The course does not assume the student has any prior knowledge in corporate social responsibility.

At the end of the course, students should be able to: -Describe, classify, structure, and combine the concepts, theories and methods involved with Social Responsibility. -Identify relevant social and environmental issues within the firm and what - YOU as a future manager may face in business-. Be able to apply the concepts, theories, methods of the course to concrete cases and examples. -Analyze and synthesize concrete problems within current management theories and be able to make a constructive critic of them. Generally speaking, this course works to develop the reflexive capabilities of students, working to help develop students' 1) systems thinking 2) critical thinking and 3) ethical thinking.

Corporate Social Responsibility issues have come to the fore recently as a direct cause of problems associated with the financial and economic crisis. Financial arbitrage, toxic assets, management excessive bonus, golden parachutes and corruption populate our discussions as signs of malfunctions of the market and lack of corporate social responsibility. Some economists tend to justify these as moral hazard, but others argue that the overall significance of it is largely understated by the mere observation of managerial misbehavior, which forms the tip of the iceberg. The submerged part of the iceberg is the institutional response in terms of corporate governance and the consequences of economic liberalization and deregulation of industry and business in an increasing globalized world. At the same time, corporations are increasing facing public demand for new corporate ethos, a stricter compliance with both public and private/civil regulation and the assumption of responsibilities related to emerging social and environmental issues such climate change, labor exploitation, health security, etc. As a future manager you will be faced with questions such: -How do I deal with conflicts of interests? -What mechanism of corporate control can I use to ensure ethical behavior in shareholders and management? -Is my business model ready to deal with social issues (such obesity, diabetes 2, HIV-AIDS) that will affect many of my employees and customers? -What is my responsibility in the problem? We will explore how corporate governance based on social responsibilities is becoming both a condition for business survival and a potential competitive advantage. Our course will include the explanation and de-construction of some of the current strategic management theories (such as principal-agent theory and concepts such moral hazard) together with some theories central to the new political view of business in society that we are proposing such business ethics, stakeholder view of the firm, theory of social contract, etc. This is primarily a discussion based course, where ¿real life¿ case studies are posed to students on complex topics in which students engage first hand in the discussion and debate that they will undoubtedly face as future managers in business. In this course we are exploring questions mainly through cases and discussion. Therefore your active participation and engagement throughout this course is necessary. We do expect a lively debate in the classroom and learning by confrontation. Course Content 1. The changing conditions of globalization and the role of the corporation in society 2. Management theories and business practices: stakeholder versus shareholder theories 3. Corporate governance challenges 4. Global governance and the global-local role of the corporation 5. Challenging business systems: the role of civil society 6. Communicating business social challenges 7. Strategic challenges and the role of responsible leaders

This is primarily a discussion-based course. Real life case studies are posed to students on complex topics in which students engage first hand in the discussion and debate that they will undoubtedly face as future managers in business. Class time will include lectures and discussions, in which participants will explore theoretical perspectives and apply them to specific case studies. This is a reading- and discussion-intensive course, and we expect students to show up for class prepared to discuss and analyze the assigned materials. Most of the material will be the students¿ responsibility to collect it in the library, library databases or the internet. Some of the material will be uploaded in Aula Global (AG).