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Will Businesses and Business Schools Meet the Grand Challenges of the Era?

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  • Sandra Waddock

    (Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA)

Abstract

Meeting today’s grand challenges means changing the economics paradigm that informs both business practice and business/management education. This paper asks whether business schools meet the challenges of the 21st century and argues not without shifting away from the core—neoliberal—paradigm of economics. This essay makes the following argument. Paradigms shape narratives. Changing core narratives is a powerful lever for transformation. Narratives are constructed of core ideas (memes) that replicate readily from mind to mind. Neoliberalism’s memes are pervasive and highly resonant in business schools. To move towards sustainability, the fundamentals taught in business school need to shift away from neoliberalism’s tenets towards what gives life to economic systems. From a theory perspective, neoliberalism’s lack of attention to social and ecological consequences of economic activity plays a large part in shaping today’s crises, including the pandemic, climate change, and biodiversity loss. A new/next economics paradigm is needed that shifts away from an emphasis on only financial wealth and constant economic growth on a finite plant towards life-centered economies that foster wellbeing and flourishing for all, creating what scholars call collective value. The result of this analysis is a conceptualization supporting new memes that include collaboration and competition, stewardship of the whole system, a cosmopolitan to local sensibility, and recognition of humanity’s deep embeddedness and connection with other people, other beings, and nature. The article concludes that business schools need to meet this challenge head on, changing the fundamentals of what is taught and why.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandra Waddock, 2020. "Will Businesses and Business Schools Meet the Grand Challenges of the Era?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:15:p:6083-:d:391297
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nicola Pless & Thomas Maak, 2011. "Responsible Leadership: Pathways to the Future," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 3-13, January.
    2. Thomas Maak & Nicola M. Pless, 2006. "Responsible Leadership in a Stakeholder Society – A Relational Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 99-115, June.
    3. L. Lovins, 2016. "Needed: A Better Story," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 75-90, September.
    4. Sandra Waddock, 2016. "Foundational Memes for a New Narrative About the Role of Business in Society," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 91-105, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gerard Farias & Christine Farias & Isabella Krysa & Joel Harmon, 2020. "Sustainability Mindsets for Strategic Management: Lifting the Yoke of the Neo-Classical Economic Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-14, August.

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