Service-Learning Empowers Leadership Professor Dumas Discusses the Importance of Service-Learning By Lana B. Caron, MBA ‘03
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iven current economic conditions, today’s career outlook is probably not the ideal scenario that we all had in mind while at Suffolk. It is disappointing, to say the least, that our big plans of a dream job with a sweet paycheck and a sunny corner office with impressive views have had to be put on hold. Instead, graduates are being asked to meet increasingly higher expectations as they fight for relevance and develop their own niches in a sink-orswim environment. And while the conditions of the game may have changed, the rules have not, a fact that continues to drive demand for great leaders in these tough times. Amid this environment, many business schools, including the Sawyer Business School, are seeking to train the leaders of tomorrow in a transformational way by integrating service-learning into the curriculum. By exposing students to more than just classroom knowledge, this approach allows future leaders to learn by doing, sharpen problem-solving skills, and find solutions to real-life issues that affect our communities and society at large. Service-learning can enhance students’ skills in such areas as collaboration; teamwork; appreciation of diversity; tolerance of ambiguity, limits, and complexity; conflict and interdependency management; active listening; critical thinking; and, ultimately, leadership. It is leadership that makes a difference, helps transform for the better, and drives innovation and healthy change. As one top executive recently said, “We now need great leaders more than ever.” Transformational leaders are in high demand when the economy is booming but even more so when times are tough. Peter Drucker once said, “Leaders grow, they are not made.” If leaders indeed grow, what facilitates such growth? Can service-learning be one of the agents of change? Dr. Colette Dumas, professor of management and entrepreneurship and a director of the Center for Innovation and Change Leadership, has written a number of articles and done extensive research on the service-learning approach in management education. Her change leadership work with several well-known businesses has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, among other periodicals. I asked Colette to share her insights on this topic: 28/
Suffolk Business Magazine
WINTER 2010
Q&A LC: Dr. Dumas, how do you define service-
LC: Given this trend, what are some of the
CD: In service-learning, students perform
CD: Suffolk University has the S.O.U.L.S.
learning?
meaningful service for their communities and society while engaging in reflection or study that is related to that service. Service-learning reflects the belief that education must be linked to social responsibility and that the most effective learning is active and connected to experience in some meaningful way. It integrates community service projects into the curriculum and aims to enrich the academic experience, teach civic responsibility, and meet real community needs.
LC: What skills does it target? CD: Service-learning helps educate students
to build tolerance for ambiguity and an understanding of limitations and complexity. As a result, students develop the ability to interact productively with people from diverse backgrounds, use collaborative problem-solving skills, identify a community beyond the self, and have a conception of the common good. Students ultimately develop a sense of personal efficacy and a commitment to the power of groups to affect decisions.
LC: Does this approach have any connection to cultivating leaders? CD: Yes. Service-learning can foster such val-
ues as learning by doing, stakeholder agency, equitable power distribution, democratic dialogue, equality, and fairness. It is a means for management faculty to engage students in social change awareness activities as well as to prepare them for the key decision-making and leadership that managerial work entails. Service-learning helps students to be effective while learning what to be effective about.
LC: Is service-learning a new trend in management education?
CD: Relatively new. Service-learning, in the
form we are discussing, has been in practice since the late 1980s and early 1990s. Organizations such as Campus Compact, a coalition of college and university presidents, and the Corporation for National Service, a federal government agency, have promoted and supported the growth of service-learning.
current developments at Suffolk?
community service and service-learning center, with a competent and dedicated staff directed by Keila Garcia Surumay with Assistant Director Shirley Consuegra. At the Business School, our assistant dean, Dr. Laurie Levesque, is a strong advocate of servicelearning. She has incorporated service-learning into our new undergraduate core requirement course, MGT 200: Leadership and Social Responsibility (see article on page 30 for more about this course).
LC: How does the service-learning approach compare to case-based and other experiential approaches typically used in business schools? CD: Typical classroom experiences, even
those that integrate a comprehensive case study into the curriculum, cannot always integrate social and technical lessons in a way that allows students to develop the higherlevel cognitive skills they will need in practice. Additionally, participants often enter the classroom with wide-ranging levels of knowledge, making it difficult for the instructor to target the appropriate level of instruction with a lecture-style delivery format.
LC: Does it have anything in common with a co-op experience or internship?
CD: The focus of service-learning is not the
same as that of a co-op or an internship in which the student seeks to gain work experience, network, make contacts, and add experience to his or her resume. While students may still gain these benefits, service-learning is first about meeting the community’s needs, solving the community’s problems, and addressing those needs by learning to apply theory in real life.
get much-needed medical care, given that seeking Western medical care goes against their cultural norms; (2) aligning a nonprofit’s organizational culture and philosophical approach with its fundraising priorities; and (3) helping a nonprofit identify the best potential corporate partners for fundraising purposes and involvement with the community.
LC: How would you describe the impact, based on the feedback from the participants?
CD: Overall, both students and community partners feel that it is worthwhile. Both have learned from the experience, opening their horizons and positioning them for greater success in the future. Here are a few comments from students and participants:
In their journals, students typically speak of an evolution in their perspectives from “expert MBA going in to solve the problem” through “novice out of his or her element, wondering what I’m doing here” to “working together to address real-life dilemmas.” An employee of one of the partnering organizations once told me, “I learned a great deal from working with the students. They offered perspectives on problems that are vastly different from my way of looking at things.” And this is just the beginning. “This program has so much potential because it offers immediate value to both parties,” said Scott Stolze, executive director of Furnishing for Hope, a Boston-based nonprofit that assists natural disaster victims across the United States by providing free furniture and other household items. Undeniably, service-learning delivers many benefits and appears to be one of those practical tools that will continue to gain momentum in developing great leaders of today and tomorrow. SB
LC: What are some of the real-life issues students engaged in service-learning have helped address?
CD: Our students have focused on such issues
as (1) how to convince Cambodian refugees to use a community health center so they could www.suffolk.edu/business
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