2010/2011-06 PROPOSED MANDATE FOR UNIVERSITY COUNCIL TITLE: Major and Minor in Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability OBJECTIVE: The objective of this major is to develop leaders whose goal is to lead and work for the Greater Good. This includes several components, including leadership, social responsibility, ethics, and justice. Leading for the greater good entails awareness of and striving for success as defined by the widely accepted sustainability planet/people/profit triple bottom-line. This encompasses the need for efficient use of natural resources, lifestyles that minimize pollution, organizations that are socially responsible, societies that recognize the importance of fairness, and principled individuals who behave in an ethical manner. The proposed major aims to develop leaders who are ethically sound and socially just—in short, to be men and women for others. The program’s objective is to fundamentally prepare students to lead and organize sustainably and for sustainability. We plan to offer both a major and a minor in this program of study. The proposed minor will introduce students to the critical frameworks and concepts within the domain of Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability. The proposed program will encompass the range of necessary attributes that individuals within organizations need to be truly sustainable beyond economic needs, such as social responsibility, fairness and justice, ethics, and attention to the greater good. Because the major will focus mostly on the “people” and “profit” dimensions of the triple bottom line, our objective is to provide a program complementary to the Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies which is offered by the College of Arts and Sciences and is more focused on the “planet” dimension. An important aspect of this proposal is to increase the cross-fertilization of different sustainability initiatives at SJU. Both HSB and CAS students interested in augmenting their chosen concentration with the Minor in Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability will also benefit from the coursework. The proposed program has the following objectives: Provide interested students with the tools, theory, and practical knowledge required to contribute to their development as leaders who conscientiously strive for excellence in triple-bottom line outcomes As a unique program in the region, attract new students to Saint Joseph's University. Gain national recognition as a specialized program in ethical leadership and organizational sustainability within the framework described in the attached proposal. REASONS FOR PROPOSED MANDATE: The proposed major rests on a need to develop individuals who are prepared to lead in an age in which business practices for the social good have become a necessity. We perceive a vacuum in the market of degree offerings which Saint Joseph’s University is uniquely qualified to fill. Among our fellow Jesuit schools of business, six have majors in Leadership, yet none has a 1 specific focus on ethical or sustainable leadership. Among our regional peer or aspirant schools, only one (the University of Delaware) has a comparable leadership major, which is housed in its School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. Furthermore, all of the sustainability-related undergraduate majors we could find pertain primarily to environmental sustainability, with relatively little (if any) focus on the other two components of the triple-bottom line framework (i.e., people and profit). As described in the attached proposal, we believe that the establishment of a Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major and minor are highly consistent with the mission of Jesuit education. This is evidenced by the fact that, as documented in the attached proposal, program objectives are explicitly based on Saint Joseph’s University (SJU) Mission Statement, on SJU Plan 2020, on Haub School Business’ (HSB) Mission Statement, and on the HSB strategic plan. Furthermore, we believe that such a program can significantly contribute to the social and economic well-being of the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. The proposed major and minor both fill a programmatic vacuum and is entirely consistent with Saint Joseph’s unique Catholic and Jesuit identity and mission. As such, we feel the proposed program has the potential to attract additional outstanding students to Saint Joseph’s University and develop the program’s graduates into men and women who are committed to contributing to the greater good. We believe the Department of Management is very well positioned to offer the proposed major. Leadership studies have been a mainstay in the Management major and in departmental offerings since its inception. The efficient use of resources traditionally has been a main focus of courses in the department. Furthermore, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility has been an integral part of many Management Department courses for years, as evidenced by the current Business, Society and Ethics class as well as the fact that several faculty members have completed the Ethics Across the Curriculum initiative. We see the major as an effective vehicle to broaden the ethics education at SJU. RECOMMENDED FOR STUDY BY WHICH BODY? _____ Faculty Senate: Academic Policies and Procedures Committee _____ Faculty Senate: Faculty Policies and Procedures Committee _____ College Council: College of Arts and Sciences __X__ College Council: Haub School of Business _____ Standing Committee on Student Affairs, Full-time Undergraduate _____ Standing Committee on Student Affairs, Part-time Undergraduate/Graduate _____ Administrative/Staff Council Signature: Date: December 3, 2010 Please forward to the Provost who serves as Chair of the University Council, along with complete documentation to substantiate the need for the proposed mandate. 