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