Tomorrow’s Business Leaders vs. the Climate Challenge

We are pleased to present a Journal of Management Education (JME) study that is making waves around the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), a UN-coordinated initiative that aims to increase corporate responsibility and sustainability in business education.

Melissa Paschall and Rolf Wüstenhagen, both of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, published “More Than a Game: Learning About Climate Change Through Role-Play” on July 8, 2011 in JME. The article explores “CEMS Climate Change Strategy Role Play,” an exclusive course for management students that was a top 10 finalist in the PRME LEADERS+20 Competition presented by the UN and Aarhus University, Denmark. Find out more about the project and hear commentary from the authors in this video highlight.

Dr. Paschall and Dr. Wüstenhagen wrote:

Climate change has the potential to affect businesses in many ways: by changing the regulatory environment, reducing or shifting natural resources, catalyzing severe weather events, influencing customer preferences, and even displacing customers and employees. Businesses, in turn, can affect climate change by either continuing to emit unsustainable levels of greenhouse gases or finding ways to deliver customer value in an environmentally sustainable manner—and by lobbying for regulations that support their preferred strategies.

Because today’s management students are tomorrow’s business leaders, we recognize the importance of preparing them to lead well in a carbon-constrained world. To this end, during the spring of 2008 we began designing a new course for masters’ students in business, with the goal of creating deep learning around the topic of climate change—and fostering the ability to act on that knowledge in a decision-making context. Our objective was to educate students about the scientific and political dimensions of the subject and to help them see connections to management practice.

Read the full article here. To learn more about the Journal of Management Education, please follow this link.

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