Teaching Sustainable Development in New Business Schools (The Case of Transitional Economy)

1. Teaching Sustainable Development in New Business Schools(The Case of Transitional Economy) • Author: Professor Lech W. ZACHER Director of the Centre for Impact Assessment Studies and Forecasting at the Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management, Warsaw, Poland lzacher@wspiz.edu.pl • Co-author: Marta Strumińska, M.A. Ph.D. student in this Academy martastr@wspiz.edu.pl

2. Enlarged EU. Sustainability challenges and necessary actions • information (building information networks), • harmonization and coordination of policies, strategies and actions, • joint programs, plans, co-financing, • aid (institutional, organizational, technological etc.) • promoting idea and practice of sustainable civil society (i.e.transnational civil society within EU) • building common sustainability knowledge base for education, politics and media.

3. Poland (and other transition economies) should strive to solve such general issues like: • learning how to function effectively within the EU framework of laws and regulations, strategies, policies and programs, • implementing environmental policies, strategies and plans in all fields and on all levels of decision-making, • imposing environment-friendly behaviour of domestic and foreign business, as well as of the people, • promoting (politically, ethically, financially) green entrepreneurship (e.g. by giving relevant certificates, prizes, support in risk taking), • educating people in order to create sustainable civil societies (widespread sustainability issues in curricula at schools, universities – both general and technical, on post-diploma courses, in media, in political debates, in social debates, within business associations, various NGOs).

4. Green entreprenership as a prerequisite of sustainability • Green etrepreneurship: activities in a widely understood sector of environmental protection and on implementing ecological aspects in „traditional”sectors of economy. Combination of materialistic motivations with ecological aspects. • Main problems in post-communist countries are material deficiencies and unemployment. • The economical mentality prevailing in post-communist countries associates activities in favour SD with costs or at best with public relations. • Prerequsite of a green economy is the education at university level, especially those teaching economics and management

5. Business schools and education for sustainable development • 500 000 students (more then a half in Business Schools), who play and will play a important role in economic and social life – making choices and decisions, evaluating risks and taking responsibilities • About 150 Business Schools within 300 new non-public schools.

6. Educational Market and Sustainability Issues – theoretical perspective • Ecological requirements imposed by EU and domestic legislation • Requirements of western consumers and companies with regard to social and ecological standards. • Possibility to gain competitive adventage on sustainability basis Demand for trainings, courses, programs and consulting in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development Supply side: strongly market oriented entities (Business Schools) shall put sustainability and environmental issues on curricula

7. Research qestions Question on supply side: • Do offered curricula take into account the issues related with sustanability? Question on demand side: • Do students request such knowledge?

8. Research on supply side. Some conclusions Research objects: 11 most renown business schools Sustainable development issues are treated rather marginally: • no postgraduate studies on topics relevant to SD, of the 11 p.studied reviewed 2 contained one course related to SD • Within regular studies 4 schools have one obligatory course related to SD, 1 school 2 optional courses Ecological and social issues in this education play a second-rate role at the utmost or simply are considered as irrelevant.

9. Research on demand side Research objects: students of Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management Metodology: survey + focus group Total number of students: 5 000 Number surveyed: 181 • management and marketing (76) • finances and banking (28) • administration (37) • european studies (40)

10. Students’ demand for knowledge of SD • Did you hear about the concept ofSustainable development (vision of progress that links economic development, protection of the environment and social justice.)?  50% of the respondents said YES

11. Students’ demand for knowledge of SD Are you interested in SD issues? • Are other students interested in SD issues?

12. Students’ demand for knowledge of SD – some Tables Is the didactic offer in area of sustainability sufficient for the students? • 77% are personally interested in SD issues. • 47% declare majority of students is interested in SD issues. • 44% declare the didactic offer is sufficient (let’s recall: the offer contains one-semester course „Elements of ecology” and two courses facultative).

13. Attitude to main actors of implemention process of SD • Only 16% asked, in whose interests lies implementation of SD chose „business” (63% „human kind”) BUT THE IMPLEMENTATION IS SEEN FIRST OF ALL AS TASK FOR THE STATE •  80% admit that activities towards SD should be conducted by business in wider scope than the one required by law •  80% support citizens’ participation in environmental decision-making

14. Students’ demand for knowledge of SD – short conclusions • There are some resons to thinking, that an extension of the program in SD area would meet students acceptance. • Students attitude towards SD idea: „positive marked indifference”. • Main obstacle: students do not consider that social and environmental issues are appropriate to their educational path.

15. Main conlusions from research • strongly market oriented educational entities have not been adopting themselves to challenges linked with SD issues  they don’t see demand for SD knowledge  This idea is still marginal in social and economic life. • as well business schools as students function in monodisiplinary system, what makes the implementation of SD in the curricula very difficult. • positive students’ attitude towards the SD idea, has undoubtly its potential.

16. Main conlusions from research (1) • Demand for trainings, courses, programs and consulting in the field of environment protection and sustainable development should emerge on the educational market. So far, however, the educational entities, including those strongly market-oriented, have not been adapting themselves to these challenges. Both the supply side (schools) and the demand side (students) function in a system in which everything has its own place, assigned long ago: • ecology - at technical university or faculty of biology, • social issues – within social policy sciences, and • economy – within the sciences of economics or management and marketing.

17. Main conlusions from research (2) • An alteration of this status towards a systematic and interdisciplinary thinking, would be a peculiar learning process, requiring information and appropriate supporting policy. It is the university teaching staff that should become the target group to support such learning process. A change of their attitude should give a synergy effect in the form of a change in the students’ attitude. It is at the university-degree schools where students obtain information on the standards of economic life.

18. Recommended activities • contacts with university-degree schools abroad (partnership, joint research programs, exchange of the teaching staff and students) on condition that those schools pay more attention to sustainable development issues than the Polish ones, • information policy targeted above all on university staff (organization of conferences and scientific seminars) – task for the government, non-government organizations, media,

19. Recommended activities • including the sustainable development issues into the frameworks of teaching contents of individual subjects and fields of studies (task for the Ministry of Education), • supporting research in the field in question (task for the government, non-government organizations, business which realizes the policy of sustainable development), • supporting education of university teaching staff in the area of sustainable development (the government, non-government organizations).

20. Final Summary • The mentioned changes can be enforced to some extent by the market itself. Is it, however, legitimate to suppose that the schools will react to the changing reality, if they have not done it so far? The dominant paradigm connected with the perception of economic activity does not contain the combination of materialistic, ecological and social interests. • In view of the acceptance of the concept of sustainable development as a leading one for the EU economic policy and its existence in the most important state documents one should expect that this paradigm will be subject to a change. It is hard, however, to resist an impression that both: representatives of economy and representatives of economics do not believe that this all happens „seriously”. • Until they start believing, they will not take into account neither the limitations resulting from this fact nor the arising opportunities. If this status does not change, adaptation to the new regulations will take place in a passive and non-creative manner. Then we will have to do with a phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy – striving for sustainable development will in fact bring to enterprises nothing but costs and the economic growth will slow down.