Industrial Engineering Students’ Corporate Social Responsibility Priorities Within “a Well-Managed” Company

Abstract

Explores Industrial Engineering students’ Corporate Social Responsibility priorities within their vision of a "well-managed” company. It also analyses differences by gender and academic level. A statistically representative sample was assessed including nine CSR dimensions. Results show that for students “a well-managed” company prioritizes social responsibility practices that go beyond those related to Shareholders. Unlike other studies where women have been more sensitive, resulting significant differences were equally distributed with men. Concerning Academic level, scores of Initial level students are higher than those at Middle and Advanced. Therefore, for Initial level students, a "well-managed” company is more committed to CSR, when compared with what was reported by the other two groups. Presented priorities reveal insights into students´ possible professional CSR commitment by the time they graduate. This is the first study of this type among Industrial Engineers. Proposed instrument allows to identify students' sensitivity towards CSR and is fundamental for curricular decisions. Moreover, it can be used to evaluate the commitment of any stakeholder and be useful beyond the educational context.