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This paper aims to study how corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviors can lead to corporate membership on Fortune Magazine’s Most Admired Companies list.

Regression analysis using environmental, social and governance (ESG) statistics published by MSCI-KLD as independent variables to predict the behaviors that lead to most admired status.

Not surprisingly, corporate financial performance (CFP) is the largest contributor to membership on the list. However, after controlling for CFP, the analysis finds that specific social responsibility behaviors contribute to membership on the Fortune list.

This paper finds that CSR behaviors are important to a firm’s reputation as measured by Fortune’s Most Admired Companies list. Therefore, companies should continue with social responsibility activities to improve their reputation with investors.

Many articles test the effect of ESG on financial performance and the role of financial performance on stock price. This paper is unique in that it measures the impact of CSR on corporate reputation using an important financial market benchmark – the Fortune Most Admired Companies list.

Molly Madziva, who was born in Zimbabwe, was sent by her family to the USA to attend college. When she graduated in 2000 there were no jobs for her in Zimbabwe, as the economy was among the weakest in the world. While working as a software engineer at Bell Labs in New Jersey she decided that she wanted to help the people in her village of Macheke, the majority of who were farmers. Her idea would be an ambitious one. Molly called this the Macheke Sustainability Project. Molly met with various stakeholders who had an interest in the project. Following a thorough situation analysis and the formulation of a list of strategic initiatives, the major decision that she was left with was how to most effectively go about handling the implementation of the project. Her options included: a project within the Institute for Global Understanding at Monmouth University where she was enrolled as a graduate student; a non-profit business located in the USA; a non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Zimbabwe; and a private business in Zimbabwe. Each of these options had clear benefits. Molly was torn, however, as to which she should choose.

Information was obtained in interviews with Richard Nagel in Winter/Spring 2022. This information was supplemented by material from secondary sources. The only information that was disguised were the real names for Bob Crater, Tim Landy, Jane Tolley and Mary Nagel.

The case was classroom tested in Summer 2022. The responses from students helped to shape the writing of the case.

Richard Nagel, the owner of the RE/MAX Elite real estate agency in Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, has just learned that one of his agents, Tim Landy, quit and left the industry. Tim was a young real estate agent and Richard had spent considerable time training him. Tim was motivated and he worked hard to prospect for business, but he showed that he was experiencing difficulty closing on his sales. Richard decided to recommend that Tim work with another agent, Bob Crater, as Bob was an experienced salesman but was not doing the up-front prospecting that Tim was doing. Richard suggested two different strategies to the two agents – a pairing up arrangement and peer-to-peer learning. The outcome that Richard envisioned was that both of the struggling salesmen would benefit from either of these strategies, but Bob refused to collaborate.

Tim’s quitting was characteristic of an ongoing problem with employee retention that Richard had been experiencing as a manager in recent years. This problem caused Richard to think about how he recruited his real estate agents, how he developed them through coaching and how he motivated them so that they would stay happy in their job and not leave. He recognized the importance of thoroughly examining his retention strategy within the next 12 months so that he could better manage the problem and strengthen the productivity of his real estate agency.

The case is intended for an undergraduate course in human resources management, as it deals directly with recruiting, coaching and retaining employees.

The following theoretical concepts are applicable to the case and its learning objectives: Stakeholder Power-Interest Matrix and Carroll’s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Information was obtained in three separate interviews with PSEG. In February 2018, an introductory phone conference was conducted with a number of senior managers within PSEG, including the Director of Development and Strategic Issues, Kate Gerlach. In April 2018, an onsite interview was conducted with Gerlach, who connected the author with Scott Jennings. A phone interview was conducted with Scott Jennings in May 2018 and follow-up communication with him was handled via e-mail. The information obtained from these interviews was supplemented by material obtained from secondary sources. None of the information in the case has been disguised.

