Ambition is AMBA’s thought leadership magazine, offering regular insights into the challenges and trends that matter most in global management education
Ambiti n The monthly magazine of the Association of MBAs (AMBA) BE IN BRILLIANT COMPANY
Issue 64 JUNE 2023
Good to Chat?
Technology’s latest tool comes under scrutiny
HONING THE HERITAGE OF ADAM SMITH Age-old principles still stand the test of time
PRIORITISING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Emlyon Business School’s ideas for integration
AMBA’S 2023 MBA STUDENT OF THE YEAR Combining surgical skills with EMBA excellence
This unmissable gathering of business school leaders from across Latin America and beyond will address pressing issues in business education Join us in this beautiful city to inspire collaboration, facilitate debate and share experiences Latin America Conference 2023 AMBA & BGA 27-29 September 2023 | Mexico City, Mexico
Book your place at: associationofmbas.com/latinamericaconference
Issue 64 | JUNE 2023
NEWS & INS IGHT
REGULARS
38
07 | EDI TOR’ S LET TER
28
Why the challenge for business schools is to work around the threats posed by emerging technologies and integrate them into teaching practices to help engage students
38 | FROM THE CEO
Andrew Main Wilson reflects on the recent AMBA & BGA Global Conference in Seville, Spain and some of the key themes covered, including how schools can best achieve an optimum balance in learning formats
08 | BUS INESS BRI EF ING The latest news and research from across AMBA’s global network
OPINION
28 | TOP OF THE CLASS
34 | MINDFULNESS How including meditation in your teaching can help enhance students’ learning and development 36 | CAMPUSES A look at the ways in which technology can be used to redefine how space is used and create connected, thriving communities
AMBA’s MBA Student of the Year 2023 Fardod O’Kelly talks about his plans to pass on knowledge and help others to lead change in the healthcare sector 32 | SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS A profile of Grandes Écoles member EM Normandie Business School
Ambition | JUNE 2023 | 3
AMBA’s Ambition magazine
offers thought leadership, insight, advice and analysis of key trends in business and is tailored exclusively for business school leaders
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Issue 64 | JUNE 2023
FEATURES
14 | A REAL TALKING POINT TBS Education’s
Soumyadeb Chowdhury explains why we need to move out of our collective comfort zone and learn to cautiously embrace the revolutionary technology of ChatGPT
24 | THE INSIDE TRACK Associate dean for executive education Christine Baldy-Ngayo outlines Emlyon Business School’s comprehensive, school-wide framework for integrating teaching on ethics, responsibility and sustainability into MBA curricula
18 | HERITAGE HONED MBA director Javier Yanez-Arenas discusses the abiding influence of the renowned Scottish economist and philosopher who lends his name
We strive to develop the lifelong skills of responsible decision makers capable of understanding the world’s complexities and transforming society
to the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School
Christine Baldy-Ngayo, associate dean for executive education, Emlyon Business School
Ambition | JUNE 2023 | 5
ACHIEVE AMBA & BGA JOINT ACCREDITATION FOR YOUR BUSINESS SCHOOL
AMBA & BGA joint accreditation emphasises the importance of an institution’s overall impact and value creation for students, employers and communities, with a focus on responsible management, while maintaining the same level of rigour found in AMBA’s accreditation of postgraduate business programmes Achievement of joint accreditation allows your business school to demonstrate the quality of its MBA, as well as responsible management practices and positive impact on stakeholders
Undergoing a joint accreditation means that your institution requires only one visit of highly experienced assessors. This combines the necessary documentation from the two accreditations, reducing the amount of administrative work and tasks required to achieve two internationally recognised business school accreditations
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EDITOR’S LETTER
Proceed with CAUTION
EDITORIAL Head of editorial Colette Doyle c.doyle@amba-bga.com Content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@amba-bga.com Art editor Yvette Beattie Sub-editor Heather Ford Insight, content and PR manager Ellen Buchan e.buchan@amba-bga.com CORPORATE Head of commercial relations Max Braithwaite m.braithwaite@amba-bga.com
ur global conference held last month in Seville saw a range of vitally important and compelling themes discussed by an internationally eclectic audience of management education faculty. These included the evolution of executive education, the rise of stackable credentials, the advance of DE&I across all learning formats, the importance of sustainable entrepreneurship and the best way for business schools to build positive partnerships. New and emerging technologies and their impact on the industry lay at the heart of many sessions. One panel debate focused on generative AI algorithms, looking at how such technology could be used as a tool to enhance student engagement, boost personalised learning, increase accessibility and improve assessment. In this issue, Soumyadeb Chowdhury at TBS Education in Toulouse gives his take on the same subject, one that is generating a huge amount of contentious media coverage. Chowdhury contends that we need to ignore the doomsayers and embrace this new tool – albeit cautiously. He believes that the best way to understand the capabilities and limitations of ChatGPT is to