The MSc Management programme held its management workshop during the welcome week to introduce contemporary issues and management debates to students. The workshop was opened by the programme director, Dr Lilian Schofield, who introduced the pedagogical idea behind the workshop.
As the day of the event fell on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Day, Dr Fernando Barrio, Senior Lecturer in Business Law and Director of International Engagement for the School of Business and Management, opened the event by talking about the significance of the day.
Dr Sadhvi Dar, Reader in Interdisciplinary Management and Organisation Studies, was the speaker and introduced some contemporary issues in management, such as increasing income inequality, fragile democracies, biodiversity, climate crisis and racial violence. In her opening remarks, she discussed the need to transform the School of Business Management from its present form.
She stated in plain terms that planning and strategy are essential to the survival of all businesses and that once we recognise the extent to which social injustice has stunted our ability to think inclusively and equally, we can take action to challenge the status quo and diversify the way we conduct our daily business operations because everyone is valuable.
She discussed the current debates on sustainability and espoused that how far we are able to advance the influence of sustainability in business in intertwined with transformation. She posed an important question of, "What are the major objectives of businesses?" We had a whole discussion around this question. She then goes on to discuss how sustainability is an important aspect of business.
An interesting moment for us was the exercise where we had to visualise ourselves as future practitioners. This was a point of reflection and gave us insight into our actions and practice run the risk of continuing the status quo and putting the planet at risk.
In conclusion, there is a need to transform the way Business Schools are run. Our takeaway point is that there is a need to have counter knowledge that includes social justice and sustainability, ensuring that future business practitioners have a space to make these transformations. Furthermore, the transformation we need now starts with us. The current state of how businesses and Business schools are run need not continue to be the norm in the future.
Authors
Yash Baheti (MSc Marketing)
Blessing Adaobi Nwobi Nwajiaku (MSc Management)