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CALL FOR PAPERS Preparing Leaders to Tackle Grand Challenges For better or poorer, business actions reverberate beyond the boundaries of the organization. On the poorer end of the impact spectrum, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that businesses directly or indirectly pinned 17.3 million people into forced labor in 2021 (International Labour Organization, 2022). This is equivalent to enslaving a country roughly the size of the Netherlands (United Nations, 2022). On the better end of the spectrum, Grameen Bank received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering work in microfinancing. These small, long-term loans made credit accessible to the “poorest of the poor” (NobelPrize.org, 2006). In 2023, the Bank had a borrower base of more than 10 million (Grameen Bank, 2023). This is equivalent to alleviating poverty in a country roughly the size of Greece (United Nations, 2022). Business actions aggravate or mitigate major global issues such as inequality, poverty and sustainability. Business leaders drive these actions and thus determine the direction of their impact. Scholars assert that the field of management has much potential to help address these Grand Challenges (George et al., 2016). However, some lament that scholars are “not even trying” to engage with these critical issues (Harley & Fleming, 2021). This Special Issue responds to the urgent call for scholarship. It aims to stimulate advances on how management education can develop leaders who are ready to tackle Grand Challenges. Grand Challenges Grand Challenges are large-scale complex problems requiring distinct problem solving skills (George et al., 2016). They are large scale, involving multiple stakeholders at various levels (individuals, organizations, countries, the world). They are complex, traversing disciplines and dimensions (economic, social, environmental, others). These dimensions may differ across contexts and they are interconnected in ways that are not always transparent. Further adding to the complexity is dynamism. The kinds of dimensions involved and/or their characteristics tend to transform over time (Funke, 2010). Scholars classify the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as Grand Challenges. These include climate change, poverty, inequality, and ecological sustainability (George et al., 2016; Seelos et al., 2023). Businesses can create and perpetuate these complex problems (Caruana et al., 2021). But with responsible leadership, they can also craft their solutions (Alkire et al., 2020; Cezarino et al., 2022; Vedula et al., 2022). Management education is well placed to develop and inspire leaders who can steer business organizations towards addressing Grand Challenges (Dorado et al., 2022; Hart et al., 2016; Martí, 2018). Opportunities for Management Education Tackling Grand Challenges requires responsible leaders who are capable complex problem solvers. The characteristics of Grand Challenges provide direction on the relevant outcomes for management education. Grand Challenges are complex. This requires leaders who have both insight and foresight: insight on the nature of the complex problems, and foresight on how they may change over time. Grand Challenges are dynamic. This requires leaders who are adaptable and flexible. They are mindful that complex problem solving involves constantly redefining goals, reconsidering obstacles, and remapping steps to achieve mutating objectives (Funke, 2010). Grand Challenges are multi-dimensional. This requires leaders who can collaborate across disciplines and contexts and negotiate competing stakeholder interests (George et al., 2016). Management educators must thus employ novel approaches to develop the relevant leadership skills, cognition and affect needed to tackle Grand Challenges. Educators must enhance students’ higher-order cognitive skills and big picture thinking (André, 2020; Porter & Córdoba, 2009; Urdan & Luoma, 2020). They must also advance capabilities to think and act across disciplinary, geographic, economic, socio-cultural, and ecological boundaries (Buckley et al., 2017; Shantz et al., 2023). Finally, they must foster champions at all levels in higher education institutions for the internalized transformation required to collectively address Grand Challenges (Kanashiro et al., 2020; Solitander et al., 2012). Illustrative Questions We invite conceptual and empirical papers that apply quantitative or qualitative methodologies. We suggest these illustrative (and similar or related) questions: On Teaching and Learning * How do disciplinary norms and institutions (culture, regulations, policies, others) influence the ways in which Grand Challenges are exposed, expressed and addressed across disciplines and contexts? What are the implications on teaching and learning assumptions, theories and pedagogies in management education? * How can business and management theories (for example, international management theories) ground teaching and learning approaches? * What instructional innovations can develop and evaluate (assess) the leadership mindset and competencies required? On Management Education Scholarship * Given the unique nature of Grand Challenges, what management education theories, assumptions or paradigms should be questioned or advanced? * How might we develop new management education theories to better ground leadership development? * How does/can management education contribute to the attainment of the UN SDGs? On Management Education Institutions * How can undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive education programs remain relevant given urgent pressures to address Grand Challenges? * How can management educators internalize the leadership behavior required? What are the connections between what we do as educators and what our students