CED 360The Corporation and Social Responsibility

3 credits · Community Environment and Development · Penn State

The corporation has emerged as perhaps the most powerful institution in the world in the 21st Century. A recent estimate listed 31 nations and 69 corporations among the 100 largest economies in the world. These circumstances lead reasonable people to ask how corporations can be held accountable when many of them command more resources and are nimbler than most of the world's governments. This course explores the historical and legal dimensions of the corporation and its contemporary social, environmental, and economic impacts and responsibilities. It further considers the internal and external factors that shape corporate decisions on social responsibility. The internal dimensions that will be discussed in the course include decisions made by top management, relationships between labor and management, and the capacity for lower management and laborers to influence company policies and practices. The external influences will include labor and community organizing, shareholder activism, government regulations, consumer activism, and various government entities to shape corporate policies and practices.