SCIENCE & EDUCATION

The challenges facing business schools and companies are inextricably linked. Both need to be agile, adapt quickly and avoid complacency in what is a changed economic landscape. Nevertheless it is apparent to me that a number of the big schools are struggling to implement change because they have complex structures and vested interests. There may also be a cultural impediment to change. Some business schools will be more flexible in their thinking. It is these that will be able to provide a more relevant curriculum, an improved student experience and, importantly, more relevance in their research.

For the MBA to remain relevant there needs to be an acknowledgement that business is not just about profit and the interests of shareholders, and that the wishes of executives cannot be placed above those of all other stakeholders. Nowhere was this more apparent than the BP oil spill where the suspicion was that protecting the dividend and shareholder value were placed above public interest. In today’s business climate, organisations need well-rounded executives with strong leadership skills and the ability to integrate ethical, sustainable and stakeholder thinking into their management decisions.

This move away from a shareholder, value-dominated perspective of business towards broader responsibility needs to be reflected in the MBA curriculum. Business schools need to focus on wider skills and develop integrated curricula with more prominence given to ethics, risk management and sustainable business practices. Encouragingly, research at Durham Business School, undertaken with the Association of MBAs, an accreditation agency, shows that a significant number of business schools are already embracing a new approach to the curriculum. The 100 accredited business schools that took part in our survey were unequivocal that the MBA should adopt more of a stakeholder (rather than a shareholder) focus, and that corporate social responsibility should underpin the actions of organisations. 

These views are being matched by action. The vast majority had undertaken a full redesign of their curriculum within the previous five years and two-thirds had done so in the past two years. Among those schools that had redesigned their curriculum within six months of the survey, coverage of business ethics and sustainability has increased substantially. However, this research does suggest that schools still need to put more of a focus on the complex issue of risk, and they acknowledge that both risk management and strategic risk are two of the top three topics where there is the widest disconnect between what they ought to offer and what they currently do.

Source: The Economist 

Photo: Durham Business School