use it and dismisses calls to ban it in order to preserve academic integrity as “neither realistic nor helpful”. As he points out, many technologies not initially accepted in the education sector later became an integral part of teaching, including calculators, online learning (ie MOOCs), smartphones and game‑based classes. Mankind’s creative intellect has always found a way to integrate new technologies to enhance existing pedagogical practices. Dr Javier Yanez-Arenas, MBA director at the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School, agrees. In our interview with him, he remarks that we need to recognise how management education will be very much disrupted in the years to come. The mode of delivery used by business schools must evolve so students are properly equipped for the work demands they will face after graduation. Where there is a crisis, there is also an opportunity to innovate, notes Chowdhury – we should, therefore, learn from our past experiences and integrate AI into current teaching practices, working around any possible threats to better utilise it for engaging student cohorts. This will help them to understand, experience and develop collective intelligence capabilities; especially how human skills can be combined with machine intelligence to effectively work together in a responsible and ethical manner, while still upholding those values that humans cherish so dearly. Emerging technology needs a responsible approach, but mankind has risen to the challenge before O
Head of marketing and communications Leonora Clement
Senior marketing executive Edward Holmes
Head of IT and data management Jack Villanueva
Head of events Carolyn Armsby
HR and employer relations manager Aarti Bhasin Finance and commercial Director Catherine Walker
Colette Doyle , Editor, Ambition
THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
Chief executive officer Andrew Main Wilson
Executive assistant to the CEO Amy Youngs a.youngs@amba-bga.com ACCREDITATION ENQUIRIES accreditation@amba-bga.com
CHRISTINE BALDY-NGAYO
SOUMYADEB CHOWDHURY
STÉPHANE JUSTEAU
CHARLIE MACDOWALL
FARDOD O’KELLY
ELIAN PILVIN
JAVIER YANEZ- ARENAS
Copyright 2023 by Association of MBAs and Business Graduates Association ISSN 2631-6382 All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. While we take care to ensure that editorial is independent, accurate, objective and relevant for our readers, AMBA accepts no responsibility for reader dissatisfaction rising from the content of this publication. The opinions expressed and advice given are the views of individual commentators and do not necessarily represent the views of AMBA. Whenever an article in this publication is placed with the financial support of an advertiser, partner or sponsor, it will be marked as such. AMBA makes every opportunity to credit photographers but we cannot guarantee every published use of an image will have the contributor’s name. If you believe we have omitted a credit for your image, please email the editor.
Ambiti n
Ambition | JUNE 2023 | 7
BUSINESS BRIEFING
All the latest updates from across AMBA’s global network
Integrating sustainability into an MBA programme, research into immersive technology, finding jobs for refugees and the problem of procrastination all feature in this month’s selection of news and insight from AMBA-accredited schools. Compiled by Tim Banerjee Dhoul and Ellen Buchan
EDUCATION’S IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY FUTURE
SCHOOL: Esade Business School COUNTRY: Spain
The project forms part of a wider European research programme, funded by Meta, on how immersive technologies might be able to contribute to the future of education. “Immersive technologies already provide exciting new teaching and learning modes and have a huge potential to transform education and training across a far larger sphere,” said Meta director of public affairs in Spain and Portugal José Luis Zimmermann, adding that “collaborations like this with Esade experts are important in order to fully understand and take advantage of this opportunity.” This opportunity was highlighted by Meta president of global affairs and former deputy prime minister of the UK Nick Clegg. “Once the technologies exist, it is ultimately governments that will have to make sure they are utilised properly across public education systems. And it is forward-thinking education administrators who deploy these technologies creatively in their schools and colleges who are going to provide the best practices for others to adopt,” Clegg wrote in a recent article for Meta’s website. TBD
Immersive technology’s potential benefits to business education will be tackled in a new research project led by Esade Business School in collaboration with Facebook’s parent company Meta. Encompassing augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and generative AI, Business Education in the Metaverse Era will consider how the industry will need to change for these technologies to be built into the learning experience effectively. “Recent developments in generative AI and immersive technologies are transforming the education industry in previously unthinkable ways. The great challenge is how future generations can be prepared for a world using tools as yet unknown,” said Esade professor and coordinator of the new research project in Spain Esteve Almirall. Esade’s research will focus on how immersive technologies might engender a more inclusive education system and improve the job prospects of young people in Spain. It will also examine their potential for closing the gap between the skills required by companies and organisations and those available in today’s job market.
