Principles For Responsible Management Education Research Articles

Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) in Sri Lankan Business Schools: A Pathway to Sustainable Business Education: A Study of Curricular Integration, Stakeholder Engagement, and Sustainable Development Outcomes

This research study is an analysis of the introduction and application, PRME within Sri Lankan business schools to promote al sustainable management education. This study applies an integrated approach through analyzing diverse facets of PRME implementation issues comprising alignment curriculum component, stakeholder involvement and realization to sustainable development benefits.By using a mixed-methods research design, the study assesses systematically the problems and respond encounters in integration of PRME criteria to curriculums offered by Sri Lankan business schools identifying activities which impact this process. Furthermore, the research analyses stakeholder engagement in PRME implementation path with a focus on collaboration between businesses, government agencies and civil society organizations that promotes achievement of sustainable development outcomes.The outcomes of this study offer not only a profound picture of the current situation with regards to PRME adoption but also shed fantastic light on its development prospects and influence over Sri Lankan business schools. This study pinpoints successful strategies thus it helps in developing a sound sustainable business education pathway for Sri Lanka.

Embedding the UN SDGs into a Marketing Elective on Base-of-the-Pyramid Markets: An Experiential Learning Approach

The role and importance of sustainability are increasing multi-fold, and responsible organizations across the globe are aligning with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Integrating the UN SDGs into marketing education, especially curriculum, has received scant attention in the marketing education literature, even though 880 business schools have become Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) signatories. This exploratory study attempts to address the gap. It describes an instructor’s attempt to integrate two SDGs, 8 and 12, into a marketing elective course, BoP & Rural Markets, using an experiential rural market project. The students were asked to use the lens of SDG 8 and 12 to understand the rural marketplace and its stakeholders during their field visit. This article describes the rural market project, spread across four experiential learning stages, and assesses its impact on sensitizing the students about SDGs. The whole experience, with its challenges and potential areas for improvement, is shared, and some lessons for marketing educators are identified. Finally, this article highlights some limitations of the approach and pinpoints directions for future work. In sum, this experiential project, a unique pedagogical intervention, helped increase the participants’ awareness and encouraged them to come up with possible recommendations for the issues around the two SDGs.

SDG-Embeddedness in Business School Operations: State-of-the-Art Literature, Ground Realities, and Measurement Parameters

Business schools (B-schools) are vital to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda by creating awareness of sustainability among the next generation of leaders. Mindful of their responsibility, schools around the world have initiated efforts to integrate the SDGs into different aspects of their operations. However, the pace has been slow, with schools in some parts of the world lagging in even initiating the process, indicating that additional efforts are required to enhance their commitment. The academic literature in the area has also been growing but is in a very nascent stage, requiring fresh inputs and renewed focus for momentum. This article responds by invigorating theory and practice using a multimethod approach that includes 1) a review of the extant literature to present the state-of-the-art literature and identify research gaps that suggest future research directions, 2) a qualitative study assessing the current state of SDG integration, and 3) an evaluation of the relevant parts of the reports on principles of responsible management education by signatory schools to develop a set of parameters for the measurement of SDG integration. The findings of this article offer important implications for both internal and external stakeholders. For internal stakeholders, i.e., the B-school management, we offer a set of five broad parameters broken down into 39 indicators to benchmark and calibrate the related outcomes. For external stakeholders, i.e., the regulatory bodies, we offer insights for policy intervention and formulation of systematic sustainability-reporting protocols to guide B-schools.

Responsible management education: The leadership role of PRME business schools

The literature largely agrees about the relevance of higher education institutions in assembling their internal systems to contribute to sustainability challenges. Business schools are also expected to commit to the Sustainable Development Goals and become aligned with the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Moreover, it is suggested that if a business school is a PRME signatory, the students will likely be educated as responsible leaders. The literature on responsible management education successfully invested in literature reviews, framework development and analyses of the university reports available; however, it lacks solid studies conducted worldwide that aim to understand the extent to which professors are implementing sustainability-related concepts and the PRME principles into teaching as well as assessing if they have support from the top-management administration of their courses. Based on this gap, a world survey was conducted, receiving 969 valid answers from teaching staff in PRME signatory and non-signatory business schools from 104 different countries. Hypothesis testing, descriptive statistics, and frequency analysis were deployed to understand the differences between PRME signatory and non-signatory institutions. The results indicate that PRME signatory business schools' professors significantly tend to include sustainability-related topics in their teaching and receive more support from their institution and superiors.

