Within a couple days a series of events will commence at RIO+20 that could help orientate business, economics and management education and more towards the common good. This timely initiative is being led by some of my friends and colleagues at 50+20 Management Education for the World. I wish them all the best. Although, not with them in Rio, I am sure they know that I am there in spirit for the common good. What they hope to achieve is of the essence and they all deserve our support, goodwill and love.
New mindsets for society, business, leadership and management education
“For starters, we need to develop the civic organization: a new environmental, societal and economic framework that serves the global common good: the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as communities or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily.
In order to create a world where all citizens live well and within the limits of the planet, we need a different kind of society with a revised economic framework that is celebrated for its contribution to society and the world. Equally, businesses will need to become intimately involved in this transformation by accepting challenges and responsibilities beyond short-term economic performance. Right now only a few managers have the necessary leadership qualities or a sufficiently broad understanding of social and environmental issues to address the challenge…
Over the past decade business schools have been subjected to renewed scrutiny with regard to their fundamental nature and contribution to society. Increasingly, the sector is perceived as being too customer and business focused at the expense of professional orientation and public contribution. Such largely self-imposed limitations have made business schools vulnerable to public criticism and political pressure.
The problem for management education is achieving re-legitimization, particularly in the wake of corporate scandals, and recent financial and economic crises. If business schools want to attract and inspire talented students, secure political support and regain public trust, they need to start looking beyond their own interests, their faculties, and their direct markets. A particular challenge for management educators who seek to develop responsible leaders lies in the fact that management education institutions themselves will need these leaders in order to steer their own organizations through a process of transformation.”
A new vision for management education
“50+20 is primarily interested in changing mindsets. It aims to foster debate on the task of creating a world worth living in – to build a society that improves the well-being of its members, with business contributing to its success and creating leaders who will embrace the challenges.
The vision is founded on the insight that providing responsible leadership for a sustainable world is first and foremost about creating and holding a space for the incarnation of three fundamental roles in management education, namely:
Educating and developing globally responsible leaders,
Enabling business organizations to serve the common good,
Engaging in the transformation of business and the economy.
In short, management education should become a calling – a service to society. Rather than training managers for organizations that operate in the twentieth century logic, future players will act as custodians of society, holding a space for leadership towards a sustainable world. Holding such a space is about co-creation in service of larger issues, enabling participants to connect to their full potential while also reconnecting with all parts of society and the world.”
Read more:
Rio+20
THE FUTURE WE WANT: Our Common Vision
50+20
The 50+20- Agenda: “Management Education for the World”
http://www.unprme.org/resource-docs/5020ManagementEducationfortheWorld.pdf
Can Business Education and the Business Schools Advance Sustainability and the Common Good?
http://gcgi.info/news/133-towards-an-education-worth-believing-in