8 | Ambition | JUNE 2023
NEWS & INSIGHT
STOP PROCRASTINATING OVER YOUR UNPLEASANT TASKS
SCHOOL: Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin COUNTRY: Ireland
When there’s a task you don’t want to do at work, do you procrastinate and push it to the bottom of your to-do list or get it done as soon as you can to get it out of the way? Alternatively, might you even consider splitting the task up into little chunks to spread the pain throughout the day? Unfortunately, most jobs have at least some unappealing elements to them – but new research from Trinity Business School suggests that your best bet is to get an unpleasant task out of the way in one go. Powering through, the research says, allows your brain to fully engage with the task and lessens the depletion of your mental load. Switching between the unpleasant task and an ‘easy’ task you like doing is not advisable, as associate professor in organisational behaviour at Trinity Business School Wladislaw Rivkin explained: “To illustrate, imagine working on a task that is highly tedious at the beginning of your workday. After this, you switch to a task that is very
enjoyable. Following these two tasks, you resume the tedious task. On such a day, switching between pleasant and unpleasant tasks triggers a mental comparison between these tasks, making the unpleasant activity worse as you keep on thinking about the fact that you could engage in the pleasant activity instead.” The research also found that those who are chronically exhausted, such as those suffering from burnout, are likely to suffer more when confronted by fluctuating job demands, requiring them to overcome their inner resistances over the course of a workday. Avoiding the more harrowing tasks in this context would deplete these employees’ resilience further. Trinity Business School’s Rivkin co-authored this research paper with Fabiola H Gerpott of WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and Stefan Diestel at the University of Wuppertal who did a daily diary study with 86 employees across 10 days. EB
Ambition | JUNE 2023 | 9
TOO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY AT WORK? ADDRESSING CULTURAL CHANGES
SCHOOL: Copenhagen Business School COUNTRY: Denmark
As organisations become more complex, there is a growing feeling that employees no longer fully understand their job roles or where their responsibilities start and end. In this modern-day working culture, employees must self- manage and, therefore, their commitment to a company becomes paramount. This can lead to ‘quiet quitting’ – the phenomenon in which employees become so overwhelmed by responsibility that they choose to distance themselves from their jobs and become passive, rather than to continue taking on their perceived job role. In new research from Copenhagen Business School, Department of Business, Humanities and Law professor Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen likens this outcome to unrequited love – an organisation does not understand an employee’s value and therefore no matter how much an employee puts into their job, it will never be enough. Åkerstrøm believes this problem started in the 1980s when the public sector shifted to become self-adaptable and independent organisations. As organisations shifted, employee roles changed from being defined clearly within a bureaucratic structure to staff having to constantly search for responsibility within their organisation.
“If the roles are clearly defined, it may perhaps impede change, so your role is now to define your own role depending on what is needed right now. The organisation’s responsibility goes meta and is about taking responsibility for the employees taking responsibility in an organisation that is constantly going somewhere new. Responsibility becomes something to constantly search for and create and thus it becomes elusive and indefinite,” explained Åkerstrøm. The benefit of this situation is that the employee has self‑leadership and the potential to create their own role, which many individuals value. However, the pitfall is that the employee will never know if they are living up to expectations, as often there won’t be anybody who knows what these should be. To mitigate feelings of over-responsibility that could lead to burn out, Åkerstrøm suggests that leaders talk things through. He feels that a majority of employees do not quite understand the expectations placed on them and that, therefore, such sentiments are not unique experiences. By discussing the sense of inadequacy that this working structure can create openly, leaders can help their employees to feel less alone. EB
10 | Ambition | JUNE 2023
NEWS & INSIGHT
SUSTAINABILITY NOW AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE INSEAD MBA
STACKABLE MiM OFFERS TWO-TIER APPROACH
SCHOOL: IAE Business School, Universidad Austral COUNTRY: Argentina
SCHOOL: Insead COUNTRY: France and Singapore
IAE Business School has announced the creation of a new stackable master’s in management (MiM) programme that aims to provide students with greater flexibility. Aimed at those aged between 21 and 27 who are in the early stages of their professional careers, students also have the option of leaving with a postgraduate specialisation in management (EM) qualification after the first nine months of the programme. The MiM can then be completed in a further year for those who stay on. “We are excited to launch this new programme at IAE and contribute to the careers of young professionals. The programme will provide them with management skills to accelerate their careers, orient themselves in [whichever] areas of the company they want to develop and help professionalise the management of family businesses and new ventures,” remarked programme directors Francisco Díaz Hermelo and Alejandro Terroba. Díaz Hermelo and Terroba are academic director and director of studies respectively at IAE. The MiM programme will comprise 55 per cent face-to-face activities and 45 per cent online activities. The stackable format, meanwhile, means that each participant can custom-build their programme to suit their professional objectives. Students completing the full programme can also choose to focus on digital marketing, digital finance or integral management. The digital marketing track offers an in-depth look at consumer behaviour and new technologies, as well as ways of achieving commercial success through data-driven insights. The digital finance track focuses on the application of new technological innovations, such as blockchain and NoSQL databases. The integral management track, meanwhile, offers a chance for students to pick selected modules from each of the other two tracks and create a personalised track to suits their individual interests. The programme’s first cohort kicks off in August. EB
