Curriculum Change - the Reality
I was at a meeting yesterday for Harvard Business School's "Social Enterprise Initiative" - a group of professors and administrators who are each individually very dedicated to topics such as corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, climate change, non-profit management, etc. The reason I say this is to point out that the group as a whole is very much in favor of changing the MBA curriculum to include more of these topics, and they are particularly well-positioned to do so.
The interesting thing is that this isn't at all easy.
Essentially, the aspects that drive topic selection for cases, and case selection for courses, are twofold: 1) what the course itself needs in terms of conceptual learning, and 2) what the professor happens to bump into and be intrigued by.
A professor would be foolish to waste class time on something that doesn't have a useful teaching purpose - so, for example, the Patrimonio Hoy case can't be taught in a finance class if it's just about helping poor people build homes, but if it's re-written to bring out the lessons on time-value of money in an environment where discount rates are extremely high, then suddenly it becomes "worth" the class time. If the case can engage students on an important issue at the same time, that's fantastic - but professors won't teach it for that purpose alone. They see, quite reasonably, their primary role as teaching business skills not advocacy.
But will a professor say to himself or herself, "gee, I need a case on the time value of money, what can I find that will have a social purpose as well?" Not often. Instead, good professors are buffeted by interesting ideas all the time, and it become a matter of sorting through what's already in front of them. Screening out unsolicited suggestions becomes a defense mechanism for their time and sanity, and so they end up listening to trusted colleagues when thinking about which cases are worth using in class, or worth writing from scratch.
So for groups out there who want to get more CSR into b-school curricular, these are your challenges and also your advice - find ways to make it relevant, talke to professors you know or others who know them well, and then further tailor the ideas to fit even better with that particular professor's teaching agenda.
Most people want to help the good causes of the world, but with so many competing demands, it helps to make it easy for them.
The interesting thing is that this isn't at all easy.
Essentially, the aspects that drive topic selection for cases, and case selection for courses, are twofold: 1) what the course itself needs in terms of conceptual learning, and 2) what the professor happens to bump into and be intrigued by.
A professor would be foolish to waste class time on something that doesn't have a useful teaching purpose - so, for example, the Patrimonio Hoy case can't be taught in a finance class if it's just about helping poor people build homes, but if it's re-written to bring out the lessons on time-value of money in an environment where discount rates are extremely high, then suddenly it becomes "worth" the class time. If the case can engage students on an important issue at the same time, that's fantastic - but professors won't teach it for that purpose alone. They see, quite reasonably, their primary role as teaching business skills not advocacy.
But will a professor say to himself or herself, "gee, I need a case on the time value of money, what can I find that will have a social purpose as well?" Not often. Instead, good professors are buffeted by interesting ideas all the time, and it become a matter of sorting through what's already in front of them. Screening out unsolicited suggestions becomes a defense mechanism for their time and sanity, and so they end up listening to trusted colleagues when thinking about which cases are worth using in class, or worth writing from scratch.
So for groups out there who want to get more CSR into b-school curricular, these are your challenges and also your advice - find ways to make it relevant, talke to professors you know or others who know them well, and then further tailor the ideas to fit even better with that particular professor's teaching agenda.
Most people want to help the good causes of the world, but with so many competing demands, it helps to make it easy for them.
posted by Melissa Paschall at 11/29/2006 04:19:00 PM
1 Comments:
Right on Melissa!
For people who want to help business move toward more responsible behavior, making changes to MBA education is a great place to start. In fact, that's exactly our mission here at the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program.
And you're right, there are several institutional obstacles that make campus-based change difficult. Luckily, there are some great resources for both students and faculty.
At the Aspen Institute, we host Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a comprehensive database of best practices in MBA education, including 2,000+ course descriptions at 120+ schools, and featuring 300 syllabi available for free download.
We also created CasePlace.org as a free online library featuring 600+ case studies and other resources for faculty who want to insert these issues into mainstream disciplines.
Other organizations, including the Net Impact student association, also feature useful content.
At the same time, we're always looking for innovative ways to reach out onto campus. If you've got any ideas, we'd love to hear them!
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