2 Saint Joseph’s University Erivan K. Haub School of Business Proposal for Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability Major and Minor Overview of Proposed Major and Minor 1. Program Objectives The objective of this major is to develop leaders whose goal is to lead and work for the Greater Good. This includes several components, including leadership, social responsibility, ethics, and justice. Leading for the greater good entails awareness of and striving for success as defined by the widely accepted sustainability planet/people/profit triple bottom-line. This encompasses the need for efficient use of natural resources, lifestyles that minimize pollution, organizations that are socially responsible, societies that recognize the importance of fairness, and principled individuals who behave in an ethical manner. We aim to develop leaders who are ethically sound and socially just - in short, to be men and women for others. The proposed major will prepare students to lead and organize sustainably and for sustainability. Furthermore, the proposed minor will introduce students to the critical frameworks and concepts within the domain of Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability. We perceive a vacuum in the market of degree offerings which our institution is uniquely qualified to fill. Among our fellow Jesuit schools of business, six have majors in Leadership, yet none has a specific focus on ethical or sustainable leadership. Among our regional peer or aspirant schools, only the University of Delaware has a comparable leadership major, which is housed in its School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy. Furthermore, all of the sustainabilityrelated undergraduate majors we could find pertain primarily to environmental sustainability, with relatively little (if any) focus on the other two bottom lines (i.e., people and profit). As described herein, we believe that a Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major is highly consistent with the mission of Jesuit education. Furthermore, we believe that such a program can contribute to the social and economic well-being of the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. We envision the following objectives for the program: Provide interested students with the tools, theory, and practical knowledge required to contribute to their development as leaders who conscientiously strive for excellence in triple-bottom line outcomes As a unique program in the region, attract new students to Saint Joseph's University. Gain national recognition as a specialized program in ethical leadership and organizational sustainability within the framework described in section 2 below. 3 2. Rationale for Proposal A poll of departmental faculty interests and collective vision of the department indicated that Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability would be a major that would be not only of interest, but also a major that our department could distinctively offer. The proposed major rests on a need to develop individuals who are prepared to lead in an age in which business practices for the social good have become a necessity. We begin by characterizing the context and the main building blocks of the program through the lens of the triple bottom line framework of planet/people/profit that is a foundation of the dialogue on sustainability. The United Nation’s Bruntland Commission’s 1987 report defined sustainable development as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The term sustainability has since been expanded to aspects of human life and endeavor far beyond development and has come to represent the simultaneous fulfillment of environmental, social, and economic sustainability conditions, as depicted graphically below (see Adams 2006). Broadly stated, environmental sustainability, also known as the “planet” component, relates to judicious use of natural resources, to pollution prevention, and to effective environmental management. Social sustainability, also known as the “people” component, relates to equitable opportunity and wealth distribution, to fairness and justice, and to ethical behavior. Economic sustainability, also known as the “profit” component, relates to the need for economic growth and the efficient use of resources. The proposed major serves the purpose of developing student awareness of the triple-bottom line, and will place emphasis on the “people” and the “profit” dimensions of the above diagram—an emphasis encapsulated in the term “organizational sustainability.” As such the major will encompass the range of necessary attributes that individuals within organizations need to be truly sustainable beyond the need for economic sustainability, such as social responsibility, fairness and justice, ethics, and attention to the greater good. Because the major will focus mostly on the “people” and “profit” dimensions, our objective is to provide a program complementary to the Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies which is offered by the College of Arts and Sciences and is more focused on the “planet” dimension. Both HSB and CAS students interested in augmenting their chosen concentration with the Minor in Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability will also benefit from the coursework. An important 4 aspect of this proposal is to increase the cross-fertilization of different sustainability initiatives at SJU. 3. Mission Implications of Proposed Major and Minor The establishment of a Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major and minor is not only consistent with, but also is supported by, the Saint Joseph’s University (SJU) Mission Statement, SJU Plan 2020 (draft), the Haub School Business (HSB) Mission Statement, and the HSB strategic plan. The SJU Mission Statement reads: Saint Joseph's espouses the educational priorities of the Society of Jesus which include: searching for God in all things, pursuit of the greater good, the service of faith together with the promotion of justice, and effective compassion for the poor and those in need. As described in the previous section, the proposed major encompasses these educational priorities through the belief that social justice and solid ethical foundations are necessary conditions for long-term sustainability. The published draft version of SJU Plan 2020 has several pertinent aspects: Building on the foundation of the liberal arts, Saint Joseph’s will enhance the educational experience in the classroom through implementation of the new General Education Program and through expansion of curricular offerings characterized by interdisciplinary inquiry. New programs that leverage Saint Joseph’s strengths, are mission-driven, and will increase demand for an SJU education are also planned. (p. 10) The proposed major will, as noted above, be a natural partner with the Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the proposed minor will certainly be on interest to CAS students—thereby satisfying the interdisciplinary inquiry— and it is clearly focused on Saint Joseph’s unique strengths and mission. Plan 2020 also has as one of the key components of the strategic initiative for Academic Distinction a stated focus on Ethical Leadership (p. 12). Currently, no undergraduate leadership program—either in the curriculum or co-curriculum—exists, so the proposed major fills a clearly-stated strategic need. The HSB Mission Statement states that the school seeks: excellence in business education that offers… wholeness via education of men and women in service to others in accordance with the Ignatian tradition. We believe the proposed major offers a unique opportunity to help students incorporate Ignatian 5 values into their very fabric, therefore preparing them to occupy positions of leadership for organizational sustainability. In listing HSB’s core values, the Mission Statement further states the school’s commitment to: innovative niche programs –from its inception, the HSB has been entrepreneurial in its approach to targeting and serving the needs of key industries and strategic niches. We feel that the proposed major fills the needs of a strategic niche in a way that SJU is uniquely capable of doing because of the strength of our business education tradition, which incorporates faith and justice, and which provides a strong ethical foundation to students. We believe the Department of Management is very well positioned to offer the proposed major. Leadership studies have been a mainstay in the Management major and in departmental offerings since its inception. The efficient use of resources traditionally has been a main focus of courses in the department. Furthermore, ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility has been an integral part of many Management Department courses for years, as evidenced by the current Business, Society and Ethics class as well as the fact that several faculty have completed the Ethics Across the Curriculum initiative. We see the major as an effective vehicle to broaden the ethics education at SJU. Program Description 1. Proposed Curriculum Outline - Major The Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major is being created by transforming the current curriculum offered as the Management major. To inform this transformation, we conducted a comprehensive search for majors in Leadership and/or Business Ethics across all Jesuit universities and across all regional peers and aspirants, as well as a nation-wide search for majors in Sustainability. This search highlighted the paucity of direct competition in the specific major we are proposing (except for University of Delaware’s major in Organizational and Community Leadership), and it provided us several ideas regarding structure and content of the proposed major. The proposed major will consist of six courses, as outlined below: Required courses (3): LEO 210: Business, Stakeholders, and Ethics (revised course) Prerequisite: MGT110/120/121 LEO 214: Perspectives on Leadership Prerequisite: LEO210 LEO 495: Applied Sustainable Leadership (new capstone course) Prerequisites: LEO 210 and LEO 214 6 Electives (choose 3 from the following): MGT 211: Advanced Topics in OB MHC 230: Introduction to Human Capital Management FBE 331: Social Entrepreneurship MHC 231: Diversity in the workplace MGT 213: Negotiation Skills IBU 420: International Management MKT 450: Environmental Sustainability