Scott Jennings, a Vice President at PSEG, the diversified New Jersey-based energy company, was the project leader for a large commercial wind farm that was to be built off the coast. The project, Garden State Offshore Energy, a joint venture between PSEG and Deepwater Wind, an experienced developer of offshore wind projects, had been announced over six years earlier, in late 2008. In the time that had passed, the Garden State Offshore Energy project team had waited for the New Jersey Bureau of Public Utilities, which had been tasked by Governor Chris Christie to evaluate the project costs before it could authorize the actual construction of the wind turbines. Justifying the project on a cost basis proved to be difficult; despite the growing public sentiment in favor of projects that utilized renewable energy sources such as wind power, the Garden State Offshore Energy team was unable to move the project forward. Scott needed to decide whether it made sense to continue to hold regular meetings with the Garden State Offshore Energy team. Scott’s colleagues suggested that Scott speak with senior management at PSEG to find out if the resources that had been dedicated to the Garden State Offshore Energy project could be shifted to other projects that might be more feasible.

This case is suitable for courses in Sustainability. It is appropriate to use the case in undergraduate courses to illustrate decision making in a regulated industry. Sufficient information is presented in the case to debate both sides of the offshore wind authorization issue.

Josh Brochhausen and Adam Podrat, as partners in The Resource, wrote commercial music for the ads of several companies. They were innovators in the recording studio, and their music appealed to young consumers.

Josh and Adam also had become involved in producing records for hip hop artists. They undertook a project called Deaf in the Family, which was a full length album featuring artists from the hip hop underground. The record was well received among music critics from the underground press, but the project made no money because Josh and Adam did not have the financing to secure the appropriate clearances for the right to use samples from existing songs.

Their problem centered on the uncertainty of financial success in producing hip hop records, which was their passion, and deciding whether to devote energy and resources toward it, and away from making commercial music, which was their livelihood.

This paper seeks to examine the basic employability skills needed for job performance, the reception of these skills in college, and the need for additional training in these skills after graduation.

The research was based on a triangular design approach, in which the attitudes of three distinct groups – recent graduates, the faculty who taught them, and human resource managers who recruit them – were studied. The participants responded to a survey that included 47 items measuring eight dimensions of basic employability skills.

The study revealed considerable differences in opinion among the three groups with regard to the skills needed for job performance, the skills received by college graduates, and the additional training needed.

The research study was limited to graduates, faculty, and recruiters at a business school in southern California. It is suggested that further studies be conducted to determine whether differences in attitudes from those found in this study might exist.

Although the respondents identified the importance of leadership skills, these skills were noted to be below expectations for industry. Moreover, the need for additional training of recent graduates appears to be a major concern according to the results.

In a highly competitive economy, there is little chance that unprepared graduates will be successful in obtaining employment and then performing their jobs.

The triangular approach taken in this study validates the importance of the interconnectedness among graduates, faculty, and industry. It is therefore imperative to strengthen the communication across these groups to ensure adequate preparation of graduates.

The purpose of this paper is to use the authors’ prior findings concerning basic employability skills in order to determine which skills best predict career advancement potential.

Utilizing survey responses of human resource managers, the employability skills showing the largest relationships to career advancement were used in a regression analysis. The regression results generated structural equation models.

According to human resource managers, leadership skills and information technology skills needed for job performance were shown to be significant contributors to recent graduates’ career advancement potential. Work ethic and critical thinking skills were found to be closely linked with leadership skills. Additionally, management skills, leadership skills, and basic literacy and numeracy skills received from recent graduates by their employers were found to be the strongest predictors of graduates’ career advancement potential.

The research study was limited to graduates, faculty, and recruiters at a business school in southern California. Further studies can determine whether differences in attitudes from those found in this study might exist.

It is important that students develop basic employability skills prior to entering the workforce, since remedial training on the job could impede career advancement.

Those graduates who show deficiencies in the skills that are viewed by employers to be predictors of advancement are likely to experience difficulties with career growth.

The first part of this study utilized a triangular approach to survey three distinct groups of respondents – graduates, the faculty who taught them, and the human resource managers who recruited them – concerning their attitudes toward basic employability skills. In this second part of the study, the novelty utilized was structural equation modelling, which highlighted those skills that are most critical to career advancement.

Lost in a world of jargon? Bamboozled by acronyms? Unsure of what your colleagues or therapist is talking about? Then fear not. You are not alone. Andrew Gordon is a seasoned service user who thinks services and the public sector have gone jargon‐mad. In a frank and hard‐hitting article he uncovers a world where professionals are so intimidated by abbreviations and terminology they are afraid to speak out and ask the unthinkable, ‘excuse me what does that acronym actually mean?’