Ambition is AMBA’s thought leadership magazine, offering regular insights into the challenges and trends that matter most in global management education
The monthly magazine of the Association of MBAs (AMBA) BE IN BRILLIANT COMPANY Ambiti n
Issue 59 DECEMBER 2022/ JANUARY 2023
Picture Bigger The
Findings of the AMBA application and enrolment report 2022 revealed
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IN ACTION How best to assist students looking to instigate initiatives that help people and the planet
WHY SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS SO MUCH Estoril conference debate hosted by Aalto discusses the importance of the role of start-ups
FORWARD THINKING AT DURHAM UNI Why business schools need to keep pace with changing expectations in the workplace
Building and designing global programmes and partnerships
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Issue 59 | DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022/23
FEATURES
34 | A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
Hannu Seristö from Aalto University School of Business reports on a panel discussion from the latest Estoril Conference, focusing on the importance of start-ups and new technology in the context of global sustainability
14 | FORWARD THINKING Durham University Business School’s new dean Cathy Cassell highlights the continuing appetite for business education, while emphasising the need for schools to keep pace with changes to learning and workplace expectations
20 | NAVIGATING THE NEW NORMAL
A recent AMBA & BGA roundtable heard business school leaders discuss settling into new ways of working and the trend towards offering hybrid programmes
38 | AN ENTERPRISING APPROACH
Alliance Manchester Business School’s Robert Phillips outlines the many ways in which business schools can support those interested in the growing area of social enterprise
Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 | 3
RESEARCH AND INSIGHT: STAY AHEAD OF THE TRENDS IN BUSINESS EDUCATION
Over the past two years, AMBA’s Research and Insight Centre has produced a wealth of groundbreaking new research and compiled reports citing views from MBA thinkers, practitioners, faculty and leaders across the globe on the issues that matter most in business education. Recent AMBA research has investigated business schools’ attitudes to poverty, rankings, climate change and education technology. We have analysed MBA career trajectories, graduate success in the new normal, application and enrolment figures across a spectrum of programmes, as well as employer and student perceptions of lifelong learning.
We also seek to collaborate with business schools and corporate partners in order to further enhance AMBA’s research offering.
If you are interested in partnering on research, joining one of our roundtables or focus groups to delve into the findings, or even sharing your thoughts on what topics you would like AMBA to explore, then please contact research@associationofmbas.com
Issue 59 | DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022/23
NEWS & INS IGHT
REGULARS
48
07 | EDI TOR’ S LET TER An evening to remember at the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards ceremony 48 | HUB HIGHLIGHTS Stepping up to leadership roles; productivity paranoia; the risks attached to an empathetic style of management; and the world’s most popular study destinations 50 | FROM THE CEO The state of play in the business education industry
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08 | BUS INESS BRI EF ING
News from across AMBA’s global network, including an initiative to
OPINION
provide NGOs with free training in data analytics and research into the growing workplace phenomenon of ‘quiet quitting’ 26 | THE BIGGER P ICTURE A new overview of admission and enrolment trends for MBA programmes on offer at AMBA-accredited business schools around the world is presented in the association’s latest Application and enrolment report
44 | TRENDS The outlook for business in 2023 and the skills leaders will need to possess in order to thrive 46 | RESEARCH Improving the measurement of research impact within the management education sector
Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 | 5
The monthly magazine of the Association of MBAs (AMBA) BE IN BRILLIANT COMPANY Ambiti n Stop the brain drain
Issue 57 OCTOBER 2022
AMBA’s Ambition magazine
offers thought leadership, insight, advice and analysis of key trends in business and is tailored exclusively for business school leaders
Strategies for retaining top talent
UP FOR DEBATE Decision-makers from across Europe discuss the issues surrounding personalisation and micro-credentialing
BUSINESS SIMULATIONS Henri Schildt, Professor of Strategy at Aalto University, on tools to provide interactive, experiential learning
RADICAL CULTURE John Davis, Chair of Brand New View, looks at how the best leaders recognise and appreciate employee contributions
A57_01_AMBITION_COVER_CHOSEN sw updated 26 Sept CD.indd 1
28/09/2022 16:19
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EDITOR’S LETTER
Rewarding business EXCELLENCE
EDITORIAL Head of editorial Colette Doyle c.doyle@associationofmbas.com Content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul t.dhoul@associationofmbas.com Art editor
Worthy winners ranged from a culture, diversity and inclusion initiative to a record fundraiser
Laura Tallon Sub-editor Heather Ford
I
