ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 40 (Number 5) Year 2019. Page 29

Educational training of socially responsible professionals. Experience of a public and state university

Formação educacional de profissionais socialmente responsáveis. Experiência de uma universidade pública e estadual

SEVERINO-GONZÁLEZ, Pedro 1; ACUÑA MORAGA, Omar 2

Received: 30/09/2018 • Approved: 23/01/2019 • Published 11/02/2019

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

4. Conclusion

Bibliographic references

1. Introduction

Social responsibility is an issue that has been most strongly addressed by all types of organizations due to two types of relationships: company-target groups and university-company, since companies must consider all the strategic parties that are interrelated, directly and indirectly, with the organizations´ proceedings. On the other hand, behavior that threatens morality and good manners, and this in turn, the collective well-being of the local and international society, is the product of the behavior of individuals who, at times, find themselves being driven by high demands, governmental pressures or even by their search for individual selfish benefits. Therefore, universities must train people who have ethical values and principles, which contribute, to a certain extent, to a proper, adequate and fair procedure. Furthermore, this study aims to analyze the experience of the business engineering student in the subject of Social Responsibility at the University of Bío-Bío, Chile, major which has been ongoing for more than 11 years, and where information has been systematized in the most common fields of the university.

1.1. Social Responsibility

Social responsibility has gained more notoriety in recent years in various aspects of society, which has led to an increase in scientific productivity (Fernández, 2009, Medina and Severino, 2014; Bai & Chang, 2015, Medina and Severino, 2015, Newman et al., 2004; Vallaeys et al., 2009), due to the current morality crisis which affects judgement on what is correct or incorrect, or what is adequate or inadecuate (Pares, 2001; Castrillón and Alzate, 2012). This is due to poor educational training on ethical principles and values (Zárate & García, 2014; Severino-González et al., 2018), in which the Chilean educational system and, above all, the higher education establishments are the ones mainly responsible for training individuals on how to properly carry out their profession. Therefore, these establishments have developed conferences, training programs, workshops, meetings, company visits, courses, focus groups, seminars and other activities that seek to provide society with ethical, well-rounded and socially responsible professionals which translates into the incorporation of generic or cross-sectional competences as well as specific, which make up the curriculum, where the professor is the main driving force of changes in the behavior of future generations (Azcárate et al., 2016).

The University of Bio-Bio states, in its strategic guidelines, that it is a socially responsible public, state and regional institution that seeks the formation of well rounded people through a quality teaching-learning process. Similarly, the Faculty of Business Sciences, in its strategic orientation, declares that it is responsibly committed to the systematic formation of well rounded professionals.  Whilst, the Commercial Engineering School aims to contribute to the training formation of professionals in the management field in order to meet the needs of the public and private sector, with an emphasis on social responsibility, entrepreneurship and innovation, with social skills included, for the development of the country in a diverse environment, along with academic and administrative excellence. Therefore, the curriculum of this major contemplates the subject of Social Responsibility which seeks to contribute to society with engineers that have competences for the development of socially responsible strategic plans and programs, which can meet the needs and requirements of the various target groups.

1.2. The Materialization of Social Responsibility

The University of Bio-Bio´s Business Engineering major dates back to 1991 in the city of Concepción, Chile. In 1995, it began offering the evening major for professionals, as well as workers, under the name of PECE (Special Continuing Education Program). Then, in 2004, the evening major opened in the city of Chillán, so it could cover the entire Bío-Bío Region. In 1997, the revision of the curriculum process began with the "DACUM Workshops", inspired by a competency-based curriculum design methodology, whose purpose was to revise and gather elements for the redesign of the graduate profile as well as for the major´s new curriculum. This process provided useful information for the current management and operation of the program.

