Incorporating Environmental Sustainability in Management

Curriculums in India 

Dr. Rajat Agrawal, Assistant Professor, DoMS, I.I.T. Roorkee.

Vishnu Nath, Research Scholar, Uttarakhand Technical University Dehradun.

AICTE SPONSORED NATIONAL SEMINAR 

Omkarananda Institute of Management and Technologyand

Action for Sustainable, Efficacious Development and Awareness

Management Education in 21st Century: Experience of the First Decade

Major World Crisis in the last 3 decades of the 20th century

•Political Problems • Economic Problems• Environmental Problems

To address environmental issues diverse communities are working

• Scientists•Academicians•Manufacturing Specialists•Marketers

Defining Sustainability

• World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987, p. 8): development that “meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Forms of Sustainability Kearnis and Springett (2003)

•Weak

• Strong

.

Education for sustainability has become an important issue after the UN declaration of the decade of education for sustainable development (2005-2014).

Management Education and Sustainability

• Hoffman (1999) has pointed out that business schools are not training managers to tackle environmental challenges and environmental aspects are not a part of management education.

• The relevance of environmental issues for a business school is evident with the theme of Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Chicago, 2009: “Green Management Matters”

Importance of Sustainability in Management Curriculums (Holt, 2003; Jabbour, 2010)

• Providing tools to the managers on how to take decisions keeping in mind the environmental variables.

• Development of scientific knowledge about environmental management, a knowledge that leads a business with environmental excellence

Creation of knowledge Business schools should use the following guide lines to accelerate and encourage research in the field of environmental sustainability (Jabbour, 2009).

By providing funding to research programs on environmental management.Arrangement of conferences on the topic of environmental sustainability and management.Consolidation and organization of events dedicated to relationship between management and the environment.Motivating young and experienced researchers to engage in environmental management research.

Diffusion of Knowledge

The diffusion of knowledge is concerned with the inclusion of the environmental sustainability orientation in management curriculums being taught.

Dorweilwe et al., (1995) have mentioned the following business topics with an environmental dimension which can be included in current curriculums viz.,

Sustainability Subjects in Management curriculums as proposed by Dorweilwe et al., 

(1995) • Environmental Economics• Environmental Manufacturing• Environmental Marketing• Environmental Accounting• Environmental Auditing• Environmental Law• Environmental Management Systems

Challenges for Teaching Sustainability 

As per Strand (2011) , these are:

Relevancy Reflexivity Continuity Weak or Strong Sustainability (Heidt and

Lamberton, 2011).

References• Dorweiler, V.P., and Yakhou, M. (1995), “ The status of environmental

management in business education”, Journal of Education for Business, Vol. 70, pp. 160-165.

• Heidt, T.V.D. and Lambert, G. (2011), “Sustainability in the undergraduate and postgraduate business curriculums of regional university: A

critical perspective”, Journal of Management and Organization, Vol. 17, pp. 670-690.

• Hoffman, A.J. (1999), “Environmental Education in Business Schools”, Environment, Vol 41, pp. 4.

• Jabbour, C.J.C. (2010), “Greening of business schools: a systemic view”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education”, Vol. 11,

pp. 49-60.• Kearnis, K. and Springett D. (2003), “ Education for sustainability: developing

critical skills”, Journal of Management Education, Vol. 27, pp. 188-204.

• Strand, R. (2011), “Towards sustainability learning: lessons form a U.S. MBA study abroad program in Scandinavia”, Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability, Vol. 7, pp. 41-63.

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Thank You