Making Management (More) Relevant: Breaking Down Disciplinary Walls and Pursuing Neglected Independent Variables

Abstract

The Walls Project encourages educators to broaden management teaching beyond individual and organizational variables and outcomes to systemic variables and outcomes. Its focus is on discovering independent variables that have social and environmental impacts and are currently neglected. Founded by six individuals who met at a RMLE UnConference in 2017, the Project decided to share pedagogical materials, examine them for commonalities, and present their findings at the MOBTC conference in 2019. This article summarizes these materials with an eye to revealing several variables of consequence, such as socioeconomic status and belief in economic growth, which are studied and taught infrequently in business schools. We suggest that researchers examine business curricula for similar neglected variables, study their impact across systems levels, and then develop them pedagogically to enhance management education that has a social and environmental impact.

Keywords

interdisciplinary teaching growth socioeconomic status sustainability systems thinking

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amoroso

L. M.

Loyd

D. L.

Hoobler

J. M.

(2010). The diversity education dilemma: Exposing status hierarchies without reinforcing them. Journal of Management Education, 34(6), 795-822. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562909348209

André

(2020). Lead for the planet: Five practices for confronting climate change. University of Toronto Press.

Barbuto

J. E.

Hayden

R. W.

(2011). Testing relationships between servant leadership dimensions and leader member exchange (LMX). Journal of Leadership Education, 10(2), 22-37. https://doi.org/10.12806/V10/I2/RF1

Bell

(1976). The cultural contradictions of capitalism. Basic Books.

Benn

Dunphy

(2009). Action research as an approach to integrating sustainability into MBA programs: An exploratory study. Journal of Management Education, 33(3), 276-295. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562908323189

Berry

A. J.

(1997). Approaching the millennium: Transforming leadership education for stewardship of the planet’s resources. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 18(2), 86-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437739710168445

Bolden

Gosling

(2006). Leadership competencies: Time to change the tune? Leadership, 2(2), 147-163. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715006062932

Bradley

R. H.

Corwyn

R. F.

(2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 371-399. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135233

Carroll

Levy

Richmond

(2008). Leadership as practice: Challenging the competency paradigm. Leadership, 4(4), 363-379. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715008095186

10.

Chew

E. B.

McInnis-Bowers

(2004). Blending liberal arts and business education. Liberal Education, 90, 56-63. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ728535.pdf

11.

Clegg

S. R.

Ross-Smith

(2003). Revising the boundaries: Management education and learning in a postpositivist world. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2(1), 85-98. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2003.9324049

12.

Cohen

M. A.

(2012). Empathy in business ethics education. Journal of Business Ethics Education, 9, 359-375. https://doi.org/10.5840/jbee2012918

13.

Collinson

(n.d.). Are business schools fit for the future? https://charteredabs.org/business-schools-fit-future/

14.

Cooper

Bottomley

Gordon

(2004). Stepping out of the classroom and up the ladder of learning: An experiential learning approach to entrepreneurship education. Industry and Higher Education, 18(1), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.5367/000000004773040924

15.

Cunliffe

Forray

J. M.

Knights

(2002). Considering management education: Insights from critical management studies. Journal of Management Education, 26(5), 489-495. https://doi.org/10.1177/105256202236722

16.

Donaldson

(2002). Damned by our own theories: Contradictions between theories and management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 1(1), 96-106. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2002.7373701

17.

Donham

W. H.

(1933). The failure of business leadership and the responsibility of the university. Harvard Business Review, XI(11), 418-435.

18.

Fenton–LeShore

K. S.

(2005, August). Effectively teaching servant leadership to adult learners. In Proceedings of the 2005 Servant Leadership Research Roundtable. https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2005/leshore_effective_adult.pdf

19.

Fink

L. D.

(2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. Jossey Bass.

20.

Freire

(1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed ( Ramos

M. B.

, Trans.). Continuum.

21.

French

Grey

(1996). Rethinking management education. Sage.

22.

Giacalone

R. A.

Promislo

M. D.

(2019). The menace of misinformation: Faculty misstatements in management education and their consequences. Journal of Management Education, 43(4), 396-419. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562919826613

23.

Gluckman

Hanson

(2019). Ingenuous: The unintended consequences of human innovation. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqc6j28

24.

Grey

(2004). Reinventing business schools: The contribution of critical management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 3(2), 178-186. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2004.13500519

25.

Hiller Connell

Remington

Armstrong

(2012). Assessing systems thinking skills in two undergraduate sustainability courses: A comparison of teaching strategies. Journal of Sustainability Education, 3(March). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/63cf/279e6373d106095d569bb825a6f2447307e1.pdf

26.

Hirsch

W. Z.

Weber

L. E.

(Eds.). (2003). As the walls of academia are tumbling down. Economica.

27.

Kearins

Springett

(2003). Educating for sustainability: Developing critical skills. Journal of Management Education, 27(2), 188-204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562903251411

28.

Keough

S. M.

(2012). Clickers in the classroom: A review and a replication. Journal of Management Education, 36(6), 822-847. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562912454808

29.

Landrum

N. E.

Ohsowski

(2017). Content trends in sustainable business education: An analysis of introductory courses in the USA. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 18, 385-414. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-07-2016-0135

30.

Luke

Gore

(1992). Feminisms and critical pedagogy. Routledge.

31.

Marshall

(1999). Doing gender in management education. Gender and Education, 11(3), 251-263. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540259920564

32.

Mintzberg

Gosling

(2002). Educating managers beyond borders. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 1(1), 64-76. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2002.7373654

33.

Ostrom

(2015). Governing the commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316423936

34.

Power

D. J.

Roth

R. M.

Aldag

R. J.

(1993). A review of decision-aiding software: A management education perspective. Journal of Management Education, 17(4), 520-529. https://doi.org/10.1177/105256299301700410

35.

Restakis

(2010). Humanizing the economy: Co-operatives in the age of capital. New Society Publishers.

36.

Reynolds

(1999). Critical reflection and management education: Rehabilitating less hierarchical approaches. Journal of Management Education, 23(5), 537-553. https://doi.org/10.1177/105256299902300506

37.

Rhodes

Wright

Pullen

(2018). Changing the world? The politics of activism and impact in the neoliberal university. Organization, 25(1), 139-147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508417726546

38.

Roulet

Bothello

(2020, February 14). Why de-growth shouldn’t scare business. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/02/why-de-growth-shouldnt-scare-businesses

39.

Sassen

(2014). Expulsions: Brutality and complexity in the global economy. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674369818

40.

Shrewsbury

C. M.

(1997). What is feminist pedagogy? Women’s Studies Quarterly, 25(1-2), 166-173.

41.

Steinbauer

Renn

R. W.

Chen

S. H.

Biggane

Deitz

(2020). The impact of workplace mentors on the moral disengagement of business student protégés. Journal of Management Education, 44(2), 165-195. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562919892032

42.

Strand

(2011). A plea to business schools: Tear down your walls. In Morsing

Sauquet

(Eds.), Business schools and their contribution to society (pp. 213-222). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250822.n21

43.

Thor

York

Wharton

(2014). It’s different because it affects me: An experiential exercise ethics. Journal of Business Ethics Education, 11, 199-216. https://doi.org/10.5840/jbee20141110

44.

Tourish

(2019). The triumph of nonsense in management studies. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2019.0255

45.

Vaughan

Nickle

Silovs

Zimmer

(2011). Moving to their own beat: Exploring how students use Web 2.0 technologies to support group work outside of class time. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 10(3), 113-127. http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/10.3.1.pdf

46.

Weiler

(1991). Freire and a feminist pedagogy of difference. Harvard Educational Review, 61(4), 449-475. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.61.4.a102265jl68rju84

47.

Wright

Nyberg

(2015). Climate change, capitalism, and corporation: Processes of creative self-destruction. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139939676