Organizational Studies 160: Corporate Social Responsibility
Spring Semester, 2017

Meeting Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:15 pm		Room: Fletcher Hall, Room 106
Professor: Jeff Lewis	Office: Fletcher 214 Phone: 607-3069
E-Mail: jeff_lewis@pitzer.edu	Web page: http://www.pitzer.edu/~jlewis
Office hours: Tuesdays at 2:45 pm and Thursdays at 10 am, and by appointment
Texts: 1. Chandler, David (2017). Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation (4^th edition). Los Angeles: Sage Publishing. 2. Additional weekly readings available on Sakai.

Goals of the Course (from Sage Publications sample syllabus)

This course seeks to understand the goals and purpose of the for-profit firm. In particular, we will explore how the firm creates value, broadly defined, by investigating the concept of strategic corporate social responsibility (strategic CSR). Strategic CSR draws on what we know about economic exchange and human psychology to explain how markets work (or don't) and how value is added (or subtracted) across the range of the firm's stakeholders. Understanding these processes allows managers to build a strategic competitive advantage for the firm. Thus, strategic CSR is at the center of business success in the 21st century.

The main objective of this course is to introduce and understand the concept of strategic corporate social responsibility (strategic CSR). Strategic CSR is related to, but is fundamentally different from, concepts such as sustainability and business ethics. While sustainability focuses on resource utilization and ecological preservation, and business ethics seeks to construct normative prescriptions of right and wrong, strategic CSR is a comprehensive, pragmatic philosophy grounded in the day-to-day operations of the firm. As such, strategic CSR is central to the firm’s value-creating activities.

That is, in a dynamic environment that is defined by the actions and decisions of the firm’s broad set of stakeholders, value is optimized when stakeholders convey and enforce their evolving needs while the firm responds to those needs. Thus, these economic and social exchanges are essentially interactions formed around the collective set of values prevalent in society at any given point in time. These values determine the decisions we all make and, as a direct result, the success or failure of for-profit firms.

Strategic CSR draws on what we know about economic exchange and human psychology to explain how markets work and how value is created. Understanding these processes allows managers to build a strategic competitive advantage for the firm. In short, understanding, adopting, and implementing strategic CSR is the source of sustainable value creation in today’s business environment.

This course and the Organizational Studies major as a whole are also aligned with the college’s educational objectives. In this course it is hoped that students’ work will exemplify critical thinking, effective expression, interdisciplinary appreciation, intercultural understanding, and ethical evaluations.

In addition, this course is designed to help students achieve the following objectives:

· Define and understand the basic characteristics and dynamics of the organizational context

· Introduce how organizations can be understood from a psychological, economic, and sociological perspective

· Identify appropriate conclusions drawn from research results

· Understand the main topic areas and disciplinary training that contribute to Organizational Studies

Expectations

Your active participation in this course will enhance not only your learning but also the experience we co-create in this class. You are expected to prepare fully prior to the class, reading the assigned material before the class sessions and coming prepared with questions that you want answered. The major assignments in this course allow for extended preparation, and working with your fellow students as you absorb the material is encouraged. Good cooperation and conscientiousness when engaged in collaborative work is crucial and should be characteristic of all team projects in this course. Individual papers and assignments are exclusively your own product, however, and it is expected that works collected from you to meet these course requirements will be of your own creation. You are required to adhere to the College’s Code of Student Conduct, which upholds academic integrity and prohibits academic dishonesty, including those forms of academic dishonesty that are listed in the Pitzer College 2011-12 Student Handbook.

Class-related communications (e-mail messages, announcements, and assignments) will be distributed through the course Sakai page, and it is your responsibility to stay informed and up to date via that channel. Be sure to monitor the email account associated with that page.

Course Requirements

Presentations (30%) Taking off from the topics and readings assigned for the class, you will be asked to pair up with a fellow student and lead class discussion for one day during the semester. You will need to find two additional research articles, distribute them to the class via our Sakai page (at least one week ahead of time), and then design the class session that will extend the material and further our learning of the topic. Any activities you develop should connect with what you feel are key aspects of the topic under discussion, and center on issues relevant to our class experience and related perspectives.

Research Paper (40%) - For the final assignment, you will be asked to prepare a short analysis of an organization of your choice, reviewing their CSR policies and challenges they face. You can select either an organization you experienced or one that you research through published sources, but your selection should allow for a vivid and thought-provoking extension of the class material. The paper should highlight a significant issue confronting the organization, connect to ideas and findings from class readings, evaluate potential directions and take into account the views of relevant stakeholders. Further details of this assignment will be provided later in the class.

Class participation (30%) – Each week you are expected to contribute your thoughts and analysis of the readings and to complete any weekly assignment. While the activities will vary from week to week, it is important to interact, connect to the material, and to support your fellow classmates as we construct our learning environment.

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

Week and Topical Focus						Readings and assignments
January 17^th & 19^th What Is CSR?						Chandler – Ch. 1; Freidman (1970); Scherer and Palazzo (2007); Ghorbadian et al (2015)
January 24^th & 26^th The Driving Forces of CSR						Chandler – Ch. 2; Du, Bhattacharya and Sen (2010),;Porter & Kramer (2011)
Jan. 31^st & Feb. 2^nd		Corporate Rights and Responsibilities				Chandler – Ch. 3; Orlitzky (2015); Culture of Secrecy - http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/30528-Is-There-a-Culture-of-Secrecy-Behind-Corporate-Responsibility-
February 7^th & 9^th		Stakeholder Theory				Chandler – Ch. 4; Greenwood (2007)
February 14^th & 16^th	Self-Justification					Chandler – Ch. 5
February 21^st & 23^rd	Interpersonal Relations					Chandler – Ch. 6
Feb. 28^th & March 2^nd What are organizations?						Chandler – Ch. 7
March 7^th & 9^th Management and Culture Chandler – Ch. 8
Research Paper Topic Proposals Due in Dropbox by March 10^th
Spring Break –March 13^th through March 17^th (no class on March 14^th & 16^th)
March 21^st & 23^rd			Dysfunction and the larger environment		Chandler – Ch. 9
March 28^th & 30^th			Non-Profits and Social Change		Chandler – Ch. 10
April 4^th & 6^th			Organizations in Society				Chandler – Ch. 11
April 11^th & 13^th			Structure and Innovation			Chandler – Ch. 12
April 18^th & 20^th				Management and Compensation				Chandler – Ch. 13
April 25^th & 27^th			Culture and Change				Chandler – Ch. 14
May 2^nd Conclusion and Review Chandler – Ch. 15
Research Paper Due in Dropbox by May 2^nd