and Green Marketing Study Tour* * Up to one elective can be taken outside the department, yet still within HSB, that focus on Triple-Bottom line concerns in business; as other HSB courses that explicitly concern the triplebottom line framework are developed (e.g., Triple-Bottom Line Accounting or Micro-Finance), we will add them to the list of electives. Further, while it is outside the scope of this proposal, we intend to use the Integrated Learning Component of the General Education Program to provide interdisciplinary breadth to the major by requiring students to take, in addition to Macroeconomics, two College of Arts and Sciences courses pertaining to Environmental Sustainability and Economic Development. The proposed major will be available to all Saint Joseph’s University business students. College of Arts & Sciences students will be able to double major in Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability subject to meeting all the pre-requisites. 2. Proposed Required Course Descriptions Following are the course descriptions for the three required classes in the major. LEO 210: Business, Stakeholders, and Ethics (revised from Business, Society, & Ethics) This course analyzes the question, “Does business have a social responsibility?” through the examination of various internal and external stakeholders of the contemporary business organization. Students will be introduced to frameworks and theoretical principles in ethics that may be used as foundations to the analysis of the question above. Students then will learn how stakeholder management relates to an organization’s triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits. The course includes theoretical concepts and practical analysis, exposing students to some of the ethical dilemmas confronted by employees in the workplace, and serves to help students enhance their skills in resolving these types of dilemmas. LEO 214: Perspectives on Leadership This course aims to increase students’ knowledge and skills concerning effective leadership. Through a seminar format we will employ a historical perspective to investigate different approaches, models, and contexts to leadership. We will then explore the contemporary role of leadership in work organizations. Through 7 workshops, we will develop skill competencies critical to effective self, team, and organizational leadership. Students will have an opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to a leadership experience they design and implement themselves LEO 495: Applied Leadership and Sustainability (capstone) This course is an integrative practicum in which students (either individually or in teams) undertake an action-learning project in an organization under the direction of a faculty member with the objective of applying leadership and sustainability concepts developed throughout the program. Students will work with live clients (e.g., non-profit organizations or for-profit businesses) to help them improve their triple bottom-line performance along the people, planet, and profits dimensions and test their leadership skills as they do so. To be taken Senior year. 3. Proposed Curriculum Outline – Minor The minor in Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability could be attractive to a diverse set of business and liberal arts majors who have interest in leadership and sustainability issues and ideally would combine well with most majors in the university because the skills developed are widely transferable. The new minor is designed to provide both Business and Arts and Sciences students the opportunity to gain an understanding of the theory and practical knowledge required to function as leader for the greater good, including awareness of the need to define success as the sustainability planet/people/profit triple bottom-line. The minor requires students to complete a six course program of study. The first two courses in the minor are part of the HSB core: Essentials of Organizational Behavior (MGT110) or Essentials of Management (MGT120) or Organizations in Perspective (MGT121) and Legal Environment of Business (MGT360). The requirements for the minor are summarized below. Required Courses (5): MGT 110, 120 or 121 Essentials No prerequisite; part of HSB core MGT360: Legal Environment of Business No prerequisite; part of HSB core LEO 210: Business, Stakeholders, and Ethics (revised course) Prerequisite: MGT110/120/121 LEO 214: Perspectives on Leadership Prerequisite: LEO 210 LEO 495: Applied Sustainable Leadership (new capstone course) Prerequisites: LEO 210 and LEO 214 Elective (choose 1 from the following): MGT 211: Advanced Topics in OB 8 MHC 230: Introduction to Human Capital Management FBE 331: Social Entrepreneurship MHC 231: Diversity in the workplace MGT 213: Negotiation Skills IBU 420: International Management Courses taken for the Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major or minor cannot “double count” for courses required for other majors or minors offered by the Department of Management. 