.
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