3.
It is very important, given the fact that any of these subjects has gradually became critical in our society and it is our mission to provide our students with broad skills in these matters, preparing them to a new reality where concepts such as transparency and accountability become increasingly important. Simultaneously, and against the prevailing mentality of most Portuguese university students, whose future perspective is to become an employee, we have been developing, for several years, entrepreneurship activities in teaching, researching and tutoring. The best known example was probably the organization of the contest “Audax – Negócios à prova” at the Portuguese TV channel RTP2.
4.
It could have had a certain impact, but I truly doubt the effectiveness of these initiatives. We need only to consider that this crisis started in the USA, where business ethics began to be taught in most business schools decades ago, to easily understand that is not enough to promote values, unless we intensify the supervision and control mechanisms.
5.
There is clearly a rising interest of ISCTE teachers in addressing these subjects, through the development of new contents where Ethics and Social Responsibility are key elements, or through research projects on these issues. As to students, it is interesting to notice that in the last 3/4 years there has been a significant increase of papers and thesis on these matters and this trend is taking place in the three cycles (Licentiate, Master and Doctor Degree).
6.
Universities play a key role in the promotion of Sustainable Development. For that reason, while training tomorrow’s leaders it is crucial that they become aware and understand the increasing importance of Sustainability and Social Responsibility to the long-lasting survival of institutions and general society.
Instituto Superior Técnico ( IST )
1./6.
My academic link to Sustainability issues is accomplished through my activities as a teacher and as a researcher. As a teacher, Sustainability is objectively linked to all the subjects under my responsibility, in particular Environmental and Sustainability Challenges in Engineering (Master in Civil Engineering), Strategic Environmental Assessment (Master in Environmental Engineering and Master in Territorial Engineering), Strategic Environmental Assessment (PhD) and Seminars about Innovation and Sustainable Development at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), in this case a 2nd cycle optional subject, opened to all engineering courses at the IST, which in 2008-09 had more than 70 students from different IST courses. In my opinion teaching sustainability is of major importance. It is inconceivable to currently develop any research or teaching without mentioning or fully including the subject of sustainability. Ethics and Entrepreneurship are equally important, the first one as a set of principles, and the second in a more empirical and operability perspective. The research I have been developing is diverse and has multiple interfaces with sustainability, since it is inevitable to include sustainability as a development paradigm or as a subject of analysis and assessment. The research carried out by the team I coordinate focuses on issues related to setting up sustainability objectives and goals, for example through the development of sustainability strategies, to the strategic assessment of sustainability policies and plans, to sustainability measurement through the establishment and assessment of sustainability indicators, in sectors such as tourism, urban development, land use planning and energy. As regards Social Responsibility and Ethics, my team has been carrying out research in the domain of business strategies and practices, in particular in the sector of tourism operators. I do not know if the current crisis could have been avoided, but the teaching of ethics and transparency as paradigmatic values of teaching would probably have some effect. The current crisis is the result of a crisis of values and respect for others. If ethics and transparency had been more strongly promoted by universities, maybe the situation would not have reached the point of rupture it did. It was already common-place to say that “it was going to pop somewhere”, that “it could no longer continue like that”. But, as Zapatero declared this week in Madrid, the crisis has not reached rock bottom! It will become bigger and worst, on one hand due to the high speed of
ongoing “environmental and social violation” processes that are unable to stop suddenly (like a plane or TGV that need at least half an hour to reduce height or speed) but also due to the much-needed social and economic reforms to reestablish an order that is different than the previous one, based on ethics and transparency values, among other fundamental values to society. However, it seems to me that the Bush administration in the USA and its global weight has probably more influence than universities! Somehow, universities have always contributed to the ethics and transparency culture, and several years ago have intensified that contribution through environmental dynamics and also through social ethics issues. There is a growing interest of teachers and students on these issues, more by novelty than conviction, although it is evident the growing number of students, more than the number of teachers, which genuinely is concerned about ethics and sustainability issues. Universities are the school, and as the old saying goes “Best to bend while it is a twig!”. The current openness of students, their interest and concern regarding the construction of a fairer society, corollary of ethics, transparency and sustainability issues, is a growing capital that must be used and multiplied.
Rute Abreu
Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão de Leiria ( ESTG )
1.
Besides their use in Accounting and other Management domains, those matters are transversal. In fact, the “traditional” decisionmaking processes are demonstrating all their incongruities and paradoxes, since it were factors inherent to the accomplishment of sustainability principles, social responsibility and ethics that have led to the (un)balances in Society. The preventive action to combat fraud and corruption, the support to the implementation of decision-making processes based in sustainable development pillars and the permanent control and evaluation of procedures are the measures to be followed in a near future and which are important to pass on to the academia.
2.
The carried out research focuses on social responsibility applied to the practices of certain segments of activity. This research has been carried out through the Social Responsibility Research Network (SSRNet), of which I am a member since its formation in 2003. The
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Maria Rosário Partidário
Social Responsibility to business activity. These researches are made possible through the membership of ISCTE, through IBS (ISCTE Business School), in the European Academy of Business in Society.
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