Search results

The purpose of this paper is to describe content topics and teaching methods for a new undergraduate course in business administration on managing for workplace mental health. It then discusses a preliminary evaluation of the course.

Research-supported content and teaching methods were developed and implemented. n=18 undergraduates completed pre- and post-course quantitative measures related to course goals, and a qualitative post-course survey about course content and delivery.

Analysis of pre- and post-course quantitative measures demonstrated significant increases in mental health-related knowledge; other-directed, mental health supportive behaviours; mental health promotion self-efficacy; mental health promotion intentions; and self-compassion; as well as significant decreases in stigmatising attitudes. Effect sizes were moderate to large, indicating usefulness. Qualitative, post-course data indicated that positive aspects of course content were those that enhanced knowledge of mental health conditions; skills for managing workplace mental health concerns; and attitudes towards those suffering from mental illness. Qualitative post-course data indicated that positive aspects of course delivery were specific teaching strategies and teaching qualities.

Results support the continued development and use of a course for business students on managing workplace mental health. Additional, larger scale evaluation would be helpful.

Detailed information is provided about the course structure, content, resources and teaching methods, which could be used in other settings.

The workplace is an important site for early identification and intervention of mental health concerns, regardless of their origin or cause. This research supports the usefulness of training prospective business managers in this regard.

Coverage of mental health-related topics with business students has been scant to absent. This project developed, implemented and evaluated a new course.

This paper aims to consider the use of relational cultural theory (RCT) as an underlying, processual orientation for teaching with those who are living and learning at the intersection of multiple, marginalised identities.

The concept of intersectionality is defined, and key characteristics of intersectional approaches are described. The criticality of teaching for intersectionality-related social justice goals involving inclusion, engagement, mattering, empowerment and critical inquiry as foundations for critical praxis is identified. Consideration is given to the viability of RCT as an underlying orientation for teaching with students who live and learn at the intersection of multiple, marginalised identities.

RCT is consonant with key characteristics of intersectional approaches, including rejection of essentialist perspectives; recognising the roles of power in creating, maintaining and legitimising interlocking marginalisations; retaining race as a critical point of intersectional analysis and practice; recognising the validity of insights obtained from non-dominant standpoints; and working to fulfill social justice goals. Practical guidelines from RCT that support social justice goals include facilitating student voice within a context of radical respect; use of “disruptive empathy”; attending to particular experiences within the context of systemic power dynamics; using co-active “power with” versus “power over” students; relying on mutuality and fluid expertise; and reframing student resistance.

This paper provides a foundational overview of the history, nature and uses of RCT as an underlying processual orientation when teaching across diverse academic disciplines for students who live and learn at the intersection of multiple marginalised identities. Detailed case studies involving the application of RCT, including those involving teacher self-reflection would be useful.

Guidelines are provided for the practical application of RCT when teaching for intersectionality across diverse academic disciplines.

RCT supports the intersectionality-related social justice goals of inclusion, engagement, mattering, empowerment and critical inquiry as foundations for critical praxis.

Intersectional pedagogies have been associated with positive attitudinal, intentional and behavioural outcomes. However, despite some notable exceptions, intersectional pedagogies are still absent in most academic disciplines. This paper provides practical guidance on the use of RCT as an underlying processual orientation when teaching for intersectionality across diverse academic disciplines.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the false distinction often drawn in both philosophy and social movement research between rationality of thought and the emotion of anger. By demonstrating that anger may represent something other than irrationality, the adequacy of common management responses to anti‐corporate activist anger is questioned.

Dominant western perspectives, in which anger is negatively constructed as a socially inappropriate irrationality in need of control, are contrasted with alternative viewpoints in which anger is conceptualized as an essential political mechanism through which judgments of injustice occur. Consonance between the latter view and “framing processes”, through which anger enters into social movements, is demonstrated.

Negative social constructions of anger reflected in corporate strategies for managing anger may serve important political functions, including suppression of moral agency and judgments of injustice among those who are disfranchised.

In order to validate citizen claims to moral equality, worth and community membership, managers should engage in authentic dialogue to openly evaluate and either agree on or challenge claims of injustice. Managers should also proactively involve peripheral (disfranchised) stakeholders in order to understand and incorporate their perspectives into sustainable and just business models.

