The Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME): The First Decade – What has been achieved? The Next Decade – Responsible Management Education’s Challenge for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This special issue of the International Journal of Management Education looks at the evolving nature of the UN Global Compact’s initiative focused on business schools—the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) as it reaches the end of its first decade and as we enter the era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Created in 2007, PRME was launched at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, a gathering attended by more than 1,000 business, civil society, and government leaders. At that time, the underlying goal was to develop the capabilities of our students to be generators of sustainable value for a more inclusive global economy through our teaching, research, and campus practices. Then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, pointing to the potential of the PRME initiative, noted that, “The Principles for Responsible Management Education have the capacity to take the case for universal values and business into classrooms on every continent.” • As educators of the next as well as current generation of business leaders, business schools are in an unique position to influence the mindsets and actions of some of the largest and most powerful organisations on the planet. The underlying commitment to enhancing responsible management education can be characterized as a journey—and we are all at different stages along this journey. Many forward thinking business schools have already recognised their opportunities and responsbililties, assuming leadership roles within PRME as part of their commitment to responsible management education. Other business schools, while teaching, researching, and practicing responsible management, are relatively new to PRME—and still others are just getting started. As those of us who have been actively involved in this initiative can attest, the process is typically characterized by opportunities and openings as well as barriers and obstacles. Building on the passion and commitment of concerned individuals who typically initiate PRME on their campuses, the challenge is to institutionalise responsible management education’s promise in shaping the mindsets of the next generation of business professionals. • The publication of this special issue marks the 10th anniversary of PRME. As Jonas Haertle, Head of the PRME Secretariat, noted, it “is perfectly timed to bring together contributions in research from across the globe on the key challenges in Responsible Management Education [that will] inform and shape future research and practice.” The basic objective of this special issue is thus two-fold: (1) reflecting back on what has been achieved since PRME was launched; and (2) looking forward to PRME’s next decade, which is currently being shaped by the formal adoption of the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals—often referred to as Agenda 2030. Building on the Millennium Development Goals, which expired in 2015, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (and their associated 169 target areas) include an ambitious agenda focused on resolving a broad range of challenges, from eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, to facilitating good health and wellness across the planet and working toward gender equality and quality education for all, to pressing concerns dealing with water, energy, economy, infrastructure, consumption, climate, our ecosystems, and institutions for peace and sustainable development. • At the conclusion of the 2015 Global Forum for Responsible Management Education in New York, participants from PRME signatories reaffirmed support for PRME, making commitments to enhance the quality of the PRME initiative individually, institutionally, and collectively as a community. They also called for governments, business leaders, accrediting bodies, rankings providers, and UN system entities to support management educators in their key role in developing future leaders and helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In her closing statement at the Global Forum, Susana Malcorra, Chef de Cabinet, spoke on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying, “today, I am encouraged to see the progress you have made—individually, at your academic institutions, and as a community” and recognising that “as educators, researchers, and thought leaders, your role [in achieving the SDGs] is essential.” • Working towards achieving the SDGs provides a range of challenges for Responsible Management Education moving forward, not only in curriculum design and pedagogy and our research agenda, but also in building partnerships within and across our institutions and communities locally and globally as well as further developing our own institutional practices. The papers in this special issue capture many of these challenges. • The papers include a mix of theoretical contributions, new models and frameworks, case histories, and an array of studies—qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods—focused on teaching, learning, and practice in Responsible Management Education. The special issue also attempts to capture many of the spinoffs and developments that are associated with PRME—including the Giving Voice to Values initiative, 50 + 20 Project, Sustainability Literacy Test, and the “Gap Frame” among many others. While this array of activities is not exhaustive, it is intended to capture the passion and innovative spirit that is embedded within the PRME enterprise. An additional feature of the special issue is the inclusion of invited thought pieces and critiques, drawing on the insight and experience of people who have been actively involved with PRME in a variety of capacities, in addition to traditional, peer-reviewed journal articles that examine PRME along a number of different dimensions.