Student Perception of the Social Value of Responsible Management

Crisanta-Alina Mazilescu,Bernard Gangloff,Laurent Auzoult-Chagnault,Loredana Ileana Viscu

doi:10.3390/soc11010016

Crisanta-Alina Mazilescu, Bernard Gangloff + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11010016

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Abstract

In responsible management, managerial efficiency and sustainable development meet and influence each other. In order to give meaning to their organisation, to respect and look after their collaborators, a manager must promote a set of values on a personal, organisational and societal level. The purpose of this paper is to study the social value attributed to responsible management by students of a technical university. We have therefore undertaken to study a set of seven values attributed to responsible management and, more precisely, their utility and social desirability on a personal, organisational and societal level. The values have been operationalized with personality descriptors. The 60 participants in this study are students from a Romanian technical university. They had to assess, on four scales of seven points each (two for desirability and two for social utility), the value of a person characterised by one of the seven values attributed to responsible management. The results show us that efficiency is the value perceived by the students as being the most desirable for responsible management, and that in terms of social utility, agility is the most appreciated value. We found that there is indeed an effect of the context in which these values are perceived. Efficiency, audacity, dedication and integrity are perceived as more useful at an organisational level, while solidarity was perceived as more useful on a societal level. At the organisational level we also found a gender effect, in the sense that women appreciate people who are efficient, have integrity or are humble more than men do.

Highlights

In terms of sustainable development, large enterprises conduct their activity guided by a major challenge—that of practicing an ethical and responsible management
In the appendices we list the results of the descriptive analysis of the social desirability and social utility of the values associated with responsible management, on an individual, organisational and societal level (Appendix B)
If we look at the analysis for each contextual level, we notice that on the individual and societal levels, the values associated with responsible management are deemed more desirable than useful, while on the organisational level the values analysed are perceived more useful than desirable (Table 3)

Summary

Introduction

In terms of sustainable development, large enterprises conduct their activity guided by a major challenge—that of practicing an ethical and responsible management. The corruption scandals linked to large enterprises, as well as the increasingly frequent practices of small enterprises aimed at increasing their advantages to the disadvantage of the community have emphasized the need to find solutions in order to develop an ethical and responsible management strategy. Numerous enterprises, under the pressure of the public opinion, which vigorously transmits values, have understood that they must assume societal responsibility in order to uphold a good image on the market. Certain organisations have understood that values could become a genuine leverage for performance, for the work climate or for the corporate culture. Scientific literature indicates the remarkable success of organisations which, due to responsible management, have succeeded in fulfilling their social responsibilities and have contributed to reducing the negative impact of activities on the environment and society in general [1].

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