Insead is upping its provision of sustainability teaching in management education with the launch of its latest MBA curriculum upgrade. Starting in January 2024, the school’s flagship programme will embed sustainability into all 14 of its core courses. It will also feature a mandatory capstone project in which students must integrate sustainability learnings across all management areas. This is the first update to the Insead MBA since the launch of a personalised leadership coaching programme in 2017. Discussing the change, Insead dean and professor of economics Ilian Mihov said: “Business schools have an important role in cultivating future leaders. At Insead, we strive to provide our MBA students with rigorous and relevant business education to develop them into responsible leaders who will not only deliver prosperity, but also embrace sustainable practices to lead businesses that are a force for good.” The school says that the new curriculum completes its process of incorporating sustainability topics into its MBA by redefining sustainability in business as the integration of social and environmental issues into business decisions and embedding a learning objective related to sustainability in all its MBA core courses. In addition to the core, there are new electives available to the school’s MBA students on topics relating to sustainability, such as those on energy transition finance and thoughtful consumption. In total, there are now 75 electives on offer in the programme with a plan to add new courses every six months to ensure coverage of the latest business practices. The school’s dean of degree programmes Urs Peyer highlighted the importance of helping students to acquire the ability to “make the right choices” in their future careers. “When they make and create solutions for a business, they will take into account the social and environmental impact. When they lead a business and appreciate the financial performance, they [will] also keep progress in mind.” Insead also recently announced the appointment of Francisco Veloso as its new dean, taking over from Mihov in September. Veloso has served as dean of Imperial College Business School since 2017. TBD
Ambition | JUNE 2023 | 11
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS TO THE HIRING OF REFUGEES
ONLINE MBA LAUNCH REFLECTS CHANGING STUDENT DEMANDS
SCHOOL: SP Jain Institute of Management and Research COUNTRY: India
SCHOOL: University of Sydney Business School COUNTRY: Australia
SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) has taken its flagship MBA equivalent onto the popular Coursera platform in a bid to meet the changing expectations of prospective students. The school’s online version of its Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) will blend asynchronous and synchronous classes over two years. It will also feature three on‑campus immersions of five days each in Mumbai. “At the heart of the online PGDM is the belief that education should adapt to the needs of learners and not the other way around. We enable participants to pursue higher education on their own terms, fitting their studies around their busy lives, thanks to the flexibility of online learning. Our course is designed to be accessible, convenient and above all, responsive to the needs of the participants,” said SPJIMR dean Varun Nagaraj. Coursera’s managing director for India and APAC Raghav Gupta emphasised the platform’s potential for widening access to the SPJIMR programme and others like it. “By partnering with leading Indian universities, we are opening doors to high-quality, flexible and affordable degrees to our global learners, helping them achieve their academic and career goals. We are thrilled to partner with SPJIMR to launch their flagship PGDM programme on Coursera,” Gupta said. The first year of the new PGDM programme will primarily cover core management courses such as economics, operations management and ethics in business. Participants can then undertake one of six industry-oriented micro- specialisations in the second year, including those relating to finance, supply chain management and information management/analytics. A mentorship programme will also be established in a bid to supply regular interactions with entrepreneurs and industry leaders. The advertised price at the time of writing is INR 10 lakhs or US $12,200. This is roughly half the price of SPJIMR’s full‑time, on-campus PGDM, which is currently listed at INR 20.42 lakhs for domestic students and is inclusive of basic accommodation. Applications are now open to join the new programme’s first cohort at the end of November, with interviews scheduled for July to October. TBD
According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are 103 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. These people deserve to work and be settled, but organisations tend to lack the right knowledge and processes to hire refugees. This is despite previous research showing that employers who had hired refugees in the past are keen to hire more refugees in the future – suggesting that refugees had brought value to those organisations. The University of Sydney Business School, in partnership with Crescent Foundation (a non-profit organisation that aims to work with companies to create sustainable employment pathways for refugees), has examined the reasons why businesses might struggle to recruit refugees in a new piece of research based in Australia. A total of 35 employers were interviewed, all of which expressed some interest in hiring refugee talent. However, only five of this number actually did so over a six-month period – a grand total of 14 per cent. A key problem identified was that businesses are at full capacity carrying out their usual day‑to‑day functions and simply don’t have the time to look into the possible grants and subsidies that might enable them to hire refugees. In addition, current funding focuses on rewarding service providers who manage to put refugees into employment. The researchers believe there should instead be a switch to recognising the work that goes into ensuring that a refugee is job-ready. They also believe there should be structures in place that train refugees to be job-ready through the creation of relationships between social enterprises and settlement agencies. “Each year, Australia welcomes thousands of refugees, most of whom find it difficult to obtain work befitting their experience and expertise. They want to work and employers say they are willing to hire them, but our research found a substantial gap between employer intentions and actions. “There is an opportunity for employers to play a vital role in improving employment outcomes of people from a refugee background, while expanding their talent pool, and an opportunity for government to remove some of the more significant barriers,” said lead author Betina Szkudlarek. EB
12 | Ambition | JUNE 2023
