Responsible leadership development through management education: A business ethics perspective (original) (raw)
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Management education and the ethical mindset: Responsibility to whom and for what?
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In the aftermath of the 2008/09 financial crisis, business schools had to face increasing criticism to have failed equipping their students with a broad and critical understanding of management and business practices which go beyond pure self-interest. Business schools are supposed to contribute to a holistic understanding of management which creates value along a triple bottom line: profit, people and planet. The triple bottom line finds its realization in the concept of sustainable corporate responsibility. This paper discusses possible approaches for business schools how to educate students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy. On the basis of the recently published Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) as well as contemporary learning theories, the paper provides concrete recommendations how to foster students’ development towards long-term thinking, responsible...
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In an era that has seen events involving ethical misconduct by prominent business leaders, there is renewed attention around the issue of how and where business leaders acquire their ethical orientation. In this chapter, the authors argue that business education is an influential foundation upon which an ethical orientation is developed and offers an opportunity to be a primary focus for responding to the pressing need for strong ethical leadership in business. The chapter extends existing research in business ethics to present the novel possibility of situating ethics alongside technical competencies since this will assist in the training of business leaders who are needed equipped or armed with their skills, including those soft skills, to meet contemporary business challenges.
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Recent corporate scandals have resulted in criticism of business schools for graduating students who put too much emphasis on shareholder value and profit maximisation but neglect the broader social and environmental context in which businesses operate. The Principles for Responsible Management (PRME) are a set of voluntary standards developed in 2007 under the coordination of the UN Global Compact, to address weaknesses in ethical education. This paper reviews the context of the PRME principles and UK and Irish school signatories’ approaches to implementation through a review of their reports to PRME to outline the range of options available to a business school considering implementing the principles across all aspects of the education portfolio. The paper concludes with an implementation strategy for a business school considering PRME membership. Introduction The Principles for Responsible Management (PRME) were launched at the United National Global Compact Leaders’ Summit in 20...
Events such as the credit and banking crisis alongside general global corporate social responsibility and sustainability concerns, have led to renewed debate as to the legitimacy and purpose of business in society. Some are calling for a new approach, one that eschews the profit orientated exploitative business practices of the past for a new model of ‘responsible management’. Indeed, many business organisations are already moving beyond social and environmental compliance and fundamentally rethinking the role their business should play in light of broader societal changes. In response to this some business schools are seeking to realign their curriculum, research and engagement activities around the core concept of responsible management. There is a need however to better understand the drivers and enablers of responsible management education and related practices within the business school and wider university environment. This paper seeks to construct a theoretical framework for interpreting the implementation of responsible management in business schools. Three relevant theories are suggested; institutional theory, stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory. The intention is to develop a theoretical framework though which to establish the key motivators for business schools to develop responsible management activities.
Does management education create responsible managers? Viewpont
Köz-gazdaság
Does management education create responsible managers? Viewpont The integration of sustainability and responsibility into management education is a widely discussed issue in the literature and in practice. As a result of a lifelong experience of teaching sustainability, environmental management and further related courses at university level, the authors aim to give their viewpoint about Responsible Management Education (RME). The concept of RME relies on the basis of several similar categories, used in today's higher education but is aimed to mean more than just another slogan for the same content. Three issues are discussed in the paper. (Q1) Should we limit the focus of management education on the classical business targets like profit and growth, as well as the preconditions to achieve those targets-or should we establish a different philosophical background for business thinking and teaching: the Responsible Management? (Q2) Should the concept of Responsible Management be integrated in the classical business courses or should it be a specific, independent course? (Q3) How to combine teaching methods to reach the ultimate goal of creating responsible managers via management education? The literature review is aimed to give a profound background to the relevance and development of the term Responsible Management Education, followed by the explanation of sceptical and positive arguments regarding the introduction of the concept into the existing course structure. The authors also elaborate a potential methodology for teaching Responsible Management.
Responsible leadership in management education: A design-based research study
EDeR Journal, 2017
In recent years, the quality of management education in general, and particularly of MBA and Executive MBA programs, has been called into question. There are serious doubts about universities’ ability to give students the competencies they need to deal with complex problems in modern society. One part of the discussion focuses on ethical issues and the process through which students develop values and attitudes. In line with the economic crisis, there has been increasing interest in the development of learners’ attitudes to responsibility. We report the results of a study that starts with an ambitious and yet ill-structured learning goal in a demanding educational practice area: How can pedagogical interventions in management education be designed to promote learners‘ attitudes to responsible leadership? As a starting point, there are neither consensual definitions of responsible leadership nor substantial theories available to design promising interventions. De-sign- based research (DBR) provides a structured process to deal with research problems, starting with innovative but imprecisely defined objectives and unknown ways to reach them. We introduce the DBR design and describe the research process and results from a project conducted at St.Gallen University’s Executive MBA program. In close collaboration with practitioners, interventions evolved through multiple cycles of development, testing and refinement with the pursuit of theory-building and practical innovation.
A phronetic approach to responsible management education: Reflections from
organizzazione.unina.it
Very concretely, to address the box-ticking problem, we believe that subject-related ethical topics and reflexivity should be more integrated into each major. More broadly, what is also necessary is to make values explicit in teaching and change the way management is portrayed. Rather than making management appear as a general amoral straightforward technique, which can be readily applied across all industries straight after graduation, we believe that business students should be made aware of the tension, anxiety and doubt faced by managers.
Globally Responsible Management Education: From Principled Challenges to Practical Opportunities
Responsible management education is a crucial step in shaping our common future. This article reviews how the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) offers a platform for institutional commitment and leadership engagement toward business ethics and poverty alleviation. Specifically, this work critically analyzes the challenges and opportunities in adopting the educational principles for practical outcomes in the context of other trends in socially responsible global engagement. Through a review of the institutional trends in relation to PRME, the author offers practical opportunities for curricula development, academic engagement and ethical education for the 21st century.
Ethical Focus in Training Future Business Leaders at University Level
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In the contemporary world, there is a growing need for socially responsible and ethical leadership. Therefore, training future business leaders in the field of professional ethics and social responsibility is an important task of modern university education. To solve it, the participation of scientists and university teachers in the creation and implementation of advanced methods for the development of professional ethics of students is necessary. The aim of the study was to check the effectiveness of training future business leaders in professional ethics at university level using a new methodology created by the authors. In order to verify the hypotheses, an experiment was conducted. Additionally, the questionnaires and tests completed by the participants were analysed. The results of learning according to the new methodology, which confirm the expediency of its use for the development of parameters of professional ethics in future business leaders, are presented. The methodolog...