Management as communicative action: habermasian perspectives on the quest for responsible management education

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Management education, especially as practised in business schools, has been the subject of critical debate since the beginning of the 21st century. This was largely stimulated by concerns about the impact of business on the environment, society and the economy and the role that business schools may have played in advancing business theories and paradigms in which financial gains are given priority over sustainable development considerations. From this context of critical reflection arose a new concept, namely responsible management education, of which the intention is to inculcate in a new generation of business managers a deeply ingrained responsibility orientation towards their organisational and societal obligations.Based on an analysis of the academic discourse and the principles and standards which inform business schools' responsible management education practices, it is argued in this study that the conceptualisation of what 'responsible management' means is an underdeveloped aspect of the responsible management education project. The study proposes that Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative action provides a suitable epistemological foundation with which to conceptualise responsible management, namely 'management as communicative action'. Building on Habermas's concepts of communicative action, lifeworld and system, discourse ethics and moral consciousness and competence, 'management as communicative action' contains four interrelated responsibilities, namely those of caring for the business–society relationship; developing a responsible organisation; leading normatively validated decision making; and caring for personal moral consciousness and competence.The study concludes with the implications that management as communicative action holds for responsible management education in theory and practice. It advances the idea of 'responsible management education as communicative action', comprising the tasks of making management education socially purposeful; integrating ethics, responsibility and sustainability into education and administration; making educators and students competent in discourse ethics; and developing students as morally competent citizens.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University