Training the CSR Sensitive Mind-Set: The Integration of CSR into the Training of Business Administration Professionals

sustainability Article
Training the CSR Sensitive Mind-Set: The Integration
of CSR into the Training of Business
Administration Professionals
Egl ̇e Stonkut ̇e 1, Jolita Vveinhardt 2 and Włodzimierz Sroka 3,*
1 Research Department, Baltic Institute for Research and Development, 4 J. Savickio St., LT 01108 Vilnius,
Lithuania; [e-mail]
2 Management Department, Vytautas Magnus University, 28 S. Daukanto St., LT-44246 Kaunas, Lithuania;
[e-mail]
3 Management Department, University of D ̨abrowa Górnicza, 1c Cieplaka St.,
41-300 D ̨abrowa Górnicza, Poland
* Correspondence: [e-mail]; Tel.: [phone]
Received: 5 February 2018; Accepted: 6 March 2018; Published: 9 March 2018
Abstract: Current corporations are subject to stringent requirements in terms of sustainable
development; however, a relevant problem is highlighted on the basis of the studies conducted.
On the one hand, corporations experience greater or lesser pressure, while on the other hand,
it must be admitted that the problem of demand for professionals, which is presupposed by the
insufficient quality of training in higher education institutions, is important. This is somewhat
strange given that the issues of business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability have
attracted increased attention in management education in recent years, and a five-fold increase in the
number of stand-alone ethics courses has been noted since 1988. This interaction could contribute
to the development of CSR, however a certain dissonance of cooperation between higher education
and business exists, as there is a lack of leadership in this area in the study programs of business
administration approved by the states, as well as in higher education institutions. Given these
facts, the goal of the paper is to analyze the Master of Business Administration programs in North
America, Europe, Asia, and Australia to offer direction to the challenge of integrating corporate social
responsibility (CSR) into management and training. The method of analysis of professional business
and administration training program content in terms of the integration of CSR was used during the
survey. Using panel data of 28 full-time MBA programs, our findings show that that the core parts
of MBAs under analysis merely—and mostly indirectly—cover CSR issues through one core course
on business ethics. However, the leading MBA programs are currently missing an opportunity by
ignoring their responsibility to support the training of CSR-minded future business administration
professionals. The results of our research may act as a guide to which areas should be modified
and/or changed.
Keywords: corporate social responsibility; training and development; qualitative research
1. Introduction
Recently there have been numerous changes in the sphere of modern business operations.
Globalization, accompanied by rapid technological changes, has given rise to a completely new
business environment. Under these new circumstances, the development of a modern company is
determined not only by the effective use of resources and the application of appropriate strategies,
but also by taking into account the concept of corporate social responsibility [ 1]. In other words, if a
company wishes to be perceived as a reliable partner in business, it should implement elements of this
Sustainability 2018, 10, 754; doi:10.3390/su10030754 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability

Sustainability 2018, 10, 754 2 of 14
concept. Some criticism of the CSR concept [ 2 ] cannot change this opinion. However, the impression
exists that CSR is yesterday’s problem, while in some regions, e.g., post-Soviet Central and Eastern
European countries, insufficient attention is paid to it. While researchers from Western countries
sometimes show the ongoing withdrawal of enterprises from the very idea of CSR and present
themselves to stakeholders by imitating CSR as one of the marketing tools [3 –6], or even lobbying [7]
(pp. 51–67), it is becoming a clear trend in post-Soviet countries. Therefore, attention is paid to the
fact that the implementation of CSR should be oriented not towards charity, marketing, and public
relations, but should first and foremost be understood as social responsibility towards stakeholders [8 ].
However, even the perceived benefits of communication do not increase the scale of CSR activity.
As with a litmus paper, this indicates that CSR ideas in the latter societies are still not sufficiently
relevant to cause business enterprises to respond more actively to them. The slow realization of ideas of
social sustainability are also partly reflected in the dynamics of membership in the UN Global Compact.
For example, there are 2.5 enterprises per 100,000 citizens in Sweden, 0.2 in Poland, 0.1 in Ukraine,
and 0.9 in Lithuania. In terms of the number of active members, the trend is towards a decrease.
The research problem is raised by the question of whether CSR is an integral part of the mindset
of business and administration professionals, who make decisions and express the values of their
enterprises through them. Logically, the question arises as to where these values are and where they
can be developed and trained. The focus should be on the training of business and administration
professionals, i.e., on the people expected to be future entrepreneurs and administrators of enterprises.
