Dr Megan Paull

The complicity of business schools in corporate wrong-doing has long been receiving public attention (Orr 1994), especially in more recent years following the collapse of companies like Enron, Tyco and WorldCom and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (Crane and Matten 2016). Perceptions of widespread corporate malfeasance have triggered growing calls—inter alia—for a greater emphasis on ethics in management education (Swanson and Frederick 2003; Alsop 2006; Crane 2004; Cornelius et al. 2007). Further compounding the moral dilemma of business schools are mounting socio-ecological problems globally, which have at their core the very economic model enshrined in business curricula world-wide (Willard 2004; Hart 2007; von der Heidt and Lamberton 2011; Godemann et al. 2014). Thus, places of higher education, and business schools in particular (especially since they attract the largest student numbers) are called upon not only to help students build their ethical identities (Swanson and Dahler-Larsen 2008), but also to equip them with the requisite tools to become earth-literate future leaders (after Martin and Jucker 2005) able to navigate and manage the complex challenges that have come to characterise this era (Lozano et al. 2015) we tellingly call the Anthropocene (see Steffen et al. 2011). It is considered a moral imperative but also a question of social relevance that business schools uphold their identity as places of learning with a conscience and purpose; driving positive social change by way of informing and shaping managerial and professional attitudes and practices (Adams et al. 2011; José Chiappetta Jabbour 2010; Tilbury et al. 2004; Green et al. 2017). As suggested by Setó-Pamies and Papaoikonomou (2016: 524):

Academic institutions help shape the attitudes and behaviour of business leaders through business education, research, management development programs, training, and other pervasive, but less tangible, activities, such as the spread and advocacy of new values and ideas. Through these means, academic institutions have the potential to generate a wave of positive change, thereby helping to ensure a world where both enterprises and societies can flourish.

Corporate and employee volunteering is increasingly significant within the context of organisational behaviour, receiving increased attention around the world. The research exploring this is scattered and uneven, with different perspectives shaping disparate discourses. While there is limited definitional consensus, corporate and employee volunteering is considered an employee engagement initiative and a corporate social responsibility activity. Placing emphasis on the behaviour of individuals, the giving of time, planned activity and the recipient as external, non-profit or charitable organisation Rodell et al. (J Manag 42(1):55–84, 2016: 57) defines employee volunteering as “employed individuals giving time during a planned activity for an external non-profit or charitable group or organization”. While Volunteering Australia (n.d.) promotes corporate volunteering as the provision of opportunities to employees to develop staff and teams skills which can bolster a company’s reputation within the community. The multiple storylines contain nuanced and often conflicted understandings of the purpose, and benefits of volunteering in the corporate environment. This chapter explores the discursive positioning of corporate and employee volunteering through the lens of positioning theory . It is a powerful conceptual heuristic that provides a social constructivist theoretical framework through which to consider the ‘moral order’, positions and storylines that together delimit possible actions and the meanings of what is expected, permissible, said and done. Positioning theory provides new insights into volunteering as an analytical tool within the organisational behaviour discipline and discourse.

Today’s global challenges not only threaten humanity’s survival but also that of millions of other species. It is generally agreed that these challenges are the product of anthropogenic impacts on the planet through humanity’s pursuit of economic ends. Due to the intractable nature of these challenges they are often referred to as wicked problems as their complexity and scale are “interconnected, contradictory, located in an uncertain environment and embedded in landscapes that are rapidly changing” (Sardar 2010: 183). However, the global pursuit of economic growth not only threatens to bring about ecological brinkmanship it also produces large societal costs. Dominant neoliberal development policies have largely failed to adequately address inequality or reduce poverty in an age of plenty, which suggests—as argued widely (Kates et al. 2000; Barth et al. 2007; Vare and Scott 2007; Rieckmann 2012; Barth and Rieckmann 2012; Thomas et al. 2013)—that future human wellbeing within environmental limits requires a fundamentally new and different approach; for the purposes of this book we regarded the concepts of responsible citizenship, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development as expressions of this new approach and the kind of social change agendas that share a vision of a more socially and environmentally just future. It has been the premise of this volume that universities have both the capacity and the responsibility to be the drivers of change towards this vision (Kates et al. 2000).

Dieses Kapitel gibt Einblicke in den Stand der CSR Integration an australischen Hochschulen. Im internationalen Vergleich wird der Integrationsprozess als langsam gewertet, was auf universitätsexterne und -interne Barrieren zur CSR-Agenda an australischen Hochschulen zurückgeführt wird. Speziell im Kontext eines starken Neoliberalisierungsdruckes auf die Hochschulen, der die Curriculum-Reform erschwert, wird eine akademische Aktivistenkultur als mögliche Antwort auf den CSR-Mangel an australischen Universitäten vorgestellt.

Despite the recognized need for transdisciplinary teaching and learning to drive the operationalization of sustainability and ethical business conduct, disciplinary silos continue to dominate the curricula and administrative structures of many business schools. While with growing social and environmental stakes a reorientation of teaching and learning approaches is a sine qua non, the learning contexts typical of business schools worldwide continue to fall short of meeting the needs of students, society, and wider natural systems. The ‘sustainability and ethics void’ within established business curricula leaves future business leaders ill equipped for dealing with the complexities of social systems, institutions, and their environment and unable to solve growing global meta-problems (e.g. poverty, climate change). Against this background this chapter reports on efforts currently underway at the School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University to create new learning contexts where disciplinary knowledges can converge, values are included, and reflexive learning is embraced, allowing students to adopt a meaning orientation and a deep approach to learning. The School has recently become a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), and this chapter outlines the steps taken by members of the School-based Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability (CRCS) to support efforts to meet the School’s obligations under PRME. Specifically, attention is directed to the formation of the CRCS to drive transdisciplinary teaching and research in the School and the use of a Delphi approach as a platform towards the development of transdisciplinary collaborations through a shared understanding of the conceptual and methodological frameworks of responsible citizenship. The authors also report on how sustainability and responsible citizenship theories are applied in teaching and project contexts.

The main aim of this book is to bridge a gap in the literature relating to work-place abuse, incivility and bullying. The number of studies relating to inappropriate and negative workplace behaviours has grown in leaps and bounds over the last decade. As the knowledge base relating to the nature of these adverse behaviours, the reasons they happen, and the impact they have on individuals, organisations and society grows, new gaps in knowledge are exposed. On one hand, growth in research is assisting in better understanding and management of these behaviours; on the other, generalised information without an understanding of context may be detrimental to the cause, especially given a globalised and multicultural world.

In the critically acclaimed movie Dancing in Jaffa, four-time world ballroom dancing champion Pierre Dulaine showcases how dance can transcend geographical and cultural boundaries and be a positive force for real change (see Dancing in Jaffa 2015). Dulaine explores the stories of three children who are forced to ‘dance with the enemy’ and in so doing raises awareness of the challenges involved in dealing with sensitive topics such as personal identity, segregation and racial prejudice. In the workplace, interpersonal relations can be just as challenging and workplace conflict has many manifestations. Workplace abuse, incivility and bullying (WAIB) are sensitive topics which can be considered to be part of the dark side of organisational research (Linstead et aL 2014). In this chapter WAIB refers to a sub-set of those behaviours that harm others, ncluding verbal and psychological abuse (Lin-stead et aL 2014). The evidence from the literature is that the manifestation of abuse, incivility and bullying can be found in workplaces the world over. It is only by tackling research into sensitive, often denied and certainly taboo subjects, that these can be considered and ameliorated. Research into sensitive topics,