Although anger has long been recognized as a central feature of anti‐corporate activism, it has received almost no scholarly attention. The false distinction often drawn between anger and rationality is described and, based on this, the adequacy of common corporate strategies for managing activist anger are questioned.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the implications of relational cultural theory (RCT) for mentoring individuals who have enacted moral courage.

Overviews of the construct of moral courage, the nature of work-related mentoring and RCT are provided. Subsequently, the relevance and implications of RCT for understanding moral courage-related suffering, and for supporting the growth, resilience and vitality of those who have enacted moral courage are discussed.

Within RCT, moral courage-related suffering is located in disconnection, invalidation and isolation for which sufferers also feel held at fault. Self-protective behaviors, including disavowal of self, can perpetuate this suffering.

Five insights from RCT for supporting the growth, resilience and vitality of individuals following acts of moral courage are elaborated, including affirming efforts to activate supportive relationships; demonstrating “radical respect”; facilitating voice; engaging through mutuality and fluid expertise; and, reframing resilience.

The dearth of attention to ways of supporting those who suffer following acts of moral courage reflects previously documented findings about the short-shrift given to issues of human health and sustainability in organizations and organizational research. Implications for policy, practice and education are described.

This paper extends the RCT perspective in mentoring, and addresses an important gap in the moral courage literature, namely, the identification of a theoretically grounded approach through which to support the growth, resilience and vitality of individuals who have enacted moral courage.

The purpose of this research was threefold, including to provide a four-point rationale for teaching corporate crisis management as a module within a course on ethical decision-making in business and organizations; to provide evaluative data supporting this approach; and to highlight the implications of this approach for human resource development and training.

Thirty-four undergraduates in a required course on ethical decision-making in business and organizations completed pre- and post-course assignments assessing their knowledge about crisis/management, as well as their skills in crisis recognition, evaluation and action planning. Participants also completed a survey on their perceptions of the crisis management module and its placement within the ethics course.

Statistical analyses demonstrated significant knowledge acquisition on crisis/management; significant skill development on crisis recognition, evaluation and action planning; and significantly greater “true positives” and significantly fewer “false negatives” in post-course identification of crisis warning signs. Perceptions of the crisis management module and its placement within the course on ethical decision-making were positive.

Although the sample size was relatively small, small samples are associated with a greater risk of failing to detect an effect that is present, rather than the greater predicament of erroneously concluding that an absent effect is actually present. This information, coupled with the fact that the results demonstrated not only statistical significance but also large effect sizes using Cohen’s d, inspires confidence. Nonetheless, additional assessment with larger samples would allow for the possibility of convergent evidence. Similarly, additional assessment within different organizational contexts, including applications in human resource training and development is warranted. Future research should also include assessment of specific underlying teaching strategies and evaluation of whether certain models are associated with greater learning on a broader range of crisis management skills.

Programs in business ethics education and training comprise one useful context in which to teach corporate crisis management. The program specified here addresses two training needs previously specified in the human resource development (HRD) literature on crisis management, including identifying specific methods of enhancing recognition or detection of crisis warning signs and also of providing tools and enhancing skills for assessing and containing crisis.

Despite the centrality of both ethics and HRD to crisis management, there has been a dearth of research on whether ethics education is a useful context through which to teach this topic. This research addresses this dearth and suggests new avenues for HRD in this respect.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, illustrate and explore the use of process recording as a pedagogical tool in behavioural ethics education.

An overview of the nature and components of process recording as a pedagogical tool is provided. Potential challenges and benefits associated with its use are described. The particular relevance of process recording for behavioural ethics education is highlighted. Illustrative examples of ethics-related process records are discussed.

Process recording shows promise as a pedagogical technique for meeting three goals of behavioural ethics education (i.e. Chugh and Kern, 2016). These include: enhancing literacy with research-supported concepts and principles such that these can be applied in “real-world” settings; increasing student awareness of gaps that might exist between their intended and actual ethical behaviour; and, fostering the sense that ethical skills are not static, but rather, open to development.

This paper introduces, illustrates and explores the use of process recording in behavioural ethics education. Additional, more systematic study of process recording in ethics education would be useful.

