The Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) was established in 1916 to be the guarantor and standard setter for ensuring the quality of business school education. In the decades that have followed this past century the needs of business students, employers, and business schools, and society have evolved and the criteria for accrediting business schools have been challenged. We review the evolving history of business education, the criticisms that has been made about the AACSB and its standards and identify concerns about the degree in which that accrediting body is fulfilling its original intended role. We suggest that the AACSB and business school administrators have failed to honor their moral obligation to business students, and future employers by decreasing their standards and failing to ensure that business school education is relevant to the needs of society.
Objective: Applying thirteen elements of employee engagement to engaging business faculty, this paper explains how engaging faculty contributes to improved student success and increased trust.Methods: The paper explains the nature of engagement and its critical importance as a relationship-based means of motivating interpersonal commitment and performance.Results: Citing the Gallup Press research about employee engagement, the paper defines those elements, explains how they contribute to student success and clarifies how they build trust by increasing faculty engagement.Conclusions: The paper also identifies six action steps that administrators, deans, and department heads can undertake to promote student success and build trust.
Purpose/Significance: Personalities of party and government leaders play a pivotal role in shaping their preferences, attitudes, and conduct in the context of strategic decision-making. The analysis of personality carries substantial implications for the assessment and selection of leadership cadres. The study endeavors to introduce an innovative method for scrutinizing the personalities of party and government leaders, leveraging the technological topics generated through a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model.Methods/Procedures: Anchored in the theory of personality behavior, the study posits that discernible topics can be extracted from news reports that document the political activities of party and government leaders. These discerned topics can be employed to make inferences about their personalities. Consequently, we systematically amassed news reports chronicling the political engagements of 62 party and government leaders spanning 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in mainland China, covering their tenures in office up to 2021. Based on the LDA model, we conducted an analysis to uncover the dimensional structure of their personalities, incorporating techniques such as topic clustering and common factor extraction.Results/Conclusions: The study effectively identified six distinct personalities that correspond with Hollander's views on occupational personality. The development gave rise to a theory that specifically addresses the personalities exhibited by party and government leaders. Spatial analysis validated the presence of a spatial aggregation effect, underscoring the validity of our framework. Our study can provide implications for the training, evaluation, and designation of party and government leaders in the future.
Employees limit their commitment and organizations fail to be competitive for predictable reasons that have been well-documented (Nobel, 2011). According to the extensive research of the Gallup corporation, much of that failure is attributed to ineffective leadership (Clifton & Harter, 2019). The primary failure of those who lead is their inability to be perceived as being worthy of their employees’ trust – a problem that organization leaders have faced for decades (Barnard, 1938). Trust, the willing followership of a leader in the expectant hope that the leader will honor implied promises(Caldwell, 2019), has been elusive in organizations of all types, according to research reported in the Harvard Business Review (Bingham, 2017).
Diversity, equity, and inclusion have been topics of increasing interest as many organizations give lip service to the importance of treating employees fairly. In this paper we expand the discussion of justice - noting that equity is only one of twelve justice-based elements and clarifying why all twelve of those elements are essential in increasing employee belonging and commitment. We encourage organizations to expand their commitment to all the elements of justice to increase employee ownership and performance and to build greater organization trust.
The paradigm shift in contemporary university curriculum is to produce employment creators rather than job seekers. This study explores the enterprise related entrepreneurship course content that may be ranked as most desirable in developing entrepreneurial intentions among university students. The problem is that the broad and widening focus of entrepreneurship courses offered at most universities appear not to provide an understanding of the specific characteristics that drive entrepreneurial intent among students with different social and economic backgrounds. Therefore, the objective of this study was to test and evaluate subject content items that are most influential in promoting entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduate students with the intention of recommending a streamlined entrepreneurship curriculum. A 26-item questionnaire was used to collect data from 300 participants in the Faculty of Business Sciences at Midlands State University. A quantitative descriptive analysis of the independent variables was made. Consistent with previous studies examining entrepreneurial intention, we also conducted correlations to check on the direction and strength of the relationships among the variables. A short regression analysis was also run (using SPSS 21) to check whether entrepreneurial intentions could be explained by some variables related to teaching approaches. The study found that opportunity recognition, independence and pitching of business ideas were the top items in the module content that inspired the intention to start an enterprise among undergraduate students. The study adds value to curriculum development by identifying entrepreneurship course content that increases the desire to be independent and shifta student’s focus from a job seeker to a career and enterprise development orientation.