During the period between 1999-2000, the academic programs of 100% of the subjects in the curriculum were revised and updated, a process in which all professors, including the part-timers, participated. In 2004, the self-assessment process also began, anticipating the accreditation process by the National Commission for Undergraduate Accreditation (CNAP). The process ended in 2007, obtaining accreditation for three years. In 2007, as well, the curriculum updating process started once again, which included curricular changes, which had to meet the requirements of the new Competency-based Educational Model of the University. Later, in March 2010, as the the study of the curriculum of the major was completed, the self-assessment process began, anticipating a second accreditation process, which ended in November of that same year, and obtaining a second accreditation as of January 2011, for a period of 4 years, until January 2015. In 2010, as well, the development process for the major´s new curriculum ended and was approved by the Honorable Board of Directors in January 2011. It then went into effect in the same year. From 2011 to 2013, the major concentrated on the full implementation of the new curriculum, finishing up the development of all the subjects in the program, as well as, among other activities, initiating the training on competency-based teaching for all its professors. As a result of this, the major began to incorporate new curricular contents within its curriculum, through, at first, complementary subjects within the 2949-0 and 2959-0 curriculum, in the cities of Concepción and Chillán, respectively (former Plan), among which is the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility. This is reinforced in the new curriculum, in effect as of 2011, in which the formation of socially responsible well-rounded professionals is part of the graduation profile, the Competence Map, and the curriculum of the major. In fact, the Graduate Profile of the Commercial Engineer, in its last paragraph, gives account of the distinctive hallmark of the major, which is specifically concentrated on entrepreneurship, innovation and social responsibility. The latter one directly meets the generic competences of the institution, which is the CG7: To have ethical and responsible behavior in the labor and social areas (see table 1), and indirectly in others. In addition, the correlation matrix of competences declares the relation with other subjects in the curriculum that contributes to the achievement of such competences, where the subjects Social Responsibility, Integrated Workshop, Strategic Management II, Professional Practicum I and II, stand out, among others (see table 2).

Table 1
Dictionary of Institutional Competences

Source: ICO Curriculum Change Project (Acuña et al., 2010).

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Table 2
Competence Correlation Matrix

Source: ICO Curriculum Change Project (Acuña et al., 2010).

In regards to the placement of the Social Responsibility subject in the curriculum, it is set in the second semester, during the fourth year. It is a core training subject, thus being compulsory and practical-theoretical, leaning towards developing the capacity to apply models of social responsibility in different organizations. This meets the generic competences set by the university, as well as those specific competences set by the major, and which materialize in the graduation profile set by it. (See table 3).

Table 3
Competences addressed by the second subject

Source: ICO Curriculum Change Project (Acuña et al., 2010)

The competency descriptors (See table 4), declared in syllabus of the subject, spring from six generic competences and two specific competences which seek to develop the capacity that students must have in formulating strategic models on social responsibility during the development of all the activities contemplated by the subject.

Table 4
Social Responsibility subject descriptor.

Source: ICO Curriculum Change Project (Acuña et al., 2010)

As for the methodology used in and out of the classroom, it considers: lectures, reading tests, case studies, SR project development and exams, for which it is necessary that students be analytical and decisive. Hence, it is necessary for students to complement this with autonomous work.

The present research has been developed under the umbrella of qualitative methodology (Hernández et al., 2010), through a longitudinal case study (León and Montero, 2003) divided into stages, which respond to an ethnographic design (Martinez, 1998), of the emerging type (Rossman & Rallis, 1998), which give account of the implications and day-to-day events that eventually lead to the development of this curricular activity.

The recollection and source of information are secondary, taking into consideration the last four years of the subject´s implementation. This information was systematized through a document revision (Canales, 2006) of all the activities linked to the teaching-learning process (Montes and Machoda, 2011), all of which allow the experience in the subject of Social Responsibility, from the University of Bio-Bio´s Commercial Engineering Major, to be analyzed.

In order to safeguard the rigor of the information, the School of Engineering Director and Heads of Departments, as well as the secretary, were consulted. Moreover, the professors of the subject, professors guiding theses work, professors in charge of subjects related to the focus of this research, as well as teachers leading a research project, were also consulted.

With regard to students who have taken the Social Responsibility course within the last 11 years, it should be noted that under the previous curriculum there were 211 students and 68 in the cities of Concepción and Chillán, respectively, through the modality of supplementary subjects, between 2007 and 2011. As of the year 2012, with the new curriculum underway, there are more than 489 students and 285 students in the aforementioned cities, which account for 1053 students in total.

