The Skills Gap – A View from University

Alan Murray PhD Leeds University Business SchoolPresentation at The University of York

October 2011

Background -

• 2006 - British academy of Management Special Interest Group in CSR

• 2006 – UN Taskforce on the Principles of Responsible Management Education

UNGC Office 2006

• ‘Corporate social responsibility, sustainability and corporate citizenship are terms that, with different emphasis, all point to the emergence of a new role of business in the global market place. The need for a redefinition of the boundaries of the company in the context of globalization, has already won the battle of ideas’

Yet, the reality is that companies embracing the new paradigm often lack the capacities, skills or tools to proceed. Some of the most significant needs can be identified as the following:

Useful management tools and integrative ways of embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns and new multistakeholder procedures into the daily management of the company

 

Best practices case stories – both in terms of the internalization of values by companies and in terms of collective actions by responsible business in the community

 

New reporting procedures

Recruitment of professionals prepared to deal with the new challenging environment of business

•  

• Responsible corporate citizenship is, above all, a learning process that entails a whole new set of management approaches, tools, capacities and skills.

• Academic institutions are in a strong position to play a leadership role in advancing this new agenda within the corporate community. Five areas for potential engagement stand out:

‘1. Business education: the academic sector can play a strategic role as change agents, educating the managers of today and tomorrow, incorporating the values of responsible corporate citizenship into their education activities’

1. The development of a) new teaching materials, b) case studies, c) technical tools, d) capacities, and e) skills for future responsible leaders is crucial for both the long-term mainstreaming of global corporate citizenship in business, as well as for the advancement of responsible business education.

 

2. The academic sector can train professionals to act as generators of sustainable value both for business and society, willing to endeavor for an inclusive and sustainable global economy.

 

3. The sector could strive to embed curricula and educational disciplines in universal values of global corporate citizenship: from marketing to financial analysis, from operations to business strategies, from accounting to international analysis, or from microeconomics to legal studies

They go on to outline the other strengths -

2. Research

3. Dissemination

4. Technical Support

5. Lending capacity

IMPLICATIONS

• Re-examination of the curriculum at all levels – especially at MBA level

• New approaches to teaching and research

• Attitudes of the accreditation bodies (AMBA, EFMD, AACSB)

Curriculum Development(i.e. impediments to...)

• Universities are bureaucratic!

• Course Directors are conservative!

• Lecturers are busy and reluctant to develop new courses!

• Deans question the business case!

ESRC Seminar Series 2008-10

‘When Worlds Collide: Contested Paradigms of Corporate Social Responsibility’

With:

Prof Kathryn Haynes - Newcastle University Business School

Prof Paul Palmer – Cass Business School

Prof Rob Melville – Cass Business School

Dr Richard Spencer - ICAEW

Collaboration

• With UN PRiME – working groups

• With ABS, AMBA, EFMD, AACSB

• Developing a new agenda

Collaboration

• With The Centre for Low Carbon Futures

• With The Ellen Macarthur Foundation

• CO2Sense; BiTC …

• With other Business Schools

• To produce new modules – new programmes

The Leeds Executive MBA 2012

• Based on a central ‘circular economy’ module – with a textbook and teaching materials developed with our partners

• Other modules influenced by technology, enterprise and innovation.

• Used as a ‘working model’ for continuous development and the circular economy module adopted across the world giving a new focus to MBA programmes.