Corporate Diplomacy

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Overview of the Course Growing income inequality, underperforming educational systems, unequal access to affordable healthcare, decaying infrastructure, increasing environmental degradation and climate change – these and other “grand challenges” are imposing stresses and strains on political systems around the world and challenging the credibility of leading institutions in government, business and wider society. Now, more than ever, we need thoughtful and purposeful public policy, underpinned by strong social support and active engagement with business. To make this happen – to strengthen our ability to tackle society’s most vexing problems – we need skillful corporate and public-sector diplomats who can move adeptly among the business, government and social sectors around the world. We need such people – whom we call “tri-sector leaders” – to face and resolve tensions between the three sectors, and to apply sophisticated diplomatic skills including network-building, empathy and creativity. We need them to exhibit superior cognitive diversity and perspective – an ability to draw upon knowledge and insight from people with different backgrounds, experiences and traditions. Finally, we need them to engage actively, creatively and persistently in collaborative leadership and governance across and between the sectors. Regrettably, such tri-sector leaders are few and far between. Most of today’s leaders in each sector have a narrower conception of their roles – a consequence of the increasingly specialized, fragmented and siloed approaches to professional education and career development. All too many people have responded to our ever more complex and interconnected world by trying to master one small sliver of it, hoping that rest will be taken care of by somebody else. Consequently, they can lack the capabilities to tackle the increasingly interdisciplinary challenges of our time, or even to act as truly responsible leaders – preferring rather to pursue narrower sectional interests. This course sets out to address these shortcomings by creating an understanding and hypothesis about the way in which the different sectors have operated, are operating, and could feasibly operate to the benefit of society. It draws upon extensive research into the ways in which tri-sector leaders can address complex problems, applying a sophisticated mix of leadership and diplomatic skills – illustrating these capabilities through a series of readings and case studies. It addresses the complex challenge of operating in an increasingly non-coherent world where pressures for apparent global uniformity compete with the divergent forces of nationalism, workforce insecurity, technological advance, income inequality and social fragmentation. The course should be of particular interest to students who wish to understand how best to operate at the intersections of government, business and social activism, and who therefore require an understanding of the major underlying issues and challenges, as well as the diplomatic skills and leadership attributes needed to succeed in a tri-sector world. Arc of the Course We begin the course by introducing the core thesis of corporate and public diplomacy – outlining a foundational framework for tri-sector leadership at the intersection of government, business and society. We then explore this framework in three sequential sections, exploring (i) why this has been such an important aspiration throughout history – and is especially so today; (ii) why it is currently proving so difficult to turn this aspiration into reality; and (iii) what we can each of us do to develop the necessary skills and experience. In the first section of the course, we underpin our core framework with an historic and contemporary examination of models of political and economic organization. We explore how society has viewed the principal objectives of business, government and social enterprise; the ways in which they have co-existed, interacted and often clashed within a capitalist system; and the current pressures to revise and refine the operational relationship between the three sectors. This examination helps us to understand why this is such an important challenge for society and for each of us as individuals. In the second section, we explore in more detail why this is currently proving such a difficult challenge. We examine the intrinsic pressures within each sector – examining, for instance, the contest around whether profit maximization and shareholder value should the sole or dominant corporate objectives; comparable arguments around the scope and reach of the public sector’s traditional role as “system guardian” incorporating regulatory and redistribution objectives; and the growing scale and significance of social activism, advocacy and enterprise as “forces for change” in society’s around the world. A key emerging theme will be the constantly evolving nature of these relationships and the likely need for integrative solutions. In the third and final section of the course, we explore how each of us can address this need and opportunity in our own lives and careers. We aim to define how prospective tri-sector leaders can develop a practical toolkit of corporate and public diplomacy – including an enhanced sense of moral purpose, superior contextual intelligence, and extended networks. We conclude by demonstrating in tangible terms how such multi-dimensional skills and experiences can help us to address and resolve some of the most pressing challenges of today’s world, rather than just sustaining the narrow sectional interests of business, government and social enterprise alone.