n such volatile times as these, with huge geopolitical upheaval and financial woes aplenty, it feels good to shine a spotlight on those who are doing great work in the business education sector. At the 2022 AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards last week, the association was delighted to acknowledge a number of very worthy winners, including the School of Business at the American University in Cairo, which picked up the accolade for the Best Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative. The objective of this project is to accelerate and improve the gender balance of corporate boards in Egypt and the wider MENA region, aiming to sensitise male board members to gender issues and advocate for policy and legislative changes that institutionalise gender diversity in organisations. Meanwhile, the MBA Leadership Award was presented to Kerry McLaverty at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin. On completion of her degree, chartered physiotherapist McLaverty became CEO at LauraLynn Children’s Hospice and, in just three years, oversaw record fundraising revenues. You can find full details of the event on our website at tinyurl.com/4tvkz92d . Inside this issue of Ambition , we offer thought leadership content from Durham, Aalto, Arden and Sydney universities, as well as Alliance Manchester’s Business School. Our interview with Durham University Business School dean Cathy Cassell touches on the convenience and flexibility of a hybrid workplace when it comes to engendering a good work/life balance, making the concept of presenteeism a thing of the past. Over at Aalto, professor of international business Hannu Seristö talks us through a panel discussion that took place at this year’s Estoril conference, focusing on the importance of technology and new start-ups to the global sustainability agenda. Meanwhile, Alliance Manchester’s Robert Phillips explains the reasons behind the rise in interest in social enterprise among the MBA student fraternity. Guest columnist Professor Dilshad Sheikh from Arden outlines top business trends due to feature in 2023 and the skills leaders will need to survive, while University of Sydney Business School’s Vince Mitchell explains how such institutions can be at a disadvantage when measuring the impact of research. Mitchell teams up with Eric Knight from Macquarie Business School to contemplate how to redress this imbalance. It just remains for me to wish all Ambition ’s readers a wonderful festive season and a very happy and productive new year.
Insight, content and PR manager Ellen Buchan e.buchan@associationofmbas.com CORPORATE Head of commercial relations Max Braithwaite m.braithwaite@associationofmbas.com
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
Chief executive officer Andrew Main Wilson
Executive assistant to the CEO Sharon Sidaway s.sidaway@associationofmbas.com ACCREDITATION ENQUIRIES accreditation@associationofmbas.com
Colette Doyle , Editor, Ambition
THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
CATHY CASSELL
ERIC KNIGHT
VINCE MITCHELL
ROBERT A PHILLIPS
HANNU SERISTÖ
DILSHAD SHEIKH
Copyright 2022 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.
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Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 | 7
The latest news from across AMBA’s global network BUSINESS BRIEFING
Quiet quitting in the workplace, research into international collaboration and a programme aiming to meet the demand for cybersecurity experts all feature among Ambition ’s latest selection of updates. Compiled by Ellen Buchan and Tim Banerjee Dhoul
8 | Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023
NEWS AND INSIGHT
HELPING NGOS USE DATA SCIENCE COUNTRY: Netherlands SCHOOL: Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam
for a region but there is hardly any internet in that region, for example, the technology will be useless,” says Parvathy Krishnan, CTO of ABW. The ABW Academy, developed by Amsterdam School of Business, draws on expertise from across the University of Amsterdam as well as other ABW members, including MIT Sloan School of Management and the Digital Impact Alliance (independent but housed at the United Nations Foundation). The eight-week fellowship programme, meanwhile, uses an initial “low-threshold starter package” to bring participants to an equal level before offering specialisations in the form of advanced courses and hands-on sessions. Participants will also bring their own case studies to the programme, from which it is hoped they will leave with the tools required to pursue new projects that benefit their non-profits’ work in practice. “We match everyone with an experienced mentor from the field to make sure that the case study doesn’t grind to a halt when the programme is over,” Krishnan adds. “Data analytics has increased the output of companies. We want to achieve the same with NGOs. If we succeed, we will definitely be making a difference in the world,” says Claudia Orellana Rodriguez, a data scientist at the University of Amsterdam and co-developer of the fellowship programme’s curriculum alongside Krishnan. TBD
A total of 43 people from around the world, representing NGOs that include the Red Cross, World Food Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and USAID, have been selected (from 340 applicants) to receive free training in data analytics. Those selected are members of the inaugural cohort of a new fellowship programme offered by the Analytics for a Better World (ABW) Academy as part of an initiative aimed at helping NGOs use data science to contribute to solving a range of development problems, from disaster response to fighting child malnutrition. This targeted initiative comes in responses to an estimate from the think tank data.org that the world will need 3.5 million data experts over the next decade to tackle social issues in low- and middle-income countries. “We want to help make an impact on the ground. We want to collaborate with motivated individuals that are familiar with the situation around the world and know the local context of problems we address. If we develop tech solutions based on blockchain
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CURBING QUIET QUITTING
