EFMD Global Focus_Iss.2 Vol.17 www.globalfocusmagazine.com
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, student enrolments in business schools have been adversely impacted, leading to ongoing pressures for profit maximisation
For business schools, RME has proven to be ‘a complex, emerging, evolving and nonlinear process’ (Cicmil et al, 2017, p. 303). This is because it challenges the dominant business school pedagogical constructs of profit above all else and the primacy of shareholders’ rights, and seeks to transform stakeholders’ knowledge, understanding and behaviour to a more balanced, ethical, sustainable world (Kurucz et al, 2014). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, student enrolments in business schools have been adversely impacted, leading to ongoing pressures for profit maximisation. Schools are being forced to navigate the tension between increasing their enrolments and revenue, with the cost of changing the business school ethos required for RME. To understand the rhetoric versus reality of business schools’ commitment to RME, we interviewed a cross section of academic staff and a group of undergraduate and postgraduate students from an Australian business school, and experts on SDGs and PRME from Australia and across the world. Using this primary data, we were able to identify: first the current position of rhetoric versus reality of embedding SDGs in business schools, and second, the enablers and roadblocks in this process of RME, enabling us to make some suggestions on how to overcome these roadblocks.
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What are business schools doing now? All business schools in our global sample are committed to delivering RME, however their journey in doing so varies, dependent on their own unique context, organisational needs and idiosyncratic capacities. We concur with earlier research that found business schools tended to focus on embedding SDGs in their curricula (Wersun et al, 2020) in their approach towards RME, through mandatory core or elective units, across the entire curriculum, or using an interdisciplinary approach. Schools are committed to embedding sustainability in their operational activities, by incorporating SDGs in their strategic plans, reducing carbon emissions, across supply chains, transport, construction and finance. On a positive note, embedding sustainability is increasingly being embraced in schools, leading towards positive social and environmental impact. One expert explained:
RME
All business schools in our global sample are committed to delivering RME, however their journey in doing so varies, dependent on their own unique context, organisational needs and idiosyncratic capacities