The UN and good governance

Posted by Marc Hodak on July 9, 2007 under Revealed preference | 3 Comments to Read

If you wanted to enhance the credibility of the teaching of good governance, wouldn’t you go to an organization like the U.N.? Of course. That is why the U.N. has endorsed certain guidelines for business school education such as:

We will incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.

Since I think the U.N. should be taken at its word, I have begun to think about cases that can be used to teach these principles. For example, Principles 1 and 2: “Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses” could be illustrated with examples of how the U.N. has built its organizational capability to clean up human rights abuses. Or Principle #10: “Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery” could be illustrated with this.

Gee, if I wasn’t so busy preparing for my course on corporate scandals, I’m sure I could dig up lots of examples of U.N. initiatives to illustrate good governance.

  • gary said,

    U.N. initiatives to illustrate good governance? Until we rid the UN of dictators, don’t expect much progress. Here’s how it SHOULD be: http://www.UnitedDemocraticNations.org

    Sounds like an interesting class you’re taking. Wonder if they’ll cover the UN scandals…

    gary

  • shawn said,

    …it’s hard to take an article seriously when the title includes “looses all credibility”. Umm…that’s “loses”, bubs. The fact that it’s in “loses all credibility” is so awesomely ironic.

  • M. Hodak said,

    Gary – Actually, it’s a class I’m teaching. Since it’s about corporate scandals, I won’t be getting into governmental/NGO related scandals. I wouldn’t even know how to winnow that down to one semester.

    Shawn – Yea, I thought that was pretty funny, too. Since they’re a British outlet, it reminded me of the Ali G excuse, “maybe they’se don’t spell it the same in da UK?” Reporters Without Borders are obviously in need of Editors Without Borders. I figured they were a good link for this not because of their credibility as a group of deep thinkers, but precisely the opposite–a group with impeccable liberal credentials who would normally agitate for UN involvement in things.

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