April 2007

New GW Institute Targets Corporate Responsibility

By Jamie L. Freedman

Business schools in the 21st century focus on much more than the bottom line. As corporate scandals routinely capture front-page headlines and organizations strive to be increasingly socially and environmentally responsible, corporate citizenship is taking center stage at universities across the nation.

GW is taking a leading role in the enterprise through its new Institute for Corporate Responsibility. Launched this past October, the institute is directed by Timothy L. Fort, the Lindner-Gambal Professor of Business Ethics and a pioneer in the field. “I believe that GW will quickly become known as the world’s leading intellectual center for scholarship and research in the field of corporate responsibility,” states Fort, who came to GW two years ago from the University of Michigan because of GW’s strong reputation in the discipline. “There are 50 to 100 corporate responsibility programs in the country, and ours is the most comprehensive one out there.”

According to Fort, GW’s Institute for Corporate Responsibility is the only center that addresses all of the field’s chief issues through its four program areas: corporate governance, environmental sustainability, global stakeholder strategies, and peace through commerce. The Corporate Governance Program, led by Ernie Englander, associate professor of strategic management and public policy, focuses
on the accountability of top leadership to run their organizations in a fair, transparent, and legal manner.

The Environmental Sustainability Program, directed by Mark Starik, chair and professor of strategic management and public policy, probes how businesses can be more environmentally friendly. The Global Stakeholder Strategies Program, run by Jennifer Griffin, associate professor of strategic management and public
policy, looks at how corporations engage with a wide range of stakeholders to address social issues like poverty and diversity, while enhancing reputation and creating long-lasting value.

The Program on Peace through Commerce/Business Ethics, directed by Fort, bases its work on the idea that ethical business behavior has an unexpected payoff: It seems to correlate with attributes of nonviolent societies. Fort, who pioneered the development of the concept, says, “Ethical business practices can contribute to peace, which is a really good reason to be ethical in business.” Calling the work his passion, he says, “Now is a time in world history when this contribution is particularly welcome.” To date, Fort has convened five conferences and written three books on the topic, and he currently is hard at work planning another major Peace through Commerce conference slated to take place at GW in mid-July.

Infusing corporate citizenship into business education is a time-honored practice, Fort explains. “The topic has deep historical roots,” he says. “The notion that corporations have a responsibility to the greater community goes back at least 200 years, and some historians even trace it back to Roman times, but it didn’t emerge as a topic in academia until the late 1960s and early 1970s and as a hot topic in business schools until a decade ago. Twenty years ago, it was a lonely job to be the university business ethics professor.”

He attributes the increasing prominence of the field in recent years to advances in communication, as the media and Internet outlets focus extensively on corporate behavior, as well as mounting legislation that holds businesses accountable for their environmental and societal impacts.

GW’s Institute for Corporate Responsibility is off to an impressive start. Already, more than 20 faculty members are affiliated with the center, and each of the four program areas are making their presence felt. Starik coordinated an environmental sustainability conference last month that was covered by C-SPAN.

Englander recently hosted the first of a quarterly series of workshops at GW for 40 chief financial officers of corporations in the D.C. area. Griffin scored a huge coup in the academic community by inviting the International Association of Business in Society to move its headquarters to GW in the fall. “As a result, we’re now home to one of the top three academic associations in the field,” says Fort. “It’s just another sign that GW is becoming one of the premier institutes for the study of corporate responsibility.”

Fort says significant developments are in the pipeline following the Institute for Corporate Responsibility’s designation as one of eight new signature programs at GW slated to receive special endowment funding over the next several years. “It’s an incredible boon for us as a brand new institute, and will provide the seed money for each of our four program areas to grow,” he says. “It’s also a signal to outside donors that the University believes in us, which will help us greatly in future fund raising. We’re delighted to have been selected, and look forward to enhancing GW’s prestige worldwide as we become the central institute for the study of corporate responsibility.”

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