Overview

Core Courses

• Sustainable Leadership & Planetary Boundaries (block 1)

  Your first core course explores important leadership issues for corporate sustainability. You will use the analytical lenses of the ‘planetary boundaries framework’ first proposed in 2009 by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the cornerstone ‘Vision 2050 report’ from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The latter lays out a pathway to a world in which nine billion people can live well and within the planet’s resources by mid-century. The focus of your first core course will be to identify ways that business can incorporate sustainability.
• Global Business Strategies (block 1)

  The second core course focuses on the specific – and often operational – challenges of multinational enterprises. How do firms manage across borders? How can they handle issues such as corrupt regimes, dealing with currency instability or developing solutions for major issues like poverty, global warming, HIV/AIDS or hunger? You will learn how global corporations can create a sustainable corporate and competitive advantage.
  

  This course deals with challenges such as decisions about entry strategies, appropriate analysis of country risks, lobbying governments, implementing cross-cultural management systems, and creating partnerships with stakeholders. You will discuss and practice practical techniques and management tools relating to codes of conduct, reporting, trademarks, business community involvement programmes and stakeholder dialogues, among others.
• Corporate Communication (block 2)

  Corporate communication fulfils a vital function in the way a company deals with the global issues connected to its operations. It works as a 'window out' for the company, influencing how stakeholders perceive the company and the way it deals with global issues, and as a 'window in' for engaging in dialogue with stakeholders so they can influence the way the company operates. You will examine major topics in corporate communication and develop your practical skills for understanding and managing problems of reputation, identity and the orchestration of all forms of communication.

   
• Corporate Integrity (block 2)

  Corporate scandals in the recent past make it clear that low standards of integrity in business damage the interests of society in many different ways. In this core course you will explore in detail the processes through which managers can develop high levels of integrity in their relationships with individual employees, divisions, organisations and industry sectors. This course builds on basic leadership and decision-making theories to build a clear understanding of what corporate integrity entails. These models serve as background to important discussions about leading with integrity, such as ethical leadership, fairness of decision-making, whistleblowing, and leadership outcomes, compliance, trust, and finance. The course addresses the efforts of leaders to maintain high integrity as well as efforts to repair situations that have been damaged because of actions of low integrity. You will analyse specific cases of corporate misconduct and also conduct empirical research on the processes that underlie them.
• Thesis Idea Presentations (block 2)

  To motivate students and encourage early thesis work, all students are required to take part in a one-time Thesis Idea Presentation (TIP) session which will take place during the second block of the core courses (November - December). Usually on the final day of the core courses in December, students will submit a one-page Thesis Idea after which they briefly present the idea. Two coaches will be present to provide tips and brief feedback on the Thesis Ideas and make a Pass/Fail decision.

  In general a TIP requires students to present their coach, general topic, research question(s), relevance, and methodological approach (quantitative, qualitative, or conceptual). Via the TIP sessions, students decide on their thesis topic, research approach, and coach, before the Christmas holiday, and can start their preparatory reading for the Methods course which begins in January.

Electives

• Doing Good Done Better: Effective Management of Philantropic "NGO" organisations (block 3)

  In contemporary society, voluntary private action to address public issues – in other words philanthropy – is becoming increasingly important. This is because in many western welfare states governments are retreating and in developing countries they are often non-existent. Philanthropic, non-governmental and non-profit organisations take on the challenges that are not addressed by either the market or the government. They try to do so with effective programmes, new organisations and partnerships.

  As a future manager, you may have to deal with non-profit organisations or NGOs as stakeholders or partners. You may also confront issues of corporate social responsibility. For managers, this requires an open-minded and integral view of these organisations, so understanding them is important to the process of collaboration.

  On the other hand, managing, governing and consulting for such grant-making, philanthropic or non-profit organisations is considered to be a specialisation. The skills and knowledge needed here differ from the skills required in common business settings.

  You will learn the theoretical and practical background to the broader concept of civil society, of philanthropic, non-profit and non-governmental organisations, and how to manage them. Guest lecturers from a variety of organisations will share their practical insights. Your grades will be based on two assignments; there is no written exam. This course gives you a competitive advantage as a future manager as it improves your understanding of this interesting and growing field of organisations.
• Corporations & Justice (block 3)

  There is heated debate over the role of markets and the question of ethical limits to the pursuit of profit by modern corporate enterprise. Is there a corporate responsibility beyond that of making money? Is the ‘free market’ fair? Are there goods which we should not try to provide via the market? What are these goods, and what is wrong with buying and selling them?

