On September 25-26, the Principles for Responsible Management Education Secretariat and CEEMAN co-organised the 2013 PRME Summit – 5th Annual Assembly in Bled Slovenia, held in conjunction with the 21st CEEMAN Annual Conference on September 27. The events brought together more than 200 members of responsible management education community and included some influential speakers including the former President of Slovenia, Janez Stanovnik, Dr. Jernej Pkalo, Minister for Education, Science, and Sport in Slovenia, Nikos Koumettis, President of the Central & Southern Europe Business Unit for The Coca-Cola Company, as well as Deans from a range of leading business schools around the world. The focus of the event was to discuss the creation of a new intellectual, research, and institutional agenda that develops leaders for the future we want.
A few outcomes of the Summit included a range of new and updated resources to assist signatories in their efforts to implement responsible management education. The second edition of the Inspirational Guide for the Implementation of PRME: Learning to go beyond was released, featuring 27 new case stories from 17 countries. As with the first edition, launched at Rio+20, these inspirational guides highlight the real implementers of responsible management education. A series of additional case stories were also selected in a blind peer review process for inclusion in the Summit and can be found here.
The second edition of the 2013 PRME MGSM MBA Study was launched, an international survey of MBA students and their attitudes towards corporate sustainability and responsible management. A total of 1,285 postgraduate students contributed to the online survey. Generally the students reported that their schools are preparing them well on issues of business ethics and social responsibility but at the same time there is evidence to suggest that academic institutions would be well served by maintaining and increasing the scope of responsible management education in across their curricula.
The issue area PRME Working Groups have also been very active over the past year. The PRME Working Group on Anti-Corruption has developed an Anti-Corruption Toolkit, available online, which provides eleven comprehensive anti-corruption modules for business schools and management-related academic institutions around the world. The modules can be used individually or collectively and aim to address the ethical, moral, and practical challenges that students will face in the marketplace. The PRME Working Group on Gender Equality has continued to update the Global Resource Repository, which provides resources for faculty to integrate gender issues into management education, and includes an inventory of case studies, syllabi, text books, good practices, etc., for application in a variety of disciplines. The PRME Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education will soon publish the second edition of The Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions for Fighting Poverty through Management Education: A Compendium of Teaching Resources.
A couple of recognitions were given out for Excellent in Reporting. In the first category of those PRME signatories that submitted more than 3 Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) reports, Hanken School of Economics from Finland was selected because of its report’s clear and coherent structure, readability, and the information regarding the evolution of their activities and their future goals and plans. A second school recognised in this category was ISAE/FGV from Brazil, which created a sustainability report that uses a range of different reporting frameworks (PRME, GRI, MDGs, UNGC) and combines readability with detail and technicality for those mentioned audiences. The second category of awards recognised the cohort of new signatories reporting for the first time. In this category, Glasgow Caledonian University’s SIP report was recognised for presenting initiatives for each Principle in an easily identifiable way, and actions undertaken have been show in concise, realistic, useful, and inspiring ways.
This year has also seen the establishment of a number of regional chapters, with several more in development. PRME Regional Chapters are now present in Asia, Australasia, Latin America, Brazil, UK and Ireland, German-Speaking Europe (DACH – Switzerland, Austria, Germany), Nordic countries, and the Middle East and North Africa. There are several upcoming PRME regional meetings and activities, including the 3rd PRME MENA Regional Forum (9-11 November in Dubai), the 4th PRME Asia Forum (14-15 November in Manila, Philippines), the 3rd PRME Australia/New Zealand Forum (18-21 November in Waikato, New Zealand), and the PRME Chapter Brazil will meet in Curitiba on 5 November. Participation at these events, which are great opportunities to learn more about PRME, is open to all from the responsible management education community.
To read the 2013 PRME Summit Declaration click here.
What did you take out of the summit? New ideas? New partnerships? Share your experiences in the comments section below.
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