4. Learning Objectives (and Related Assessment) The goal of the new major is to provide students with the opportunity to gain specialized knowledge within the framework of a liberal arts education. Because of the nature of leadership and of sustainability, the learning objectives for courses within the new major typically fall into the categories of “problem solving” or “functional.” Additionally, all upper-level courses in the major require students to complete written case analyses or class presentations, enhancing the students’ communication skills. Finally, the capstone course strengthens the student’s understanding of the Jesuit tradition by applying the lessons from the major in a real-life manner to exemplify being men and women for others. The major will have one faculty member designated as the program director. The responsibility of the program director will be to: • To promote the Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability program within SJU. • Review all course syllabi, verifying that each course clearly identifies learning objectives, and that these objectives are from at least two of the following categories: problem solving, functional, communication, Ignatian values, global/diversity, and strategic thinking. • Review tests and assignments (on a sample basis) from the courses in the major, to verify that these assessments focus on learning objectives defined in the course syllabi. • Verify that peer reviews of teaching are performed for all tenure-track and adjunct instructors teaching courses within a major on a periodic basis. As part of this process, the coordinator will review grade distributions for all courses offered in the major. 5. Implementation Timeline It is our hope that the proposed major will be implemented in time for the fall semester of 2011. Prior to implementation, one course needs to be revised (from Business, Society, and Ethics to Business, Stakeholders, and Ethics), and within one year a new course (Applied Sustainable Leadership) will need to be developed since it is the capstone for the major. The other courses 9 included as requirements or electives are currently developed and listed in the Undergraduate Course Catalog. Marketing Plan 1. Target Students The target audience for the Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major will include two categories of students. First, students who are enrolled at SJU who would like to have stronger emphasis on leadership for the greater good and the related specific coursework. Second, students who may be attracted to SJU because of this major given its uniqueness and the lack of any similar alternatives in the Philadelphia area or in other Jesuit Universities, as described in the Competition Analysis section below. These target students are expected to have interests in business as well as in service, and are expected to come with a holistic view of management. 2. Career Potential The Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major will offer students both short term and long term potential career opportunities. a. In the beginning of students’ careers it is expected that specific knowledge and skills related to holistic leadership and organizational training will be very useful in the job market because of increasing employer focus on overarching sustainability issues. b. In the long term the major would provide the foundation for the development of careers that culminate with overall corporate responsibility for sustainability. One recent corporate trend, for example, has been the creation of the position of “Chief Sustainability Officer” (CSO) with responsibility for integrating all related actions within the company, as exemplified by AT&T, Siemens, and DuPont. c. Moreover, the skills acquired by students graduating with this major (e.g. leadership, creativity, strategic decision-making, resource management, critical analysis, strategic planning, and broad world-view) in completing the program are all attractive and relevant in a traditional corporate environment contributing to our graduates’ success if pursuing a position in the corporate world. d. Lastly, this proposed major would be a natural fit for students who wish to embark on a career in non-profit management since non-profits are commonly devoted to the social and/or environmental aspects of sustainability. 3. Competition Analysis The competitive analysis for the envisioned Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major is extensive because it builds on several disciplines and therefore entails comparisons with different majors. Tightly defined, there is only one direct competitor to our proposed major because it includes components of Leadership, Sustainability, and Ethics (including Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility). We therefore extended our 10 analysis to majors in each of those areas and we report our findings here. Regarding Leadership, we found six Jesuit colleges or universities that currently have undergraduate Leadership majors. Three of these (Boston College, LeMoyne College, and Saint Louis University) are offered to traditional undergraduate day students, and are packaged broadly as “Leadership and Management” degrees. Three others (Loyola Chicago, Rockhurst University, and University of San Francisco) are degrees offered through their schools of continuing and professional studies. Remarkably, none of these six Jesuit schools appears to leverage their Jesuit identity/mission by offering a uniquely Jesuit or explicitly ethical view of leadership. Locally, only the University of Delaware offers an undergraduate Organizational and Community Leadership degree (through its School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy); this degree includes a course called “Leadership for the Common Good” and affords students the chance to take four courses in areas