POSITIVE OUTLOOK FOR SPANISH SOCIAL ENTERPRISES COUNTRY: Spain SCHOOL: Esade Business School, Ramon Llull University Defined as businesses with a social objective, social enterprises seek to make a profit at the same time as benefiting society or the environment. A recent report from the Esade Centre for Social Impact looked into 80 social enterprises in Spain. The report, entitled The European Social Enterprise Monitor (ESEM) 2021-2022, is co-authored by Guillermo Casasnovas, researcher at the Esade Centre for Social Impact, with support from María Sánchez and Maria Viñas at the Barcelona-based Knowledge Sharing Network (KSNET). While all the companies who took part in the study were social enterprises, within this umbrella all the organisations had a diverse profile, with associations and limited societies being the most common, followed by foundations and cooperatives. The report had largely positive findings. Over the past year, the income of 56 per cent of the social enterprises had increased, while the income of only 16 per cent fell. Looking to the future, most social enterprises had positive outlooks – 71 per cent of these companies expected that their income would increase over the next 12 months, while only four per cent believed it would fall. Responding social enterprises also hope to expand, with 58 per cent intending to recruit more employees and less than three per cent envisaging layoffs. “The impact economy to which social enterprises belong continues to grow because consumers, investors and entrepreneurs increasingly take social and environmental impact into account when making decisions,” said Esade’s Casasnovas. On average, the social enterprises’ main source of income came from the public sector – from business engaged with the public sector or in the form of grants. In terms of grants, half had applied for grants in the past 12 months. Despite this, however, a fifth of the organisations surveyed said that the complexity of public funding was one of their main obstacles. When looking at diversity and inclusion practices, the survey also found that social enterprises in Spain tend to be very inclusive. Six out of 10 social enterprises surveyed employed people from different ethnic origins and 44 per cent employed persons with functional diversity. The report also found that the social enterprises feature very high rates of gender equality. On average, women in social enterprises represented 63 per cent of staff, 52 per cent of management, more than 50 per cent of those on management boards or boards of trustees and 42 per cent of teams. EB
COUNTRY: South Africa SCHOOL: Stellenbosch Business School, University of Stellenbosch A new trend has emerged in the workplace – ‘quiet quitting’. Despite its name, this doesn’t mean that employees are just resigning without saying “goodbye”. Instead, they become disengaged, saying “no” to going the extra mile and withdrawing from being involved in workplace culture. Signs that an employee could be quietly quitting include doing the bare minimum, missing meetings, not achieving deadlines, arriving late to work, leaving early, isolating themselves from team culture and showing less commitment to their work. Organisational behaviour specialist Natasha Winkler-Titus, who heads up the Leadership Development Programme at Stellenbosch Business School, explains that employees are “setting boundaries to recalibrate work/life balance and protect their mental health.” Winkler-Titus added: “Work/life boundaries are healthy and necessary, although quiet quitting could be seen as a passive- aggressive way of achieving this, rather than a more constructive, assertive approach. “It is a signal to employers, though, to focus on employee engagement and wellbeing and to create a supportive environment where employees feel they have a voice and are being heard. Employers that don’t focus on, and enable discussion about, improving mental health and employee wellbeing risk a disengaged workforce or losing employees to companies that offer better wellness benefits.” Winkler-Titus theorises that the trend of quiet quitting stems from Covid-19’s impact on the workforce, with more people working from home and reflecting on how work fits into their life. People are quiet quitting to keep their professional and personal lives separate, rebelling against the expectation that they will return to their pre- pandemic working routines. When employees don’t feel like they are being supported by management and their employer isn’t matching up to their expectations, they can feel like they don’t have to meet their employer’s expectations – leading that employee to leave the organisation or quietly quit. To ebb this trend, Winkler-Titus believes that organisations need to have more open understanding of employee expectations and motivations for work. Employers should encourage a positive work/ life balance and aim to offer work that employees find interesting. Employers should also ensure that they provide a focus on their staff’s career aspirations, progression and upskilling. EB
10 | Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023
NEWS AND INSIGHT
WOMEN MORE LIKELY TO COLLABORATE INTERNATIONALLY COUNTRY: UK SCHOOL: Durham University Business School Women are more likely to engage in international collaborations than men, according to a new study that has clear implications for government departments and organisations focused on international affairs. In the study, approximately 600 university students in the US and China took part in a version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma – a game scenario first developed by the RAND Corporation in 1950 that analyses people’s propensity towards cooperating with a counterpart for mutual reward as opposed to betraying that counterpart for individual reward. Participants in the study were only told if their counterpart was from the same country. The study found that a higher proportion of women were willing to collaborate than men. “Technological advances, globalisation and increasing worldwide prosperity all contribute to growing international interactions and joint participation in projects. The success of these relies upon individuals’ abilities to engage cooperatively without formal institutional enforcements,” said Durham University
