scholarly journals Will Businesses and Business Schools Meet the Grand Challenges of the Era?

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6083
Author(s):  
Sandra Waddock
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Financial Wealth ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
The Core ◽  
System A

Meeting today’s grand challenges means changing the economics paradigm that informs both business practice and business/management education. This paper asks whether business schools meet the challenges of the 21st century and argues not without shifting away from the core—neoliberal—paradigm of economics. This essay makes the following argument. Paradigms shape narratives. Changing core narratives is a powerful lever for transformation. Narratives are constructed of core ideas (memes) that replicate readily from mind to mind. Neoliberalism’s memes are pervasive and highly resonant in business schools. To move towards sustainability, the fundamentals taught in business school need to shift away from neoliberalism’s tenets towards what gives life to economic systems. From a theory perspective, neoliberalism’s lack of attention to social and ecological consequences of economic activity plays a large part in shaping today’s crises, including the pandemic, climate change, and biodiversity loss. A new/next economics paradigm is needed that shifts away from an emphasis on only financial wealth and constant economic growth on a finite plant towards life-centered economies that foster wellbeing and flourishing for all, creating what scholars call collective value. The result of this analysis is a conceptualization supporting new memes that include collaboration and competition, stewardship of the whole system, a cosmopolitan to local sensibility, and recognition of humanity’s deep embeddedness and connection with other people, other beings, and nature. The article concludes that business schools need to meet this challenge head on, changing the fundamentals of what is taught and why.

Mainstreaming Corporate Social Responsibility at the Core of the Business School Curriculum

2015 ◽  
pp. 276-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dima Jamali ◽  
Hanin Abdallah
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Profit Maximization ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The Core ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Corporate Social

Extant literature has highlighted that business schools have been accused of promoting an educational ethos that emphasizes shareholder value and the pursuit of short-term profits, thereby preparing overly competitive future generations interested in profit maximization. This chapter highlights the importance of integrating CSR into the mainstream of business schools' curricula, arguing for the responsible role that business schools should play and emphasizing the strategic case for such integration. The chapter analyzes the main challenges and opportunities that both hinder and facilitate mainstreaming of CSR at the heart of the business school curriculum and the role that the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) can potentially play as a facilitating factor and driving force. The chapter illustrates these drivers and constraints in the context of one specific business school in Lebanon that has successfully experimented with CSR mainstreaming in recent years.

Opportunities and Challenges for CSR Mainstreaming in Business Schools

2018 ◽  
pp. 613-643
Author(s):  
Dima Jamali ◽  
Hanin Abdallah ◽  
Farah Matar
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Profit Maximization ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Critical Juncture ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Paradigmatic Change

Extant literature has highlighted that business schools have been accused of promoting an educational ethos that emphasizes shareholder value and the pursuit of short-term profits and thereby preparing overly competitive future generations interested in profit maximization. This paper highlights the importance of integrating CSR into the mainstream of business schools' curricula, arguing for the responsible role that business schools should play but also emphasizing the strategic case for such integration. The paper analyzes the main challenges and opportunities that both hinder and facilitate mainstreaming of CSR at the heart of the business school curriculum and the role that the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) can potentially play in this regard. The paper illustrates these drivers and constraints in the context of one specific business school in Lebanon that has successfully experimented with CSR mainstreaming, leading to a nuanced reflection on the possibilities of a real paradigmatic change in the context of higher management education at this critical juncture and what it is going to take to catalyze a real transformation beyond “bells and whistles” and mere rhetoric.

Undergraduate management education: Its place, purpose and efforts to bridge the skills gap

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Skills Gap ◽  
Business Graduates ◽  
Common Response ◽  
Industry Professionals

AbstractAustralian business graduates are deemed by industry as not being ‘job ready’ (BCA 2006; BIHECC 2007), lacking the skills required to successfully apply disciplinary knowledge and add value to our globalised, knowledge economy. There exists a lack of empirical evidence and professional input for business schools on profiling the attributes valued by industry. This is especially true for those majoring in management who are consistently overshadowed by their more commercially attractive postgraduate counterparts. In a bid to satisfy industry demands, the most common response among Australian business schools are the development of employability skills and enhanced involvement of industry professionals in curricula content and design, both subject to potential failings and criticism. This review of business school efforts to bridge the skills gap also examines the role, function and impact of undergraduate management education, a research area significantly overlooked in recent years.

scholarly journals Management education and the theatre of the absurd

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 591-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Starkey ◽  
Sue Tempest ◽  
Silvia Cinque
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Eugene Ionesco ◽  
Theatre Of The Absurd ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Aspects

In this article, we recommend the drama of theatre of the absurd as a novel space for critically reflecting upon management and management education as shaped by the forces of emotion, irrationality and conformism rather than reason. We discuss the theatre of the absurd as uniquely relevant to understanding our troubled times. We present a brief overview of the history of business schools and management education. We apply the idea of absurdity to the world of business schools and management education, focusing on the work of one of the theatre of the absurd’s leading proponents, Eugène Ionesco. We emphasise the importance of fiction and fantasy as key aspects of organisation and education. We contribute to debates about management education by reflecting on possible futures for management education and the business school, embracing the humanities as a core disciplinary focus. We suggest that this will help rebalance management education, retaining the best of the existing curriculum, while re-situating the study of management in its broader historical and philosophical nexus.

