Educating for responsible management: a South African perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to add a South African perspective to deliberations on educational approaches in order to promote real responsibility in business. Design/methodology/approach This is achieved by drawing on broad concepts of African philosophy as well as research and experience around a management studies curriculum developed in response to the local and global context of a newly liberated, developing country in a global economy. Realities involve the need to empower learners, including disadvantaged black Africans, as effective students. This raises questions about inequities between developed and developing nations; the power of dominant business approaches to undermine traditional value systems; and the apparent unsustainability of the global status quo. Findings The curriculum has promoted free thought and academic/business literacy in students from diverse backgrounds and cultures, inducing criticality; making explicit the links between prior/practical and new/theoretical knowledge; giving access into business discourses and requiring students to argue about businesses' responsibilities to incorporate social and environmental with financial accountability. Similarities and differences between African and western values emerge, indicating lessons that might be learned from Africa, particularly South Africa. Originality/value Some lessons from African philosophy and from this responsive curriculum might feasibly be relevant to educators for management elsewhere, based on the assumption that the approach would promote more responsible management and that this aim has global significance.