Introduction to (Responsible) Business Course in Berlin

From January to March 2013, the Center for Responsible Management Education organized the course integrated General Management for the Master in Responsible Management of the Institute Corporate Responsibility Management at Steinbeis University Berlin. The course is an introduction to business and to its main functions for the interdisciplinary master students who often have non-business backgrounds. It was was lectured by Roger N. Conaway and Oliver Laasch, authors of the forthcoming textbook “Principles of Responsible Management” which will be published in fall 2013 by Cengage.

The book´s Chapters 6 (Strategic Management) to Chapter 15 (Financial Management) served as basis for the ten days of e-learning lecture. The lecture also included extensive self-directed online study and a business analysis project in which small groups of students were asked to apply concepts from the course to analyse the responsible business activities of a company based on its Global Reporting Initiative Report.

In a feedback session students stated that they found it surprising and exciting to learn, how deeply sustainability, responsibility, and ethics can be integrated into the main concepts and practices of all business functions such as accounting, human resources and operations. Some students who had not had an introduction to business course before, stated that the course had given them a solid initial toolbox for managing the main business functions, while highlighting the social, environmental and ethical aspects of these functions.