One of the formalized and institutionalized activities is the seminar entitled "Social Responsibility: Beyond Economic Interest", in its 12th version. The event is aimed at entrepreneurs belonging to the Bío-Bío provinces and its goal is to disseminate knowledge about corporate social responsibility, as well as to discuss future actions to be taken in order to allow these entrepreneurs to incorporate, within their strategic and tactical guidelines, the principles and values characteristic of the CSR, through the modality of Talks, Forums and Debates, activites organized by the students with the help of the professors in charge of the subject. About fifty exhibitors belonging to companies and organizations from the academia, the private as well as the public sector, such as: INN, PROHumana, AcciónRSE, Vincular, Forestal Mininco, ESSBIO, Fundación Manos del Bío-Bío, Asociación Chilena de Seguridad, Empresas Copelec, Fundación CMPC, Pacto Global Red Chile, Japipipol Felicidad Organizacional, Mutual de Seguridad, Empresa Finning CAT, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Superintendencia de Seguridad Social, Empresas Arauco, SODIMAC, Industria Azucarera S.A. (IANSA), Diario Sustentable, Viña Miguel Torres, Empresa ESSBIO, Aldeas Infantiles SOS, Organización Vincular Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Deportes Huachipato, Conama, Aguas Nuevo Sur, among other organizations. More than two-thousand people have attended this seminar, including entrepreneurs, academics, high-school students, graduate and undergraduate students, as well as the general public

Furthermore, in the last decade there have been guided visits to different companies, at least one per cohorts, and per site, totaling more than on-hundred companies and various organizations. The purpose of these visits is to observe and carry out critical analyzes of socially responsible practices, in companies such as: Banco Central, Forestal Arauco, Fósforos Copihue, Copefrut, Frutemu, Coca-Cola Embonor, Tortas Montero, Agrichile, Siderúrgica Huachipato, Kunstmann, Frutícola Patagonia Fresh. Furthermore, more than 40 bidirectional collaboration protocols associated with this have been achieved. It should be noted that in 2015 and 2016, community engagement and outreach activities intensified. Twelve workshops and eight talks were held, each of which aimed to convey the successful experiences of different organizations on the issues of social responsibility. More than twelve guided visits to companies were carried out with the purpose of gathering data and information for the first version of a case study on social responsibility. Finally, several work meetings and four focus groups were carried out in order to generate contact networks and strategic alliances with companies, foundations, workers unions and social organizations (see table 5).

Table 5
Community engagement and outreach activities 2015 and 2016

Source: Author´s own elaboration

In addition to the results mentioned above, it should be noted that more than one-hundred undergraduate and graduate theses were guided, among which are research related to marketing, sustainability, corporate governance, strategic management, among others; a chapter of a book was published (Social Capital: Creating Economic Value for Shareholders. Man and his Social Environment: Introduction, concepts and perceptions); an average of two talks per year have been presented at the ENEFA National Congress, as well as a talk at the CLADEA International Congress. (see Table 6); a textbook was elaborated: ISO 26.000 Standards of Social Responsibility and Business Cases. Furthermore, a work study was presented to the Symposium of Social Responsibility, in Colombia, and finally, it has managed to be awarded eight Development Teaching Funds, with internal financing, linked to social responsibility.

Table 6
Participation in Conferences

Source: Author´s own elaboration.

Some of the most significant impacts are the result of the systematic development of the seminar called Social Responsibility: Beyond Economic Interest, in which more than two-thousand people have participated, allowing a the link between the University of Bio-Bio and its community partners to be strengthened. Thus, this has lead to other activities, not considered in the subject, such as meetings with employers, the development of programs through the service-learning methodology which respond to certain problems in the community.

As a result of the experience gained in the Social Responsibility course, students have been led to develop theses that address the aforementioned subject, totaling over one-hundred theses work accepted in congresses, seminars, symposiums and others, due to the relevance of the findings that respond to local company problems.

Furthermore, the incorporation of subjects that consider aspects related to ethics, morality, social responsibility, corporate management or other related to cultivating in future professionals, the importance and the necessity to proceed under principles and values generally accepted by a civilized society.

The University of Bío-Bío has the great challenge of implicitly and explicitly incorporating the need for ethical, well-rounded and socially responsible teachers into the curriculum, so that it can awaken in students the relevance that respect, solidarity, responsibility and commitment, with oneself and the rest, have for the profession.

Finally, there is the enormous challenge, as well, of developing a network that organizes congresses, seminars, workshops, among others, at a national level, allowing the systematic and avant-garde training in practicums and actions that companies can develop thanks to the willingness of professionals who are motivated towards the constant search for common good.

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1. Académico, Departamento de Economía y Administración, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Económicas, Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile. pseverino@ucm.cl

2. Académico, Departamento de Gestión Empresarial, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Chile. E-mail: oacuna@ubiobio.cl