Spontaneous Learning in the Corporate Context: Values, corporate social responsibility and ethics in professional management

Through interpersonal interactions necessary for the normal operation of any company, people spontaneously learn, even if inadvertently. These learning experiences, which we call "impressions," may hinder or promote the company's future operations and form part of its "performance," measured beyond the normally considered economic performance. Keeping these impressions in mind as a managerial duty naturally adds another dimension to management, and ends up being integrated into it as one of its inherent elements, often called "business ethics." This note briefly explores the conceptual foundations that support the idea of "impressions" in this regard and their properties and then explores the influence of these impressions on company missions, business models and the corresponding managerial decision making. It also analyzes the implications of the foregoing for certain governance aspects of management operations.