In recent years, many business schools have struggled -- particularly as Generation Z (Gen Z) and Millennial students have questioned the practical value of a four-year business degree (Salhotra, 2022) and have expressed dissatisfaction with a work world that increasingly treats employees like commodities (Maloni, Hiatt & Campbell, 2019). Coupled with the pressures of inflation (June, 2022) and the paucity of funds available from both governmental sources and private donations (Zusman, 2005), the typical secondary school has attempted to make do financially by increasingly relying on part-time adjunct and untenured faculty to whom they offer fewer benefits and lower salaries (Colby, 2023). This approach to cutting costs has predictably lowered the quality of education (Bettinger & Long, 2010) despite the fact that business schools have long been criticized about the relevance of their courses and the low quality of business graduates (Mintzberg, 2004).The purpose of this special edition is to address selected social justice issues facing society that also affect business schools. These papers have substantial importance for society in the 21st century. Each of these papers addresses factors associated with the moral responsibilities of business education in a world where business schools are under tremendous pressure to improve their quality – despite the fact that their resources are often limited. We begin the paper by briefly addressing the general issue of moral responsibility and its specific application to schools of business. We define moral responsibility, identify duties owed to several business school stakeholders, and offer six recommendations for business school administrators, accrediting bodies, and faculty. We then briefly introduce the articles contained in this special edition and explain their contribution to social justice issues.
The Quiet Quitting phenomenon has exploded in its importance in organizations of all types as workers have resisted the changes in the employer-employee relationship of the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of the Theory of Reasoned Action and beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors that impact Quiet Quitting. Citing from scholarly literature, we explain the four key elements of the Theory of Reasoned Action and how they impact Quiet Quitting.
This paper and this special edition focus on issues associated with the importance of applied business research and the problems that need to be addressed in a business world that is struggling to deal with the forces of change. The challenges that leaders and organizations are facing to compete, survive, and flourish in the global marketplace have caused the redefining of the relationship between organizations and their employees. Clearly, the indicators for the modern organization suggest that academic scholars and business practitioners need to reevaluate the assumptions that have historically influenced business decisions. Applied business research will help to address the issues that business leaders must resolve to meet the demands of a constantly evolving business world.
The effectiveness of a college or university in onboarding new faculty has a major impact on its ability to integrate new instructors into the organization and sends a powerful message about the organization’s values. That onboarding process builds or undermines trust and can leave a lasting impression on the new employee. Unfortunately, the onboarding process in most organizations is poorly handled and new faculty are frequently given less than a week to prepare their courses and to learn the policies of their employer – a time frame that is far from adequate and that has a negative impact on teaching effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of the new faculty onboarding process and to identify ten recommendations for colleges and universities to improve their ability to prepare new faculty to be successful as new members of their academic community.
In a worldwide work environment where 50% of employees have self-described as unwilling to go the extra mile to contribute their very best and to pursue personal excellence, the quest to thrive and flourish may seem to be irelevant for many employees. Despite the attitudes of a large portion of the work force, there is undeniable value in striving to excel. In this paper we describe the nature of the individual identity and address its relationship to self-regard and humility. We identify ten insights about the importance of understanding the identity, explain the practical value of each of those insights, and offer a challenge for readers to become their very best selves.
Spiritual Intelligence as the guiding influence that interacts with Physical, Mental, and Emotional Intelligences hss increasingly been recognized as the factor that enables leaders and organizations to unlock the potential of employees and enrich organizations by enabling employees to find their voice. In this paper we explain the nature of the four intelligences and briefly summarize how Muslims view each of them. We include eight testable propositions related to the four intelligences and identify the contribution of this paper to the scholarly literature.
Infrastructure plays a crucial role in facilitating economic development and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in a country. With the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement, trade and investment ties between China and its RCEP partners have been further strengthened. This study investigates the influence of host country infrastructure development on China’s outward FDI (OFDI) within RCEP partners. By analyzing China’s OFDI to RCEP partners and the infrastructure characteristics of member countries, we explore the impact of host country infrastructure quality on China’s OFDI. Using panel data on China’s direct investment stock in 12 RCEP countries from 2008 to 2020, in conjunction with host country infrastructure quality indicators, we apply a fixed-effect regression model to examine the effects of different types of infrastructure quality on China’s OFDI. Our results reveal that transportation, communications, and energy infrastructure in host countries significantly promote Chinese OFDI. Furthermore, we find that a larger market size, population, and higher trade openness in the host country effectively attract FDI from China. Based on these empirical findings, we provide recommendations to optimize the capital flow and enhance the efficiency of China’s OFDI.
