Facilitating Collaboration for Responsible Management Education: Voluntary Brokerage in the PRME Network

Abstract

Intermediary actors have been recognized for their role in facilitating collaborations to achieve sustainability goals. Yet how voluntary sustainability collaborations, guided by intermediary actors, unfold in practice remains underdeveloped. Building on empirical data from the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) network and using a network brokerage lens, we unfold dynamics of voluntary sustainability collaboration in the presence of an intermediary actor. We find that intermediaries act as sustained iungens brokers in voluntary sustainability collaborations, by connecting other actors and coordinating new collaborations in a multi-level network. Their activities are affected by tensions inherent to iungens brokerage in a voluntary setting, and factors influencing the success of the network collaborations. We contribute to the sustainability literature by offering a firsthand view on the dynamics of sustainability collaborations through an autoethnographic approach. We provide implications for sustainability collaborations in voluntary settings and recommendations for advancing responsible management education through collaboration.

Sustainability of Higher Education Institutions and Sustainable Leadership of Higher Education Teachers: A Literature Review-Based Exploration

“…This indicates that sustainable leadership among university teachers, defined based on the PRME, creates sustainable economic, social and environmental value to uphold the TBL rooted in higher education institutions' sustainability (Schüz, 2012). Similarly, the TBL's emphasis on integrating social, environmental, and economic factors into organisational decision-making processes is aligned with the responsible management education objectives of the PRME (Ceulemans et al, 2022). Therefore, the integration of the TBL into research, assessment and decision-making with regard to higher education organisations' sustainability can foster more stakeholder-orientated sustainable leadership among university teachers based on the PRME (Abdelgaffar, 2021).…”

Editorial: Education for sustainable development: How can changes in local practices help address global challenges

“…This entails environmental protection and conservation, the promotion of social equity, and the encouragement of economic sustainability. ESD emphasizes action-oriented practices that call for inter-and transdisciplinary collaboration between various academic disciplines and for co-creating solutions that better contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Holm et al, 2016;Ceulemans et al, 2022). Conceptual frameworks, models, tools, and platforms are needed to address such practices and solutions (Laasch et al, 2020).…”