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As business organisations around the world face sustainability-related challenges, many are struggling to balance short and long-term objectives to overcome these obstacles.
This micro-credential is ideal for professionals seeking an understanding of how to develop sustainable stakeholder-oriented business strategies in organisations.
Analyse the shareholder vs stakeholder debate
Explore traditional and contemporary attitudes toward corporate purpose. Consider why many organisations now favour stakeholder capitalism as their preferred business model and examine why the stakeholder view now dominates business discourse and drives more sustainable business strategies.
Apply learned insights and frameworks to evaluate organisations in crisis vs organisations that have a clear purpose and incorporate inclusive stakeholder management practices. You'll learn how stakeholder interests can be aligned to create a sense of shared values and compare real-world examples of sustainable business success with corporate cases of misconduct.
Develop a stakeholder-oriented, sustainable business strategy
Assess the ethical and strategic risks and opportunities ingrained in the stakeholder approach. Compare this business model to the sustainability pyramid, and discover how the latter gives organisations a blueprint to develop shared values across all business operations. Apply the sustainable business pyramid to a powerful business strategy for your organisation.
Foundation of Sustainable Business is designed for a diverse range of professionals seeking to contribute to the stakeholder-oriented, sustainable business goals of their organisation.
You might be seeking to lead the sustainable business strategy at your organisation or to advance your career through a foundational understanding of stakeholder management and sustainability practices.
The course is also suited more broadly to anyone wanting to develop their critical thinking about societal and ethical issues in organised settings.
There are no eligibility requirements.
Relevance to your job and industry
This micro-credential has been developed in close consultation with industry, including in-depth consultations with the Chief Sustainability Officer at Australia Post and the Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact Network Australia.
It will equip you with a strong, foundational knowledge base for developing a stakeholder-oriented, sustainable business strategy in your organisation.
Skills and learning outcomes
By the end of this micro-credential, you will be able to:
Explain why the business is moving towards a stakeholder value corporate purpose
Develop a stakeholder-oriented, sustainable business strategy in your organisation
Workload and assessment
This micro-credential runs over four weeks.
Your total time commitment is approximately 42 hours, which includes:
5 hours of guided learning
12 hours of independent study
25 hours of assessment tasks.
Assessment:
600-word essay (50%)
5-minute video presentation (50%).
Your digital certificate
Once you've successfully completed this course, you will be awarded your Foundations of Sustainable Business micro-credential. This digital certificate will warrant the achievement of knowledge, skills and capabilities outlined in the learning outcomes. It may also include artefacts (such as videos and written material) related to both experiential and work-integrated learning, including translatable assessment that is practical to your professional life. You can also share your micro-credential digitally and via social media by adding it to your personal platforms, such as LinkedIn. See example certificate.
Pathways to further study
Foundations of Sustainable Business is part of the Corporate Sustainability Series of micro-credentials. It can be taken as a standalone course or complemented with any other micro-credential in the Corporate Sustainability Series.
This series includes:
Managing Stakeholders and Sustainability
Foundations of Sustainable Business
Learning experience
In our innovative online environment, you'll learn alongside a diverse range of industry professionals, and be guided by leading practitioners. Instructors will facilitate discussion and answer questions during webinars, focusing the course on real-world settings and examples. Learning will be supported by text, video and/or audio-based methods.
