Responsible management education in Egyptian public business schools

Abstract

Purpose Out of 24 public business schools in Egypt, the purpose of this paper is to focus on three in order to investigate how responsible management education is perceived and exercised by academics there. Design/methodology/approach A total of 168 academics were contacted and interviewed in 42 focus groups. The length of each focus group was about 45 min, and all of them were conducted in Arabic because the majority of respondents are not fluent in English. The authors used thematic analysis to determine the main ideas in the transcripts. Findings Based on data analysis of the perceptions of academics concerning business education, research and management process at the target business schools, the authors of this paper found that responsible management education is not considered a priority in the work agendas of the Egyptian public business schools. Furthermore, the authors believe that besides issues with the general acceptance of the need for responsible management education, there are functional, procedural and edu-academic barriers that these schools need to overcome first before proceeding with implementation and expecting positive outcomes. Research limitations/implications This research maybe subject to criticism because the authors address only the perspectives of academics in the chosen business schools while neglecting other academic partners, particularly those in managerial positions, such as rectors and heads of departments. Future researchers may use the same research questions to investigate a managerial level perspective to depict a more holistic picture of the situation. Moreover, including Egyptian private business schools may also enrich the findings. In fact, the authors suggest that scholars from different academic disciplines such as sustainability management, business ethics, higher education, sustainability and cultural diversity work together to produce more interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research on the global responsibility themes business schools have to manage. Originality/value This paper contributes by filling a gap in sustainability, HR management, business ethics and higher education literature in which empirical studies on responsible management education and the responsible practices of academics have been limited so far.

Responsible Management Education in Time of Crisis: A Conceptual Framework for Public Business Schools in Egypt and Similar Middle Eastern Context

“…org/) was ranked as having the lowest quality management education, Mousa et al (2019a) and Mousa et al (2020), have elaborated that unlike many Western business schools, tackling global responsibility and Rabasso, 2011;Waddock et al, 2010) highlight that the inclusion of sustainability in teaching and research scholarships at business schools has become the cornerstone in all accrediting bodies, such as Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) evaluating business schools, the matter is seen different in the Middle East. Mousa et al (2019) indicate that public business schools in the Middle East are only accredited by the local governmental ministries of education in their countries. Accordingly, these schools can function without paying attention to or even being aware of some regulatory bodies, such as the AACSB.…”

“…Given the rapid worldwide spread of Covid-19 and the pessimistic expectations regarding some viruses in the near future, we suggest that business schools in Egypt and similar Middle Eastern countries establish units for sustaining RME. This unit will maintain a systemic set of practices to ensure academics understand what is appropriate and what is expected of them (Mousa et al, 2019). This will secure widely accepted ethical academic practices and contribute to the process of rebuilding the legitimacy of business schools (Scott et al, 2000).…”

“…Given the recent findings above (Mousa et al, 2019;Mousa 2021a, b), and using a multilevel view, in this paper, we elaborate and theoretically propose and predict the potential direction of RME that business schools in that region are to implement through identifying and articulating the main antecedents of RME before and after Covid-19, and considering both the information business schools should develop concerning the socio-economic and environmental impacts of Covid-19 and the change in working conditions. Erskine and Johnson (2012) confirm that sustainability was the main driver behind the emergence of the 2004 principles of RME.…”

“…(WWF International, 2011). While the RME scenarios are quickly advancing the efforts of curricula development in the West, it is still a matter of concern for other countries in other regions including African countries and some countries in the Middle East, where previous findings show that academics in that regions still not very ready for curricula development of RME (Mousa et al, 2019), and that Covid-19 has not had any effect yet on the adoption of sustainable business education in the higher education (Mousa, 2020a), however some very recent findings show that the spread of Covid-19 has positively changed the situation and that the current socio-cultural challenges start to shape the minds of business students, academics and trainers (Mousa, 2020b).…”

"Start-Up" in E-Learning Mode as a Basic Project of the Final Year of Entrepreneurship Education

“…We should also note that the results obtained seem even more positive against the background of the unsuccessful experience of other countries. For example, the analysis of the 3 leading business schools in Egypt revealed that they had problems associated with the introduction of a similar methodology [21].…”