Development of Socially Responsible Leaders: Role of Undergraduate Administration Courses in Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to analyze whether undergraduate business administration courses have adopted disciplines and methodologies veered toward the development of a socially responsible leadership profile in their students, above all those working in social projects. As a theoretical review, the profile and skills of socially responsible leaders were approached. In the sequence, undergraduate training in business administration was discussed, as concerns the insertion of disciplines and methodologies associated to corporate social responsibility and social projects in undergraduate courses. The framework ends with a discussion concerning an evaluation of business administration courses in this country. In methodological terms, the investigation can be characterized as qualitative, conducted through in-depth interviews with 16 business administration course professors from different educational institutions in the country. In terms of results, it was found that the adoption of disciplines and methodologies veered towards the development of a socially responsible leadership profile in the students is still embryonic in higher education institutions of this country. Since the valuation of these themes, such as social responsibility, social projects and the third sector, is still relatively recent, it follows that the reflections of this trend upon business administration courses should occur in forthcoming decades. It was also verified that the disciplines that approach social themes have not yet been included in the compulsory curricular grid of business administration courses.