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This study aims to clarify how higher educational institutions (HEI now onwards) can engage in organizational learning process to implementing sustainability initiatives. Through the case study of business school in France, it shows how sustainability integration is a longitudinal process, influenced by contextual factors which facilitate and impede the learning process. It aims to contribute to the literature of sustainability in higher education by bringing in insights from organizational learning theory.

This research uses the case study method to analyze the sustainability integration over the specific period. To do so, data was compiled by analyzing internal documents, publicly available sustainability reports. Further data was also complimented by the interviews, which gave intra-organizational level insights.

The case highlights that organizational learning for sustainability is stimulated by deans, faculty and institute of sustainability. It provides insights about how designing and implementing sustainability initiatives within an HEI is not a fixed goal; on the contrary, it is an ongoing learning process. However, this learning is also prone to barriers due to the ambiguous nature of sustainability.

This research was conducted within a specific time, geographical and cultural context; hence, its result may lack generalization. Further comparative research is encouraged to explore similarity and differences within different HEI settings.

This research also gives potential insights for developing contextual awareness to prioritize, design and implement sustainability initiatives. Thus, it may be useful for the HEI administrators such as deans, sustainability managers and faculty members.

This case emphasizes that HEI like business schools need to expand their relevance via social responsibility. This could be done so by encouraging leadership to engage with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This research uses organizational learning theory to understand determinants of sustainability design and implementation at French HEI. In doing so, this research contributes macro-level process of sustainability integration of an HEI.

This paper aims to present the progress of the implementation of sustainability in business schools in line with the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and its principles of responsible management education.

By analyzing the content of the Sharing of Information on Progress reports from PRME signatories, this study identified significant developments in the strategies business school use to implement sustainability. However, it seems that a framework that business schools can apply to accomplish that goal is still lacking. This paper proposes a framework that addresses four components of the integration process and stresses the important role of stakeholders. The authors discuss the results from 2021 in comparison to the results of a previous analysis of the first 100 signatories from 2010 and analyze the findings in relation to the developed framework.

This study shows that business schools have improved their sustainability engagement in many areas (e.g. education offerings and teaching methods, campus practices and engaging stakeholders). However, less attention has been paid to other aspects, such as reviewing and assessing, capability development or communication, which could slow the transformation process. The authors discuss further implications of the findings for enhancing the PRME signatories’ ability to implement the underrecognized aspects.

While the analysis focuses on the status and progress of the integration of PRME within business schools during the past decade, the framework may enable higher education institutions to analyze their potential to implement change and plan future transformation strategies.

The article gives an overview of responsible management in education using an example of the Almaty Management University (AlmaU) in Kazakhstan. At AlmaU, social responsibility is considered as a core model both from the perspective of managing education and teaching. Several projects and initiatives for staff and students reflect this model in action. The United Nations' Principles for Responsible Management Education initiatives and concepts serve as guiding principles and help benchmark initiatives on the global scale.

This paper proposes the development of a student-led pedagogic tool in an undergraduate development economics module offered in a UK business school. It uses the developing country informal sector as an illustrative example. The informal sector plays a huge role in contributing towards job creation, income generation, and poverty alleviation in developing countries. The overall goal of the tool is to propose recommendations of mechanisms that can be used to incentivise the informal sector to embed responsible management in their practice. The tool is to be jointly developed with students and other stakeholders in a developing country. Students are expected to acquire skills related to researching pertinent topics in the development economics field, critiquing policies and frameworks developed by global intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations, and engaging with global stakeholders who are directly and indirectly impacted by these policies and frameworks. The paper highlights the connection between development economics, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the United Nations (UN) Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). The development of the tool also provides an avenue for business school students to bridge current gaps in educational institutions in developing countries in engaging with the PRME. The activities discussed in the paper present opportunities for business schools to be innovative and flexible in how they deliver responsible management education. This can ultimately expand the diversity of stakeholder involvement in contributing towards the SDGs and responsible management.

The UK government has taken the lead in accelerating the capacity of higher education to engage with sustainability accounting and adopting a novel systematic approach toward a collective implementation of and contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN SDG 16 “Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions” promotes the (re)building of effective and accountable institutions. In line with the institutional logics metatheory, we provide empirical evidence on how the alignment between social mechanisms alongside the reputation of higher education institutions (HEIs) and SDGs on transparent and responsible service (SDG 16) affect the students' overall experience. Using a sample of 142 UK HEIs, interpretative content analysis and ordinary least squares, the results show that integrating HEIs' responsible-oriented research agenda proactively with high sustainability reputation adds significantly to greater student satisfaction.

