Instructions for Educators on Using the Digital Tool for Social Sustainability in Business

This digital tool for social sustainability in business provides learners with a practical way to learn how social sustainability is integrated into business strategy, people management, product design, and reporting. With this tool, learners can simulate real managerial decisions, practise reporting, and understand how firms can pursue fairness, inclusion, and accessibility while growing their business.

Below are potential exercises and facilitation guidance for educators.

 

Business Simulation: Managing Social Sustainability in an SME

In this simulation, learners will use a digital tool for social sustainability in business to learn how firms integrate social sustainability into business strategy, people management, product or service development, and reporting. The educators may download these documents and use them for setting individual or team business simulation in their courses. These are extended assignments and will require approx. 10-20 hours to complete it diligently.  Thus, this simulation is recommended to be used as an extended course assignment.

Tips for conducting this simulation:

  • When setting this simulation, educators can suggest their own deadlines, information on the submission process, assessment or other requirements relevant for their institutional context.
  • In the assessment, it is recommended to focus on analytical skills and ability to make real business decisions suitable for specific business case. For example, the assessment criteria may focus on the quality of outcomes; depth and accuracy of the case analysis; suitability of the suggestions for the specific case company; and appropriateness, feasibility, and innovativeness of the strategic developments proposed.

N.B. Wen using these materials, DEI4SME team kindly requests to maintain logos and other attributions necessary to indicate the authorship of this simulation, funding, and project within which these educational resources were provided.

 

Exercise: Developing Inclusion Competencies

This is an individual assignment intended to support learner in developing their inclusion competencies. This activity may take 1-5 hours to complete. Strengthening personal inclusion skills can directly benefit business managers and entrepreneurs, especially in a small-team environment where every relationship, decision, and communication counts. More reasons on why inclusion competencies matter for business managers are provided in this page: Inclusion Competencies. The educators may download this document and use it for setting an individual assignment, encouraging learners to work towards becoming inclusive and responsible business leaders:

Tips for conducting this activity:

  • When setting this simulation, educators can suggest their own deadlines, information on the submission process, assessment or other requirements relevant for their institutional context.
  • In the assessment, it is recommended to focus on individual's willingness and efforts to develop personal skills and attitudes. For example, the assessment criteria may focus on the quality and thoughtfulness of the development plan, the suitability of the personal development strategy for the person, and the ability to critically reflect on own strengths and weaknesses, suggesting ways to address them both.
  • Educators can facilitate this activity by asking learners to imagine themselves as managers who want to understand their strengths and weaknesses and talk about how manager features connect with the firm's strategic actions (e.g., when using microfoundations or Upper Echelons Theory). This is an individual assignment, so learners can personally engage with their development without feeling unnecessary external pressures.
  • This assignment can be used with the learning method of diversity and inclusion as a learning journey.

N.B. Wen using these materials, DEI4SME team kindly requests to maintain logos and other attributions necessary to indicate the authorship of this simulation, funding, and project within which these educational resources were provided.

 

Classroom Simulation: Management Meeting to Set Social Sustainability Strategic Development Goals

Prior to the class, the educator may assign learners to read one of the cases from the open-access case repository: https://dei4sme.eu/teaching-cases/  or the activity may be conducted when further discussing any other company case previously discussed in the class. In either of the settings, the most important aspect would be to have learners familiar with the case and its context when conducting this exercise, so that learners could build further on the information about the company that they are familiar with.

  1. After discussing the case questions or analyzing the case in the class, educators may proceed with this short simulation to further deepen learners' understanding of social sustainability in various SME contexts.
  2. In this classroom simulation, learners simulate a management team meeting. Each team member takes a fictional role such as CEO, HR manager, operations manager, or sustainability officer, depending on the size and form of their selected firm.
  3. The group is encouraged to consider how the firm could further integrate social sustainability to strengthen both its responsibility commitments and business operations. Learners can use the 'Plan my actions...' templates available in the section "Learn and plan": https://tool.dei4sme.eu/en/learn-and-plan/    Educators can support students by reminding them to choose actions that match the size and resources of an SME.
  4. Depending on the time available, learners can be tasked to make one or several targeted actions when using the template and present them for other groups in the class.
  5. Discussion across the teams in the class could focus on discussing the reasoning: 1) why learners considered such action as best for the case firm, and 2) how it would help strengthen the firm's business and social responsibility commitments.

What learners will learn or discover in this simulation?

  • This exercise allows one to realize that there are multiple paths towards strengthening business with social sustainability. It also allows exchanging ideas on how this could be achieved. This simulation also teaches learners how different managerial perspectives contribute to more balanced and inclusive decisions and how to approach social sustainability integration work in a more structured way even within the SME context.
  • Simple planning templates help students understand connections between strategic goals, specific measures of success, and accountability management in firms. Moreover, these templates help them select priority actions, describe why they matter, and outline the steps needed to implement them.
  • This short simulation helps learners understand how strategies become concrete through simple operational steps and how inclusion and social sustainability can be built through daily practices and strategic thinking.

Note: Similar activity is included in the bigger simulation presented above. Thus, educators may start with this activity, and then encourage learners work on extended group or individual activity using the instructions above.

 

Educators Can Create Own Exercises with This Digital Tool

Educators can enhance the use of the digital tool by creating different exercises, simulations, and activities with this open access tools. The tool is flexible and can be used in short workshops or longer assignment cycles. It is especially helpful for learners who learn best by doing, as it allows them to practise realistic business planning and sustainability reporting in a safe and creative environment.

If you have created an activity and would like to share it with others, please email us at contact@dei4sme.eu and the DEI4SME project's team will consider featuring it on this page.