Over the last few years, doing business increasingly has been implying dealing with multiple, competing, and conflicting stakeholder demands. The global business environment intensifies this challenge as it contains wider-ranging stakeholder diversity, increased ambiguity surrounding decision making, and more complex, multifaceted issues compared to domestic business contexts. Therefore, effectively responding to the demands of a ‘global stakeholder society’ requires solid leadership competencies which are trained in this seminar. A central aspect is to understand why businesses that operate globally are increasingly held accountable for their impacts beyond the immediate economic sphere and creating shareholder value, and in addition are expected by a range of various stakeholders to take responsibility for their wider societal and environmental influences.

By experiencing global stakeholder management within the specific context of corporate responsibility (CR) in simulated business environments, through various interactive components, practical examples, and corporate as well as institutional perspectives students will

• understand stakeholder theory with its various sides and respective implications for managerial practice;
• learn about global stakeholder management within the particular context of CR;
• learn how to analyze global business systems and environments in view of their various stakeholders;
• get to know tools and techniques which help analyze global stakeholder networks serving as basis for CR strategy development;
• understand the importance of context and that ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions are unlikely to succeed;
• train their analytical, reflective, holistic, and creative thinking;
• experience both the challenges of global CR and stakeholder management as well as the attendant positive effects which sound managerial approaches and strategies can provide.

The course integrates a variety of didactical approaches and techniques including theory lectures, plenary and group discussions, gaming and simulations, group exercises and projects, as well as presentations by corporate partner representatives. The purpose of this diversity is to allow for different perspectives on the seminar contents, aiming to stimulate critical and reflective thinking. A considerable amount of the learning will be generated through students’ sharing of opinions, own thinking, and ideas. Also, several of the course activities aim to put students into the manager’s seat letting them experience the challenges of global stakeholder management and CR as well as the merits and benefits of good approaches, strategies, and sound managerial responses. In order to ensure good foundations of basic concepts, students are encouraged to prepare the key readings prior to the seminar. An exam upon the start of the seminar covers all key readings in the form of essay questions. Good preparation for the seminar will also safeguard active class participation and high-quality contributions from students which are essential components of the seminar, as these will considerably shape the individual and joint learning outcomes.

Students are assessed on

• their abilities to capture the relevance and importance of global stakeholder management and CR;
• their abilities to understand and deal with context dependencies in view of strategy development and managerial actions;
• their in-class contributions in the form of sharing of opinions, examples, experiences, and thoughts;
• the quality of their group work and presentations in the form of analytical rigor, clarity, persuasiveness, reflectiveness, and creativity.

The final grade is based on:

Individual assessment

• written exam upon the start of the seminar - 30%
• participation and active involvement in class - 20%
• peer evaluation - 15%

Group assessment

• company analysis and presentation - 20%
• group reflection on key learning points - 15%

The following evaluation scheme is applied:

• 1 – very good (A), > 90%
• 2 – good (B), 89% – 80%
• 3 – satisfactory (C), 79% – 70%
• 4 – sufficient (D), 69% – 60%
• 5 – not sufficient/failed (E), 59% and below

In order to ensure good foundations of basic concepts, students are encouraged to prepare the key readings for the seminar. These will be provided sufficiently before the start of the block seminar together with questions for each reading. The exam questions will be similar to these questions.

Before the start of the block seminar students can inquire about questions on the readings or other academic aspects via email, during office hours, or after appointment. During the block seminar availability for students will be flexible.