Collaboration for Ethical Success: A five University approach to partnership working

This workshop will set out the partnership working framework currently in place between the North East Initiative on Business Ethics (NIBE), an independent regional resource with an aspiration to become a focal point for good business behaviour, and five North East universities. The partnership exists to share good practice in responsible business research, learning and teaching and outreach activities. The collaboration has resulted in a public lecture series with speakers presenting on topics such ‘Virtue Theory and Accounting’, ‘Bank Mandate Fraud’ and ‘What is the Purpose of Business’ with attendees from academia, local business, university and school student groups. The partnership is currently developing joint research proposals and consultancy projects demonstrating that collaboration is a key enabler of responsible management education and responsible business. The workshop will present a model of university responsible management collaboration with the aim of encouraging discussion of other relevant partnering activities from participants institutions. The hope is that this may develop opportunities for wider collaborative activities, partnerships and pan-institutional relationships. We aim to show that in a world where competition and protection are increasing following recent political actions, collaboration across institutional and disciplinary boundaries—not competition—is the path forward for responsible management success.