The production of educational space: Heterotopia and the business university

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 521-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timon Beyes ◽  
Christoph Michels
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Physical Design ◽  
Productive Force ◽  
Management Learning ◽  
Spatial Understanding ◽  
Experimental Teaching ◽  
Future State ◽  
The Future

This article responds to recent calls for rethinking management education and fostering a spatial understanding of educational practices. We propose to introduce Foucault’s notion of heterotopic space and the spatial thought of Lefebvre into the debate about the current and future state of business schools. In particular, we conceptually and empirically discuss the potential for understanding space in a way that addresses its productive force, its multiplicity and its inherent contradictions. Using the example of an experimental teaching project dedicated to the conception and physical design of a city of the future, we reflect upon the possibility of the emergence of ‘other’, heterotopic spaces within an institution of management learning. Our findings suggest that spatial interventions facilitate critically affirmative engagement with the business school by offering an imaginative approach to management education.

Responsible management education for a sustainable world

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Dyllick
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Sustainable Business ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Responsible Management ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Diverse Area

Purpose – The reforms in business schools based on the Ford and Carnegie Foundation reports (Pierson, 1959; Gordon and Howell, 1959) have been very successful in embedding management in a research-based body of knowledge, thereby elevating the academic status of business administration. These reforms, however, did nothing toward making management more socially trustworthy or management education more responsible. In the light of the pressing economic, social and environmental crises the world is facing, the feeling is spreading that not only business and economics but business schools also need to change fundamentally, if they want to be a provider of solutions to these crises and thereby keep and regain their legitimacy. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the fundamental challenges facing the role of business schools and their contributions in the areas of education, research, managing faculty, and role of the business school. It presents suggestions what responsible management education for a sustainable world could and should look like. Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds on the existing literature on the needed changes in business schools and has been written as part of a large international project, the 50+20 initiative (www.50plus20.org), which was developed by a broad coalition of organizations with the World Business School Council for Sustainable Business (WBSCSB), the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) and the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) at its core and 16 business schools and organizations from all around the world as supporters (Muff et al., 2013). Findings – Business schools need to transform themselves fundamentally, if they want to be a provider of solutions to the crises of responsibility and sustainability and thereby keep and regain their legitimacy. Originality/value – The paper pulls together insights from a diverse area of literature and develops practical conclusions.

How do Prospective Candidates Evaluate a Business School?

Paradigm ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.K. Bhattacharyya ◽  
Zillur Rahman ◽  
Anil K. Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Mba Program ◽  
Bright Students ◽  
Set Up

Management education currently enjoys high popularity in India. As a result, over seven hundred business schools have been set up all over the country. With so many schools competing with one another, it is likely that a business school may want to differentiate itself from other schools to attract and enroll bright students in sufficient number. For an effective differentiation, it is however necessary to identify the relevant criteria that candidates, willing to join an MBA program, use to evaluate a business school for admission and the relative importance of these criteria to them. The authors recently conducted a survey for this purpose and the article sumllwrizes the findings.

Undergraduate management education: Its place, purpose and efforts to bridge the skills gap

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Skills Gap ◽  
Business Graduates ◽  
Common Response ◽  
Industry Professionals

AbstractAustralian business graduates are deemed by industry as not being ‘job ready’ (BCA 2006; BIHECC 2007), lacking the skills required to successfully apply disciplinary knowledge and add value to our globalised, knowledge economy. There exists a lack of empirical evidence and professional input for business schools on profiling the attributes valued by industry. This is especially true for those majoring in management who are consistently overshadowed by their more commercially attractive postgraduate counterparts. In a bid to satisfy industry demands, the most common response among Australian business schools are the development of employability skills and enhanced involvement of industry professionals in curricula content and design, both subject to potential failings and criticism. This review of business school efforts to bridge the skills gap also examines the role, function and impact of undergraduate management education, a research area significantly overlooked in recent years.

Business Schools and Management Education in the World: Present and Future

1980 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-172
Author(s):  
Harry L. Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Business School ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future

This paper reports some of the trends that are likely to emerge in management education. In the past, curricula in management schools were developed when a disturbedreactive environment was prevailing. In the eighties, the need, is to introduce courses in environment scanning, communicating and negotiating with external pressure groups, etc. The aim of a business school, now and in the future, should be to develop in the manager the ability to face new facts and problems.

scholarly journals COVID-19: accelerator or demolisher of the RME agenda?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Falkenstein ◽  
Ulrich Hommel ◽  
Annie Snelson-Powell
Keyword(s):  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Business School ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to enrich the discussion at the intersection of responsible management education (RME) and the pandemic with new views that explore together the inhibitors of and drivers for a strengthening of RME in the emerging context. On the one hand, the pandemic crisis fosters the social role business schools play by supporting the enhancement of the RME rationale as an idealist foundational pillar of responsible business schools. On the other hand, it invites negative pragmatic responses in the light of financial and competitive disturbances that seem to enlarge the opportunity cost of moving RME forward. Design/methodology/approach The essay puts forward arguments that help dissect the inherent contradictions and synergies between idealistic and pragmatic business school strategies, as they are impacted by the dynamics of COVID-19. The analysis serves to frame a discourse over the extent to which the pandemic crisis is acting as an accelerator of the RME agenda or instead brings the risk of demolishing what has been achieved so far. Findings The authors form an opinion of the emerging factors that promote and inhibit RME in business schools as they grapple with the challenges of the pandemic whilst recognizing the inherent contradictions faced in their strategic choices and resourcing. Originality/value In light of the growing emphasis on RME in the literature, this study challenges the degree to which the agenda has already become firmly rooted as a core organizational and educational theme in business schools. By doing so, it delivers an assessment of RME progress as a relevant strategic lever for business schools, whilst nonetheless being at risk of back-sliding.

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