Untangling Faculty Misinformation From an Educational Perspective: Rejoinder to “The Menace of Misinformation: Faculty Misstatements in Management Education and Their Consequences”

Abstract

In their thought-provoking article, Giacalone and Promislo point to some problematic ideas in management education such as the adoration of materialism and competition or the notion of the economic model as a natural law. But do students really develop such ideas because they were misinformed by their teachers? Misinformation implies that what is taught is not the truth or at least not the whole truth. We suggest that the question of how to design future management education cannot be answered by only looking at what should be taught. Rather, we suggest that debates about the future of management education should not only be concerned with content but also the epistemology and the teaching of management theory. Not only does the current mainstream of management education misinform students by painting a one-sided picture of economic realities. Rather, and even more importantly, it leads students to develop misconceptions of knowledge in management science as being objective and unambiguous. Teaching students how to reflect on the assumptions behind management theories as well as their own assumptions and values might be a possible way to tackle the challenge of misinformation.

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“…Arguably, business students misunderstand what matters in life because their curricula are replete with economic models, an emphasis on material values, competition, and the need to motivate ethics financially, a "naïve, limited, impoverished, or simply mistaken" understanding of management (Fellenz 2019, p. 425, Giacalone andPromislo 2019). Worse, students may misunderstand the very nature of what they are taught and believe that there are objective and unambiguous truths (Brahm and Jenert 2019). Arguably, all teaching within the social sciences is biased and based on ideology (e.g., Charlier et al 2019), Yet the question remains whether "intellectually embarrassing" textbooks on management accounting and control should continue to incite students to conform to situations of "functional stupidity" (Alvesson and Spicer 2012, Demski 2007.…”

Designing Effective Sustainability Assignments: How and Why Definitions of Sustainability Impact Assignments and Learning Outcomes

“…The assignment instructions indicated that students were to research a company that exercises CSR with the choice of companies provided by the instructor. Problems can arise when instructors insert their own opinions and views not only into the classroom (Brahm & Jenert, 2019) but also into assignment instructions. One may dispute whether, or the extent to which, these companies exercise CSR.…”