NEWS AND INSIGHT NEWS & INSIGHT
CONSUMER TRUST AT CENTRE OF NEW CLIENT INDEX
SCHOOL: Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez Business School COUNTRY: Chile
An index measuring companies for trust, transparency, customer concern and compliance in the eyes of consumers has been presented by the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI) Business School. The Client Confidence Index (ICC) is based on the results of more than 45,000 telephone surveys carried out with consumers from across Chile between 2017 and 2022. It relates to 130 companies that span seven different industries, including finance, telecommunications, health and public services. Put together by UAI Business School’s Centre for Experiences and Services (CES), the ICC was presented at an awards ceremony that recognised the index’s highest-performing companies for consumer confidence. At the event, director of the CES Rodrigo Morrás highlighted the importance of companies learning to manage transparency effectively: “People not only need and want information about the products and promised results of a company’s services, but they also want information about the company itself, its practices (with people, suppliers and ecosystem) and its purpose. “They want to have information about its values, owners and purposes, as well as information about the social value it brings and
how it faces the ecological, social and economic dilemmas of today’s world. That’s what the expectations are.” Vice-dean of postgraduate programmes at UAI Business School Juan Pablo Torres, meanwhile, outlined the value of the school’s work in this area: “This index links the business school with the needs of the industry,” he said, adding that the CES “generates expert knowledge that delivers key elements that will help companies to better relate to customers.” A panel discussion on this topic was held prior to the awards ceremony featuring representatives from the public and private sector, as well as from UAI. One panellist was Lorenzo Gazmuri, director at the non-profit Chilean Institute of Rational Business Administration, known as Icare. Gazmuri emphasised the need to act fast, “because the trust of citizens in companies is less than 20 per cent. In other words, 80 per cent of people who hear a message from a company do not believe it or are indifferent to this message.” TBD
SHARE YOUR NEWS AND RESEARCH UPDATES by emailing AMBA & BGA’s content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul at t.dhoul@amba-bga.com
Ambition | JUNE 2023 | 13
A real
talking
point
With ChatGPT making professional essay-writing companies redundant, should business schools have cause for concern? Here, Soumyadeb Chowdhury from TBS Education explains why we need to move out of our collective comfort zone and learn to cautiously embrace this revolutionary new technology. With additional input from Samuel Fosso-Wamba and Pawan Budhwar
14 | Ambition | JUNE 2023
TECHNOLOGY
C
Irrespective of the capabilities and fast evolution of ChatGPT, the exact source of the data used to train it is still unknown, something that raises serious questions about the authenticity of the responses. Moreover, ChatGPT does not explain why a specific response is generated for a given question, which also poses significant concerns on the trustworthiness of each output and lack of transparency in its working. The quality of ChatGPT responses depends upon the kind of data used to train it; just as we humans learn from our experiences in life. While AI evolution and development is focused on the common good, these limitations can pose serious threat to human values, society and business practices if the AI bot is misused or abused. A wingman to help humanity Since its launch, many academic practitioners and institutions have experimented with ChatGPT. The bot has passed a Stanford Medical School final exam in clinical reasoning and exams in four law school courses at the University of Minnesota, and also answered basic questions relating to business operations based on case studies often used to teach and examine business school students. In addition, it has co-authored research manuscripts published in academic journals and has assisted academics with developing research papers. Considering these developments, academic institutions are concerned that ChatGPT could help students to complete their written assignments, including essays, term papers and thesis, as well as answer exams and multiple-choice questions, all of which will increase plagiarism and cheating. Currently, the demo version of the GPT‑2 Output Detector, a software developed by OpenAI to detect AI-generated text, offers very low accuracy. Moreover, the detector can be easily fooled by including special characters, extra words and punctuation in a text generated by ChatGPT. Therefore, we are largely defenceless against this threat to academic integrity. While cheating has always existed in education and has been difficult to monitor, there have been several mechanisms to successfully prevent large-scale dishonesty.
hatGPT, also known as GPT3, is a large language model-driven (LLM) artificial intelligence chatbot launched
for testing by the public in November last year by creator OpenAI. It has gained significant popularity since the launch for its ability to generate compelling, human-like answers to almost any question asked. The ChatGPT-human interaction is realistic and conversational in the sense that the bot can answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes and reject inappropriate requests. The language model (ie the brain behind ChatGPT) uses generative AI, which has been trained with around 45 terabytes of textual data available on the worldwide web up to 2021. The bot can generate new content, surpassing the capabilities of traditional AI algorithms that were largely limited to finding patterns within data and forecasting. A superior, highly powerful and more sophisticated version of ChatGPT, GPT4, was released on 14 March and is likely to have more advanced reasoning skills compared to its predecessor. GPT4 is currently being integrated into several different applications with ‘good’ intentions: language learning app Duolingo has put it to work enhancing personalised learning; assistive technology provider Be My Eyes has partnered with it on the development of an app for visually impaired people; Microsoft Bing utilises it to improve the search engine user experience; and financial platform Stripe is using the technology to ward off chatroom scammers. AI tools such as ChatGPT have superior quantitative, computational and analytical capabilities compared to humans because they can process and analyse big data super-efficiently. This is an advantage for humans in the digital age, where machine-learning algorithms can equip human decision-makers with comprehensive data analytics.
