UM practices sustainability and social responsibility with several hundred listed activities, in all documents and informally.
Published in Chapter:
Social Responsibility as a Precondition of Innovation in Higher Education
Matjaž Mulej (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Maribor, Slovenia & IRDO Institute for the Development of Social Responsibility, Maribor, Slovenia) and Miro Mihec (Etika d.o.o., Slovenia)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 26
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2708-5.ch003
Abstract
The word innovation defines both the process and its outcome. Here, the authors focus on the innovation process in terms of its human success preconditions attained by practicing social responsibility (SR). In the globally passed/valid ISO 26.000, SR's essence lies in synergy of: (1) one's responsibility for one's impact on society; (2) interdependence; and (3) a holistic approach; seven principles, i.e. human and organizational attributes support SR behavior. With them, the innovation process is easier to manage. Innovation is complex: one of 3.000 ideas becomes innovation. It includes many phases and different professions practicing SR to support holistic behavior preventing failures. On the other hand, higher education works per specialized faculties, etc., making SR hard to practice, but possible. Usual curricula favor narrow specialty without creative interdisciplinary cooperation. Due to lack of holism, interdependence, and responsibility, higher education offers more inventions than innovations. Cases cover the University of Maribor and the Association Social Economy Slovenia.