Barriers and possible drivers for the implementation of sustainability in Brazilian business schools

PurposeFor sustainable strategies to be developed in business schools, it is essential to understand which sustainability drivers and barriers are identified by academic managers and coordinators in the implementation of sustainable practices. In this scenario, the study aims to understand the barriers and possible drivers for the implementation of sustainability practices in Brazilian business schools. The subjects are managers and coordinators of business schools that are part of the Principles for Responsible Executive Education Network – Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Chapter Brazil/UN.Design/methodology/approachDescriptive research with a qualitative approach was conducted to achieve this objective. The study included academic managers, responsible for the general management of academic and administrative activities and coordinators, responsible for supervising and coordinating academic activities in a specific area, of schools that are part of PRME Chapter Brazil (interviews). For data analysis, the content analysis technique was used.FindingsTaking into account the three pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) as categories of analysis, as well as management, curriculum and teaching as subcategories, the study identified 10 barriers and 12 drivers.Originality/valueThe results reveal that both the barriers and the drivers are supported by the social pillar, which focuses on the academic community and society as a whole. The “Management” subcategory was also the most mentioned, indicating guidelines for the strategic academic management of these organizations.

Is sustainable management education contributing to gender equality?

One of the imperatives of the Sustainable Development Goals is the pursuit of attaining gender equality. However, the extent to which the sustainable management education project contributes to the equality of genders is rather underexplored in the academic literature. To address this gap, this article analyzes how an Executive Master's in Business Administration (EMBA) delivered by a Latin American school shapes the female and male students' thinking and decision-making styles and how these affect their preparedness to perform in top-management positions. After discussing how the topic has been addressed, we map the curricular design of the program against its capacity to potentiate participants' learning styles according to specific top management position skills. Then the progression of the students is reviewed by examining the evolution of their thinking styles from the beginning to the end of the program. The measurement instrument used to assess participants' thinking styles is the Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI), which is based on neuroscience discoveries related to the integrative use of the brain in decision-making processes. The study finds that the program does not fully potentiate men's and women's capabilities needed to perform in top-management positions. However, it also shows that the training tends to reinforce women's orientation to execution and personal relationships and men's preferences for analytical, risk-taking, and strategic thinking. Finally, it concludes by making recommendations at the level of curriculum design, including personalized support for students during and after the program, as well as broader considerations to advance the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).

Integration of Sustainability in Logistical Approaches A Key Element in Designing University-wide Green Logistics Program

The present study aimed to investigate the integration of sustainability in logistical approaches within schools or universities, focusing on the development of a university-wide green logistics program. The study seeks to address the following research questions such as the profiles of the respondents in terms of age, gender, position classification, and years of employment. Furthermore, to what extent does the university integrate sustainability measures in logistic-related approaches, considering principles such as purpose, values, method, research, partnership, and dialogue and how do university members assess the impact of green logistics on cultivating a culture of sustainability, particularly in terms of trust, satisfaction, and commitment. Furthermore, the level of commitment among respondents towards adopting green logistics, specifically in the physical place, educational program, and organizational culture. Finally, based on the study results, the research aims to identify and propose sustainability measures that can be integrated into the design of a university-wide green logistics program. The study recommends to compare the level of integration and implementation of sustainability in green logistical approaches in secondary education with the leadership styles of school administrators who share similar profiles with the respondents, while also considering the academic performance of students. Additionally, conducting a study to examine the impact of different leadership styles on the integration of sustainability measures in logistic-related activities, with a focus on the principles for responsible management education, is recommended. Moreover, developing a series of faculty-student training and development programs on green logistics is essential to address physical, organizational, and cultural concerns within the institution. Furthermore, conducting capability training programs for school leaders and administrators to ensure proper implementation of sustainable measures and adopting a culture of green logistics practices is crucial. Regular satisfaction evaluations should be conducted to identify areas for improvement and necessary actions. Additionally, considering the strong positive correlation between the integration of sustainability measures and its influence on green logistics, the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive green logistics manual is recommended. Regular reviews of the manual should be conducted to ensure its effectiveness and relevance. Lastly, universities should revisit, review, and revise their existing sustainability measures and guidelines for green logistics implementation. An ongoing process of enhancing guidelines and conducting regular evaluations should be established. Furthermore, the proposed sustainable university-wide green logistics program should be considered as a guide for universities to develop and implement their own comprehensive and sustainable green logistics initiatives, taking into account the specific needs and context of each institution.

Unlocking the potential of responsible management education through interdisciplinary approaches

AbstractBusiness schools are crucial to integrating sustainable development into management thought and practices, thereby promoting a paradigm shift toward responsible management education. Despite many business schools pledging to adopt the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Management Education, they have been criticized for failing to develop change agents toward sustainability. To fill this gap, this paper demonstrates how interdisciplinarity can be connected to responsible management education through critical and instrumental perspectives. To this end, we apply an interdisciplinarity model to 37 Principles for Responsible Management Education Schools' Reports, using content analysis, text‐mining, and network theory tools. As a result, our findings suggest: (i) a taxonomy of critical and instrumental interdisciplinary studies and (ii) a framework of Principles for Responsible Management Education schools engaged in critical and instrumental interdisciplinarity. The framework we develop can serve as a diagnostic and prognostic tool for assessing how interdisciplinary can improve responsible management education in business schools. Our findings contribute to theory advancing research on the intersection of responsible management education and interdisciplinary approaches.

Embedding a sustainability mindset in responsible management education

Purpose Organisational responses to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals depend on the competency and mindset of business leaders to lead responsibly. This study is informed and underpinned by the Principles of Responsible Management Education. This study aims to examine how embedding the “sustainability mindset principles” within a university programme can contribute to responsible management education and, by extension, leadership development. Design/methodology/approach An illustrative case study using 84 students was applied, including undergraduate, postgraduate and executive Master of Business Administration students. An exploratory, qualitative design was followed, primarily adopting focus groups. Findings Evidenced learning gains in connecting sustainability knowledge with personal beliefs and behaviours, provide a compelling basis for educational and business practitioners to focus on the sustainability mindset principles (SMPs). Mapping of mindset against leading global competency frameworks provides important theoretical insight. Learning is illustrated through multiple dimensions (i.e. cognitive, behavioural and affective) to inform leadership development approaches. Research limitations/implications The mapping of sustainability competency frameworks against the SMP, alongside qualitative research insights, provides a compelling basis for further research into the learning gains from embedding the mindset principles. The situated nature of the study and the lack of longitudinal measurement of what students take forward into their lives and workplaces is a limiting factor to be considered. Practical implications This study evidences the value of “whole-person” learning for responsible management, which can helpfully inform the design of both educational and workplace leadership development programmes. Originality/value This study is original in the pedagogic examination of the learning dimensions of the SMPs in a Business and Management programme. It also offers new insights in terms of the implications for leadership development.

Walking the talk: organising for social impact through performance management in European business schools

ABSTRACT Universities, and business schools specifically, are experiencing a transformation of their societal mission. Similar to the STEM fields, business schools are nested in global competitive environments facing multiple competing pressures, one being the need to demonstrate their social impact (SI). While business schools signal their commitment to SI by addressing it in their mission and adjusting their curricula and research, whether and how they assess the SI of their core functions is less well known. This study thus investigates how business schools organise for SI through performance management (PM). The analysis includes 10 European business schools selected among members of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) network, and draws on reports and interviews with staff responsible for social responsibility reporting. Findings suggest that business schools are in early stages of organising for SI, and practices largely reflect compliance with coercive and normative factors. Performance management is mainly concerned with monitoring SI performance – i.e. providing performance indicators and assessment tools without appropriate rewards or sanctions. This study sheds light on practices for SI assessment in business schools, the influence of environmental dependencies on these practices, and aspects that could strengthen institutional accountability and commitment to social impact.

Infusing courageous love for universal dignity and environmental response-ability through management education and learning: Inspired By Freire’s dream

Freire’s pedagogy is commonly applied to the education of those relegated to known dangerous socio-economic exploitation locally and globally. In contrast, we apply his concerns to ourselves as among the seemingly privileged humans on this Earth. Through this essay, we challenge uncritical assumptions embedded in the forms of The Global Market normalized (and only occasionally challenged) in much business school education. We personalize ‘The Global Market’ as a particular representation of ‘Moloch’, an ancient deity demanding human sacrifice. We depict ‘Democracy’ as Moloch’s Handmaiden. Informed by Freire’s emancipatory values, we offer a contribution to management education that is responsive to, responsible for and response- able in the realization of global justice exemplified in (but not unique to) the aspirations of the United Nations. We offer an interpretation of the radical ethics of Emanuel Levinas whose attention lies with those countless people he claims each of us to have responsibilities for. Applied to the field of management education, we reflect on whether the United Nations-led Principles for Responsible Management Education offer opportunities to progress Freire’s Pedagogy of Hope to enhance forms of management learning infused with courageous love for universal emancipation from Moloch’s harms, an emancipation we express as universal justice.

Exploring hidden curriculum in responsible management education: A narrative inquiry of students' lived experience in management and leadership training programmes

The purpose of this article is to reflect on responsible management education by exploring possible disjunctions between formal and Hidden Curricula in a Business and Management Faculty in Northern Uganda. Using the United Nations (UN) initiated Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) as point of departure, we explore intertextual links between the PRME document and two formal master's degree curricula. To unpack Hidden Curricula, we analyse narratives by master's degree students in their final year of study. For this purpose, we apply narrative analysis combined with corpus-assisted genre analysis to identity frequently occurring themes. Our data consists of three documents (PRME, MBA and MPA curricula) and narrative essays from 10 students.While the keywords ‘ethical’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘responsible management’ were salient in the PRME document, themes such as ‘management’, ‘leadership’ and ‘business’ turned out to be more prominent in the formal Master's degree curricula, thus indicating some intertextuality. However, the intertextual relationship between the students' narratives and the PRME was weak.Based on our findings we argue a need for strengthening business and management education along the lines of PRME by paying more attention to the Hidden Curriculum for building ethical, sustainable and responsible competencies.

Developing responsible management in the Middle East and North Africa region: reviewing PRME progress

Purpose Reflecting emerging concerns about Principles of Responsible Management Education’s (PRME's) reach beyond the West, the authors provide an analysis of its contribution to responsible management development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.Design/methodology/approach Drawing on 18 PRME MENA signatories' Sharing Information on Progress Reports, the authors examine levels of engagement with PRME, as well the practices used in the region to progress its six principles. The authors examine the depth of integration based on Rusinko's (2010) typology and its success in addressing local responsible management challenges.Findings The analysis revealed modest levels of engagement with PRME in MENA. Consistent with other regions, for those actively participating, the authors identified a wide variation in PRME responses. First, the authors found wide variation in the interpretation of the six principles. Second, the authors found a diversity of practices, especially the extent to which efforts were linked to progressing local management challenges. Third, the authors also found variability relating to the depth of PRME's integration into the curricular of MENA signatories with, most displaying Ruskino's (2010) narrower approaches.Originality/value The authors address calls to understand the contribution of PRME beyond Western contexts and offer suggestions for how PRME can be strengthened to facilitate responsible management development in MENA.

Shaping future business leaders through responsible management education: A model of RME implementation

This research aimed to develop a model for implementing the principles of Responsible Management Education (RME) into business programs to educate future business leaders. A qualitative single case study was conducted by implementing participative action research at a two-year college. The result of this research was the development of a four-step model for implementing RME aligned to a critical theory pedagogy. Our research results demonstrated that the course design elements incorporated in the two-year college as a result of the RME principles implementation increased students’ positive perceptions of their cultural assets, ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability.

Responsible Management Education in Business Schools – High on principles but low on action: A systematic literature review

In 2007, the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) were introduced by the United Nations to equip future business leaders with the skills, attitudes and beliefs needed to balance economic and sustainability goals in response to decades of unethical business practices. Business Schools across the globe have become signatories to PRME to indicate their support, but implementation of PRME initiatives remains variable. This paper is a systematic literature review that presents a synthesis of extant research from the past 15 years about PRME and barriers to implementation in Business Schools. The literature demonstrates positive impacts on students' prosocial behaviours, attitudes, and beliefs when PRME is embedded in tertiary business curriculum. However, PRME remains a ‘bolt on’ part of curricula, driven by individuals or small groups of impassioned academics. Academics attempting to embed PRME to improve the education of sustainable business practices are themselves labouring in an unsustainable academic environment. This suggests that authentic uptake of PRME by Business Schools around the world is far more complex than what the current literature depicts. The literature demonstrates that while Business Schools recognise PRME helps them deliver on their obligations to society, broader institutional support and reform is required before the value of PRME can be realised - as a vehicle through which business education can best serve society.

Institutional pressures and the adoption of responsible management education at universities and business schools in Central and Eastern Europe

AbstractBusiness schools, and universities providing business education, from across the globe have increasingly engaged in responsible management education (RME), that is in embedding social, environmental and ethical topics in their teaching and research. However, we still do not fully understand the institutional pressures that have led to the adoption of RME, in particular concerning under‐researched regions like Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Hence, we undertook what is to our knowledge the most comprehensive study into the adoption of RME in CEE to date (including 13 countries: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine). We find that, with regard to RME, isomorphic pressures seem to shape teaching and research in different ways, which suggests that the idea of a holistic approach to RME, promoted by, for example, the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), needs to be revisited; rather, different trajectories of organizational engagement may emerge for each principle. As a contribution to institutional theory, we discuss how a highly fragmented organizational field—like RME with its multiple dimensions—impacts on notions of actor centrality, where actors achieve centrality with regard to some dimensions of the field but fail to do so for others. In particular, we found that the European Union holds centrality in the area of RME teaching, but not in RME research. Our findings thus suggest that the concept of field centrality needs further clarification.

