ssteinhagen Submitted by
Susan Steinhagen

Are Gen-Y grads heading toward CSR?

3. March 2010 08:37

Sarah Barrell’s article in The Independent about a growing breed of MBA graduates who are looking to do well by doing good provoked me to write this post on the current crop of students that seem to be attracted to CSR.

 

An increasing number of students are showing interest and involvement in corporate social responsibility, not just in terms of additional academic credits but also in terms of active engagement in CSR/sustainability forums as well as in development projects. One such example is Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFWH), which represents a campus best practice in international programming and sustainable human development. 

 

Having been a part of in the CSR/sustainability arena for the past 4 years within the United Nations, and now at Nestlé, it is very gratifying to see the rapid increase in the number of students focusing on CSR. But is this just a passing trend, or is CSR truly becoming a movement within Gen-Y? Your thoughts welcome!

 

For students out there who are considering CSR/sustainability as a career option, one great resource to be a part of is Net Impact, an international NGO that uses its 7000+ members consisting of students and professionals to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world through businesses.

 

 

Comments

3/7/2010 10:29:59 AM #

I was at the IESE Doing Good Doing Well conference in Barcelona last week, and I'm convinced that the interest in socially responsible business will only increase over the next few years. Interestingly, it seems to be a 2-way movement in that many non-profit organizations repeatedly said they were looking to recruit MBAs as they recognize the need to professionalize the sector. I think, however, that to ensure the long term success of this movement one of the things we must do is resolve the issues around measuring the impact of CSR-related activities.
Lastly, see below for an interesting article from the FT which argues a completely different point of view, ie that MBAs are unprepared for a morally complex future (By Thomas N.Gladwin and David Berdish):
discussions.ft.com/.../mbas-are-unprepared-for-a-morally-complex-future

Jo Hazelwood | Reply

3/12/2010 11:37:18 AM #

I absolutely agree, Jo.

An oft-repeated MBA adage comes to mind - "you cannot manage what you cannot measure". And the best way, in my opinion, to measure the impact of CSR activities within a company is to integrate it within the company's business model and daily operations.

Susan Steinhagen | Reply

3/14/2010 1:24:39 PM #

Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?

Career Advice | Reply

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