Sustainable management: Are business courses giving students skills needed to manage towards sustainability?
详细信息
文摘
The reason for this study was to address reports by various researchers that sustainability and sustainable management are critical components of education in schools and businesses, but are topics not currently being given sufficient attention by many schools and business organizations, and secondly, that the three components of sustainability, (a) environmental, (b) economic/financial, and (c) social/human, are not being equally addressed, with the human aspect most often neglected. A quantitative study using internet surveys was used to investigate the perception of business course students as to the importance they place on understanding sustainability, sustainable management and all three components, and their perception as to whether business courses have given them skills needed to support sustainable management in business organizations. The study measured whether students with more business course background have higher understanding of sustainability and sustainable management, or if perceptions are higher with increased years in the workplace, which could indicate that sustainability skills are being gained in the workplace rather than in business courses. The population used was students currently or recently enrolled in business courses at four-year universities, and the sample frame was students that met this criteria and attended universities in the state of Texas. The responses from 355 participants were used in the final analysis. The results of the research indicated that individuals who have completed business courses do have a solid agreement as to the importance of understanding sustainability and sustainable management in their business degree program and for their future success, and that they place an equal importance on the three components of sustainable management. However, results indicated that students do not feel they have attained high-level skills as a result of their business courses. The findings in this survey support previous researchers' claims that sustainability and sustainable management are topics not currently being given sufficient attention by many schools and business organizations, suggesting that educational and business organizations could benefit from revising educational material to include more emphasis and instruction relating to sustainability and sustainable management.