Corporate social responsibility: a new mission for HEI´s

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is nowadays also often associated with HEIs mission. Today, organizations are seeing a gap between their strategic organizational needs in terms of talent acquisition, in the face of a labour market that cannot meet their needs due to deficits of those seeking to integrate into the market, mainly deficits at the behavioural level. Professionals that meet the market needs are scarce. Therefore, organizations that integrate in their values frameworks and strategic policies including social responsibility development, add value to the community and, among other possible benefits, social responsibility gives organizations the opportunity to share skills and knowledge, to reach, motivate and inspire individuals and groups in their communities. Technology and Management School - Viana do Castelo Polytechnic Institute, is working and developing this encounter, and has since long been putting into practice different initiatives that evidence Corporate Social Responsibility. These initiatives include the participation of all stakeholders: students, school, organizations and the local community. As a HEI, ESTG intends to strategically reconcile the development of students' skills on social responsibilities and contribute to further development through university-business cooperation. Also, the construction of awareness among the surrounding organizations regarding the integration of social responsibility in their policies and practices of strategic management is a goal. To achieve its aims, ESTG strengthens links with the productive sector, involving organizations and society in the process, sharing objectives, planning and building together the scientific, educational, innovation and social integration design that constitutes the triple mission of a modern university (the context of UBC). The strategic partners are companies or organizations that consider a cooperation with ESTG as a first order opportunity for the achievement of their social goals. We aim to enable our students to develop effective strategies and practices that allow them to raise awareness of / build clear social responsibility tools with organizations and to accelerate learning which improves and develops key students' skills that help them to face organizational challenges and get organizations to cement corporate social responsibility as a vehicle for their own development. The paper will present these results and its outcomes.