Interdisciplinary Businees Education

Rethinking Business Education for the 21st Century: A Call for a More Interdisciplinary Approach

“They know the price of everything and the value of nothing”
-Oscar Wilde

Corporate recruiters and headhunters alike often undermine the value of a liberal arts education for potential employees. In fact, many companies see this education as meaningless or not applicable to their agendas. Yet, as we near the end of the first decade of the 21st century it has become apparent that this background is needed now more than ever. Organizations and their leaders must be armed with several tools to navigate responsibly through our complex global environment. Consequently, a call for a shift in the way business education is delivered is necessary. My claim is that humanities and social sciences courses are just as important as functional business courses as a means of educating today’s business leaders.

An interdisciplinary approach to business education provides graduates with the ability to see and understand our world from multiple perspectives. The 21st century is a time characterized by chaos, uncertainty, complexity, interdependency, globalization and accelerating change, (Karakas 44). The ability for leaders to tackle this globe requires several tools, none more important than a multidimensional outlook on our world. Today’s business leaders need to think not only about the wealth of their shareholders, but more importantly about their social impact and affect on our planet. We are witnessing a transformation in traditional capitalism, as companies “are increasingly being held accountable for their humanistic as well as economic performance,” (Sisodia 4). Surely functional business courses, although quite important, are not nearly enough to provide leaders with a multidimensional view on human nature; to be able to recognize our global environment’s social and environmental concerns along with their shareholder’s concerns. As Nancy McGraw explains, “business executives have been well-schooled in using tools to meet financial objectives, but they need additional strategies and more information to seek outcomes that more fully take social and environmental impacts into account, (33). Globalization has made our world’s complex problems, from poverty and hunger to pollution and global warming, more visible and evident to everyone. Pressure on businesses to increase social accountability has followed from this increased awareness. Thus, our business graduates and leaders of tomorrow need the ability to think from multiple perspectives. A liberal arts base, comprised of wide range of humanity and social science courses, is the perfect ingredient along with traditional business courses to prepare our corporate leaders for the 21st century.

To reflect a concern for social and environmental issues, the majority of business schools do offer ethics courses to their students. However, the exposure is limited. Many times a topic such as social responsibility is left to the end of courses, and often as a result of time it is left out. Ethics, social responsibility, and global citizenship are issues that have taken front row in today’s corporate landscape. Yet still we see not nearly enough emphasis on these topics being placed in educating our future leaders. Ethics should be the foundation of each and every business school. Although many preach that this is so, often it is more of an advertisement than it is an actuality.

An increase in ethics courses, although necessary, will still not be sufficient enough for tomorrow’s leaders. Education must be more interdisciplinary, to produce global citizens that see and care about the world from multiple perspectives. We must have leaders that “think beyond the boundaries of a single discipline to see the big picture. They integrate knowledge from seemingly disparate areas to make sense of the world around them,” (Karakas 8). A general arts base provides the component to tackle complex global issues effectively, to “see the firm in a larger context, considering social and environmental issues beyond the corporations gates.” (McGraw 32). An example of a school that has taken a stride in this direction is the Notre Dame, Mendoza School of Business. Their graduate program is an integral leadership program that focuses on multiple facets of human development: cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, physical, ethical, moral and spiritual (McGraw 34). Another school that has taken this approach is McGill Desautels Faculty of Management. Their undergraduate program requires students to take a general first year comprised of mandatory humanities and social science courses and an option of minor in another faculty before taking your typical functional business courses. This interdisciplinary style of program tries to ensure that tomorrow’s leaders not only understand the economic implications of globalization, but also understand the cultural, legal, and political ramifications. Leaders in every arena will need to see themselves as citizens of the world with a greatly expanded field of vision and values, (Goldsmith 22). Combining traditional functional business courses with a liberal arts base best satisfies this need for an interdisciplinary, multidimensional education for our 21st century business leaders.