The marginalisation of responsible management in business schools: a consideration of future trajectories.

Ndubuka-McCallum, Nkeiruka N.; Jones, David R.; Rodgers, Peter

Abstract

Business schools are vital in promoting responsible management (RM) – a management grounded in ethics and values beneficial to a wide array of stakeholders and overall society. Nevertheless, due to deeply embedded institutional modernistic dynamics and paradigms, responsible management is, despite its importance, repeatedly marginalised in business school curricula. If students are to engage with responsible management thinking, then its occlusion represents a pressing issue. Drawing on the United Kingdom (UK) business school context, this paper examines this issue through a framework of institutional theory and considers the role played by (modernistic) institutional accreditation and research assessment processes in marginalisation of responsible management. This study utilised an exploratory qualitative research method. Data were collected from seventeen responsible management expert participants from fifteen UK business schools that were signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (UNPRME) through semi-structured in-depth interviews and analysed using the six phases of Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. The study identifies a potent institutional isomorphic amalgam resulting in conservative impacts for responsible management. This dynamic is termed multiple institutional isomorphic marginalisation (MIIM) - whereby a given domain is occluded and displaced by hegemonic institutional pressures. In responsible management's case, MIIM operates through accreditation-driven modernistic-style curricula. This leads business schools to a predilection towards 'mainstream' representations of subject areas and a focus on mechanistic research exercises. Consequently, this privileges certain activities over responsible management development with a range of potential negative effects, including social impacts. This study fills an important gap concerning the need for a critical in-depth exploration of the role (and implications) that international accreditation frameworks—such as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), and national institutional academic research assessment processes in this case the Research Excellence Framework in the UK—play in affecting the possible growth and influence of responsible management. Additionally, it utilises heterotopia as a conceptual lens to reveal the institutional 'mask' of responsibility predominantly at play in the UK business school context and offer alternative pathways for responsible management careers.

Citation

NDUBUKA-MCCALLUM, N.N., JONES, D.R. and RODGERS, P. [2024]. The marginalisation of responsible management in business schools: a consideration of future trajectories. International journal of organizational analysis [online], EarlyCite. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-05-2024-4535

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 15, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Aug 16, 2024
• Deposit Date: Aug 16, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 16, 2024
• Journal: International journal of organizational analysis
• Print ISSN: 1934-8835
• Electronic ISSN: 1758-8561
• Publisher: Emerald
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-05-2024-4535
• Keywords: Responsible management; Management education; Management students; Modernism; Institutional isomorphism; Heterotopia; Accreditation; REF; MIIM; Business schools
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2434492