Ambition | JUNE 2023 | 15
For example, digital content creation in the marketing domain can be automated through generative AI, based on the input provided by a human worker. The role of the human in this case will be to first train the system to acquire domain expertise so as to identify good quality datasets suitable for the task in hand. Next, the response of the system needs to be evaluated, ie whether it conforms to social values and if is derogatory or discriminatory towards the target audience. Finally, the human must act as an editor (rather than content creator) to finalise the content to be published in the public domain. It is clear to see that domain expertise will play a significant role in the training of AI systems with suitable data sources. This involves working with those systems, verifying the quality of automated responses, revising the responses as required and teaching corrections to the algorithms, while ensuring they comply to the norms of human values, morals and ethics. These roles will also require the application of human ‘higher order’ thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, comparison, comprehension, the ability to reason, intuitive intelligence and the honing of critical thinking to ensure the quality, accuracy, reliability and credibility of the ChatGPT responses. Such responses could have significant financial and reputational consequences for business organisations. For example, Google shares lost $100 billion due to an inaccurate response from Bard (the Google AI chatbot) on Twitter during a demonstration in February this year. This shows that humans will need to have specific skills to work with and utilise ChatGPT-like systems and the former will play a pivotal role in preventing reputational risks and misinformation that could cause societal harm. Evolving instead of banning The best way to understand the capabilities and limitations of ChatGPT is to use it, which will help teachers to promote cautious and responsible use of the tool and students to cultivate the skills necessary in their future careers, such as training, correcting, managing and maintaining conversational AI chatbots. Banning the use of ChatGPT to preserve academic integrity is neither realistic nor helpful; instead, it will result in us not learning anything about how such technology evolves. Similarly, replacing essays and exams with hand-written assessments is not feasible, especially in hybrid and online learning modes. Teachers should rethink, reimagine and evolve their teaching practices and assessment formats. A teaching session is a blank canvas to be filled in with content, context, practices, strategies and interventions, inspired by creativity, to enhance students’ skills, knowledge, learning experience and expectations. Teaching in the digital age is all about finding hooks to engage, motivate and inspire students over a long period of time. Instead of changing the type of assessment (eg essays), teachers should change the context and design something original. This could take the form of providing case studies based
However, with the capabilities of ChatGPT in the educational space and around the clock availability, it has become the new ‘wingman’ in helping students to ace their assessments. This has drawn much attention from the education sector, with some concerned academics branding the tool as ‘the doom of education’ and ‘the future of cheating’. Moreover, ChatGPT can also discourage students from learning, applying learned concepts and reflecting on what they have learned, as they can get straight answers to questions very quickly and in a language that is easy to understand and digest. While the bot can facilitate personalised learning, the authenticity of the answers is questionable. Since LLMs such as ChatGPT predict a sequence of words to form a meaningful sentence with almost no understanding of the context, they can provide inaccurate information and fake sources, misleading students. While cheating is one issue, misleading students with incorrect information is a much bigger challenge facing institutions. Collaboration at work While much of the discussion around ChatGPT has revealed its impact on academic integrity, the real problem is how to train students for the jobs of the future, where sophisticated AI technologies will co-exist with humans in many roles. Organisations that deploy advanced AI systems will need employees who are able to work with those systems. Humans will need to have specific skills to work with and utilise ChatGPT-like systems
ChatGPT will disrupt the job market as business organisations in every sector start to deploy the
technology. Business processes and practices will be redefined, which in turn will redefine the roles, responsibilities and tasks of human workers, with many jobs simply ceasing to exist. Business schools, therefore, need to rethink and re-evaluate the knowledge, skills and competencies that students must cultivate to remain relevant and employed in their future workplaces.
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TECHNOLOGY
could be used whereby students first use ChatGPT to learn the foundation concepts and then utilise said concepts to solve problems. Moreover, a gamification approach will enhance student engagement and the overall learning experience. We need to help students understand how they should be using ChatGPT so they can recognise what constitutes responsible and ethical use. One critical dimension of education is to make students reflect and question what they have been
on the most recent developments, or integrating multiple case studies in order to create a brand new one; this will be difficult for ChatGPT to answer as it is not trained in recent events. Next, assessment questions should focus on students critically analysing the scenario, developing evidence‑based arguments, sharing personal reflections, receiving formative feedback and incorporating changes based on that feedback. This will require students to use their own intelligence and contextual awareness, while supporting arguments using authentic evidence and collaborating with their peers, which currently ChatGPT cannot do in the sense that it does not understand the meaning behind the words, human values and social fabrics of society. Finally, a new dimension focusing on the process of learning should be introduced, in which students need to clearly explain where, how and why they have used ChatGPT and the different sources available to them. The motivation behind this is to focus on the learning process by including several components and introducing deadlines for each part of the assignment. This will require students to focus on multiple tasks and collaborate with their peers, making it both time-consuming and irrelevant to use ChatGPT to do their work for them. Blended learning with a twist ChatGPT can provide baseline information on various topics in a format and language that students can easily understand and digest. Therefore, teachers should design learning sessions around the various subjects in such a way as to encourage deeper learning and reflection that will impart real wisdom, something that ChatGPT is currently lacking. A new blended learning format
taught, as well as enabling them to learn from their mistakes. Generative AI applications are becoming more sophisticated so quickly that by the time we get to grips with one version, it might already have become redundant. History tells us that technologies which were not initially accepted in the education sector later became an integral part of pedagogy. For example, the use of calculators, online learning (ie MOOCs), smartphones and game‑based classes were all eventually accepted. Our human minds and creative intellect have always found a way to integrate new technologies to enhance existing pedagogical practices. Where there is a crisis, there is an opportunity to rejuvenate and innovate – and with the emergence of ChatGPT we are facing a similar situation. Therefore, we should learn from past experiences and integrate AI into our teaching practices, working around any possible threats to better utilise it for engaging students. This will help our up-and-coming cohorts to understand, experience and develop collective intelligence capabilities, especially how human skills can be combined with machine intelligence to work together in a responsible, cautious, ethical and humane manner, while upholding societal values.
