Development of a New Framework Based on Sustainability and Responsible Management Education

Introduction

Crystal ball gazing is no longer the sole prerogative of soothsayers and sorcerers and those who consult Ouija boards. In modern times, the astute C-suite executive would also like to look into the future – intent and motives may be very short term such as quarterly earnings growth (Cardarelli, et al., 2009; Ferri, et al., 2018) or possible share price northward movement; however, the need to predict the future and orient an organization’s strategic thinking has always been at the forefront of the cerebral layer of the upper echelons in management. Head honchos are often elevated to positions of power on account of their inheritance – wherein they were either born into established business families or they come up through the ranks – case in point being that of A.M. Naik, who joined Larsen & Toubro as a young engineer and within a span of 30 years moved up to head the organization. Another class of executives make their way up the corporate ladder steadily. This class belongs to the cadre of management trainees who make a sharp and striking entry into the corporate work force at entry level or mid-level management positions. Many of the new entrants here would have completed their Master’s degree in management from premier business schools.

At the backdrop, one can visualize a large administrative and teaching infrastructural mechanism, whose systemic wheels turn slowly yet steadily, churning out a ready stream of management graduates. Since the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) program is at least a century old, it is imperative to reflect upon how it will shape up in the future. Moreover, one sees formats changing quite frequently, for instance, the Western World seems to be tinkering with one-year fast-track MBA programs (Datar, et al., 2011; Iyengar, 2015) which require aspirants to have five to seven years of continuous industry experience. Elsewhere, we find that Master’s level programs in Arts and Sciences have now been compressed to one year and cost much less than a traditional 2-year MBA; besides these help equip students to directly take up suitable positions in some industries. Considering the fluidity and dynamics (Barbara, 2018) observed in the academic space, it becomes important to ponder over, analyze and predict likely scenarios for this universally accepted and (critically) acclaimed elitist study program. For our research paper, we define ‘Management education’ as the formal 2-year or 1-year classroom based learning provided by a management institute or university.

Returning our crystal ball gaze into the future, we would like to advance possible scenarios, through research, for management education moving forward into the 21^st century. Adding more credibility to management education, the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (refer https://www.unprme.org) (PRME) were outlined in the year 2007. The six principles, outline and discuss guidelines on how business schools can incorporate ethics and sustainability not just into the curriculum, but also ensure that it is woven tightly into the very fabric of the academic environment. The corporate environment meanwhile has already gone through several phases whereby focus on governance, sustainable business practices and disclosure of several additional information points related to these domains have become the norm. Our paper explains and delivers upon the following in detail: 1) How the Indian business schools adopt select tenets of the PRME; in particular, we observe how a premier institute has picked up key threads of the PRME and incorporated them into the overall ideology of the MBA program; 2) A unique contribution by way of advancing a theoretical framework besides providing evidence of different stakeholders’ expectations from exercises in ethics and sustainability and 3) Specific practices at policy, program structure and curricular levels incorporating the embeddedness of the sustainability agenda.