This review is a qualitative study, according to the heterodox approaches, assessed the leading beneficient State under the European Union budget system. For this purpose, the study utilized the Multiannual Financial Framework reports between 2014-2020, which dealt with more than 700 indicators, measuring success against more than 60 general objectives, and more than 220 specific objectives in the performance framework. Therefore, trade globalization, political economy, economic history, social contribution by the European Union budget, and international economics under new-institutional economics have been evaluated in this process. Assessment outcomes found that poorer Member States are the net beneficient regarding the European Union budget’s net balance and financial corrections. However, Germany is the leading beneficient of the European Union budget system as it has extended trade to all along the border of the European Union without tariffs and has become a more cost-effective economy against the outside economies (like the United States of America or China) of the European Union territory. Thus, the current study suggested that nations under the European Union budget system should invest more in sustainable production to get real-time benefit from the European Union integration.
The failures of leaders in the 21st century have reached crisis proportions, as evidenced by the alarming trends of “Quiet Quitting” and “The Great Resignation” (Jamali & Caldwell, 2023). Beck and Harter (2023) reported that 82% of people promoted to positions of leadership were the wrong individuals and 58% of employees in a 2018 survey indicated that they would rather trust a stranger than their boss (Damron, 2018). For organizations to reverse this trend of ineffective leadership, they must develop a sustainable leadership approach that incorporates true ethical principles (Hasan, 2022).The purpose of this paper is to address the need for “Sustainability Leadership” in modern organizations and to emphasize the importance of ethical leadership (Stouten, Van Dijke, & De Cremer, 2012). We begin this paper by defining Sustainability Leadership (SL) and emphasizing its importance as a leadership framework. After defining SL, we then identify how SL meshes with seven different leadership perspectives. We suggest eight propositions that leaders and organizations can test related to each perspective’s contribution to SL. We conclude the paper by identifying four contributions of this paper for leaders and organizations
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have provided opportunities for Black students to obtain an education together with people of common backgrounds and have done a great deal to prepare those students for success. This paper identifies why HBCUs must now raise the bar in offering world-class doctoral level educational opportunities that can exponentially improve the quality of business schools, better prepare business graduates, and increase the prestige of business programs at those institutions.
The process of decision-making and problem solving is often ineffective because leaders and organizations fail to collaborate to pursue options that positively benefit all parties. This paper identifies five decision-making alternatives and describes their characteristics. It emphasizes the importance of the Win-Win decision philosophy advocated by Stephen R. Covey and identifies seven guidelines for implementing this approach to problem solving.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, 50% of today's workforce have chosen to limit their commitment to their jobs. “Quiet Quitting” is the current term that defines ceasing to be fully committed to one's job and doing just enough to meet the requirements of one's job description. This paper outlines how the root cause of the decline of employee commitment lies with the failure of many managers and supervisors to honor their fundamental leadership responsibilities required to engage, empower, and inspire employees with whom they work. Finally, we outline practical steps that companies can use to reengage their employees and increase employee commitment.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the nature of diversity, bias, and integrity as concepts that today’s leaders must address and to explain how those three concepts interrelate in affecting a leader’s credibility. After defining each of these key terms, we identify ten common responses of managers and leaders about diversity and bias that undermine their ability to be deemed men or women of integrity. We suggest six action steps for leaders and organizations to adopt to demonstrate their commitment to unbiased treatment of employees and conclude the paper with a challenge to those who lead to reflect on their own interactions as they strive to be perceived as fair and just.
The warehouse operation has enabled physical inspection activities, including receiving and inspection of materials and equipment. It has been found that there are certain challenges faced by inspectors during the receiving and inspection of materials. The warehouse custodian has performed the physical inspection, but not all cross-checking activities are accurate. Therefore, receiving and inspection are crucial to the delivery process, and distinct approaches must be implemented to deal with internal and external clients, including international and local suppliers. To effectively deal with these challenges, a process for entry document processing must be established. This process should include harmonizing the purchase order's terms and supporting it with the delivery note, packing list, invoice, bill of lading, and airway/waybill provided by the supplier. This will ensure that the material's quantity, quality, and specifications are accurately documented. A total of 14 responses were collected among managers and supervisors of receiving and inspection unit through interviews and survey questionnaires in the seven geographical locations of Mali, West Africa. The independent variables, namely (PI) physical inspection, (HOV) handover, and (DOC) documentation, significantly impact the dependent variable.
