Management as a Calling
Leading Business, Serving Society
Book
Paperback/Softback
176 pages
978-1-5036-1480-2 (ISBN)
Description
Business leaders have tremendous power to influence our society, how it operates, whether it is fair, and the extent to which it impacts the environment. And yet, we do not recognize or call out the responsibility that comes with that power. This book is meant to challenge future business leaders to think differently about their career, its purpose, and its value as a calling or vocation, one that is in service to society. Its message is for current and prospective business students, business leaders thinking anew about the role of business in society, and the business educators that train all these people.
We face great challenges as a society today, from environmental problems like climate change and habitat destruction, to social problems like income inequality, unemployment, lack of a living wage, and poor access to affordable health care and education. Solutions to these challenges must come from the market (as comprised of corporations, the government, non-governmental organizations, as well as the many stakeholders in market transaction, such as the consumers, suppliers, buyers, insurance companies, and banks), the most powerful institution on earth, and from business, which is the most powerful entity within it. Though government is an important and vital arbiter of the market, business is the force that transcends national boundaries, possessing resources that exceed those of many nations. Business is responsible for producing the buildings that we live and work in, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the forms of mobility we employ, and the energy that propels us. This does not mean that only business can generate solutions or that there is no role for government, but with its unmatched powers of ideation, production, and distribution, business is positioned to bring the change we need at the scale we need it. Without business, the solutions will remain elusive. Indeed, if there are no solutions coming from the market, there will be no solutions. And without visionary and service-oriented leaders, business will never even try to find them.
We face great challenges as a society today, from environmental problems like climate change and habitat destruction, to social problems like income inequality, unemployment, lack of a living wage, and poor access to affordable health care and education. Solutions to these challenges must come from the market (as comprised of corporations, the government, non-governmental organizations, as well as the many stakeholders in market transaction, such as the consumers, suppliers, buyers, insurance companies, and banks), the most powerful institution on earth, and from business, which is the most powerful entity within it. Though government is an important and vital arbiter of the market, business is the force that transcends national boundaries, possessing resources that exceed those of many nations. Business is responsible for producing the buildings that we live and work in, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the forms of mobility we employ, and the energy that propels us. This does not mean that only business can generate solutions or that there is no role for government, but with its unmatched powers of ideation, production, and distribution, business is positioned to bring the change we need at the scale we need it. Without business, the solutions will remain elusive. Indeed, if there are no solutions coming from the market, there will be no solutions. And without visionary and service-oriented leaders, business will never even try to find them.
Reviews / Votes
"As the last proponents of shareholder primacy lay down their banners, Hoffman points us to the leverage point of positive change - the mindset of current and future business managers, especially those who graduate into an uncertain future. A just-in-time read from a teacher-scholar-thinker on the frontlines of business classrooms and boardrooms." -- Judy Samuelson * Aspen Business & Society Program and author, <i>The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World</i> (2021) * "The world is deeply interconnected, and we need to act now to make sure it emerges from our current challenges to a better place. Hoffman offers us a framework for exactly that: from understanding how different stakeholders come together to drive sustainable change, to how we equip our future leaders to ensure a safer tomorrow." -- Ajay Banga, CEO * Mastercard * "Hoffman's book is for those who understand that the responsibility of business goes well beyond the shareholder and are committed to turning it into a force for good. Indeed, it's by treating business as a calling in service to society that you will not only create a more successful business but a purposeful life as well." -- Paul Polman, Co-founder and Chair, IMAGINE, CEO, Unilever * 2009-2018 * "This powerfully written book is a passionate call for business leaders-and the business schools that teach them-to play a central role in healing the world. Hoffman argues for profound changes in how we teach, highlighting both the need to understand the scientific, social and economic dynamics that are shaping our response to climate change and the importance of embracing management as a calling in line with our deepest moral commitments." -- Rebecca Henderson * Professor, Harvard University, and author, <i>Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire</i> *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Publishing group
Stanford University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-5036-1480-2 (9781503614802)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2021
Stanford Business Books,US
€52.99
Available for download
Person
Andrew J. Hoffman is the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He is the author and editor of 16 books, including How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate (Stanford, 2015). Among his list of honors, he has been awarded The Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business (2020) and 2020 ONE Teaching Award..
Content
Contents and Abstracts0Management as a Calling chapter abstractThe prevailing business curriculum and its underlying philosophy need a profound overhaul. Business students, practitioners, and professors must recognize the vast power that business leaders possess to shape and guide our society, and learn the responsibility to wield that power carefully. Students should be taught to look deep inside themselves to consider management as a calling-one that moves away from the simple pursuit of a career for private personal gain and toward a vocation that is based on a higher and more internally derived set of values about leading commerce and serving society.
1Shifting the Role of Business chapter abstractThis section is about the need for systemic solutions within the market and the reexamination of the purpose of the corporation in creating them. It centers on two main issues. First, the natural environment is undergoing unprecedented and rapid changes in response to human activity, and it is the market that is creating them. Second, our society is growing more economically unequal, and it is again the market that is making it this way. Yet business students are offered very little education on the mechanisms through which business activities affect the natural and social environments. Instead, they must be provided with some degree of natural and social scientific literacy to responsibly manage their companies. The business school curriculum must be broadened to include knowledge necessary to assume the responsibilities that come with the power that business leaders possess.
