Sustainability and "green" thinking are business education trends

After the credit crunch had devastated the global economy, a bit of nervous head-scratching started in some of the country's more prestigious business schools. Just where had those banking masters of the universe, now fallen to earth, learned many of their tricks of the trade?

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Small wonder, then, that the role of business schools in providing some of the intellectual firepower for a now discredited financial system is a matter of quiet debate among the schools themselves. No-one contemplates a navel more earnestly than an academic, and some management professors are now beginning to wonder whether they should be espousing a different set of values to the business hopefuls who pass through their care.

"We want to move beyond short-termism and look at how to achieve sustainability in the long run," says Wendy Chapple, acting head of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR) at Nottingham University and an associate professor in industrial economics. The ICCSR has been one of the global pioneers in injecting "green" thinking into business education.

She's noted a growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues among students taking MBAs at Nottingham University Business School, of which the ICCSR is part. Some people taking the course do so because they're being given responsibility for CSR in their company, others because of a personal interest, she says.

She adds: "Some people from the general MBA take these modules to understand what the issues mean to them as managers, and for their organisation. I suppose it boils down to being better managers in an increasingly complex world and being introduced to new ways to understand and make decisions in this context."

Ashridge Business School is another UK pioneer in sustainability. It launched specialist courses on the subject back in the 1990s. But, in recent years, sustainability has been incorporated into mainstream business strategy teaching.

Kai Peters, chief executive at Ashridge, says: "Presently, it is very interesting to see that while some see sustainability as 'too expensive and we are stressed with the recession', others see sustainability as coming into its own and providing a path which can help organisations find environmentally supportable and structurally sustainable business models for the future."

Cranfield School of Management has launched a programme called "leading sustainable organisations". It is intended to be a practical course on the nuts and bolts of introducing the green agenda into a company, rather than a theoretical side-show.

Séan Rickard, director of the full-time MBA at Cranfield, says: "The MBA programme has been embedding corporate social responsibility and this area of study includes environmental sustainability.

All modules and electives are now required to bring the issue of sustainability into their curriculum though, of course, individual lecturers will adopt different approaches."

Henley Management College is another which has built a "sustainability strand" into its MBA. Students are taught about the impact of business on society and the environment.

Yet for all their efforts on the green front, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that many British business schools are playing catch-up when it comes to incorporating environmental aspects into their courses. In the latest (2007/08) Global 100 ranking from Beyond Grey Pinstripes—which lists business schools that incorporate social and environmental issues in their courses—Nottingham University is the top UK scorer but comes in only at 28. (However, a new ranking is due to be published later this month).

US business students have a wider range of green choices than in Britain. For example, they can study for an MBA in sustainable management at San Francisco's Presidio School of Management or an MBA in sustainable entrepreneurship by nature, which encourages students to seek solutions for business problems in the natural world, at Babson College in Massachusetts.

But British directors who want to brush up on green business could choose the MBA in strategic carbon management at Norwich Business School, part of the University of East Anglia. The full-time 12-month course aims to provide students with the knowledge they need in order to develop low carbon businesses of the future.

Directors who are particularly interested in the use of green energy could turn to Warwick Business School's global energy MBA. The part-time course, which runs over three years, explores issues such as alternative energy sources, climate change and energy security.

There are other options for green-minded directors outside of MBA programmes. The Open University runs a postgraduate diploma and an MSc in environmental decision making. The course deals with issues such as environmental protection, natural resource management and green laws.

But the key question is whether directors who are faced with bottom-line pressures in their companies have the time or inclination to take time out to study green business. According to Chapple: "There are plenty who want to develop and push their careers in this direction."

 

Making positive change

Warwick Jones, executive dean, Bristol Business School

The recession has brought many business education issues to the fore, one of which is ethics and what role business education can play. For example, at BBS just a decade ago only two academic staff taught ethics and now a significant number are leading courses that cover intercultural ethics and environmental policies.

We believe that business education should also help individuals to gain a more rounded perspective on how companies affect the community, the lives of their workers and the environment. We are also working with policy makers and business leaders to further challenge behaviours and bring about positive change at a local, national and international level.

 

Trust comes from transparency

Professor Chris Bones, dean, Henley Business School

If the fall-out from the banking crisis has taught us anything it is that investing everything in the 'talented few' does not guarantee a positive outcome. Organisations are bursting with talented people who just need investment to reach their potential. The future for development in the next decade is to shift resources from 'high potentials', many of whom prove to be otherwise, to 'developing organisation potential'.

Providers will have to meet this need with innovative, cost effective and impactful activities that integrate work and learning‚ taking less time off the job and giving more time to reflect while doing the job. At the heart of successful businesses is the trust of customers, suppliers and shareowners. Trust comes from transparent shared values reinforced every day at all levels. Any development activity will also have to show directors how their values will be reinforced as a core part of delivering the future.

 

Where does education go now?

Michael Jenkins, chief executive, Roffey Park Institute

Unprecedented times pose some fundamental questions for business education to answer. First, how have business schools contributed to the mess we find ourselves in? Secondly, what type of management education do we now need? The death knell has sounded for traditional business education where participants sit in a lecture hall studying PowerPoint slides, four-box models and case studies. An approach based solely on learning from the past to accurately forecast and respond to the future no longer holds water.

We are in uncharted waters and no-one really knows the answers. So we need a new approach to business education which equips leaders with the skills and resilience to cope with this-to make good enough decisions and engage with people like never before. Business education will need to model this 'not knowing' approach—favouring learning and action over subject expertise.