Business School’s Jason Shachat, a professor of experimental economics who co-authored the study. The study also asked participants questions about their countries and found that those who displayed a less positive attitude to their country of origin were also more likely to collaborate with an international counterpart. Using a dataset from the US and China, the study’s results also underline the need for greater understanding between the world’s two largest economies. While US participants in the study were slightly more likely to cooperate internationally than their Chinese counterparts, those in the US also tended to overestimate the likelihood of Chinese participants’ cooperation, whereas those in China, on average, correctly estimated the cooperation likelihood of US participants. Indeed, participants in China had more negative opinions towards their US counterparts in the study’s second iteration in March 2022, compared to its first iteration in December 2020. The authors find this to be indicative of how geopolitical events can shift people’s attitudes towards international cooperation. With particular reference to relations between China and the US, they also feel that the study as a whole offers guidance of how barriers to cooperation can be overcome. “Bilateral trade between the two countries accounts for more than 10 per cent of total international trade. Collaboration between the two countries has a huge effect on the world, and can dramatically benefit both the organisations involved and also society as a whole,” explained Shachat . TBD
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ALLEVIATING CYBERSECURITY’S WORKFORCE GAP COUNTRY: Peru SCHOOL: ESAN Graduate School of Business The global gap between the supply of cybersecurity professionals and current demand has recently been estimated at 3.4 million, according to the (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study 2022. The expectations are that this demand will only continue to grow as the cybersecurity market becomes worth more than $370 billion by 2029. To meet the growing demand for specialists in this area of business and management, ESAN Graduate School of Business is launching a master’s degree in cybersecurity and privacy management. Freddy Alvarado Vargas, director of the new programme, said its aim is “to train professionals capable of ensuring the confidentiality, availability and integrity of data, and mitigating the risks of cyber threats.” The programme is a dual offering developed in conjunction with La Salle in Barcelona, Spain, a founding
member of the Ramon Llull University that is also home to Esade Business School. Its curriculum, meanwhile, is structured around the phases of a cybersecurity ‘lifecycle’ (identify, protect, detect, respond and recover) to offer courses on topics that include digital security, regulations, risk management, cyber defence and data protection, among others. The programme is to be delivered in a blended mode over two years with an approximate 70:30 split between synchronous online learning, to be held on weekday evenings and Saturday mornings, as well as in-person study. In addition to time on the ESAN campus in Lima, the in‑person element features two weeks of study at La Salle; during this period participants will also visit and learn from cybersecurity and privacy management companies based in Barcelona. Further international expertise on the subject of national security strategies and government policies will also be on hand from the William J Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, an institution of the US Department of Defense. “In a totally hyperconnected and digitised world, the demand for experts in preventing data and information theft to ensure digital trust is increasing, giving this type of specialty a great projection for the future,” added Alvarado. The programme kicks off in May 2023. TBD
12 | Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023
NEWS AND INSIGHT
SMART CITIES UNDER THE MICROSCOPE COUNTRY: Germany SCHOOL: TUM School of Management, Technische Universität München (TUM) Smart cities – technology-enhanced areas that use electronic methods and sensors to collect data in order to manage assets and resources – are designed to improve a city’s services and operations. But how do smart cities work in practice and how do they make data flow as effectively as possible? How do they pick the right providers and ensure they are being cost effective? A recent study of German smart cities found that when choosing technology for their city, the main criteria are IT security, followed by low energy consumption and independence from third parties. Being a smart city does not necessarily provide financial gain. Only 25 of 93 responding representatives agreed that being a smart city generates additional revenue for their city. Instead, the results of the study indicate that smart cities are more likely to be seen as improving the external image of the city, making it a
