University of Cape Town

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University of Cape Town
Graduate School of Business

Private Bag X3
Rondebosch
Cape Town, Western Cape 7700
South Africa

In the school's own words...

The Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town increasingly weaves socially responsible elements into all its core courses although all students are required to take the full core course, Business Government and Society which focuses on business' role in society. The aim of this core and foundational course in the MBA programme is to familiarise students with a variety of global economic, social and political trends and developments that may impact either directly or indirectly on the operation and functioning of businesses in an emerging market economy such as South Africa, and to consider the role and some of the current responses of the business community to these trends and developments. The course is specifically designed to provide students with an understanding of global, regional and domestic trends in society and government that raise issues for the business organisation. At a global level, the course seeks to introduce students to the role and function of international financial markets, trade regimes, and international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization. Regionally, it raises issues concerning African attempts to overcome the legacies of poverty and underdevelopment. And domestically the course investigates how and why companies have adopted “corporate citizenship” strategies to deal with “triple bottom line” issues such as broad-based black economic empowerment, governance and transparency, HIV/AIDS, corruption, globalization, climate change and human rights. The course is principally designed around a number of case studies and discussions but principally around two case studies of South African firms and their attempts to address these important, context-driven challenges, and also draws from the experience of other South African and international companies. At least a third of the sessions of the course are given to the consideration of environmental issues specifically and organisations' resultant responsibilities. Elective courses, building on this foundation course, are offered on the MBA programme and include electives on emerging enterprise consulting, social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and doing business in emerging economies. In addition to this students are encouraged to pursue environmental and social impact studies as part of their dissertation requirement, which forms a substantial component of the MBA programme. Outside of the programme, students are involved with local non-profit, non-governmental organizations. This takes the form of working on sustainability issues and raising funds to further organizational programmes and mission. [340 words]

School Demographic Information