Abstract

Research into responsible management education has largely focused on the merits, attributes, and transformation opportunities to enhance responsible business school education aims. As such, a prominent part of the literature has occupied itself with examining if responsible management modules are inherently considered a non-crucial element of the curriculum and determining the extent to which business schools have introduced such learning content into their curriculum. However, there has been scant research into how to apply novel teaching approaches to engage students and promote responsible management education endeavours. As such, this paper seeks to address this gap through the development of a teaching framework to support educators in designing effective learning environments focused on responsible management education. We draw on constructivist learning theories and Lego Serious Play (LSP) as a learning enhancement approach to develop a pedagogical framework titled The Educator’s LSP Journey. LSP is chosen due to its increasing application in learning environments to help promote critical discourse, and engage with highly complex problems, whether these are social, economic, environmental, or organisational. Therefore, this paper contributes to the responsible management education discourse by providing educators with a practical methodology to support student engagement and co-creation of knowledge by fostering exploratory learning environments and enriching the practices of active learning communities.

Highlights

  • Business schools play a vital role in educating and shaping the mindsets of future global leaders, as they aim to offer a rich environment of deep analysis, entrenched engagement, and thought-provoking discourse (Harrison et al, 2007)

  • Responsible management education has hitherto largely focused on what constitutes elements of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and how these should be embedded into the curriculum (Aragon-Correa et al, 2017; Dyllick, 2015)

  • By bringing together constructivist learning theories like exploratory learning environments (Duckworth, 2006; Rick & Lamberty, 2005), organisational sustainability teaching frameworks (Stubbs & Cocklin, 2008) and empirical research on the use of the Lego Serious Play (LSP) methods in educational settings (James, 2013; Kurkovsky, 2015; Mccusker, 2014), this paper aims to conceptualise LSP as an innovative teaching method that utilises Lego bricks to improve student engagement and participation, create exploratory teaching environments that can support learning, and help shape responsible organisational leaders

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Summary

Introduction

Business schools play a vital role in educating and shaping the mindsets of future global leaders, as they aim to offer a rich environment of deep analysis, entrenched engagement, and thought-provoking discourse (Harrison et al, 2007) Their role extends beyond the confines of the academic world as they have increasingly become embedded in their respective national economies (Thorpe & Rawlinson, 2013) where they help foster innovations by collaborating with industry, academic experts, and thought-leaders (Minshall & Wicksteed, 2005). There has been a focus on content which is salient to execution, and driven by the analysis of the plethora of social, economic, and environmentally aware subjects which may bear relevance to business school education contexts (Muff, 2013) These include elements such as sustainable supply chains, CSR and the circular economy (Snelson-Powell et al, 2016).

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