liveable place and ensuring the better execution of urban tasks. Responding cities that were at a more advanced stage of implementation of the smart city at the time of the study’s survey were found to be more likely to work closely with their citizens. The study also delved deeply into low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) – one of the main technologies used by smart cities. These run on a single battery and operate sensors to provide data for the cities. There are different types of LPWAN technologies available for use in smart cities, but the study found that LoRaWANs are the most used – due to the fact cities can run them independently without a third party being involved. In terms of who pays, all responding cities said that they would like to provide the LoRaWAN network free of charge – or already do – for their own purposes, while 62 per cent said they would allow the city group to use it, and 65 per cent would let citizens use it for free. However, a majority of those surveyed believe that companies should have to pay for the use of the network (59 per cent). These results come from a survey led by Joachim Henkel, chair of technology and innovation management at the Technical University of Munich, and study director Lucia Baur. The respondents included 115 experts from 107 German cities and featured representatives of a city’s administration, as well as representatives of a city’s technology service provider or municipal utilities. EB
SHARE YOUR NEWS AND RESEARCH UPDATES by emailing AMBA & BGA’s content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul at t.dhoul@associationofmbas.com
Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 | 13
The thirst for business education remains strong, says Durham University Business School’s new dean Cathy Cassell , but business schools must keep pace with changes to learning and workplace expectations
14 | Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023
thinking Forward INTERVIEW
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D
urham University Business School
If we want to create global business leaders, our students have to know how to conduct business on a global scale and be inclusive. That’s why we cannot look insular and must be international. A key to this is collaboration between institutions and ensuring diversity of thought in classes. What are your plans for the next 12‑18 months, especially in terms of the school’s global ambitions? I am only very early into my time as dean, so while I have thoughts and insights on how we want to move the school forward these are certainly not set in stone as of yet. For now, I’m enjoying getting to know the members of faculty, professional services and students, and really understanding what challenges we face in the future and how we will steer towards taking these on. We want to be as international as possible, as well as ensuring the faculty are continuing their great work in producing industry-leading research in their key fields, and we’ll be continuing many of the successes the business school has achieved previously. What are the biggest challenges for international business schools? All business schools are facing a lot of challenges, and many of these challenges are similar for each individual school. International recruitment is one example. There is a drive from all schools to continue to ensure they have diverse, international cohorts, yet the rising quality of schools in other regions means
At Birmingham, we managed to change the business school’s strategy to focus more on responsible education and business and sustainability. Leading this successful change was a highlight. One major indicator of this success was that Birmingham jumped 18 places in the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) research positions in my time, something I am very proud of. And now, my most recent highlight is moving into my role as executive dean of Durham University Business School, where my next chapter begins. I get to meet new people and focus on a new business school, with all the challenges that come with that. Your career has spanned senior leadership roles at several UK business schools and universities. Do you think UK business education is ahead of the curve compared to its international counterparts? I don’t think any country or business school should think they are particularly more prestigious or better at delivering business education than others. Although UK business schools do traditionally rank highly and offer great teaching, there is a huge amount we can learn from the way business education is taught in other countries and in other business schools. Business education is truly a global sector, and the stuff we can learn from other schools, especially those in emerging markets, where their businesses operate in different contexts and they deal with greater uncertainty and difficult political situations, we can learn greatly from.
currently offers a full- time, one-year MBA, as well as an online MBA
and an executive MBA in conjunction with EBS Universität in Germany. It also offers both DBA and PhD programmes, in addition to a roster of master’s degrees. Founded in 1965, the school is gearing up to relocate to a new campus in the heart of the city of Durham and a building that was originally earmarked as Durham County Council’s new headquarters, a move that dean Cathy Cassell is set to preside over. Can you share some highlights of your career to date? In my career to date I’ve had plenty of highlights, both from a research perspective in my role as a professor of organisational psychology, as well as from a business school management aspect, working as dean at the University of Birmingham Business School for five years, and now moving to be dean at Durham University Business School. From the academic perspective, the opportunity to change the way in which we think about how we do research in my field, plus the impact of my research on diversity and inclusion, has been a personal highlight. Plus, there is the further impact my research has also had on wider industries. From the management perspective, the opportunity to see others flourish and personnel develop over time, and the role I have had in helping with that, is a real highlight.
