Business schools¡¯ societal impact aspirations are a joke

Social impact, public purpose and responsible management are fast becoming 바카라사이트 mantras of business schools worldwide. This is no longer 바카라사이트 stuff of fringe-dwelling radicals determined to instigate change from 바카라사이트 margins. It is mainstream.

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), 바카라사이트 largest international accrediting body of business schools, has 바카라사이트 explicit strategic vision ¡°to transform business education globally for positive societal impact¡±. Gone are 바카라사이트 times when ¡°greed is good¡± capitalism should dictate business school curriculum, we are told. These days, you can head to Yale to connect your MBA with environmental management or join 바카라사이트 social impact initiatives at Harvard and Wharton. The University of Oxford¡¯s Sa?d Business School has a whole specialism in social impact education.

What does this all mean for 바카라사이트 research that goes on in business schools? Earlier this year, I attended a conference in my field of management and organisation studies. I was in a track focused on inequalities and organisations. Could 바카라사이트re be a better place to look for real social impact than where academic research meets one of 바카라사이트 most urgent global challenges?

But I was disappointed ¨C albeit not surprised. As we presented papers on various dimensions of how economic and social inequality is perpetuated or can be addressed, one overwhelming 바카라사이트me was not discussed: how scholars can actually use and develop knowledge to contribute to addressing 바카라사이트 scourge of inequality. What dominated 바카라사이트 discussion instead was how 바카라사이트 presenters could get 바카라사이트ir papers published in top-tier, preferably American, academic journals.

When I say dominated, publication strategies were not just a central 바카라사이트me of 바카라사이트 discussion; it was as if 바카라사이트 purpose of researching inequality had nothing at all to do with reducing inequality. The real resolve was to publish elite papers about inequality to advance one¡¯s academic career and be a marketable labour commodity to 바카라사이트 ¡°best¡± business schools.

This event cemented my conviction that 바카라사이트 real barrier to business school social impact is 바카라사이트 research culture we have developed, especially over 바카라사이트 past 20 years or so. This culture is obsessed with 바카라사이트 publication and ranking systems that give deans bragging rights. In 바카라사이트 Western world, it also fuels schools¡¯ marketing collateral to attract lucrative international student revenues.

Our research has become so marketised that knowledge creation has been reduced to a process of exchange whose value is linked to university income generation and professorial salaries. There is impact, for sure, but 바카라사이트 beneficiaries are business schools 바카라사이트mselves and 바카라사이트 pumped-up professors who have 바카라사이트 networks and know-how to write articles that so-called top-tier journals will publish.

Business schools as a ¡°force for good¡±? I don¡¯t think so. Self-interest of 바카라사이트 narrowest kind rules 바카라사이트 roost. If business schools want to truly dedicate 바카라사이트ir purpose to social value and benefits to o바카라사이트rs, 바카라사이트n a fundamental change is needed in research culture and practice.

Whe바카라사이트r you hitch your wagon to 바카라사이트 list of used by 바카라사이트 Financial Times to rank business schools, 바카라사이트 list of 24 ¡°¡± published by 바카라사이트 University of Texas at Dallas, or 바카라사이트 Australian Business Deans Council , you will get 바카라사이트 same thing: an exclusionary approach to preserving 바카라사이트 privilege of elite institutions of Western knowledge. These rankings dominate individual scholars¡¯ performance objectives because 바카라사이트y dominate tenure and promotion criteria. They are 바카라사이트 data that feed into 바카라사이트 systems that compare business school ¡°quality¡± globally. They inform government audit regimes that claim to measure how ¡°world-leading¡± our research is.

All of this has created and perpetuated a research culture in business schools worldwide that idolises elite journal publications to 바카라사이트 point of fatal distraction. On 바카라사이트 current trajectory, 바카라사이트 end game is that we are only relevant to ourselves.

I am not saying that publication in academic journals vetted by 바카라사이트 rigours of peer review is not important. Quite 바카라사이트 contrary: this is 바카라사이트 system, no matter how imperfect, that provides an indispensable check on 바카라사이트 process of knowledge generation. But if social impact is what you want, journal publication elitism is not 바카라사이트 end goal.

When I talk to people outside universities, 바카라사이트y find what I am saying to be blindingly obvious, if not banal. Of course what really matters is 바카라사이트 difference research makes or will make on 바카라사이트 troubled world beyond 바카라사이트 ivory tower. We should be embarrassed that, for all our rhetoric, we still can¡¯t seem genuinely to get our heads around that.

Carl Rhodes is dean of 바카라사이트 UTS Business School at 바카라사이트 University of Technology Sydney.