Laying the foundations: Developing future leaders and managers' capacity to contribute to sustainable development (original) (raw)
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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.
Beyond the Curriculum: Integrating Sustainability into Business Schools
Journal of Business Ethics, 2015
This paper evaluates the ways in which European business schools are implementing sustainability and ethics into their curricula. Drawing on data gathered by a recent large study that the Academy of Business Society conducted in cooperation with EFMD, we map the approaches that schools are currently employing by drawing on and expanding Rusinko's (Acad Manag Learn Educ 9(3):507-519, 2010) and Godemann et al.'s (Approaches to changing the curriculum 2011) matrices of integrating sustainability in business and management schools. We show that most schools adopt one or more of the four approaches outlined by Godemann et al. (Approaches to changing the curriculum 2011). However, we also argue that a fifth dimension needs to be added as the existing matrices do not capture the systemic nature of such curricular initiatives and how these are influenced by internal factors within the business school and external factors beyond. We suggest calling this fifth dimension 'Systemic Institutional Integration' and demonstrate that any business school which aims to integrate sustainability further into the curricula cannot succeed without the following: (1) Systemic thinking and systemic leadership, (2) Connectedness to business, the natural environment and society and (3) Institutional capacity building. Utilising further literature and the answers provided by the deans and faculty, we discuss each factor in turn and suggest ways forward to a successful systemic institutional integration of sustainability and ethics into management education.
International Review on Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, 2017
The authors examine the course offerings of undergraduate business programs in Canada to better understand the depth and breadth of this educational system’s inclusion of ethics and social responsibility courses. Methodology involved analyzing online programs, curricula, and course descriptions on university websites. Results indicate that only a small proportion of universities are providing a substantial depth and breadth of course coverage in their course offerings. Additionally, barriers to educating ethical managers are discussed and a model of social responsibility concepts is presented.
From the business ethics course to the sustainable curriculum
Journal of Business Ethics, 1998
ABSTRACT. Universities want to prepare students intellectually so that they might eventually find suc-cessful, fulfilling work. Since work is synonymous with business no work ever exists outside of business one of the academy's primary goals is to help students enter the ...
Sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR): Essential topics for business education
Balkan Region Conference on Engineering and Business Education, 2017
The current changes and challenges of the economic and financial environments have created a need for further development in the way higher education, organizations and management systems view the sustainable development and business education. The purpose of this paper is to examine different aspects and approaches regarding sustainability, sustainable development, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the context of business education. The research is based on a literature review, on the experience gained as a result of our participation in various projects and international activities regarding the above-mentioned concepts, and on the results of several qualitative and quantitative marketing researches developed by the authors. Based on these findings we are underlining the fact that the concepts related to CSR and its components are not well known by managers of companies and public institutions and we also point out the fact that the respondents that have knowledge and skills in this field, have acquired most of them outside the formal education system. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the discussion needed to take place in order to understand that universities should make important steps not only for reorienting curriculum, developing programs, and modules, but also in implementing innovative teaching methods in order to integrate such topics in their educational programs.
Sustainable Development in Business Education
Economics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 2015
This chapter highlights the challenges of teaching sustainability in business schools. The authors provide a discussion of economic liberalism and different forms of stakeholder theory to explain the varying attitudes among educators towards ethics, responsibility and sustainability. The assumption that business schools encourage a 'profit-first-mentality' is fleshed out, and it is argued that this attitude likely affects the effectiveness of teaching and learning in respect to ethical, responsible and sustainable values. The chapter later questions whether it is better to flow with the dominant economic-driven values as prescribed by conventional business education or to challenge it in order to nurture sustainability-driven values among students. These options are explored and the suggestion that entrepreneurship has a role to play as a pedagogical tool to support the teaching of sustainable development is offered. It is argued that entrepreneurship does not confront, but supports the extant values of conventional business education and therefore is a feasible approach for business education. Finally, implications for business and management education, as well as, the role of entrepreneurship to promote sustainability-values are discussed drawing on models and two case studies (UK and China).
International Journal of Modern Education Studies, 2018
In recent years there has been an increasing interest in responsible management education. Integration of the principles of responsible management education (PRME) within the core curricula of business schools and management education-related institutions calls for the creation of innovative pedagogies and educational approaches. Responding to the inherent challenges associated with the development and implementation of education for sustainability within existing business‐related education, this paper seeks to discuss a teaching initiative of introducing Model United Nations (Model UN) as a classroom activity for undergraduate students. The main purpose of research presented in this paper is to explore students’ experience of engaging in Model UN debates around topics related to the sustainable development goals as defined in the UN 2030 Agenda for sustainable development (for example, youth unemployment, climate change, poverty, etc.). Model UN is traditionally known as an extra-c...
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.
Looking Ahead – Sustainability and Responsibility in Management Education
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG eBooks, 2022
Advancing on the transformation pathway towards sustainable development in a world, which has become more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) is one of the biggest societal developmental challenges of the 21st century. The complexity and interrelatedness of social, ecological and economic systems require actors with systemic and interdisciplinary thinking capabilities, who employ critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills, cooperate and empathise, have a sense of responsibility towards community and environment, ethically weigh today's actions against the possible long-term consequences, and ultimately take knowledgeable and morally guided actions (Rieckmann, 2018; Wiek et al., 2011). Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are considered to play a crucial role in developing students into sustainability change-makers (UNESCO, 2017) who-upon leaving academic or educational institutions and entering the working life-are equipped with the knowledge, abilities, values, and motivation needed to become responsible actors and leaders creating more sustainable futures. Linking the goals of education (learning objectives) to the right tools (pedagogical approaches/methods) is key in directing and influencing desired behavioural change. Effective teaching and learning require knowledge about (pedagogical and other) variables that influence the learning process and the internal predictors of responsible and sustainable behaviour. Persisting with the same old seems to be not an option if educators want to avoid the conformity trap of trying to solve today's problems with yesterday's tools (Major et al., 2020). Instead, they must take an active approach to tackle these challenges and develop, implement, test, and validate new and innovative ways of teaching (and learning) (Walder, 2014). The first part of the book suggested a number of teaching approaches (e.g. experiential, active and transdisciplinary learning) and methods (e.g. self-reflection tasks/exercises, gamification or service learning) considered as appropriate. From these, a list of "pedagogical impact variables" was derived, that are assumed to positively influence the attainment of learning objectives and goals (e.g., degree of emotional involvement or experience of real-life