Global Responsibility

The European Foundation for Management Development (efmd), in the framework ofits mission to generate new knowledge in its field of interest, has taken the initiativeto open a debate on the concept of ‘‘global responsibility’’. The debate is meant tomobilize the interest of various providers and consumers of management educationworld-wide around this concept and trigger a reflection that contributes to theformulation and implementation of a global management ethos. We anticipate the concept of ‘‘global responsibility’’ will follow a developmentalprocess comparable with the one experimented with, the notion of ‘‘sustainability’’invented by the UN. Started in the 1990s, it led to the shaping of the concept – anempty shell at the beginning that gained content thanks to the interest raised amongkey actors: politicians, delegates of non-governmental organizations, corporate leaders,and other stakeholders. This collection provides an invitation to join efmd members in this debate about theconcept of ‘‘global responsibility’’, covering as it does the separate but linked areasof globalization of business and economies, and the concept of corporate socialresponsibility, all converging towards the long-term sustainable development ofsociety at large. Previously published in: Global responsibility, Volume 3, Number 3, 2003