26th Annual Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education Meeting

Experience level: 
Intermediate
Intended Audience: 
Faculty
Authors: 
Kellen Sorauf (Associate Professor, Regis University), Adam Melnick (Assistant Professor, Metropolitan State University of Denver), Abigail Schneider (Associate Professor, Regis University), Asbjorn Egir (Affiliate Faculty, Regis University)

Growing Good Business for the Next Quarter Century

From climate change and a global pandemic to growing wealth inequality and racial injustice, the first quarter of the 21st century has been marked by myriad interconnected crises. As one of the most powerful institutions on earth, business is uniquely positioned to address these challenges, and business education—particularly Jesuit business education, which is grounded in Ignatian Pedagogy and called to action by Pope Francis’ 7-Year Journey Toward Integral Ecology—is uniquely positioned with the opportunity to lead the way in reimagining the purpose and practice of business and to prepare the next generation of business leaders to build a more just and humane world over the next 25 years. Yet, what does the future of business education look like when it is intentionally designed to cultivate human flourishing and healthier natural ecosystems? The goal of the current proposal is to build upon a 2022 Inspirational Paradigm Grant-funded project and publish Teaching Notes to accompany the audio (podcast) case studies so that they can be more easily adopted for use in the classroom. Produced by the Sustainable Economic and Enterprise Development (SEED) Institute at Regis University in partnership with Stakeholder Business, the Growing Good Business podcast features forward-thinking business leaders who are re-creating the business paradigm to honor humanity and our common home, and it provides a blueprint for how these leaders are creating change—and how listeners (students and members of the business community) can create change within their organizations. The first two episodes provide context for the season and shed light on what a new business paradigm might look like and, importantly, how to achieve the cultural and organizational change necessary to realize the new paradigm. Specifically, in episode 1, Raj Sisodia, Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism, details how business can be a force for good. By caring for their stakeholders and investing in purpose, he argues, values-driven organizations can even financially outperform their peers. The Teaching Note that accompanies episode 1 highlights the concept of “value creation capitalism”, or “stakeholder capitalism”, and it challenges students to consider how marketing tools are used differently in the traditional capitalism and value creation capitalism paradigms. Students are also asked to consider the impact of putting employees first and treating the environment as a stakeholder. In episode 2, Harvard University’s former Director of Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership, Leith Sharp, explains how aspiring change agents and business leaders can transform large, hierarchical organizations into the purpose-driven organizations that Raj Sisodia describes. The Teaching Note that will accompany episode 2 will delve into theories related to organizational culture and organizational change, and students will be asked to consider how Raj’s notion of “Shakti leadership” compares with Leith’s discussion of the masculine and feminine when leading organizations. Together, the podcast case studies, grounded in the Inspirational Paradigm, will challenge students to integrate concepts from across business fields (especially management and marketing) to explore how business leaders can create a more just and humane world in the next 25 years.