BUSINESS ETHICS

AND SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
 UNIT IV:
Business Beyond Profit
Motivation
 LESSON 14
Principles for Responsible
Management
Education (PRME)
 Lesson Objectives
• To define UN PRME
• To know the principles for responsible
management education (PRME)
• To understand the opportunities and challenges
that PRME faces
 Principles for Responsible
Management Education (PRME)
PRME is a UN Global Compact sponsored
initiative with the mission to inspire and champion
responsible management education, research,
and thought leadership globally.
Under the coordination of the UN Global Compact and
leading academic institutions, the PRME task force
developed a set of six principles which lay the
foundation for the global platform for responsible
management education.
 PRME Principles
• Principle 1 | Purpose: We will develop the
capabilities of students to be future generators
of sustainable value for business and society
at large and to work for an inclusive and
sustainable global economy.
• Principle 2 | Values: We will incorporate into
our academic activities and curricula the
values of global social responsibility as
portrayed in international initiatives such as
the United Nations Global Compact.
• Principle 3 | Method: We will create
educational frameworks, materials, processes
and environments that enable effective
learning experiences for responsible
leadership.
• Principle 4 | Research: We will engage in
conceptual and empirical research that
advances our understanding about the role,
dynamics, and impact of corporations in the
creation of sustainable social, environmental
and economic value.
• Principle 5 | Partnership: We will interact
with managers of business corporations to
extend our knowledge of their challenges in
meeting social and environmental
responsibilities and to explore jointly effective
approaches to meeting these challenges.
• Principle 6 | Dialogue: We will facilitate and
support dialog and debate among educators,
students, business, government, consumers,
media, civil society organizations and other
interested groups and stakeholders on critical
issues related to global social responsibility
and sustainability.”
Rationale behind the Creation of
the UN Global Impact (UNGC)
 As the economy became globalized in the
1990s, there was a growing realization that
there was a need to have a central
organization which could be a forum to gain
consensus on the norms and values for
sustainable development in the global
economy.
Among the pressing issues then was the lack of common
agreement on the appropriate ethical norms that should
guide business in critical situations, such as outsourcing into
poor, developing countries with attendant problems.
 The UNGC was launched by the then UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2000 with an
explicit mission to gain consensus on the
shared values and moral norms that would
guide the global economy.
Because of its visibility, global reach, universality, neutrality
and convening power, the UNGC was seen as the best
organization for this crucial role.

To join, a business had to agree to bring the ten normative

principles concerning human rights, labor issues,
environmental concerns, and anticorruption issues into its
strategic planning and to try to advance broader UN goals.

The hope for the future resides, in part, in two new

organizations sponsored by the Compact ‒ PRME and The
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
Two Main Motives for Institutions’
Support of PRME

1. Giving additional stimulus for existing

activity
2. Recognizing existing activities
 Discussion Questions
1. What are the UN Principles for Responsible
Management Education? How would you
define responsible management in line with
the said principles?
2. What ideas can you suggest so that schools
can offer management curricula geared
toward responsible management?
3. What is the concept of environmental ethics?
Define briefly.
4. What ideas can you suggest so that schools
can be more ecologically sensitive?
5. What are ecoschools? How can your school
become an ecoschool?