Educating future corporate managers for a sustainable world: recommendations for a paradigm shift in business education

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to argue for a need for a paradigm shift in business education that would move the focus of curriculum away from profit maximization at all costs to incorporation of principles of sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper that argues for a major shift in business education, one that not only incorporates diversity and interdisciplinarity and integrative learning at its core, but also does not superficially conflate sustainability with corporate social responsibility and/or business ethics.

Findings

This paper discusses the broader concepts of diversity, integrative learning and interdisciplinarity related to curriculum design and several approaches for integrating a broadened definition of sustainability through business school curricula and pedagogy.

Research limitations/implications

The paper only discusses a few of the many factors that are needed for the argued need for change in business school curriculum.

Social implications

It is important to educate future managers with consciousness of sustainability not only for the sake of the communities of today and future generations but also for corporations to stay sustainable in the future when some of the natural resources they use today will be much scarcer.

Originality/value

A typical business school in the twenty-first century is not educating future managers and entrepreneurs for the realities of a business life today, let alone getting them ready for the world of tomorrow in which obtaining resources and addressing supply chain and waste management issues will be remarkably different. Therefore, it has become imperative for business schools to start a paradigm shift that moves the focus of business school education away from the historical one of profit-maximization toward one that has sustainability at its core.

Citation

Üçok Hughes, M., Upadhyaya, S. and Houston, R. (2018), "Educating future corporate managers for a sustainable world: recommendations for a paradigm shift in business education", On the Horizon, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 194-205. https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-01-2018-0007