BIOGRAPHIES
Pawan Budhwar is the 50th anniversary professor of international human resource management at Aston Business School in the UK. He is the co-vice chair of research & publications at the British Academy of Management and is a fellow both there and at the Academy of Social Sciences. Budhwar is also the co-editor-in-chief of Human Resource Management Journal . He received the International Federation of Scholarly Management Award in 2022 and the British Academy of Management medal for research leadership in 2021
Soumyadeb Chowdhury is an associate professor in emerging technology and sustainability management and head of the Research Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility at TBS Education in Toulouse, France. He is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has extensively explored threats posed by emerging technologies to traditional teaching and business practices. His project, The Blind Search , won the prize for Best Innovation Strategy in the 2023 AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards
Samuel Fosso-Wamba is a professor in information systems and data science and the associate dean for research at TBS Education. He features among the top two per cent of the most influential scholars globally, based on the Mendeley database for 2020-22. Fosso Wamba also ranks in Clarivate’s one per cent of most cited scholars in the world during the same time period and was rated the fourth-best business and management scientist in France for 2023 by research.com
Ambition | JUNE 2023 | 17
Heritage honed
With the Adam Smith 300 celebrations in full swing, Ambition editor Colette Doyle talks to Dr Javier Yanez-Arenas, MBA director and senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow’s eponymous business school, about the abiding influence of the renowned Scottish economist and philosopher
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ADAM SMITH 300
T
he University of Glasgow is in the midst of celebrating the tercentenary of Adam Smith’s birth. Can you elaborate on what influence his teachings have on the MBA programme currently offered? “In this tercentenary year, we
“The new facilities will also bring academics closer to the MBA students. The structure of the building will facilitate access to academic colleagues and business partners, triggering conversations that could re-energise research, as well as new learning paths and professional development opportunities for students. In addition, students may invite consultancy clients and mentors to these spaces for meetings.” Up until 2017, you were based at University of Los Andes in Colombia, where you worked as professor of strategy and supply chain management; what learnings and experience did you bring with you from there? “Besides being professor of strategy and supply chain management at Los Andes, I was the dean of the School of Management and I launched an executive MBA programme designed for CEOs, presidents and VPs of Colombian corporations and multinationals operating there, as well as for successful entrepreneurs. I was also the director of the EMBA and the full-time MBA at Los Andes. Those positions equipped me to better identify challenges and opportunities for the Glasgow MBA. “When I arrived in 2017, the Glasgow MBA was following a low-cost/low-price strategy. Now, in 2023, we have strengthened its market position; thus, the programme is closer to those we would like to be compared with in terms of value perceived and delivered, as well as tuition fees. Another aspect is that the programme requires both high-calibre students and academics/practitioners to have meaningful discussions where students learn from each other. The reality is that learning on an MBA programme is not only derived from lecturing, but from leveraging the knowledge within the cohort; especially when participants’ professional experiences are critically discussed and are enlightened with best practices and cutting-edge research.” What would you describe as Adam Smith Business School’s unique selling points (USPs) and how does it position itself in the market? “Broadly speaking, I would say that the school’s key strengths are firstly the richness and diversity of its academic body in Accounting & Finance and Economics & Management; secondly, the ‘magic’ of being part of the University of Glasgow, its long-standing recognition and efforts to be a university welcoming world changers; and thirdly, it is a business school that leverages the university’s strengths for the good of society. “Focusing my answer more specifically on the MBA programme itself, its USPs are first and foremost a small but very diverse and rich cohort in terms of nationalities, backgrounds and work experience. Secondly, it equips people to face and thrive under uncertainty with strong
have refreshed the Glasgow MBA structure to make Adam Smith’s legacy more relevant to the MBA. Specific learning experiences better align the MBA’s objectives with those themes inspiring the two professorships that Smith held at Glasgow, as a professor of logic and later of moral philosophy. “The first aims to assure that Glasgow MBA graduates are critical thinkers who check the logic of arguments when assessing them. Today’s world poses a higher risk of accepting at face value an avalanche of information without questioning sources, agendas and, even more fundamentally, the logic it follows to see if the arguments therein are reasonable and well supported. Secondly, since the 2008 financial crisis, many have questioned the ethical behaviour of MBA graduates in charge of financial institutions. At that time MBA programmes tackled the ‘problem’ by including ethics and social responsibility courses. “The Glasgow MBA offers a more integrated approach, rather than merely focusing on courses. From now on, students will have several programme-wide learning activities integrating knowledge with self-reflection. We expect students to consider what Smith would say if he were alive in the 21st century and to leverage lessons from his works that are still relevant today.” The school is moving to new premises at the start of the next academic year this September – what will this mean for the student cohort? “Moving to a purpose-built new facility will enable our students to enjoy 24/7 access to state-of-the-art facilities. The new MBA suite looks directly out to our world‑renowned Gilbert Scott Building with its iconic tower, cloisters and quads, spaces that students will still enjoy using on a regular basis. Students will have a dedicated MBA teaching room allowing us to implement new learning technologies and modes of delivery, including hybrid interactions and VR experiences. “In addition, it will provide a dedicated lounge for guest speakers, social events and experiential learning activities. Small group meeting rooms will facilitate class discussions and teamwork. Furthermore, MBA students will be closer to dedicated school spaces, including the Bloomberg/Finance room; therefore, those particularly interested in finance and investment banking will be able to leverage those resources for their benefit.