  This course is based on a series of online lectures about political theories of justice, from Aristotle to John Rawls, developed by Harvard professor of government Michael Sandel. In this course, we will refine this framework and apply it to major questions of markets and justice.
• Strategic Alignment (block 4)

  The only way to be more competitive is to engage every mind in the organisation. You can't have anyone on the sidelines.
                                                      – Jack Welch, Former Chairman, General Electric

  It is increasingly important to get the support of employees during strategic changes in multi-business companies. It ensures their understanding, belief and action in your strategic objectives. If employees find it difficult to align and associate with the organisation’s changing aims, then most ideas and activities will be less successful. After all, a supportive attitude towards strategic objectives makes it more likely that employees will make decisions consistent with these objectives.

  This course provides a theoretical background to matters of employee alignment during strategic change, and explores how employee communication can contribute to the organisation’s ability to manage alignment. We have invited professionals from Dutch multinational firms to help you explore the theoretical foundations by describing their personal experiences of employee alignment in such times. You will also work in groups on an investigative assignment about the best practices in employee alignment for an international organisation.
• Climate Change Strategy Role-play, a joint elective with MSc International Management/CEMS (block 4)

  Climate change is an important issue; it receives international attention from political leaders, corporations, the media, advocacy groups and the general public. It is likely to become even more important as the effects of climate change intensify competition for resources and the likelihood of natural disasters, disease vectors, scarcity of water and food, and refugees.

  We believe that tomorrow’s business leaders should be educated about climate change – the science, the reactions of policymakers, and the role of business. They can become an essential part of the solution, but only if they are equipped with a thorough understanding of the challenges involved and the processes of constructing new policies.

  This Climate Change Strategy course is modelled on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It forms an innovative educational approach to closing this knowledge gap. Our goal is to broaden and deepen your understanding of climate change, climate policy, and their impacts on the future of business.

  It deals with the core issues of climate change and includes a wide range of effective learning tools and exercises. We will highlight international and national regulatory frameworks plus the challenges for obtaining resources and opportunities presented by new markets. You will also develop skills to help you in negotiation, strategy, research, public speaking and debating.
• GBSM Research Project (block 4)

  As an additional elective our programme offers a “Research Project” in block 4 for which you may earn elective course points. Shorter than a normal research internship, this six-week trajectory encourages students to embark on a research project supervised by a (assistant) professor of the Business-Society Management Department. Most of these research projects will be part of one of the Research Centers associated with the department, though individually professors or staff members may also offer and supervise Research Projects.

  Alternatively, students may opt to do a Research Project commissioned by a company. In this case the student is expected to initiate the contact and arrange for entry to the company, under supervision by a member of the staff.

  You can choose to conduct research that is related to your thesis topic. However, as a separate course, carrying its own credits, the report resulting from this project is in addition to your Master thesis and will be assessed separately.
• Companies in Ecologies (block 5)

  Have you ever wondered how changes in climate will affect our day-to-day lives or the state of the world’s fresh water? If you don’t know much about ecology, you might find yourself missing important strategic opportunities in management.

   This master elective explores the latest ideas and thinking about corporate sustainability and sustainable systems. It is delivered in a highly-personal and ecologically-centred format, in which lessons will often be taught in natural, outdoor environments. You will be required to maintain a field journal or undertake a project about reducing your ecological footprint, in addition to developing a strategic plan to help a company reduce its footprint.
• Cradle to Cradle (block 5)

  Did you ever wonder how to make a business case for a company that is depending on resources that are becoming scarce? Or did you think of the effect of the (bad) indoor air quality on your work and the effects on the productivity within companies? This master elective by Michael Braungart’s Chair Cradle to Cradle for Innovation and Quality offers you to learn more about Cradle to Cradle and the added value of this approach for our economy, ecology and the social and cultural aspects.

  The Cradle to Cradle design paradigm offers a positive approach for the environmental challenges that we are facing today. The Cradle to Cradle approach has proven that it is possible to produce products that do not harm the people and the planet, but support their health while generating profit at the same time.  During the lessons you will learn about the Cradle to Cradle principles, how this approach can be implemented within a (existing) company, and we will provide a rich overview of practical solutions and real life applications.

  Complimenting study of the theoretical base, teaching will utilise practical examples that can be found in the case studies, illustrated by products in the class room, and through guest lectures by managers who have been working with the implementation of Cradle to Cradle in their companies.

  In our Cradle to Cradle teaching we take a multidisciplinary approach integrating several RSM master programs. This elective is strongly connected to the MSc Supply Chain Management (including the Closed Loop Supply Chain elective) and the MSc Global Business & Stakeholder Management programme, but can also be selected as a free elective for students who are interested in the added value of Cradle to Cradle in their own discipline. This elective will be evaluated through an assignment.

Research Methods & Thesis

• Research Methods & Thesis

  The January Research Methodology course will be a three-week course beginning with a plenary session about universal methodological challenges and requirements. Each GBSM student will then choose one of the two research tracks to follow: quantitative or qualitative.