Business schools are often seen as isolated academic entities, where social values are usually overshadowed. With over 3,000 business schools spread across the country it is imperative to create a force of business minds while inculcating social values.
“Quality education primarily means producing a student with the skills, attitude and orientation to look at things in more than one way because life can neither be standardised nor be formalised. Students should have the capability to understand the context and environment in which something has to be implemented and what impact it will have at stratas of the company. So quality education requires high quality faculty and students who are committed to lifelong learning,” said Dr SC Sharma, Senior Director, ICFAI Business School (IBS) Gurgaon.
Educating about social concerns is a lifelong process, students have to pass through life to understand such situations. Not everybody is equally sensitive, it is the role of business school or any school for that matter to teach societal matters, emphasised Sharma.
Social concerns are not exclusively within the ambit of administrative officers. In today's corporate world, a manager up to an extent also participates in addressing social concerns. So much so that the management schools are also sensitive towards their social sphere. There have been certain initiatives from business schools which attempt to introduce the students with the issues of society. And as a part of curriculum, students are supposed to carry out certain projects which can help in addressing social matters.“
There are twenty plus Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) spread across the country and every IIM has a mandate to contribute to the local ecosystem. Particularly in Punjab close to the 1.78 lakh MSME activities are there. Punjab industrial growth crucially comes from the MSME sector. We have a social impact programme in which every student is expected to carry out the social impact project where they work with MSMEs. This initiative has contributed significantly to connect students with local MSMEs where they get the insights about very social themes,” said Dr Surender Rao Komera, Dean, IIM Amritsar.
“Quality management education has to include social responsibility. We have to build managers who care, who understand that the business is not only about profit, people and planets are also the aspects to be looked at. Making them aware about the issues around it and making them think about it is a part of quality education. This cannot be imparted through courses instead making them work on projects, working with stakeholders and having conversations around it is effective,” said Ruppal W Sharma, Professor Chairperson PGPM, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Delhi Campus.
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