Principles for Responsible Management Education Launch

News

Launch of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).

5 July 2007

The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), the first global guiding framework for academic institutions to advance the broader cause of corporate social responsibility, was launched at the 2007 Global Compact Leaders Summit, held on 5-6 July at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The launch took place as part of a luncheon on 5 July, which was attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as hundreds of leaders representing business, civil society, government, and academia from around the world.

The Principles of Responsible Management Education, calling for incorporating universal values in curricula and research, have been developed by an international task force of sixty deans, university presidents and official representatives of leading business schools. The initiative has been co-convened by:

the United Nations Global Compact
the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International)
the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD)
the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program
the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI)
and Net Impact.

The academic delegation to present the Principles for Responsible Management Education included:

Manuel Escudero, Head Networks and Academic Initiatives, UN Global Compact Office
John Fernandes, President and CEO, AACSB International
Gerard van Schaik, President, EFMD
Peter Lacy, Executive Director, European Academy for Business in Society
Anders Aspling, Secretary General, Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative and Dean, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Belgium
Angel Cabrera, Chairman PRME task force and President, Thunderbird School of Global Management, USA
Labib Khadra, President, German-Jordanian University, Jordan
Bernardo Barona Zaluga, Dean, Universidad Javeriana Sede Cali, Colombia
David Saunders, Dean, Queen's School of Business, Canada

as well as representatives of ESADE Business School, Spain; XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Management and Human Resources, India, and CEIBS – the China Europe International Business School, China.

The Global Compact Leaders Summit brought together hundreds of top executives from business, governments, civil society and labour. Through peer-to-peer interactions with top decision makers from all segments of the international community, business leaders had the opportunity to access never-before released intelligence on socio-economic and geopolitical megatrends while developing strategic frameworks to address a range of issues at the nexus of business and society – including climate change, human rights, anti-corruption, and access to finance and capital.

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The full text of the PRME can be seen here as a pdf. For further information go to the UN Global Compact website.

In Summary:

The Principles for Repsonsible Management Education

" As institutions of higher learning involved in the education of current and future managers
we are voluntarily committed to engaging in a continuous process of improvement of the following Principles and their application, reporting on progress to all our stakeholders and exchanging effective practices with other academic institutions:

Principle 1

Purpose: We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable
value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy.

Principle 2

Values: We will incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.

Principle 3

Method: We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.

Principle 4

Research: We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value.

Principle 5

Partnership: We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges.

Principle 6

Dialogue: We will facilitate and support dialogue and debate among educators, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organizations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability.

We understand that our own organizational practices should serve as example of the values and attitudes we convey to our students."

The Task Force included:

Ángel Cabrera, President, Thunderbird School of Global Management, USA (Chairman of the Task force)
Salem Al-Agtash, Dean, School of Informatics & Computing Technology, Talal Abu Ghazaleh College of Business, German-Jordanian University, Jordan
Mirza Raza Ali, Director, Newports Institute of Communications and Economics, Pakistan
Jim Austin, Snider Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, Harvard Business School, USA
Jaime Alonso Gomez, Dean, EGADE, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
Walter Baets, Associate Dean for Research, MBA Director, Euromed Marseille - Ecole de Management, France
Rolph Balgobin, Executive Director, Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Bernardo Barona Zuluaga, Dean, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad Javeriana Sede Cali, Colombia
Frank Brown, Dean, INSEAD, France
Rolf D. Cremer, Dean and Vice President, CEIBS – China Europe International Business School, China
David Cooperrider, Chairman, Center for Business as Agent of World Benefit, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, USA
Norman De Paula Arruda Filho, General Director, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Advanced Institute of Administration and Economics, Brazil
Thomas W. Dunfee, Chairperson, Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department, Wharton School, USA
Joan Fontrodona, Academic Director, Center for Business in Society, IESE Business School – University of Navarra, Spain
Miguel Angel Gardetti, Director, Instituto de Estudios para la Sustentabilidad Corporativa, Argentina
Ernesto Garilao, Executive Director, Mirant Center for Bridging Societal Divides, Asian Institute of Management, Phillipines
Joaquín Garralda Ruiz de Velasco, Associate Dean, MBA, Instituto de Empresa, Spain
Matthew Gitsham, Principal Researcher, Ashridge Centre for Business and Society, Ashridge Business School, United Kingdom
Roberto Gutiérrez, Associate Professor, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, and Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN) Coordinator
Jean Pierre Helfer, Dean, Audencia, France
Ira A. Jackson , Dean, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, USA
Tarun Khanna, Harvard Business School, USA
Ildiko Kostyak, Non-Corporate Relations Manager, AIESEC
Peter Lacy, Executive Director, European Academy of Business in Society
Gilbert Lenssen, President, European Academy of Business in Society
Kellie McElhaney, Executive Director, Haas School of Business, USA
Malcolm McIntosh, Director, Futures Institute, Applied Research Centre in Human Security (ARCHS), Coventry University, United Kingdom
Alan Murray, Chair Special interest Group in CSR, British Academy of Management, UK
Ceri Oliver-Evans, Director, The Southern Africa-United States Centre for Leadership and Public Values, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Joel Podolny, Dean, Yale School of Management, USA
Danica Purg, Dean, IEDC-Bled School of Management, Slovenia
Yingyi Qian, Dean, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, China
Casimir Raj, Director, School of Management and Human Resources, XLRI Jamshedpur, India
David Saunders, Dean, Queen’s School of Business, Canada
Richard Schmalensee, Dean, MIT Sloan School of Management, USA
Greg Unruh, Director, Lincoln Center for Ethics in Global Management, Thunderbird School of Global Management, USA
Ruben Vardanian, President, Moscow School of Management-Skolkovo, Russia
James P. Walsh, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, USA
Patricia Werhane, Director, Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, DePaul University, USA
Wayah S. Wiroto, Vice Rector for Collaboration and Marketing, Bina Nusantara University, Indonesia
Weiying Zhang, Dean, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, China
Semra Feriha Ascigil, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
Claudio Boechat, Fundacao Dom Cabral, Brazil
Dilek Cetindamar, Faculty of Management, Sabanci University, Turkey
Young-Chul Chang, Department of Management, Kyunghee University, South Korea
Marco Frey, SDA Bocconi, Italy
Rajeev Gowda, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India
Josep M. Lozano, Institute for Social Innovation, ESADE Business School, Spain
Joshua Margolis, Harvard Business School, USA
Atle Midttun, Norwegian School of Management, Norway
Ingo Pies, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Jenik Radon, Columbia University, USA
Lothar Rieth, Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany
Violeta Schubert, University of Melbourne, SAGES, Australia
Eugene Tan, Singapore Management University, Singapore
Mitsuhiro Umezu, Keio University, Japan
Sandra Waddock, Boston College, USA

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What is the Global Compact?

Launched at UN Headquarters in New York in July 2000, Global Compact is an international initiative to bring companies together with UN agencies, labour and civil society to support universal environmental and social principles.

Thousands of companies from all regions of the world, international labour and civil society organizations are engaged in the Global Compact, working to advance the ten universal principles across five areas:

Human Rights

Principle 1:Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour Standards

Principle3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and

Principle 6 : the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies

Anti-Corruption

Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

The Global Compact is a network. At its core are the Global Compact Office and six UN agencies:

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Environment Programme
International Labour Organisation
United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Industrial Development Organisation
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The Global Compact is not a regulatory instrument – it does not “ police”, enforce or measure the behavior or actions of companies. Rather, the Global Compact relies on public accountability, transparency and the enlightened self-interest of companies, labour and civil society to initiate and share substantive action in pursuing the principles upon which the Global Compact is based.