Katrin Muff

Are business schools doing their job

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to further the debate on relevance in business education by sharing one business schools experiences.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative survey was carried out, reviewed by two independent collaborators. Conclusions drawn from interviews with more than 30 CEOs and HR Directors, from across all industries, provide findings on how business leaders think about higher education in business.Findings – The results highlight their perspective regarding: how academic programs can add real value in business; what business schools should teach more; and what they should teach less in their MBA programs.Research limitations/implications – There was a limited sample size of 30 participants. Also. the research is used as a part of a case study being conducted about Business School Lausanne by Prof. Dr J.B.M. Kassarjian, Professor in Management at Babson College, Boston, USA.Practical implications – A detailed account of an ambitious academic revision provides insights in...

Clarifying the Meaning of Sustainable Business: Introducing a Typology From Business-as-Usual to True Business Sustainability

While sustainability management is becoming more widespread among major companies, the impact of their activities does not reflect in studies monitoring the state of the planet. What results from this is a “big disconnect.” With this article, we address two main questions: “How can business make an effective contribution to addressing the sustainability challenges we are facing?” and “When is business truly sustainable?” In a time when more and more corporations claim to manage sustainably, we need to distinguish between those companies that contribute effectively to sustainability and those that do not. We provide an answer by clarifying the meaning of business sustainability. We review established approaches and develop a typology of business sustainability with a focus on effective contributions for sustainable development. This typology ranges from Business Sustainability 1.0 (Refined Shareholder Value Management) to Business Sustainability 2.0 (Managing for the Triple Bottom Line) and to Business Sustainability 3.0 (True Sustainability).

Developing globally responsible leaders in business schools

Purpose – It is 50 years since the Gordon/Howell and Pierson reports substantially influenced and shaped management education. “Vision 50+20” offers an alternative future in management education for the next 20 years. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the suggested new purpose of business schools as role models in providing responsible leadership for a sustainable world. The article proposes a model of implementation of the vision in the domain of teaching and learning, with concrete best practice examples collected from around the world. The evolution of teaching and learning in business education is briefly reviewed in light of newly proposed “collaborator” method, hopefully launching a debate and further research in this important domain.Design/methodology/approach – The 50+20 vision of management education for the world resulted from an 18‐month collective creative visioning and back‐casting process, looking into the future and based on explicitly normative assumptions about the nee...

An Organizational Roadmap of Business Sustainability

The Business Sustainability Typology provides an answer to the difficult question of what business sustainability actually means and how to differentiate between beginning, intermediate and advanced levels in business practice. It offers a practical approach to evaluate different levels of integrating sustainability in business (Dyllick & Muff, 2013). While the Typology highlights three different shifts to move from business-as-usual to Business Sustainability 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, this article looks at organizational challenges and consequences. The article offers concrete strategic support for companies in their sustainability journey. Section 1 summarized the Business Sustainability Typology (Dyllick & Muff, 2013). Section 2 identifies the organizational development domains to be studied. Section 3 provides an in-depth analysis of existing studies in the relevant domains of business sustainability. Section 4 offers a comparative overview of attributes of organizations for each type of business sustainability, and concludes with open questions as well as suggested further research.

The Business Sustainability Typology

The Business Sustainability Typology (Dyllick & Muff 2013) offers a practical approach to evaluate different levels of integration of sustainability in business. As such, it provides an answer to the difficult question of what business sustainability actually means and how to differentiate between beginning, intermediate and advanced levels in business practice. This article serves as a summary and extract of the full‐length article which is currently submitted for publication. The intention is for this summary to provide a starting base for organizational leaders and academic scholars alike to consider challenges and opportunities for business to successfully advance in their transformative sustainability journey.

How the Circle Model can purpose-orient entrepreneurial universities and business schools to truly serve society

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline a path for entrepreneurial universities to embrace their purpose as custodians of society and to hardwire it institutionally. Design/methodology/approach The paper is conceptual in its approach, drawing on practical and theoretical insights in the fields of responsible leadership, business sustainability and transformational change. The resulting Circle Model offers a developmental perspective connecting individual and organizational development in service of society. Findings A key finding lies in expanding the current understanding of an entrepreneurial university beyond its organizational effectiveness to become a true custodian of society in the way it educate, researches and lives this intended purpose. The model offers a next conceptual step for the 50+20 vision (Muff et al., 2013) which had outlined a radical new role for business schools. Research limitations/implications More research is required to understand how not only the educational and research strategies but also the organizational structure can be transformed to serve a given purpose. Practical implications Concrete insights and examples of the developmental perspective of the model illustrate the opportunities for educating responsible leaders, for consulting business organizations to serve the common good, and for walking the talk by hardwiring a purpose-driven organization. Originality/value The originality of the paper lies in the introduction of the idea of a common space of sustainability and responsibility as a foundation to reorient education and research of an entrepreneurial business school and hardwire its organizational structure truly around purpose.

A vision of management education for the world: A Vision for Business Schools Serving People and Planet

For many years commentators have described what is wrong with business schools - characterizing them as the breeding grounds of a culture of greed and self-enrichment in global business at the expense of the rest of society and of nature. Management Education for the World is a response to this critique and a handbook for those seeking to educate and create knowledge for a new breed of business leaders. It presents a vision for the transformation of management education in service of the common good and explains how such a vision can be implemented in practice. The 50+20 vision, as it is also known, was developed through a collaborative initiative between the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative, the World Business School Council for Sustainable Business and the U.N.-backed Principles of Responsible Management Education and draws on the expertise of sustainability scholars, business and business school leaders and thought leaders from many other walks of life. This book explores the 21st century agenda of management education, identifying three fundamental goals: educating and developing globally responsible leaders, enabling business organizations to serve the common good, and engaging in the transformation of business and the economy. It is a clarion call of service to society for a sector lost between the interests of faculty, business and the schools themselves at the expense of people and planet. It sees business education stepping up to the plate with the ability of holding and creating a space to provide responsible leadership for a sustainable world embodied in the central and unifying element of the 50+20 vision, the collaboratory. Management Education for the World is written for everyone concerned or passionate about the future of management education: consultants, facilitators, entrepreneurs and leaders in organizations of any kind, as well as policymakers and others with an interest in new and transformative thinking in the field. In particular, teachers, researchers, students and administrators will find it an invaluable resource on their journey. Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen