In the wake of recent global financial crises, academic business schools have been criticized for disregarding the importance of teaching future managers to consider the social and cultural consequences of their actions. Realizing the need to innovate their educational offers, business schools are beginning to turn to the humanities and social sciences to improve on the understanding and, with it, the teaching of management.
By means of investigating eight academic business schools that are starting to or are already practicing Transformative Management Education, i.e. the link between management education and the humanities and social sciences, USG Professors Ulrike Landfester and Jörg Metelmann have conducted an empirical study on the newly developed subject. The material presented in “Transformative Management Education. The Role of the Humanities and Social Sciences” was gathered predominantly through in interviews and shows three major fields of concern, namely:
- how to shift the focus from instrumental to transformative learning,
- how to reframe the concept of disciplinary subject matter towards a more relational understanding of knowledge – especially in regards to the impact of digitization on education
- and how to address the organizational as well as the political consequences of management education turning towards the inclusion of the humanities and social sciences strategically.
The findings indicate that the humanities and social sciences indeed offer knowledge, which can significantly help management education meet the challenges of the 21st century. Taking a look at this highly informative work, it becomes evident that it will be of value to researchers, academics and students in the fields of business, management studies, organizational studies and education studies.