Process recording shows promise as a tool for supporting learning about behavioural ethics. Practical information on its use and concrete examples are provided.

Despite the need for pedagogical tools in behavioural ethics education, as well as the previously identified relevance of process recording as a potential tool in ethics education, there has been no prior exploration or illustration of process recording within this realm.

The purpose of this paper is to first, provide an interdisciplinary overview of the pedagogical perspective known as “embodied learning”; second, describe the particular relevance of embodied perspectives for business ethics and business ethics education; third, introduce “relational sculpting” as a pertinent embodied technique in this context.

Content analysis of qualitative data on relational sculpting from n=50 participants in two sections of a required undergraduate course on business ethics was conducted.

Findings indicated that the use of relational sculpting was associated with increased emotional awareness of, and empathy for stakeholders; a more compelling sense of connection to ethical issues and the affected stakeholders; enhanced understanding of stakeholder perspectives; and, a stronger appreciation of interconnections among stakeholders, as well as of the situation as a whole.

Future investigations could explore diverse other applications of relational sculpting and any implications these might have for learning effectiveness. Consideration could also be given to the viability, development, implementation and assessment not just of embodied techniques, but also, of integrated and coherent educational programs that are embodied in nature.

Step-by-step practical guidelines for using relational sculpting are provided. Additionally, comprehensive ethical guidelines for the use of innovative teaching methodologies such as relational sculpting are also provided.

Management scholars have recently advocated not only for increased ethics training in undergraduate and graduate curricula, but also for enhanced teaching and learning through the integration of diverse scholarly perspectives and innovations. This paper provides an interdisciplinary overview of the pedagogical perspective known as “embodied learning,” identifies its relevance for business ethics and business ethics education, and also introduces “relational sculpting” as a relevant embodied technique.

The purpose of this paper is to extend previous scholarly writing on community service‐learning (SL) initiatives by looking beyond their use in the not‐for‐profit sector to their potential use in community‐based small businesses.

A rationale for the appropriateness of using SL projects in small businesses is provided, and distinctions drawn between small business SL projects and student internships. A case study involving a strategic management project in a community‐based small business is presented.

The findings support the usefulness of SL initiatives in small businesses. Benefits to the students include an enhanced understanding of course material, improved learning through the transparent information sharing and experience of the small business owner, increased confidence in strategic management skills, and greater appreciation of community, environmental, and ethical concerns. Benefits to the small business owner included receipt of customized, onsite services that circumvented opportunity, and financial costs associated with other consultation or training options, an unbiased and well‐rounded strategic audit, and receipt of an alternate perspective on the business that would not otherwise be available.

Future research should explore the use of SL projects in a broader range of undergraduate business courses and continue to develop pragmatic frameworks for initiatives involving small businesses. Factors associated with small business engagement in SL and outcomes for business owners should also be investigated.

Practical information on the implementation SL initiatives in community‐based small businesses is provided, along with guidance on dealing with potential risk management concerns related to non‐conflict of interest, confidentiality, and liability.

Previous approaches to SL have focused almost exclusively on partnerships with not‐for‐profit agencies. This paper supports the usefulness of SL initiatives in for‐profit, community‐based small businesses.

This purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between dimensions of commitment to the profession of business, and ascribed importance of various organisational characteristics to the first full‐time job following graduation.

Business administration students (n=446) completed surveys on dimensions of their commitment to the profession of business and the importance they ascribed to having certain organisational characteristics in their first full‐time job (n=132). Confirmatory factor analysis of commitment scales, principal component analysis of organisational characteristics, and canonical correlations were used.

Affective occupational commitment was differentially, positively associated with the importance ascribed to working in an organisation that offers opportunities for professional development. Normative occupational commitment was differentially, positively associated with the importance ascribed to working in a reputable organisation that is devoted to diversity and social responsibility.

Additional evaluation using multi‐source and behavioural data would be useful.

Knowledge of the relationship between types of occupational commitment and desired organisational characteristics among university students could inform organisational positioning relative to recruitment.

Results reported in this paper demonstrate the potential relevance of occupational commitment components into the processes of recruitment and applicant attraction among university students.