16 | Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023
INTERVIEW
A hybrid workplace is much better for people’s work-life balance, much better for people’s mental wellbeing and much better for organisations now too
that this is becoming more and more difficult to do. There needs to be a great focus on ensuring that recruitment is effective and we are getting the best students from a whole host of regions. We also need to be flexible in what we offer to students. I also see big challenges in the executive education space. This is a crowded field, where not only are business schools offering effective training to companies, but so are external companies such as LinkedIn, as well as many companies that are taking this training in-house. There is huge disruption in this space and, to compete with all of these options, we need to be as flexible as possible and offer really good, tailored programmes to fit the needs of the companies we are working with. Do you think recent geopolitical and technological turbulence has moved us to a more democratised approach to business education in terms of cohort diversity? How do you see this evolving? The world is uncertain, there’s no denying that now. We are facing huge turbulence in terms of geopolitics, the economy and technology; business schools need to respond to this. Diversity is difficult to achieve, but is so vital for a business education class. Making use of scholarships is key to ensuring we keep great diversity as far as our cohorts are concerned. Traditionally, Durham University Business School’s programmes have been diverse and the challenge is to continue
that successfully. We must keep ensuring that business education is available to everyone, and that there should be no barriers to entry – especially financial. So, with an uncertain world, we must continue to be innovative in how we offer our education, what it covers and who it can be accessible to. By doing this, we can ensure our cohort is diverse too. Your research has focused on organisational psychology. Do you think the trends towards hybrid workplaces will accelerate or will we return to ‘normal’ over the coming few years? I do not think we will ever go back to what was previously perceived as ‘normal’. Hybrid working is here to stay, and although people are getting back into being face to face again, and enjoying doing so, people will always want the element of online/working from home as it is convenient for them and we’ve proven it is easy for us to do. A hybrid workplace is much better for people’s work-life balance, much better for people’s mental wellbeing and much better for organisations now too. The convenience and flexibility it affords are too great to go back [to the way things were]. Presenteeism is definitely a thing of the past. When you look at it from a business education standpoint, hybrid working allows us to really ensure that we have the best of the best at our business school. Allowing not only our faculty, but also our professional services staff, to have a flexible, convenient hybrid workplace lets
us attract highly talented staff and push the school further.
What do you think that business education needs to do to truly impact the EDI agenda in the wider business context? We need to challenge more. We see great diversity among students and faculty but, when you look at wider business, the levels of diversity at the top level are still shockingly low. We need to be more challenging when we see something that needs changing in the world. If there is one thing recent movements and protests have taught us, it is that it is not enough to be passive when we see inequality, especially if it is not directly affecting us. We have to call it out and help make a change. I think we need to do a lot of work within organisations to empower individuals to challenge behaviours that are unacceptable in the workplace. It takes everyone from all walks of life to improve the equity of all. From a practical sense, we must ensure we continue to have our actions reflect our words – by having diverse cohorts and faculty, ensuring the case studies we use are diverse in all aspects, and by truly listening to each other to ensure that everyone associated with Durham University Business School feels included – we cannot change the wider world if that is not the case. The idea of inclusion is a crucial part of the debate around EDI. We can easily hire a female dean or recruit lots of students from around the world or have initiatives focused on LGBTQ+ people,
Ambition | DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 | 17
business schools are responsible for training the next generation of business leaders, we must be at the forefront of the wicked problems the world is facing. It’s not enough to comment on those issues, we must be doing something actively to challenge them. This is something that our students now expect of us and, similarly, employers. One of the key challenges facing businesses is how we train people to deal with the challenges that being truly sustainable brings. It’s also an area where I feel accreditation bodies have helped encourage schools to focus on sustainability and their own efforts. There are many examples of schools which have adopted aspects of sustainability into their programmes. We launched a master’s in energy systems management just last year, for example. Some have used the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to structure the learning outcomes of their programmes, while others have introduced responsible business modules, so we’re making some progress. Again, it comes back to making a cultural change. If schools wish to make a real impact they must embed a focus towards sustainability into their everyday thinking – not just what they teach but how they run their programmes and their campuses. Sustainability should be a starting point for every discussion. What do you think sustainable and responsible leadership looks like? It’s being courageous enough to challenge the things that we don’t feel are right and questioning accepted, traditional leadership models to ensure that others can be empowered to do the same. Sustainable and responsible leadership comes down to encouraging others through succession planning, role modelling and development opportunities, so that you’re creating a standard of better leadership for the future. It starts with us – making sure
for instance. However, if there is diversity without inclusivity, it does not work. We must ensure that people from all walks of life do not feel like the ‘other’ and that they feel included in their organisations. The feeling of belonging is crucial to an inclusive culture. How far are we from achieving genuine equity in the business world? I think it will only be when we stop noticing things like having a female dean at a business school or an ethnic minority leader in the workplace that we’ll know that things have truly changed. We must also bear in mind that diversity goes beyond gender and race. We’re becoming a lot more sensitive towards things like neurodiversity and the impact of that on the workplace, as well as mental health and so on but, as a society, we’ve still got so much more to learn when it comes to how we manage diversity. It’s certainly something we’re considering more and more at Durham, for example, as we make the move towards our new campus and how we might support our neurodiverse staff with this process. The research I’ve done shows that what makes people feel like they’re in an inclusive environment is when the interventions leaders make are designed for everybody, as people feel they are being treated fairly. It’s more important that businesses create a culture of inclusion than it is to, for example, appoint women to senior jobs. Of course, it’s important that women have equal opportunities to men but simply appointing a female leader will not necessarily make things better for other women, unless that female leader is committed to fostering an inclusive culture. It’s inclusion that needs to be the focus. MBAs care about climate change. How important do you think sustainability is, and in what ways have business schools adapted this into their programmes? I think it’s absolutely crucial. And, as
