Business graduate skills in sustainability (original) (raw)
2011, Journal of Global Responsibility
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to review research and strategies in Australian business education that aim to foster graduate capabilities in sustainability concepts and practices, also to present a case study of teaching practice along with ideas for future development. Design/methodology/approach -The authors report on a research project by seven Australian universities, with financial support from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), on how to develop and grade graduate capabilities with sustainability identified as a core graduate skill. An example is presented from the Faculty of Business and Economics of a strategy in action -the use of a case study (centred on sustainability practices at the university) to enhance the skills of merit scholars. Findings -Corporate social responsibility is a well-established concept in business management theory, with sustainability principles emerging as a core feature. In the higher education sector, the spirit may be willing, but training in the application of these principles has been implemented as an add-on rather than an embedded part of the curriculum. Although efforts are being made to find ways of nurturing graduate capabilities in sustainability practice, a significant obstacle is the lack of teaching models and materials. The authors offer findings from the ALTC graduate skills project as well as a case study of implementation. Originality/value -The authors report on practical innovations in fostering business graduate skills in implementing sustainability principles, assess the utility of current education practice and present some suggestions for future learning and teaching strategies.
Sign up for access to the world's latest research.
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Related papers
Weaving Sustainability Into Business Education 19
2012
The imperative for addressing complex sustainability challenges through education underpins the UN declaration of the 2005 to 2014 Decade of education for sustainable development. Sustainability has been burgeoning as a theme for business schools worldwide with increasing numbers of courses and specialisations on sustainability in degrees such as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. However, in the current 2007-08 Beyond Grey Pinstripes Global 100 ranking of social and environmental issues in MBA programs, only one Australian university is listed (Aspen CBE 2007). The aim of this preliminary empirical research is to explore the essential linkage between the sustainability requirements of business and curriculum offerings. The findings in this paper support the call for holistic embedding of sustainability in business education to develop current and future business leaders’ capacities and competencies in shifting towards corporate sustainable development.
Universities have been identified as being critical in developing sustainability-focused skillsets and mindsets (UNESCO in United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2004–2014, 2004; UNCSD in The future we want, 2012; UE4SD in The state of the art report 2014). A UK-based survey further identified that 80 % of students believe that universities should incorporate sustainable development. Additionally this percentage increases as students progress through their degree (LSIS in Embedding sustainability into teaching, learning and curriculum in the learning and skills sector, 2013). There is also a growing demand from business, for graduates to be sustainability literate, with company leaders increasingly seeing sustainability as one of the top 3 priorities (McKinsey in Sustainability's strategic worth McKinsey global survey results, 2014). Academic discussions around sustainability are often problematic due to many factors including understanding, relevance and time (LSIS 2013; Lozano 2010). The approach outlined in this chapter acknowledged barriers and utilised a method to mitigate these issues. The process focused on program level mapping and coverage of sustainability as an interdisciplinary concept, using the Macquarie University Sustainability Framework. The initial stages undertaken in 2014 investigated connections to sustainability in four undergraduate programs at Macquarie University: Bachelor
Business sustainability and undergraduate management education: an Australian study
Higher Education, 2011
The academic literature arguing that there is an urgent requirement for businesses to become more sustainable is rapidly expanding. There is also a demonstrated need for managers to develop a better understanding of sustainability and the appropriate strategies required to improve business sustainability. In addition, there have been international calls for educators to address sustainability in their programs. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which business sustainability was incorporated into undergraduate business and management courses in Australian universities. The high percentage of international students enrolled in these courses suggests our findings have implications beyond the Australian context. Students currently studying these courses are the managers and leaders of the future and their knowledge and skills will influence the extent to which business sustainability will be achieved. The findings demonstrate that more than half of Australian universities did not explicitly identify sustainability as part of their business/management curricula and those universities that did address sustainability did so, in most cases, only in a limited way.
Sustainability and Australian Undergraduate Management Courses
2010
The academic literature arguing that there is an urgent requirement for businesses to become more sustainable is large and rapidly expanding. There is also a demonstrated need for managers to develop a better understanding of sustainability and the appropriate strategies required to improve business sustainability. In addition, there have been international calls for educators to address sustainability in their programs.
2017
Sustainable development represents a frequently discussed topic in all fragments of society hence it is finding its way to the curriculum of most academic institutions. As the sustainability agenda is still evolving and becoming increasingly complex, presenting a link between business and sustainability possesses numerous challenges to the design, development and delivery of such a course. This paper strives to make a limited contribution to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (Kolb, 2014) as well as Biggs’s principles of critical reflection. This paper delivers an assessment of curricula development to teach sustainability to a cohort of commerce undergraduate students at 300 level over a period of 10 years. This reflection has been based on an empirical assessment of the author’s experiences, reflections and problems encountered as an instructor of a management elective course named Business and Sustainability. The paper also examines reflections that led to corrections over the y...
Sustainability Management: The missing link in management education
2006
It is widely recognised that trans-disciplinary collaboration and the integration of different types of knowledge are required to operationalise sustainability. Yet, the ethos of sustainability has failed thus far to permeate the curriculum and the administrative structures of many universities. In the face of growing concerns for the environment and worsening ecosystem health, the learning contexts typical of universities world-wide fail to meet the needs of students, the community, and wider natural systems. The 'sustainability void' within established curricula (e.g. business, health, engineering) shows that many curricula are still inappropriate for learning about the complexities of social systems, institutions and their environment.
Innovative approaches to sustainability skills development
Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, 2022
The aim of this interactive workshop was for the learning developers participating to be empowered to engage with these changes in their own institutions. Much of the facilitated discussion looked at new approaches to learning development that support education for sustainability. It comprised a series of mini-presentations of case-studies derived from original research into teaching climate change including 35 in-depth interviews. The workshop drew on the presenters’ research to crowdsource solutions from the learning developer community to key challenges. How can we foster creativity, innovation and systemic thinking in graduates? How can advanced skills for sustainability be scaffolded in the university curriculum? The workshop is designed to be of interest to learning developers with experience in supporting education for sustainability, and those new to the topic.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.