Paola Hernandez plans to go into corporate communications, so when she received an email last summer about a new seminar on corporate social responsibility; she immediately registered for the class.
“I was attracted to it, because I knew social responsibility was an important topic in the business world,” Hernandez said. “I felt like this would be a great opportunity for me to learn something that would help me in my future career.”
Corporate Social Responsibility, also known as CSR, is one of the most talked about and debated topics in business today. But Hernandez, a communications major, isn’t taking this seminar one of Rutgers’ business schools. The seminar is offered through the Masters of Communication and Information Studies (MCIS) at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS).
The class isn’t filled with business majors, but students like Hernandez, who will be future business leaders in the communication, information, and media professions. The SCILS’ MCIS is one of the only communication programs in the country that offers a course on CSR – the commitment by business to understand their impact on social and environmental issues, and behave ethically towards their employees, the environment, and society.
Mark Aakhus and Michael Bzdak knew they were venturing into uncharted territory when they decided to launch the course in fall 2006. Aakhus said the decision to bring a seminar on CSR to SCILS was an easy one to make. “We had already established a graduate CSR fellowship with Johnson and Johnson in Brussels but realized that most SCILS undergraduate and master’s students go into the business world, whether it is the profit or nonprofit sector,” said Aakhus. “One way or another they will be working in business and need to understand the role of business in society.”
There was also a need to focus on the communication aspect of CSR. “We knew that communication professionals could have a huge impact on CSR because they create the reports, shape internal communication, and bridge the gap between business and society,” said Aakhus, an associate professor of communication at SCILS and the director of the Communication and Interaction Laboratory. “And yet no one was paying attention to the role that communication could have on bringing CSR to a new level.”
Since many of the students aren’t familiar with business issues, the course covers the history of CSR and examines some of the CSR practices of multinational companies like Microsoft and Wal-Mart. Students look at what companies are doing and evaluate the effectiveness of their CSR strategies. For example, the class discussed the merit of cause-related marketing campaigns, such as Gap’s (Product) REDTM. Gap donates a percentage of the profits generated by the (Product)REDTM clothing line to help fight AIDS/HIV in Africa.
Bzdak, the director of corporate contributions for Johnson & Johnson and an art history instructor at Rutgers, offers real-world insight as an expert in CSR. “I like that we have someone who actually deals with CSR on a day to day basis,” said Hernandez. “Sometimes things sound like good solutions, but in reality they wouldn’t work in the corporate world. He’ll come right out and tell us if we are being too utopian, and I love that honesty.”
Both Bzdak and Aakhus hope that once the course ends, their students will walk away with a better understanding of the role they can play in a bettering society. “We want them to find their own innovative solutions to all the challenges we discuss,” Aakhus said . “They could have a profound effect on how businesses do business in the future.”
The course looks at three different aspects of CSR: reporting, CSR cultures, and integrating the triple bottom line (profit, environment, and society). In order to give students a better understanding of each aspect, guest lecturers are brought in to discuss issues like sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and environmental risk. The goal of the speaker series is to introduce communication students to relevant issues outside their academic area that they can then address. Noticeably absent from the list of distinguished speakers, are communications professionals.
One of the guest lecturers, who spoke this semester, was Paul Epstein, the associate director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and Global Environment. Epstein, one of Al Gore’s advisers on his film “An Inconvenient Truth,” spoke about the effects of global warming on public health. Another speaker, Les Silverman, director emeritus of McKinsey & Company, talked about the different cultures among business and nonprofit leaders. “The speaker series is a vital part of the class,” Bzdak said. “Our speakers give advice to presidential candidates, Fortune 500 CEOs, and world leaders. Luckily our students have the opportunity to learn from them as well.”
In addition to the speaker series, the class participates in an online CSR simulation. Students interview stakeholders, create a CSR plan, and implement their strategy. At the end, the simulation program tells them if they were successful and critiques their performance. “One of the biggest challenges was getting every stakeholder to buy-in to our CSR plan,” Hernandez said. "If my group gave the United Way more money, we would lose support with the other charity that was competing with the United Way for funds. Deciding what causes to donate to and what policies to create is not as easy as it looks.”
Despite the challenges, Hernandez believes this class will give her an edge in the corporate world. “I feel like I can be a voice for social responsibility in any organization I am hired into,” Hernandez said. “It feels good knowing that in my own way, doing my job, I might be able change the world.”
To learn more about the course or about CSR, go to communicatingcsr.rutgers.edu.