From February 28 to March 3, the Ukrainian Catholic University hosted a visionary annual conference «Sustainable Development and Democracy: The Need for New Infrastructures of Ethics, Solidarity, and Security». This conference was organized by the International Institute of Ethics and Contemporary Issues and the UCU Faculty of Social Sciences . Yaryna Boychuk, George Enderle, Oleh Lahodienko, Roman Vashchuk, Andriy Kostiuk spoke about the international perspective on Ukraine’s reconstruction on March 1, 2022, during the session «Responsible Business – Resource for National Resilience».
According to George Enderle (Professor Emeritus of International Business Ethics at the Mendoza College of Business and Concurrent Professor in the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame, USA), responsible business practices require companies to not only comply with legal regulations, but to also take proactive steps to minimize their negative impact on the environment and society. This includes adopting sustainable practices, promoting social justice, and respecting human rights. Enderle also emphasizes the importance of ethical leadership in responsible business. He argues that corporate leaders must demonstrate a commitment to ethical values, such as integrity, honesty, and fairness, in order to create a culture of responsible business throughout the organization.
Overall, Enderle’s conception of responsible business highlights the need for companies to go beyond mere profit-making and consider their broader impact on society and the planet. By adopting sustainable practices and promoting ethical values, businesses can help create a more just and sustainable world.
Yaryna Boichuk, CEO of UCU Business School, during the discussion said that by prioritizing sustainability, ethical practices, and community engagement, companies can become a valuable resource for national resilience.
«We know that only 185 companies left russian market over last year. It was a hard money-decision for them, but still they did it, but for other no. Red line for them when Russia will use nuclear power.How those companies can be an example for people? Sometimes it looks for us as a black and white, but somehow people are not taking it black and white or their black is much more black than our blackest», – said Sophia Opatska, Vice-rector for strategic development of the Ukrainian Catholic University and Founding dean of the UCU Business School.
What should UCU Business School teach business in order to be responsible, in order to create wealth in our country, recover Ukraine and build the country of our dream? Here are some thoughts from the discussion.
Oleg Lagodienko (CEO & Co-founder at Ethicontrol, member of UNIC’s Executive Committee, Ukraine): «I would teach that you will never be say it as a corporate manager, you just have to be a good reasonable person with good moral compass and have moral skills, be ready to persuade different people with different mindsets on different ethical dilemmas and be ready for fail in this story. Because the history of modern companies does tell you that even good companies fall into good ethical decisions, because of different reasons. So, we have to teach them all this history of difficult decisions and corporate ethical decisions. Then to make sure they will be able to persuade and to find or create frameworks, how to deal with such issues».
Roman Waschuk (Business Ombudsman in Ukraine): «I think you should do cross sectoral courses: business, law enforcement, judiciary, government. Blending common approach to dealing with business ethics».
Andrii Kostyuk (Managing Partner at KPLT Attorneys at law and Chairman of Nexia Ukraine Association of Business Advisors, Ukraine): «Basically they really have to take this responsibility of getting new consensus in the country, based on the rule of law, reasonable, working hard and looking with a sympathy rather than aggression to other people».
George Enderle (Professor Emeritus of International Business Ethics at the Mendoza College of Business and Concurrent Professor in the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame, USA) said that he thinks that UCU Business School provides a wonderful basis of understanding of challenges, opportunities for business ethics.