of interest such as Environmental Sustainability, Public Policy, Global Perspectives, or Intercultural Dynamics. Furthermore, we have found that the word “sustainability” when used in the name of a major, usually refers to the environmental dimension (i.e., the planet component) of the sustainability triad. Of the twenty-seven Jesuit institutions, 16 offer undergraduate majors with emphasis on the “planet” dimension, and most of them are called “Environmental Studies.” Locally, all five major competitors (UPenn, Temple, Drexel, Villanova, and LaSalle) offer majors in sustainability, but all except one (UPenn) seems solely focused on environmental (planet) issues. UPenn offers an inter-school “Sustainability and Environmental Management” minor that does seem to incorporate people and profit components to the planet emphasis. More broadly, we examined 26 different undergraduate sustainability programs across the country. Only 8 of them include the “people” component explicitly, usually within the context of economic development; 11 of them include explicit mention to “sustainable business,” but this use generally equated to “green business practices.” 4. Enrollment Projections While there is no concrete way of projecting future enrollments, as we stated earlier, one of our primary objectives in proposing this major and minor is to attract more students to SJU by offering a distinctly Jesuit and mission-focused program. To assess latent demand for the proposed major, we analyzed enrollment trends in the Management major over the past ten years. Over the past decade, about 8% of HSB students, on average have been enrolled in the Management major, with a high of about 10% over the three years from AY03/04 through AY05/06. Applying these averages into the next four years, with the enrollment growth assumption of an additional 50 students at Saint Joseph’s per year (Plan 2020), the result would be between 50-60 students per year with interest in the area of Management. Should the present proposal be successful, beginning in fall of 2011, the department will roll out both the Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major as well as hopefully an additional major in Managing Human Capital. Since the new majors will be more distinctive and aimed toward more defined career paths, we anticipate demand for the new majors will be at least equal to the previous demand for the current Management program, and we estimate about equal interest across both new majors. Thus, we would anticipate approximately 25-30 students in the proposed Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major. In addition, we would 11 anticipate about 5 students per year in the proposed minor. Resources 1. Faculty The Department of Management has several faculty members who already teach the existing courses that will compose the proposed major. There are also several faculty members with teaching and research expertise suitable for the only new course, the capstone in Applied Sustainable Leadership. With the assumed enrollment of approximately 30-35 students per year in the major or minor, we will need to offer an additional section of Business, Stakeholders, and Ethics as well as Perspectives on Leadership, and two sections of the capstone course (Applied Sustainable Leadership). These sections would be covered by existing faculty as well as adjunct faculty who are currently teaching in the Management major. If significant interest and growth in the major and minor materialize, new faculty lines will be needed to provide quality faculty for this distinctive program. That said, and consistent with SJU’s Plan 2020 (p. 10), we would count on the success of this program’s generation of sufficient revenue to allow the hiring of additional faculty. In short, we believe that the proposed major and minor could potentially attract significant new interest in SJU and the Haub School of Business. However, given the implementation timeline of initiating the major in fall of 2011, we believe that existing faculty resources are sufficient to cover modest growth in the program over the near future. 2. Other Required Resources The major does not require specialized resources. The university’s current technology and library resources are sufficient to satisfy the requirements of students in the proposed major. Methods of Program Assessment The new major will be included in the Haub School’s Undergraduate Business Program. Thus, the major will be subject to the school’s existing program assessment procedures. Program Budget Most leadership and sustainability programs are inter-disciplinary in nature and this one is no exception. Consistent with this, the proposed Leadership, Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major will draw from courses offered by various departments. Since the Management Department will offer the majority of courses, we propose housing the Leadership, 12 Ethics, and Organizational Sustainability major in the Management Department for budgetary and administrative purposes. Bibliography Adams, W.M. (2006). The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century. Report of the IUCN Renowned Thinkers Meeting, 29–31 January 2006. Available at http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/iucn_future_of_sustanability.pdf United Nations General Assembly (1987) Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 - Development and International Co-operation: Environment. 13