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managerial and ethical foundations. Thirdly, the Glasgow MBA approach to leadership starts with self-awareness of individuals; they will become better team members who will, in turn, effectively lead organisations and society for the greater good. “Finally, it embraces Adam Smith’s legacy while preparing people for the 21st century and the future, encompassing ethical wealth co‑creation, sustainable development, data-driven decisions and continuous exploration of technological changes such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality and the Internet of Things.” How would you define the new generation of business leaders? What skills, qualities, capabilities and mindsets do they need? “This question allows me to expand on the Glasgow MBA approach to leadership. During our thorough review of the programme, we questioned the wisdom of using the word ‘leader’ due to prevailing stereotypes. The programme’s cohort already includes millennials; we anticipate that millennials and GenZ participants will soon become a significant proportion of each cohort. Therefore, changes introduced to the programme must consider the characteristics of those generations. “Studies show they may behave in a different way when becoming business leaders. Therefore, I would say that the new generation of business leaders is characterised by its interaction with social media platforms, such as Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. Sometimes this lacks a critical approach to the ‘information’ consumed, as well as having a thirst for ‘social approval’. “Among other skills, qualities and capabilities, the following is essential: a critical mindset, resilient attitude, courage to dissent and long-term commitment; plus the ability to see the value of co-creation, teamwork and responsible management. In addition, I would say that it is important for the new generations to better embrace the dimensions of authority, responsibility and accountability that leaders must exercise.” Sustainability is a huge hot-button topic for MBA students – for instance, Insead is refreshing its curriculum by embedding sustainability into all its core courses. Are there any plans afoot at the University of Glasgow to reflect this growing interest? “It is key that leaders of organisations are fully aware of the impact their decisions may have on people and the planet. However, MBA programmes (and academia at large) must help leaders to better understand what is required and how to operate during the stage of transition the world is living through. The University of Glasgow, the business school and the MBA programme are all implementing initiatives to respond to these challenges and to equip graduates. “For instance, MBA students discuss how the world is moving from a Western-dominant perspective to a multi-perspective world and how sustainability concepts apply across all the managerial subjects, including strategy, accounting, finance, marketing and HR. “The MBA promotes a critical approach to what sustainable development could mean under different conditions: developed countries and businesses operating within their boundaries versus developing countries and businesses, high and low biodiversity, or communities at risk versus powerful corporations. The intrinsic value of the triple‑bottom‑line approach, synthesised as profit-people-planet,
The University of Glasgow is blending traditional lecture methods with new technology
sheds light on assessing how socially and environmentally responsible organisations’ operations are, rather than relying only on financial performance indicators. Business leaders must consider that there are trade-offs and alternatives to a zero-sum game.” How do you believe technology will continue to impact and disrupt the business school environment? In particular, how will you manage developments such as ChatGPT in order to ensure that it complements, but does not replace, original thinking and research? “We must recognise that the pace of change shows no indication of slowing down. Therefore, education in general, higher education and more specifically business education will be very much disrupted in the years to come. People are adopting new tools and different approaches when learning. The mode of delivery used by schools must evolve so students are well equipped for the work demands they will face after graduation. “ChatGPT must be seen as a tool that might help people in their learning journey, just like for instance a calculator, laptop, smartphone or AI apps. Technological changes have already impacted education, including online learning, data analytics and virtual and augmented reality immersive experiences. With that said, tools could also hinder the learning processes of individuals. “ChatGPT is the latest tool; it might be the next step after web browsers, with the difference that the algorithm could be the one learning rather than the person using the tool. I am encouraging MBA students to use ChapGPT and similar technologies so they get a quick start when answering a question. However, from there they should
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