The Role of Students’ Personal Values and Ethical Ideologies in Increasing the Importance of Perceptions of Social Responsibility for Business Students: A PRME Directive

Abstract

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) champion responsible management education and research globally by instilling social responsibility values in students through teaching, research, and service. As investment capital shifts toward sustainable opportunities and companies recognize the limitations of an exclusive focus on shareholders (to the exclusion of broader stakeholders), the demand for social responsibility focused students has increased. How can business schools meet the dual challenge of recognizing those students with strong global sustainability perceptions, while encouraging those without those perceptions to shift? Our empirical approach uses a freed measurement model to offer a holistic understanding of the precursors of students’ perceptions of ethics and social responsibility. We provide actionable steps for business schools in implementing new pedagogical interventions that provide individualized approaches for increasing students’ perceptions of social responsibility. For students without strong prosocial values, we propose improving their perceptions of social responsibility indirectly through changing attitudes or directly via value system rank order change.

Ethical values of teachers: Differentiation according to regular physical activity

“…Ethical approaches aim to increase ethical awareness and develop ethical analytical skills (Saunders et al, 2022). Ethics can be studied with teleological, deontological, utilitarian, and virtue approaches in the literature.…”

“…Schwartz (1994) explained values as principles that direct people's lives, are rules, differ in importance, and guide conscious behaviors (Schwartz and Sagie, 2000). Values guide social attitudes and behaviors (Saunders et al, 2022). Values create a belief that life is important and serve as a rating of how important one's activities are (Abiogu et al, 2022).…”

“…Before the service, pre-service teachers work on getting to know different cultures to be able to provide ethics education (Orchard, 2021). As a result of this training, the society expects schools to deal with those who are culturally sensitive, support tolerance and social cohesion, deal with those who are exposed to immigration, a global problem, and help those with inclusive education and learning deficiencies (McLaughlin and Wood, 2021;Saloviita, 2015;Saunders et al, 2022). The most basic element of ethics education is the teacher, and the main goal of the teachers is to train the students they teach according to the ethical rules.…”

Preparing Our Students to Be Ethical Managers Who Motivate Others

“…How do we help students see and understand their own values to drive their behavior? (Saunders et al, 2022)? How do we prepare students to deal with concrete ethical situations as well as the larger philosophical and moral principles related to ethics (Michaelson, 2016)?…”

Do neutral hearts make the world go around? A eudaemonic turn in business curricula

“…The addition of such subjects to formal business curricula reflects a growing preoccupation with providing businesses with an informed and more socially conscious managerial and technical workforce (Tormo-Carbó et al, 2018; Wang and Calvano, 2015). Interestingly, evidence suggests that often, such programmes fail to connect with students’ and societal aspirations (Saunders et al, 2022; Tormo-Carbó et al, 2019).…”