Sustainability, Human Values and the Education of Managers

Abstract

Inequities among people all around the world as well as indifference towards the environment continue to be a constant reality despite the efforts of some organizations worldwide for a better future. We consider that these efforts need to be amplified by many other organizations, therefore, the role of managers as practitioners who conduct organizations' actions need to be explored in the sense of their contribution for improving our reality. Hence, for a better future, a sustainable world that could be more fair, honest and concerned towards nature. To us, this calls into question the role of management education to this regard. Our research studies indicate that one way to contribute to this aim is by means of introducing in contents and pedagogical practices of our courses, the appropriateness of human values in students, as they are the future managers. In this chapter, we present some of these human values, sometimes considered by many religious traditions as spiritual values, which are: wholeness, forethought, solidarity and compassion. We conceptualize these values, and throughout critical reflections, we show how they are taken into account, or simply disregarded, in various courses and domains of Business Schools. At the end, we present some suggestions for pedagogical practices.

Citation

Davila Gomez, A.M. and Crowther, D. (2020), "Sustainability, Human Values and the Education of Managers", Crowther, D. and Quoquab, F. (Ed.) CSR in an age of Isolationism (Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Vol. 16), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 53-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2043-052320200000016004