Educating Integrated Catalysts: Transforming Business Schools Toward Ethics and Sustainability

Abstract

Joining the sharpening critique of conventional university-based business school education, we argue that educating students to be integrated catalysts is necessary to meet current sustainability challenges. The key feature of moving toward the integration required at the individual level is focusing on developing students’ capacity for moral and cognitive maturity. To effect this, the practice of genuine dialogue is the focus of our interpersonal method for educating management students. In supporting such education, business schools must, however, first transform themselves. As transformative social enterprises, they model critical questioning as well as improve the impact and relevance of management on flourishing wider society and an ethically oriented economy. We offer practical suggestions and implications for future business education reform.