Organizational transformation and higher sustainability management education: The case of the MBA Sustainability Management

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the roles of leadership in enabling sustainability transformation of universities and higher sustainability management education. It advocates research into the role of leadership for a university’s sustainability transformation by exploring interactions between university members and institutional contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a case study approach, this study explores the sustainability transformation of a university and its influence on the MBA Sustainability Management by applying Mintzberg’s leadership framework.

Findings

The findings suggest that leaders can strongly influence a process of change in mindsets, practices and curricula to incorporate sustainability into higher business education institutions. Whereas bottom-up leadership initiatives are crucial, leadership support from top management is seen as important to enable larger, more radical steps of transformation.

Originality/value

It is worthy noting that in the medium run strategic leadership to develop good sustainability management education programs requires a consistent institutional commitment for sustainability.

Citation

Lee, K.-H. and Schaltegger, S. (2014), "Organizational transformation and higher sustainability management education: The case of the MBA Sustainability Management", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 450-472. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-06-2013-0067