Research shows that the level of knowledge and management culture of managerial staff of enterprises
is closely related to the sustainable development of CSR [9 ]. For example, Berber et al. [ 10 ] analyzed
the relationship of CSR and human resources management in Central and Eastern European countries
through an analysis of written statements of social responsibility. Although this practice is recognized
as effective, it turned out that almost half of the companies surveyed did not have such written
statements. A lower level of human resources operational programs for specific groups of employees
was also found in such companies. Thus, the examples show that the development and understanding
of CSR ideas should change significantly. In this case, an important role must be played by the
education system in terms of the preparation and training of business and administration professionals.
However, significant changes are necessary in this area as well. During reorganization from a
narrow and planned economy into the global market economy, the task of preparing business and
administration professionals who would increase the competitiveness and profitability of enterprises
in as short a period of time as possible continues to fall to the system of higher education. Therefore,
ethical aspects of business development remained somewhat in the shade. Of course, a comparison
of data from studies carried out in different countries highlights certain differences. For example,
what differences exist in the preparation of professionals, familiarizing them with business ethics in
academic institutions of different levels? It is worth mentioning that Lithuanian colleges (institutions
of non-university higher education) have less chance of setting up CSR teaching disciplines than
universities since there is a lack of suitably-qualified college teachers working in this field. Currently,
there are fewer colleges which are oriented to disciplines of CSR than universities. CSR is not offered
on the level of vocational schools in Poland either [11 ]. In contrast to this, many European and
American business schools run business ethics and CSR programs [ 12 ], and the growing interest in
ethical issues has opened a market for the services of consultants and trainers [ 13 ]. However, those
that are oriented to CSR often review this concept more widely and pay more attention to it, not only
in business management, but also in industrial production study areas. In addition to the fact that
programs for improving the qualifications of professionals lack the inclusion of integrated elements
of CSR, several other types of problems are faced. Low levels of community activity and limited
understanding of CSR do not lead to the development of a medium that would encourage businesses
to reorganize themselves in accordance with the standards of social responsibility. In addition, there is
the problem of the qualifications of teachers tasked with training management professionals; to this
end, complex and coordinated changes in the policy of educational institutions and the state, focused

Sustainability 2018, 10, 754 3 of 14
on the integration of CSR in the training of management professionals and in parallel with it in the
development of public opinion, are deemed necessary.
Given the deliberations presented, the goal of our paper is to analyze the Master of Business
Administration programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia to offer direction to
the challenge of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into management and training.
The method of analysis of professional business and administration training program content in terms
of the integration of CSR was used during the survey. The objectives of the study were achieved on
the basis of data gathered through content analysis, i.e., data gathered and analyzed using a content
summative approach and binomial analysis. The target subjects included a group of 28 full-time
MBA programs offered by the universities in question. The paper is structured as follows: Firstly,
we describe the concept of CSR which has been presented in the literature, concentrating on the
relationship between CSR, education, and training programs at the MBA level. Secondly, we present
the methodological part, i.e., the materials and methods of the research which has been conducted.
The next part of our paper analyzes the results of the aforementioned research in detail, which, in turn,
is followed by the Discussion section. Finally, we present the conclusions and limitations of our study.
2. Literature Review
At present, the idea of corporate social responsibility is not an innovation or a message that the
directors of enterprises would not have faced unexpectedly or that the shareholders of enterprises
would not have heard about. However, the problem of understanding the significance of CSR is often
encountered, as the main purpose for which managers set up and developed the CSR concept is an
axiomatic maximization of profit, while at the same time reducing the expenditure and the risk of
decreasing profitability [ 14 – 16 ]. These are solid arguments, as most corporations are not charities
or social enterprises seeking specific social goals. On the one hand, according to Weinzimmer and
Esken [17 ] (p. 336), numerous studies have contended that taking a stand on a social issue may lead to
long-term competitive advantages. Therefore, when firms decide to support or oppose specific social
issues, they should be aware that their positions may have an impact on business outcomes. On the
other hand, del Rosario González-Rodríguez et al. [18 ] point out that the way the consumers perceive
corporate social responsibility may be directly affected by the individual benefit structures, the range
of which is very extensive. Studies in this area show that CSR provides more flexibility to organizations
themselves, when operating in various situations [16 ,19 ], such as in dealing with emerging crises [20],
contributing to the active development of goodwill [21 –23 ], while addressing relevant social and ethical
problems not only by means of specific support—as is often perceived—but also by changing the moral
and ethical climate in the socio-cultural media in which they operate through their values [24 – 27].
This can be compared with the metaphor of a growing snowball, especially if the organizations focus
not only on the present, but also on the long-term rebound effect.
Thus, one can observe that a plethora of research which justifies the direct and indirect benefits to
enterprises which apply CSR in practice, and to different societies where both the enterprises [28 –33 ]
and other institutions [ 34 ,35 ] work, have been undertaken in recent years. However, in spite of the
papers published so far, CSR literature remains highly fragmented. For example, it seems that this
does not make an impression on large enterprises, as corporate social responsibility is not the maxima
which many of them would be guided by. The sincerity and learning of enterprises in the context
of CSR values is an undoubted and significant factor [ 36], but the question is, how much does the
tax-funded system of state higher education contribute to the preparation of professionals? Does the
development of CSR have to fall only on the shoulders of enterprises themselves?
It must be admitted that, on the one hand, there are differences in the perception and
implementation of CSR practices related to different cultures [ 37 –43] or corporate culture (e.g., [ 44 ]).
One of the important conditions for understanding the role in the context of social responsibility
is related to the perception of shareholders and the competencies of hired professionals to develop
the strategies and use ethical potential. Therefore, attention is shifting to education institutions and

Sustainability 2018, 10, 754 4 of 14
education itself, which influences human values, as well [16, 18 ]. On the one hand, enterprises cannot
wait for governments to understand the significance of CSR and start improving the preparation of
professionals. On the other hand, however, one cannot rely on the mere belief that the maturity of
enterprises will reach a certain level of maturity of corporative philosophy by itself, interacting with
separate stakeholder groups. Studies which focus on some of the stakeholders (e.g., communities,
consumers) reveal that corporate social responsibility is inadequate as a certain image-forming tool
when the published position does not necessarily correspond to reality [4].
One should also point out that the issues of business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and
sustainability have come to attract increasing attention in management education in recent years [ 45]
and the increasing prominence of CSR education in American and European business schools is
observed [ 46]. This is confirmed inter alia by a five-fold increase in the number of stand-alone ethics
courses since 1988 [47 ]. Some authors go even further, claiming that the public sector plays an
important role in the development of social responsibility, of which universities are an essential part
as they represent an irreplaceable role in society, where they take part in the creation and increase of
human capital. One perceives the social responsibility of universities as part of the so-called “third
role” of universities, perceived as the meaning of the impact of universities’ activities on society in
the broadest sense [48]. On the other hand, however, if aiming at closer cooperation between higher
education and business, it is necessary to identify what leads to miscommunication and gaps between
theory and practice. According to Hayter and Cahoy [49 ], within an increasingly global context, society
expects colleges and universities to undertake new and increasingly complex social responsibilities that
expand traditional higher education missions while emphasizing new obligations such as economic
development and sustainability. In this case, it would be useful to go deeper into the integration
of the concept of corporate social responsibility in university study programs. However, these are
also struggling with the same broader education problem [ 50 ], as they remain rather unchanged
and are not able to cope with a broader view of the world. Instead, they remain oriented towards a
narrow specialization, focusing on profit maximization instead of social and economic prosperity, i.e.,
preferring shareholders over stakeholders. The short-term mindset of business corporations makes
the integration of long-term issues, such as CSR, difficult to integrate into educational programs [51 ].
The dissemination of sustainable development ideas is complicated, not only in corporations and/or
the policies of the states [52 ], but also in higher education institutions, which, themselves, need certain
changes related to the realization of CSR philosophy in practice and in studies in the preparation of
future professionals [ 34, 53 ]. It should transform their programs to transformative ones that would
integrate a holistic approach [ 54 ] and would even change the metaphor (i.e., the way they perceive the
world) of a war which is still based on business administration education [55].
The role of higher education institutions in the perception of CSR by their students seems to be
important. One may observe that there is a higher percentage of student interest in the topics of ethics,
corporate social responsibility, and sustainability in the MBA programs offered by top 10 business
schools [ 46]. In turn, Sobczak et al. [56 ] found that the students’ perception of CSR is dependent
not only on the content of the program, but also on the integration of CSR into the culture of these
higher education institutions. This is supported by Barrena-Martinez et al. [57 ] who concluded that
social integration factors have a greater impact on the perception of CSR than explanatory factors.
The CSR-sensitive mindset of students can be trained in cases in which the curriculum integrates care
theory with CSR teaching [58].
The ambiguity of the perception of CSR integration into professional business and administration
training leads to the formulation of two research hypotheses. On one hand, the number of CSR
courses are perceived to be increasing and integrated into the education of professional business and
administration training. The hypothesis can be formulated as:
H1: CSR is integrated into professional business and administration training.
On the other hand, there are many doubts about the practical and effective integration of CSR into
professional business and administration training. Therefore, the second hypothesis is formulated as: