In what is sure to be a contentious article, Kenneth Amaeshi of the University of Scotland states that in his opinion, business school curriculum has an overly narrow focus on economic performance, through finance and strategic management, with little emphasis on society and social issues such as sustainability. While I don’t agree with everything Amaeshi says, I do agree that there needs to be more emphasis on sustainability, in business school curriculum.
A quote at the beginning of the article took me back to the first day of 486F: “the real test will be whether [business schools] continue to see sustainability as an elective, an option, or as the keystone to business education for the 21st century.” I remember Tamar suggesting that in the (ideal) future, there will be no specialized sustainability courses – sustainability will simply be integrated into all business classes. While I agree that this would be ideal, I don’t see indications that this is going to happen in the near future.
We know that at Sauder, sustainability classes are electives. And, based on the size of our sustainability marketing class, they seem to be relatively under-subscribed electives. While I certainly don’t know the reason for this, I suspect that in part it is due to the fact that in lower-level business classes, there is little emphasis on sustainability. So, business students are not being taught that sustainability is becoming an increasingly important part of business strategy. I think this lack of awareness results in upper-level business students being hesitant to take sustainability classes, and yet, sustainability has been on the agenda of some of the largest and most profitable companies for a very long time.
If we know that sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the business world, should we let business students graduate without working knowledge of the sustainability landscape? I think this seems unfair to the students. And, I think by leaving sustainability off the agenda we’re missing out on an opportunity to make Sauder grads, from all specializations, even more competitive. For this reason, sustainability should be more than an elective or option – it should be fully incorporated into business school curriculum.
Hi Dragana,
I really like your insights on how sustainability is something future business leaders need to know about. However, having electives, optional courses about it, or one slide in a class about some sustainability issues in this or that area, is not enough, clearly. As a first step, business schools should have some sustainability classes in the general curriculum.
But shouldn’t the courses include, all of them, some keys to implementing sustainability practices in businesses? And i don’t mean one slide among too many. I mean having sustainability concerns raised, without having to say “sustainability is a necessary thing to take into account”. “Sustainability” shouldn’t have to be named. It should become the obvious way of making, teaching and approaching things.
Constance
Hi Dragana,
I definitely agree with you! Sustainability has become ingrained within the core values of many large and small corporations and it is imperative that sustainability becomes a part of the business school curriculum. Aside from the example you raised, in that sustainability should be taught in each class (especially transportation and logistics and marketing), I thought of some other ways we could incorporate sustainability into our business education! It could be incorporated at the introductory level and become a module of the Comm 101 business fundamentals course. This way, first years can begin to think about sustainability issues as a part of the foundation of their business education. Since so many novel approaches are being taken to incorporate sustainability into a product’s life cycle, presenting several case studies to a class is definitely the way to learn best, in my opinion! This way, students can easily see that sustainability isn’t only a surface level issue to consider.
This is great stuff to think about. It makes sense that some businesses (maybe most) can actually benefit directly from some sustainability initiatives that help them reduce waste and improve margins, and for that reason I think sustainability education in business schools might become more popular in the coming years.
However, do you think that the ultimate goal of any publicly-held company (to maximize profits for shareholders) is really compatible with sustainability? Maximizing profits usually means selling as much as possible, and in a world with limited resources, this seems to conflict with sustainability goals. Do you think the kind of trends you’ve been learning about in this course can help overcome this deep conflict, helping to integrate business and sustainability, or will sustainability remain just a means to the end of profitability?