Reflecting emerging concerns about Principles of Responsible Management Education’s (PRME's) reach beyond the West, the authors provide an analysis of its contribution to responsible management development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Drawing on 18 PRME MENA signatories' Sharing Information on Progress Reports, the authors examine levels of engagement with PRME, as well the practices used in the region to progress its six principles. The authors examine the depth of integration based on Rusinko's (2010) typology and its success in addressing local responsible management challenges.

The analysis revealed modest levels of engagement with PRME in MENA. Consistent with other regions, for those actively participating, the authors identified a wide variation in PRME responses. First, the authors found wide variation in the interpretation of the six principles. Second, the authors found a diversity of practices, especially the extent to which efforts were linked to progressing local management challenges. Third, the authors also found variability relating to the depth of PRME's integration into the curricular of MENA signatories with, most displaying Ruskino's (2010) narrower approaches.

The authors address calls to understand the contribution of PRME beyond Western contexts and offer suggestions for how PRME can be strengthened to facilitate responsible management development in MENA.

The purpose of this paper is to examine competence management practices in Brazilian industries using ISO 10015 as a framework of analysis, which establishes guidelines for competence management and people development.

A survey was conducted with 22 high-qualified human resources management (HRM) professionals (81.8% of participants hold a PhD) with extensive experience in the Brazilian industrial sector (an average of 20.4 years). The experts assessed 13 practices (P) elaborated based on the ISO 10015:2020, considering two categories: large industries (LI) and small and medium-sized industries (SMI). Data analysis was performed using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, frequency analysis, Fuzzy TOPSIS and sensitivity analysis.

The practice “individual competences are correctly defined by organizations at all hierarchical levels” was deemed the best practice for LIs, while the practice “clear definition of activities and their specificities when structuring competence management and people development programs” was considered the best practice for SMIs. The practice “organizations map employees' future competence and development needs on a regular basis” received the lowest rating for both LIs and SMIs. When compared to LIs, SMIs have more severe deficiencies in applying competence management practices. The study's findings can be of great value in assisting managers in implementing structured competence management systems and people development initiatives.

The findings of this study can be used by managers of businesses of all sizes and economic sectors to analyze their critical points in order to identify opportunities to improve their competence management systems and people development programs.

This study fills a knowledge gap by analyzing the adoption of competence management practices in Brazil, answering the call for HRM research in developing countries. By using ISO 10015 as a framework of analysis, this study also addresses the literature gap regarding this important and relatively new management tool.

The sustainability of the global food system hinges on its environmental resiliency and safety, including the health and well-being of its labor force. Single disciplinary courses in liberal arts or science often fail to highlight the overlap between environmental and social vulnerabilities that lead to food insecurity and diminish the sustainability of food systems. This paper aims to present the design and delivery of a successfully co-taught, interdisciplinary module on agricultural labor and sustainable food systems as a case study.

The authors designed a co-taught module in which they joined each other’s respective history and science class sessions at the undergraduate business college where they teach. Innovating the cross-disciplinary content of food security, immigration status, labor exploitation and pesticide exposure, they approached sustainability from the disciplinary perspectives of labor history and environmental science to show how these elements had both unique and overlapping impacts across food systems levels. Comparisons between pre- and post-module survey responses, alongside assessments of a co-authored exam question, measured the effectiveness of this module is changing students’ perspectives as food consumers and as citizens.

This module altered students’ understanding and perspectives around issues of food systems sustainability. Assessments indicated that students increased their awareness of agricultural workers at the front end of the food system, during production; students also gained awareness beyond consumption as they came to see the connections between workforce invisibility and ecosystem degradation.

These insights are valuable to educators at all institutional levels who seek to collaborate on sustainability initiatives and teaching, both in the singular, robust modules and in building modules that will lead to the development of entire courses focused on sustainability. The module described here builds on previous demonstrations of the value, significance and effectiveness of cross-disciplinary collaborations; it pioneers the use of the food system as the link between social and environmental sustainability education.