Crafting the future of ethical leadership: Can the event of making itself create empathic leaders who are capable of building socially responsible supply chains?

Abstract

From the introduction:

 Future business leaders will not just be leaders of business; they will be, because they need to be, leaders who are protectors of the natural and social world. We need leaders to be better leaders for a better society. If the (business) world is changing so, too, should business schools’ perspectives and practices for effective and impactful management education. For decades, providers of management education have been criticised for curricula misaligned with business [and societal] needs (Porter & McKibbin, 1988). Such criticisms include curricula being overly theoretical, delivering the wrong content, using the wrong teaching methodologies, or not providing sufficient experiential learning experiences (e.g., Pfeffer & Fong, 2002; Schlegelmich & Thomas, 2011). Curtly put by Denning (2018): business schools teach yesterday’s expertise. 

In this paper, we, similar to Denning and other scholars (e.g., Dobson & Walmsley, 2020; Statler et al, 2015), propose that there is a need for alternative perspectives on management education, especially in the domain of sustainable and ethical business. We argue that without this, we are, again, “leading the parade to yesterday’s problems” (Dobson & Walmsley, 2020, p.2). Theoretically and specifically, we suggest that there is a need for art- and craft-based learning, and for crafters to act as engaged-scholars, in the sphere of management education. In this paper we describe our rationale for thinking in this way, and end by inviting artists, makers, and crafters to join this multi-discipline and collaborative research-led journey; to help change the practice of management education and the curricula of business schools for social good.