The aim of this collective effort is to work towards a proposal that introduces the issue of poverty in the curriculum and the learning methods in the education of future professionals, as part of the social environment in which business management operates.
The PRME Working Group, established after the 1st PRME Global Forum, held in New York in 2008, has grown to include close to 150 members from more than 120 institutions in 46 countries from all continents.
The vision of PRME Working Group on Poverty as a Challenge to Management Education is to be advocates for the integration of poverty-related discussions into all levels of management education worldwide.
It is grounded in our beliefs that:
- Poverty is a legitimate topic for discussion and research in schools of business and management
- Business should be a catalyst for innovative, profitable and responsible approaches to poverty reduction
- Multiple stakeholder engagement is needed for innovative curriculum development
- In our role as advocates, we will:
- Create opportunities for multi-stakeholder discussions
- Foster discussions that lead to concrete results
- Disseminate reports
- Serve as a global repository for innovative curricular approaches, learning methods and educational materials that embed poverty in management education
- Support the development of a community of management educators, researchers and professionals committed to integrating poverty into the business curriculum
Our working group will disband only when the issue of poverty is deeply embedded in all levels of management education worldwide.
Activities
- Preparation of deliverables for the PRME 2013 Summit on New Ways of Developing Leaders for the Future We Want, hosted by CEEMAN on 26-27 September 2013 in Bled, Slovenia.
- Preparation and organization of the Working Group Conference on Fighting Poverty through Management Education, held on 25-26 September in conjunction with the PRME 2013 Summit in Bled, Slovenia.
- Promoting and contributing to the Collection of Best Practices and Inspirational Solutions and facilitating its further growth and development into an online platform for experience sharing among management educators around the globe.
- Publication of two books on the issue of poverty in management education in collaboration with PRME, CEEMAN and Greenleaf Publishing, titled Socially Responsive Organizations and the Challenge of Poverty (2014) and Responsible Management Education and the Challenge of Poverty, A Teaching Perspective (2016).
- Continuous work on building the case for businesses and management development institutions to include poverty-related issues into their respective strategies and programs, including through the challenges, opportunities and solutions identified by the WG Report for Rio.
- Collaborative projects on management education solutions for fighting poverty.
- Collaboration with other PRME Working Groups and contribution to PRME Regional Meetings and PRME Regional Chapters to be established in the main regions of the world.