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Guest Editors:
Amy C. Lewis (Texas A&M University-San Antonio)
D'Lisa N. McKee (Quinnipiac University)
Robert F. Scherer (Trinity University)
The modern emphasis on corporate social responsibility and business ethics entered the social conscience in the 1950s, and public scrutiny of business has only grown since (Cornuel & Hommel, 2012). Corporate scandals such as Enron in 2001 and the financial crisis of 2007-2008 placed increasing responsibility on business schools, highlighting the need for a paradigm shift in business education away from a focus on economic profit to one that balances financial, social, and environmental concerns (Giacoalone & Thompson, 2006). Likewise, the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), launched in 2007, called business schools and educators to action to fulfill their responsibility to educate future business leaders.
Higher education accrediting bodies have also raised expectations for business schools. AACSB International (AACSB), whose business accreditation standards form a system for business schools to demonstrate their quality, value, and impact (MacKenzie et al., 2019), requires business schools to document how their actions align with the social impact and engagement standard (Standard 9; AACSB International, 2023). Likewise, EQUIS-accredited business schools must document their efforts to advance ethics, responsibility, and sustainability through policy and strategy within the school. Both accrediting standards expect schools to deliberately incorporate positive social impact, responsibility, or sustainability into their curricula.
In response to this call, today's business schools are challenged with integrating social impact into their research and curriculum and articulating and documenting the societal value of their efforts. Faculty are often being asked to communicate how they advance social impact, responsibility, and sustainability in their classes, and schools are working to document their efforts and develop strategies to ensure they fulfill their obligations for preparing students for careers that balance profit with the broader needs of society and the environment.
Further, we must recognize this need is, right now, a swelling undercurrent coming from our learners as well. Business-facing publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review are all ringing the klaxon on how Gen Z employees are poised to change the workplace and the social consciousness of business. With headlines iteratively proclaiming Gen Z workers want "mission-driven jobs" (Borchers, 2022), "more from their employers" (Philipson, 2023), and "it all" (Francis, 2022), the resounding consensus is that new graduates entering the workforce have different priorities. Perhaps the most glaring of these is the need for purpose and shared values with an organization, coupled with a desire to create real change focused on the environment and society (c.f., Kelly, 2023; Kumar, 2023; Peterson, 2023).
Management educators are perhaps ideally situated to lead social impact innovations in their schools through strategies seeking to make business and business education a part of the solution to societal problems. As business educators, we can leverage experiential learning opportunities to reinforce business concepts, identify problems, and equip students with the necessary skills to create and implement solutions.
This special issue aims to curate a collection of short teaching resources to serve as a resource for instructors wanting to enrich their courses with activities or exercises related to sustainable development, social responsibility, and positive social impact. One approach might be to use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework to operationalize social impact, as suggested by AACSB (AACSB International, 2023). However, diverse approaches to preparing students for careers that balance profit with society and the broader environment also fit this special issue's theme. We are particularly interested in "turnkey" exercises, initiatives, or approaches with measurable learning objectives that could be added to the management curriculum to increase and document a school's emphasis on positive social impact.
We seek manuscripts that follow one of the five types of articles that Management Teaching Review publishes (experiential exercises, format translations, practice-to-research connections, research-to-practice insights, and resource reviews). Please follow all submission guidelines as posted at https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/management-teaching-review/journal202457#submission-guidelines
We encourage prospective authors and reviewers to contact the special issue editors about potential contributions to this project. Submissions will be accepted starting June 1, 2024, with a final deadline of October 1, 2024. Please visit the journal's submission site at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mtr and select "Special Issue: Social Impact" within the system.
The co-editors anticipate opportunities to discuss this topic at the Academy of Management and Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society conferences in the summer of 2024. Alternatively, please get in touch with Amy Lewis ([log in to unmask]) to discuss ideas for manuscripts.
AACSB. (2020, July 28). 2020 Guiding Principles and Standards for Business Accreditation.https://www.aacsb.edu/-/media/documents/accreditation/business/standards-and-tables/2020-business-accreditation-standards.pdf?la=en&hash=E4B7D8348A6860B3AA9804567F02C68960281DA2.
AACSB International (2023). AACSB and societal impact: Aligning with the AACSB 2020 business accreditation standards. Retrieved December 10, 2023: https://www.aacsb.edu/-/media/documents/accreditation/aacsb-and-societal-impact.pdf.
Borchers, C. (2022, June 2). Gen Z Workers Want Mission-Driven Jobs. A Big Paycheck Would Be Nicer. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/gen-z-workers-want-mission-driven-jobs-a-big-paycheck-would-be-nicer-11654116949.
Cornuel, E., & Hommel, U. (2012). Business Schools as a positive force for fostering societal change: Meeting the challenges of the post-crisis world. Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 289-312.
Francis, A. (2022, June 14). Gen Z: The workers who want it all. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220613-gen-z-the-workers-who-want-it-all.
Giacalone, R. A., & Thompson, K. R. (2006). Business ethics and social responsibility education: Shifting the worldview. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5(3), 266-277.
Kelly, J. (2023, November 17). How Employers Can Meet The Needs Of Gen-Z Workers. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2023/11/17/how-employers-can-meet-the-needs-of-gen-z-workers/?sh=40807ef52b2d.
Kumar, V. S. (2023, April 18). Gen Z In The Workplace: How Should Companies Adapt? John Hopkins University Imagine Blog. https://imagine.jhu.edu/blog/2023/04/18/gen-z-in-the-workplace-how-should-companies-adapt/.
Mackenzie, W.I., Scherer, R.F., Wilkinson, T.J., and Solomon, N.A. (2019). A systematic review of AACSB International accreditation quality and value research. Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, 36(1), 1-15.
Peterson, B. (2023, June 16). What Gen Z wants in the workplace. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/16/gen-z-employment/.
Philipson, B. (2023, June 28). Gen Z Healthcare Workers Want More From Their Employers. MedCity News. https://medcitynews.com/2023/06/gen-z-healthcare-workers-want-more-from-their-employers/.
Kerri Crowne Brannen, Ph.D.
Professor of Management, School of Business Administration
Widener University
One University Place, Chester, PA 19013
610-499-4315