our behaviours, priorities and actions match what we’d want to see in those who will come after us. What do you think differentiates the MBA at Durham University Business School? I think what characterises our MBA programmes is that we really focus on trying to create globally minded business leaders of the future, and that we do it in a number of ways. Whether through our diverse cohorts, the themes of our classroom-based learning and international modules, our in-class projects or our interactions with industry, everything is designed to develop those core leadership skills and knowledge base. We set our programmes up in such a way that students are able to learn from everybody – not just those charged with educating them but also the industries they come into contact with, the alumni who support them and the classmates sitting alongside them. We keep a close focus on tying what students learn to how it can be applied in industry. From providing students with an option to tailor their learning journey through our specialist subject pathways, to giving them real-life company challenges to provide solutions for and experience delivering those solutions in a boardroom-styled exercise, we ensure students fully realise the importance and practicalities of their education so they can go on to be the changemakers we wish to see. In light of disruptive innovation in higher education – from the metaverse to digital credentials – what sort of innovations is your school developing to future-proof its business programmes? We are constantly scanning the global landscape to see where the future of business education is heading and how new technologies can be leveraged to best effect. For example, we are currently in the middle of developing a new Window On the World (‘WOW’) room at our new
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INTERVIEW
city campus, which will give our students a different dynamic to the way they interact and learn. We were fortunate in that one of our flagship professional programmes, the MBA, was offered online long before the pandemic. Our online MBA has been well recognised for its quality and effectiveness. This meant our technology, approaches to teaching and willingness to experiment were significantly ahead of our competition. Even so, we learned a lot during the past two years, and learners’ expectations of the online experience advanced significantly. We have introduced many more opportunities for learners to engage with each other, forums to share ideas and best practice and more interactive study materials. Fundamentally though, learners, employers and educators can all now see how they can make more efficient use of their time by opting to learn online. They can also see how to better tailor learning for in-person and online delivery, taking the best bits from both to enhance the study experience. Our
There’s a lot of work to do on both of those agendas. Thankfully, my background in organisational psychology is a great tool for me to understand the importance of instilling the right leadership culture, which will be a key part of the school’s future development which, as dean, is my top priority. Finally, a question we ask everyone: how optimistic do you feel about the future of business schools? Business schools have a long history. We’ve shown numerous times over the years that we can adapt to the challenges that business, economic and societal change might bring our way. In the UK, we are seeing an increased demand for business education, especially at that earlier undergraduate level. There’s a thirst for the knowledge and experience that only business schools can provide and the skills they can help an aspiring leader develop. I’m an optimist by nature and I’m very optimistic for the future of business schools overall.
own hybrid executive education model reflects exactly this. We expect this trend to continue and we must continue to invest in new technologies in the education sphere. What are the next steps for yourself as a business school decisionmaker as well as an academic thought leader? I think my task now is to really get to know Durham and how it works, the culture of the school and to focus on the future development of the school on the global stage. However, as an academic, I think you never stop wanting to be a ‘thought leader’. Academics thrive on research and exploration, it’s in their blood. They’re always thinking and they’re always interested. Currently, I’m really interested in researching the inclusive workplace. There are some projects I’ve worked on recently with colleagues such as Jackie Ford here at Durham and Kathryn Watson at Leeds University Business School about how we develop the notion of inclusive workplaces.
Biography Cathy Cassell has been the executive dean of Durham University Business School since September 2022. Previously, she was dean of Birmingham Business School at the University of Birmingham, deputy director of Alliance Manchester Business School and deputy executive dean of Leeds University Business School. Cassell is a professor of organisational psychology and holds fellowships of the Academy of Social Sciences, the British Academy of Management and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
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Navigating
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ROUNDTABLE REVIEW
As we move into a post-pandemic world, business schools have begun to settle into the ‘new normal’, with many changing their offering to a hybrid proposition, as a recent AMBA & BGA roundtable debate revealed. Ellen Buchan reports
the new normal
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A
In association with Barco, AMBA & BGA gathered international business school leaders at a roundtable discussion on the topic of hybrid learning to share the challenges they face and the type of technologies they have introduced. How is your business school currently using hybrid learning? Which areas are working well online and which function better in person? Kevin Johnson, MBA director, HEC Montréal “We moved towards a hybrid programme based on different studies [that involved] our faculty and students. The results indicated that our students use the flexibility of hybrid classes based on their personal and professional lives, and not based on the difficulty or nature of the class. “That’s what we made sure to structure. We’ve got classes on Monday and Thursday evenings and on Saturdays. Saturdays are 100 per cent in class, while the evenings are on a hybrid basis. The students have the choice to be at campus or not. For a great hybrid experience, online and in class, we’re equipped with Zoom rooms where the ceiling is entirely ‘mic-d’ and 12 to 15 screens surround the room. “The point is to offer a seamless experience for everyone. For example, as soon as you open your microphone you appear in one of the many screens in front of the class so the students can see, as well as in front of the lecturer. It works for us; around 50 per cent of our students are in class right now on hybrid evenings.”
recent study by AMBA & BGA carried out in association with Belgian technology company Barco looked at the ways in which business schools have responded to the pandemic. The results indicated that business school leaders are keen to keep aspects of ‘faculty teaching online’ (62 per cent) and ‘students not coming to campus’ (65 per cent), hinting at their preference for a future involving hybrid or blended models of learning. Hybrid programmes aim to deliver learning flexibly and in real time. Participants connect virtually or attend the physical classroom according to their individual preferences and needs. This enables similar levels of interaction and collaboration for those attending in-class and remotely, as well as bringing together a rich mix of local and global perspectives. But what does hybrid look like in practice and how can business schools combine the best of online delivery and in-person learning? Another recent AMBA & BGA survey revealed that some 80 per cent of business leaders believe schools are under pressure to change their value proposition and business model. In this light, the management education sector needs to consider whether those hybrid models being implemented in business schools are going far enough to compete with new entities entering the market. Another factor to be weighed up is how much further business schools need to go to remain relevant by exploring new technologies, such as the metaverse, in order to create a unique and seamless immersive learning experience that can be accessed from all over the world.
Detlev Kran, senior manager, education management/quality management, KMU Akademie & Management AG “I am in a special situation because I am
Smarter schools are trying to retain the good things that came out of the pandemic and going online
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ROUNDTABLE REVIEW
PARTICIPANTS CHAIR Colette Doyle Head of editorial, AMBA & BGA PANELLISTS Kevin Johnson MBA director, HEC Montréal Turki Al Masaeid Director of the Academic Support Centre, Abu Dhabi School of Management (ADSM) Detlev Kran Senior manager education management/quality management, KMU Akademie & Management AG Harihara Natarajan Vice-dean, Miami Herbert Business School Donald Lancaster MBA director, Exeter Business School
“I think there are certain aspects of pedagogy that are beneficial when held in person, whether that be seminars, debates, networking or cohort-building events; they need to be in person. But some other aspects of programmes can benefit from being taught online.” “What we thought of as hybrid pre-pandemic was a mix of in-person and classes designed to feature online components. “One programme in our portfolio, which is the Global Executive MBA, has a design where for seven weeks students take online content, both synchronous and asynchronous, and then in the eighth week they come to campus for three days for in-person learning. “So, essentially the way each module is designed, the more lecture-oriented Harihara Natarajan, vice-dean, Miami Herbert Business School
working for an institution that offers its programme 100 per cent online. That’s something that our customers are looking for. The majority of our students are about 35 years old, they are working in middle management roles and they don’t want to go to a brick university. “For them, it is important to have flexibility in terms of when they start their modules. From the data, the responses we have had from external examiners and from accreditation bodies, the programme works really well in this 100 per cent online format.” Donald Lancaster, MBA director, Exeter Business School “We’ve got to be very careful with language because ‘hybrid’ is an ambiguous word. I’ve heard hybrid used where we’re trying to combine some people being in person with others online – that is a disaster in my experience. “It is very difficult for the professor to control both the online and the in‑person environment. It’s also hard for the students to integrate across that divide. “Hybrid can mean ‘mixed methods’ – so on some programmes, some parts of it could be taught entirely online, with other parts in class. I think smarter schools are trying to retain the good things that came out of the pandemic and going online, but also trying to return to some of the things that were working well beforehand. “In my view, there is a problem with trying to run large classes online, or at least with mixed methods, because very often this reduces attendance when you try to go back in class. Students ask why they can’t watch it online, so that’s a bit of a problem.
material, frameworks, definitions and so on are delivered online. All the case discussions, simulations and live negotiations happen during the three days the students are on campus in week number eight. “Curating content in this
manner has helped us to achieve the best of both worlds. We’ve had the benefit of being able to fine tune this over a long period of time (since 2014). We think we’re at a point where we’re quite comfortable with how it’s being delivered. “In contrast, when changes in delivery modality are a reaction to the pandemic, it may not achieve the same level of excellence, especially in its early iterations.”
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