Is management education preparing future leaders for sustainable business? opening minds but not hearts

Abstract

Purpose – The study aims to examine whether management education can successfully cultivate the competency of empathy that is needed in future corporate leaders to promote sustainability initiatives catering to diverse stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – The research highlights the impact of management education on cognitive and affective empathy by analysing the interpersonal reflectivity scores of entering students enrolled in a two-year, full-time MBA programme and the scores of the same students at graduation. Findings – The findings show that management education has a positive impact on cognitive empathy, while it reduces affective empathy and general empathy. Further, findings show that the management curriculum brings cognitive and affective empathy to an equilibrium level that is needed for a competitive business environment. Research limitations/implications – The research focussed only on the change in empathy of the participants (students) during management education and not during actual corporate work. Practical implications – The research infers that current management education creates future executives with higher cognitive empathy. It argues that they would care more about the sustainability of the business in terms of profit or access to capital rather than care and concern for all the stakeholders, society and the environment. A new paradigm in management education also needs to be focussed around inculcating how to empathise affectively. Originality/value – The study presents an empirical analysis suggesting that management education is opening the mind but not the heart. It raises a significant concern that higher management curriculum is not developing future executives who can lead the sustainability initiatives. Keywords Cognitive empathy, Affective empathy, Perspective taking, Management education, Sustainability