learn? What should we ourselves be learning and why? Submission Guidelines We encourage potential contributors to consult with any of the Special Issue Editors to discuss paper ideas. All manuscripts must adhere to the guidelines of the Journal of Management Education[1]. Different types of articles are encouraged. Contributions will be reviewed as a cohort and all submissions will undergo a double-anonymous peer review process according to journal protocols. The deadline for the submission of full papers is on the 31st of August 2024. Further information can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/page/JME/SI-Preparing-Leaders-to-Tackle-Grand-Challenges Timeline January 2023 Call for papers February 2023 - August 2024 Idea and paper development workshops August 2024 Deadline for submission of full papers Guest Editors Sandra Alday [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Allan Bird [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> John Dilyard [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Daria Panina [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Sasha Zhao [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> References Alkire, L., Mooney, C., Gur, F. A., Kabadayi, S., Renko, M., & Vink, J. (2020). Transformative service research, service design, and social entrepreneurship: An interdisciplinary framework advancing wellbeing and social impact. Journal of Service Management, 31(1), 24-50. André, R. (2020). Teaching climate leadership: Promoting integrative learning in courses on strong sustainability. Journal of Management Education, 44(6), 766-793. Buckley, P. J., Doh, J. P., & Benischke, M. H. (2017). Towards a renaissance in international business research? Big questions, grand challenges, and the future of IB scholarship. Journal of International Business Studies, 48, 1045-1064. Caruana, R., Crane, A., Gold, S., & LeBaron, G. (2021). Modern slavery in business: The sad and sorry state of a non-field. Business & Society, 60(2), 251-287. Cezarino, L. O., Liboni, L. B., Hunter, T., Pacheco, L. M., & Martins, F. P. (2022). Corporate social responsibility in emerging markets: Opportunities and challenges for sustainability integration. Journal of Cleaner Production, 362, 132224. Dorado, S., Antadze, N., Purdy, J., & Branzei, O. (2022). Standing on the shoulders of giants: leveraging management research on grand challenges. Business & Society, 61(5), 1242-1281. Funke, J. (2010). Complex problem solving: A case for complex cognition?. Cognitive Processing, 11, 133-142. George, G., Howard-Grenville, J., Joshi, A., & Tihanyi, L. (2016). Understanding and tackling societal grand challenges through management research. Academy of Management Journal, 59(6), 1880-1895. Grameen Bank. (2023). Grameen Bank Now. Grameen Bank. https://grameenbank.org.bd/about/gb-now Harley, B., & Fleming, P. (2021). Not even trying to change the world: Why do elite management journals ignore the major problems facing humanity?. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 57(2), 133-152. Hart, S., Sharma, S., & Halme, M. (2016). Poverty, business strategy, and sustainable development. Organization & Environment, 29(4), 401-415. International Labour Organization. (2022). Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage. International Labour Organization, September 2022. https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/publications/WCMS_854733/lang--en/index.htm Kanashiro, P., Rands, G., & Starik, M. (2020). Walking the sustainability talk: if not us, who? If not now, when?. Journal of Management Education, 44(6), 822-851. Martí, I. (2018). Transformational business models, grand challenges, and social impact. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(4), 965-976. NobelPrize.org. (2006). Grameen Bank – Facts. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2006/grameen/facts/ Porter, T., & Córdoba, J. (2009). Three views of systems theories and their implications for sustainability education. Journal of Management Education, 33(3), 323-347. Seelos, C., Mair, J., & Traeger, C. (2023). The future of grand challenges research: Retiring a hopeful concept and endorsing research principles. International Journal of Management Reviews, 25(2), 251-269. Shantz, A., Sayer, M., Byrne, J., & Dempsey-Brench, K. (2023). Grand Challenges and the MBA. Journal of Management Education, 10525629231154891. Solitander, N., Fougère, M., Sobczak, A., & Herlin, H. (2012). We are the champions: Organizational learning and change for responsible management education. Journal of Management Education, 36(3), 337-363. United Nations. (2022). 2022 Revision of World Population Prospects. World Population Prospects 2022. https://population.un.org/wpp/ Urdan, M. S., & Luoma, P. (2020). Designing effective sustainability assignments: How and why definitions of sustainability impact assignments and learning outcomes. Journal of Management Education, 44(6), 794-821. Vedula, S., Doblinger, C., Pacheco, D., York, J. G., Bacq, S., Russo, M. V., & Dean, T. J. (2022). Entrepreneurship for the public good: A review, critique, and path forward for social and environmental entrepreneurship research. Academy of Management Annals, 16(1), 391-425. [1]https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/JME ____ AIB-L is brought to you by the Academy of International Business. For information: http://aib.msu.edu/community/aib-l.asp To post message: [log in to unmask] For assistance: [log in to unmask] --- You must be an active AIB member to post to AIB-L . AIB-L has a moderator which checks messages for basic relevance. However, AIB does not edit or screen messages for accuracy or reliability of content. All subscribers are recommended to perform their own due-diligence before responding to any requests or calls. AIB accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided.