The modern market demands professionals with the required leadership and organizational skills to pace with the emerging global economy. Business schools which, are the primary source where upcoming business leaders are nurtured takes the sole responsibility for these professional skills. Recent studies show that business schools teach varied sets of managerial ideas and principals that influence positive economic changes. A vast majority of business leaders, for instance, CEOs of globally renowned Corporations, among others, reflect the success of their businesses from the inspiration of business schools (Kaptein and Yip, 2011). Notably, business schools provide opportunities for students, stakeholders as well as corporations to exercise their different mandates. The mandate of business schools is multifaceted but mostly focused on delivering business solutions and empowering society. It is authentic that business schools play a crucial role in shaping the mindsets and skills of future leaders. Also, it can influence stakeholders to drive awareness of corporate social responsibility and ethical behavior.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Business schools are the central dogmas of CSR in the sense that it plays a crucial role in their positioning. Scholars point out that the CSR needs to be distinguished from its underlying definitions. CSR is about the ethical role of the corporations in their immediate environment. In simpler terms, CSR the relationship between corporations and society. These two entities work harmonically to align and uphold the underlying individualistic values and expectations. However, there have been extrinsic environmental challenges such as climate change that have deteriorated the relationship. These then call for the intervention of the business schools that offers Corporate Social Responsibility pieces of training to leverage CSR competencies. Mainly, Business schools equip students with frameworks for CSR. Berniak (2018) explains that business students get to understand CSR competencies, which are taught through the underlying business skills. Students undergoing these training are actively finding resonance in business management. For instance, the Polish University, through the United Nation’s PRME, has developed CRS programmers. This CSR program provides accredited topics that can be accessed by aspiring business leaders. According to Berniak (2018), the demand for CSR is Polish Universities is on the rise. These demands initialize that business schools not only create awareness CSR but also align the ethical responsibilities of student graduates in the mainstream market. Therefore, business schools.
Business schools equip students with entrepreneurial skills that foster innovation and creativity in the economy. Entrepreneurial skills are sets of necessities in job creation and expansions of the emerging economies. Scholars argue that the current market has witnessed tremendous development in businesses emerging from business students (Arranz et. al 2017.) According to Arranz et al., two defined components propel entrepreneurial skills among students. These components include the curriculum and extra-curriculum developed and utilized within the school. Curriculum components mainly focus on the subjective coursework of students that more often than note steer competency development. Concurrently, Students develop myriads of competencies in the varied areas of specialization, including but not limited to economics and enterprises. Likewise, the extra-curriculum component exposes students market needs or awareness and entrepreneurial support. These components offer ingrained support to students with the ultimate intent of augmenting their interests and entrepreneurial intentions. Altogether, entrepreneurial skills separate entrepreneurs and ordinary people in the sense that it motivates essential business knowledge and reputable social behavior.
Therefore, business institutions play a significant role in fostering entrepreneurial skills among students. These schools develop personality characteristics among students that are evident in their bid to personal fulfillment and risk-taking, among others. For example, current statistics show that most university graduates from various business universities and colleges, including Harvard Business School, are founders and Co-founders of established innovative organizations. To list a few, RubiconMD, which comprises the world-leading electronic consultancy platform is founded by Gill Addo (“Founders & investors,” n.d.). Gill Addo is an MBA graduate student from Harvard Business School, class of 2011. He is the current CEO of RubiconMD since 2013 and a board member CUNY graduate school. RubiconMD is on the growing trend with the company leveraging for partnership with potential investors in the medical profession. Other successful Founders and Co-founders from Harvard Business School’s include Vinay Bhagat, Founder & CEO, trust radius, Rob Biederman Co-Founder & CEO, Hourly Nerd, Nancy M. Barry, Founder & President, Enterprise Solutions to Poverty, Ruzwana Bashr, CEO, Peek.com, Jill Applebaum, Co-Founder, Spruce & Co Magnus Arantes, Managing Director, LM Invest, OPM 40 (“Founders & investors,” n.d.).
These are direct organizations that are benefited from Business School graduates. These illustrations intend to justify the impact of entrepreneurial skills gained from business schools and their far-reaching consequences on the mainstream economy and society. Caporarello, and Manzoni, (2020) affirm that student learning gains in college contribute to their innovative and decisive skills in management. Gains in critical thinking is an enormous aspect of student graduate from schools. According to them, different institutions of learning have shown continued success in producing critical thinkers and problem solvers (Caporarello, and Manzoni, 2020). Intrinsically, institutions of knowledge play a pivotal role in nurturing essential skills of thinking, which are gained gradually from the first year to the graduate year. These skills equip students with the ability to intrigue analytic reasoning and problem-solving skills that are essential in running business enterprises. Ideally, the most thriving organizations in the market today are hiring people with these skills. Caporarello, and Manzoni, (2020) ideates that entrepreneurs are on demand because of their intellectual and developed analytical skills. When these skills are appropriately instilled and directed to work, businesses are likely to find a competitive edge. Primarily, this implies that entrepreneurial and analytical skills can induce structural changes within struggling organizations. To explain, not everyone can become successful in business. However, it takes less significant people to initiate the drive to become entrepreneurs (Roohr, Liu, and Lio (2016).
Consequently, business schools fuel the individual and corporate drive to succeed in business through the creation of research-minded characters. Caporarello and Manzoni (2020) explain that the positioning of business schools in society is to teach students thinking skills. Besides, these institutions trigger the development of the analytical and cognitive abilities of students.
Business schools offer students the necessary practical experience, exposure, and market networks within and outside the common market. Withing the period of learning right from the first year, students get exposed to practical business skills. At fast, students are guided in a classroom setting where theoretical learning takes place. However, classroom alone can is not efficient in producing mindset-oriented leaders (Kaptein and Yip, 2011). As such, quality institutions of business learning tend to adopt the practical aspect which, in this view, is critical in shaping leadership. To achieve this, most business schools put their students in internship or attachment programs for at least a semester. The students are then closely supervised while on the program and assigned mentors from the corporate world. The mentorship expects to identify the professional gaps and the underlying leadership challenges affecting the students. The mentorship program targets mentors to have frequent meetings with students to ensure they acquire the necessary skills such as communications, interpersonal and business skills. Besides mentorship programmes, some schools invest in on-the-job pieces of training, which is mainly an alliance between the university and the desired industry. In many cases, these training targets research programs done in the industry but developed by professors and students. In essence, business schools are the cradles of practical business skills that expand the ability of business graduates to stand alone after college. The expectation is, once the program ends, the business student is either ready for the market or an entitled entrepreneur.
Whereas the practical skills remain in high demand, business schools thrive to offer interpersonal and conceptual skills. The current and future market demand leaders with the skills to handle rapid economic globalization. Globalization is the main fueling factor in the modern market from the perspective of the development of new business technologies. These technologies require competent people with mastery of strategic planning skills. Practically, business schools offer these training to students to ensure an effective transition of skills across generations of young and upcoming business leaders. While students pass through these training, they learn cross-cultural analysis whereby they can handle the diverse needs of the markets. Caporarello and Manzoni (2020) emphasize that conceptual skills induce students to be more inquisitive, develop emotional connections with partners, mentors and supervisors. These factors put together equip learners with a broader lens of managing organizational savvies and uncertainties.
Most importantly, ethical leadership skills is a proponent of leadership associated with business schools. Business schools tend to teach a robust moral conviction among students from various angles. The most common perspective involves the question of integrity, authenticity and absolute dedication of the student in all aspect of work. In most cases, the reward to strong ethical skills in business occurs in instances increment of customer loyalty, long-lasting relationships and business survival. On the other hand, students get exposed to understanding the visions and missions of the underlying businesses. According to the graduate management Admission Council, many graduate students enjoy the fruition of business schools ranging from leadership and beyond (“6 global schools shaping tomorrow’s business leaders,” 2017).
Case studies
Many students continue to benefit from outlandish organizational programs such as The Broad college of business MBA program provided in Michigan States University. The institutions prepare right-minded leaders in alignment with the demands of global leadership. After completion of the program, graduates are hired by top most companies such as Amazon, Apple, among others as corporate leaders. Jamie Glover, who is an MBA graduate from Carlson school, University of Minnesota, developed an innovative startup for women wear (“6 global schools shaping tomorrow’s business leaders,” 2017). Her development focus on active sportswear that is free from cultural and religious discrimination. The take away from Jamie Glover’s startup aligns from the excellent leadership and creative skills gained from the business school. She attributes the success of the Carlson Ventures Enterprises. Others graduate such as Danny Poolster have also grown from the startups and rising to the senior posts in consulting medical firms. Essentially, Carlson School, through the establishment of startup programs, graduate students get the opportunity to sharpen their leadership skills and start their businesses based on the gained experience. Likewise, the initiative for women in business hosted in Rotman School of Management contributes to the pool of student leadership excellence. The initiative targets women in a business career and offers tremendous support. There is a wide range of services that the action initializes insofar as a business is concerned. Key to the program is the aspect of blending student personal growth and transition support from the academic and practical principles. Other institutions such as Sauder School of business have established Global Immersion Experience that allows the students to work for local organizations (“6 global schools shaping tomorrow’s business leaders,” 2017). The initiative of this program is to provide invaluable experience. Therefore, as students grow in the industry, their minds are shaped through the grassroots experiences that ultimately trigger them to devise lasting solutions and opportunities. Kritikos, (2014) explain the same case scenario in Europe. According to them, most European schools strive to strengthen the mindset and skills of future leaders by offering corporate linkages and partnership. Primarily, through these linkages and organizations, European business schools develop a creative mechanism that links learners to corporate issues.
To sum up, business schools play a pivotal role key role in shaping the mindsets and skills of future leaders. First, Business schools equip students with entrepreneurial, conceptual and interpersonal and practical skills. These skills form the core components that influence the analytical and decision-making abilities among business graduates. While attending business schools, student’s mindsets are tailored towards the future through the curriculum and extra-curriculum component training. Training remains a crucial component in nurturing leadership among business students. Notably, through the various training, students get to become innovative, creative and entrepreneurs. Also, most business schools establish linkages with shareholders and partners. These linkages play a significant role in nurturing Corporate social responsibility based on the awareness created by business schools. Various case studies indicate that business schools contribute to the growth of innovators, market leaders and managers. Many Business graduates across Europe and the US have topped in entrepreneurial skills as a result of quality business education. Ethically, these future leaders have shown competencies in personality and emotional connections with the employers and stakeholders. All these ethical behaviours are trained and earned from business schools which in this view, promote the current proposition.