2Rebuilding the Role of Government chapter abstractOne area of power that rises above all others is the extent to which the corporate sector influences government policy. It is surprising to me how few business schools offer courses on government lobbying, much less collaborative and constructive lobbying. Indeed, common perceptions are that government has no place in the market, that regulation is an unwarranted intrusion in the market, and that all lobbying is corrupt. These views are naive and destructive. Government is the domain in which the rules of the market are set and enforced, and lobbying is basic to democratic politics, as governments seek guidance on how to set the rules of the market and usher reforms as needed. Companies with a mindset toward serving society can participate constructively in policy formation, seeking policies that help to make society and the economy strong and fair in the aggregate, not just for the select and affluent few.
3Communicating Change chapter abstractFuture business leaders must develop sound skills as change agents, understanding both change within the organization and changes outside that will drive it. One way to drive change is by dealing with sustainability challenges as mainstream business issues and fitting them into the market as it exists. A second way is to push people and institutions out of their comfort zones and create transformational change at the systemic level. Blending the incremental and the transformative, students of business management must be prepared to challenge the status quo and make people uncomfortable, while at the same time knowing when to be polite and fit our social and environmental challenges within the mainstream of the status quo. They're going to have to do both and know when each is warranted. That requires a knowledge of how social movements both drive and can be driven by corporations.
4Being Authentic chapter abstractThe idea of a vocation or calling poses a challenge for us as both change agents and human beings. How can we push for systemic change while recognizing that we are also part of that system that needs change? How do we push others to recognize the need for systemic changes in the market without also recognizing the need for systemic changes in our own lives? We need to know how to address the burdens of dissonance, hypocrisy, and guilt in ourselves. We need to know how to strike the right balance of living our values without pretending we are not similarly part of the problem. In the end, this is a challenge of a vocation-to blend our personal and professional lives. This requires a kind of clear-headed moral thinking that today's business schools should be teaching.
5Envisioning Your Career in Management as a Calling chapter abstractI want to personally challenge every business student, every business executive, and every business school professor to think about the system in which students are beginning their careers and to push back when it is steering them away from their calling. Pushing back means questioning the world students are inheriting and taking ownership to make it better for others-the people who will live with the decisions they make and the next generation of business leaders who will inherit the world that is left to them. To do that, students have to think now about the legacy they want to leave and begin to make it. I want to encourage business students to make wise and far-reaching choices today, to strive for greatness, and to measure that greatness by how others benefit from what they do. Think to serve in business, not just to accumulate.
1Shifting the Role of Business chapter abstractThis section is about the need for systemic solutions within the market and the reexamination of the purpose of the corporation in creating them. It centers on two main issues. First, the natural environment is undergoing unprecedented and rapid changes in response to human activity, and it is the market that is creating them. Second, our society is growing more economically unequal, and it is again the market that is making it this way. Yet business students are offered very little education on the mechanisms through which business activities affect the natural and social environments. Instead, they must be provided with some degree of natural and social scientific literacy to responsibly manage their companies. The business school curriculum must be broadened to include knowledge necessary to assume the responsibilities that come with the power that business leaders possess.
2Rebuilding the Role of Government chapter abstractOne area of power that rises above all others is the extent to which the corporate sector influences government policy. It is surprising to me how few business schools offer courses on government lobbying, much less collaborative and constructive lobbying. Indeed, common perceptions are that government has no place in the market, that regulation is an unwarranted intrusion in the market, and that all lobbying is corrupt. These views are naive and destructive. Government is the domain in which the rules of the market are set and enforced, and lobbying is basic to democratic politics, as governments seek guidance on how to set the rules of the market and usher reforms as needed. Companies with a mindset toward serving society can participate constructively in policy formation, seeking policies that help to make society and the economy strong and fair in the aggregate, not just for the select and affluent few.
3Communicating Change chapter abstractFuture business leaders must develop sound skills as change agents, understanding both change within the organization and changes outside that will drive it. One way to drive change is by dealing with sustainability challenges as mainstream business issues and fitting them into the market as it exists. A second way is to push people and institutions out of their comfort zones and create transformational change at the systemic level. Blending the incremental and the transformative, students of business management must be prepared to challenge the status quo and make people uncomfortable, while at the same time knowing when to be polite and fit our social and environmental challenges within the mainstream of the status quo. They're going to have to do both and know when each is warranted. That requires a knowledge of how social movements both drive and can be driven by corporations.
4Being Authentic chapter abstractThe idea of a vocation or calling poses a challenge for us as both change agents and human beings. How can we push for systemic change while recognizing that we are also part of that system that needs change? How do we push others to recognize the need for systemic changes in the market without also recognizing the need for systemic changes in our own lives? We need to know how to address the burdens of dissonance, hypocrisy, and guilt in ourselves. We need to know how to strike the right balance of living our values without pretending we are not similarly part of the problem. In the end, this is a challenge of a vocation-to blend our personal and professional lives. This requires a kind of clear-headed moral thinking that today's business schools should be teaching.
5Envisioning Your Career in Management as a Calling chapter abstractI want to personally challenge every business student, every business executive, and every business school professor to think about the system in which students are beginning their careers and to push back when it is steering them away from their calling. Pushing back means questioning the world students are inheriting and taking ownership to make it better for others-the people who will live with the decisions they make and the next generation of business leaders who will inherit the world that is left to them. To do that, students have to think now about the legacy they want to leave and begin to make it. I want to encourage business students to make wise and far-reaching choices today, to strive for greatness, and to measure that greatness by how others benefit from what they do. Think to serve in business, not just to accumulate.