Marianna Fotaki, MD, PhD, MSc (Econ) Warwick Business School EFMD The Future of the Business School Seminar Series Criticality, Responsibility and Citizenship in Management Education University of Bath 7 th November 2019
The content, the philosophy, and the teaching • methods of our pedagogies must be brought closer to societal concerns Propose relevant pedagogical strategies • concerned with answerability and relationality Business and management education as a • force for societal transformation
Freedom of choice and user autonomy occupy • prominent positions on the agendas of policy makers in many countries, increasingly more so than equity of access or equality of opportunity . The belief that social policy could be used as a tool for • social transformation in post-war welfare state constructs has been increasingly challenged. This shift was initiated almost three decades ago by the • market proponents but can now be observed for all mainstream parties across the political spectrum.
The customer as sovereign and free is supported by the • fantasmatic notion of freedom of choice (Fotaki, 2006, 2010) This ideological discourse has shifted to the areas of public • policy which were until recently defined by the notion of care, solidarity and responsibility for the other Such discourses defend organizational members against the • loss of past institutional values that grew more within communities and collectivities (Long, 1999)
The burgeoning economic inequality between the • richest and the poorest is a cause of concern for social, political, and ethical reasons The widespread evidence of wrongdoing in • business and politics jeopardizes the very nature and trustworthiness of democratic institutions The environmental degradation and global • political threats
The financialized self (Max Haiven, 2017) ‘It is not only popular, franchised series like Dragons’ Den or The Apprentice that celebrate ruthless, single-minded, fangs-bared avarice, nor the bemusing drug-addled, sex-crazed anti-heroes of the Wolf of Wall Street and his pack; it is also the canny antique- hunter, the shrewd house-flipper, the driven restaurateur, or the single-minded start- up genius of “reality” TV. All are different vantage points on a financialized Vitruvian Man willing to risk and leverage everything, and mobilize every ounce of ingenuity, daring, “social capital” and talent, towards realizing their privatized ambitions’.
‘The association of collectivism with totalitarianism fits hand in glove with a powerful elite that needs to keep the people in an illusion that they are all individuals, that is, individualised consumers for whom collective action and the creation of new imaginary significations are out of imaginary range’. Imagining the End by Ingerid S. Straume "The Imaginary Reader", Bergen, Norway 2015
There is no magic bullet that can reverse the damage done by decades of neoliberalism. (Photo: Getty Images) What kind of economic system is most conducive to human wellbeing?
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• “There is no society”: “And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first” (Margaret Thatcher, 1987) The social purpose of management has been replaced by the • notion of managers as merely the agents of shareholders; beholden only to the cause of promoting shareholders’ profits (Khurana, 2010). The use of theoretical frameworks that have effectively turned • business schools into cheerleaders of big business (Munir, 2011).
• What it is to be leading a moral life in business and society? • What it is to be leading a meaningful life?
Brain Pickings We gain a sense of value and significance by • helping other group members = Living through the others This is not only giving meaning to our life but is an • effective means of dealing with the existential fear of death and our own mortality (Irvin Yalom) What people often value the most in their work is to • do with the voluntary ‘gift’ of giving
“ Love's Work: A Reckoning with Life”, a philosopher The world of modernity is a time in which • we are "infinitely sentimental about ourselves, but methodically ruthless towards others.“ Mary Evans , literary and gender theorist argues: • ‘Our misuse of the word ‘love’, now so banded about as to have become as meaningless as the kisses on the emails between strangers’ has led to ‘ sentimentalisation ’ of love. ‘The future is the time in which we might not be, • and yet, we must imagine we will have been’
I offer an ethics of relationality, that acknowledges and brings back love, compassion and identification
• Relationality captures the ethical obligation of care toward the irreducible other: ‘If I seek to preserve your life, it is not only because I seek to preserve my own, but because who ‘I’ am is nothing without your life, and life itself has to be rethought as this complex, passionate, antagonistic, and necessary set of relations to others’. (Butler 2009, p. 43, Frames of War)
• Relationality is the foundation of human subjectivity in both the social world and in individual exchanges • Judith Butler argues that since we all depend on the other within conditions that are inevitably precarious, our fears about survivability link us to others we do not know (Butler, 2004).
• What is the impact of our actions on (‘distant’) others and communities? • Answerability: provides an account for the outcomes of one’s actions through involvement in particular activities and consideration of how these contribute to achieving societal goals that enable individuals to flourish
“Answerability is Bakhtin’s term that implies responsibility and • accountability of the individual toward Self and the Other. It is a whole philosophy of life and of the act that ‘can only be a moral philosophy.’” (Boje and Al Arkoubi (2009: 113) It translates into business accountability toward communities • in which businesses operate and toward the distant “others” whose lives may be affected by their activities.
The use of multidisciplinary and transnational concepts for • analyzing the potential impact of business activities Bringing topics close to students’ own experiences and • allowing them to develop a new appreciation of ‘the other’ Instilling consciousness raising into the classroom by adopting • reflexivity when interacting with students This also implies being reflexive about how our own identities • inform: what we choose to teach • equally as significant, is what we choose to omit • how we go about teaching •
Rethinking the idea of businesses as global citizens rather • than as selfish corporate psychopaths Prompting students to question how they might be • implicated in producing these consequences and to consider their answerability in the future Introduce pedagogies that promote relationality and • answerability: Broadening of topics and integrating multiple transnational perspectives in • the curricula, Increasing students’ experience/field exposure • Working with teacher’s reflexivity in the classroom •
Questioning Neoliberal Capitalism and Economic Inequality in Business Schools Marianna Fotaki and Ajnesh Prasad ⇑ ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT LEARNING & EDUCATION September 17, 2015 amle.2014.0182
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