Business schools’ transformation towards sustainability: empirical insights from UN PRME signatories

PurposeThis paper aims to present the progress of the implementation of sustainability in business schools in line with the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and its principles of responsible management education.Design/methodology/approachBy analyzing the content of the Sharing of Information on Progress reports from PRME signatories, this study identified significant developments in the strategies business school use to implement sustainability. However, it seems that a framework that business schools can apply to accomplish that goal is still lacking. This paper proposes a framework that addresses four components of the integration process and stresses the important role of stakeholders. The authors discuss the results from 2021 in comparison to the results of a previous analysis of the first 100 signatories from 2010 and analyze the findings in relation to the developed framework.FindingsThis study shows that business schools have improved their sustainability engagement in many areas (e.g. education offerings and teaching methods, campus practices and engaging stakeholders). However, less attention has been paid to other aspects, such as reviewing and assessing, capability development or communication, which could slow the transformation process. The authors discuss further implications of the findings for enhancing the PRME signatories’ ability to implement the underrecognized aspects.Originality/valueWhile the analysis focuses on the status and progress of the integration of PRME within business schools during the past decade, the framework may enable higher education institutions to analyze their potential to implement change and plan future transformation strategies.

The Principles for (Ir)Responsible Management Education: An exploration of the dynamics of paradox, the hidden curriculum, competencies and symbolization

This article discusses whether, as academics, we are behaving irresponsibly in the manner in which we deliver the much-vaunted Principles for Responsible Management Education. The Principles for Responsible Management Education constitutes an association and ethos which seeks to promote and infuse responsible management education into business schools and organisations. RME seeks to, inter alia, surface and challenge hegemonic neo-liberal and capitalistic meta-narratives with a view to replacing these with more value-driven, ethical, sustainable and corporately socially responsible education in business schools and business. In our article, we propose a more complementary approach – one in which Principles for Responsible Management Education/RME might work in parallel with dominant capitalistic perspectives. We do this by considering the impact of the hidden curriculum, sustainability competencies and related symbolization (through rankings and accreditations) all within the paradox-explanatory framework of organisational ambidexterity. The argument proposes that a paradoxical approach is needed that is aligned with both the capitalist norms of business society and yet, achieves the more socially orientated United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Business schools and Principles for Responsible Management Education can play an essential role in ensuring this happens. In essence, we hope to provoke thought, change and action towards the achievement of more socially and societally focused United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on which Principles for Responsible Management Education is predicated.

Is It Time to Reclaim the ‘Ethics’ in Business Ethics Education?

This study explores the business ethics education literature published between 1982 and 2021. A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of 862 scholarly articles spanning 40 years of research on business ethics education revealed a thematic shift in the literature. Whereas older articles were predominantly concerned with ethics, relatively newer articles mainly focus on addressing the broader concept of sustainability. A content analysis of the 25 most locally cited articles between 1987 and 2012 identified two main research streams: (a) integration of business ethics into business school curricula and (b) the pedagogical approaches and tools used to teach business ethics. An additional content analysis of the 15 most locally cited articles published between 2016 and 2021 revealed that discussions related to integration and pedagogical approaches and tools were still ongoing in the literature, albeit with a focus on sustainability-related concepts such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Building upon our findings and existing literature, we develop a framework that we refer to as Transforming Ethics Education in Business Schools (TEEBS), which we argue may help business schools reclaim the ‘ethics’ in business ethics education.

Combining best practices framework with benchmarking to advance principles for responsible management education (PRME) performance

Higher education institutions play a critical role in shaping a more sustainable world. There is limited research on ‘how’ business schools can effectively take the UN PRME's Sharing Information Progress (SIP) reports and identify opportunities for meaningful and tangible improvements to business schools. This paper seeks to address this gap in literature. Based on an analysis of SIP reports published by the Canadian business schools and PRME Champions, this paper suggests that combining Reis and Neto's (2020) analytical framework of PRME best practices with Drew's (1997) standard benchmarking process can be an avenue for closing the aforementioned gap in literature. An analysis using Drew's multicriteria benchmarking methodology (1997), combined with Reis and Neto's (2020) PRME framework, has highlighted the significant gaps between the Canadian PRME signatories and PRME Champion group. The results of the Canadian signatories having underperformed on all seven areas of the PRME principles (Purpose 22%, Values, 34%, Method 20%, Research, 39%, Partnership 17%, Dialogue 7%, and Operations 26%), now for the first time, establishes a benchmark for the Canadian PRME signatories, to work with to improve sustainability performance. Following Drew's five steps of benchmarking, opportunities were highlighted for the Canadian signatories to now compare their business school sustainability performance, to global PRME best practices.