Principles for Responsible Management Education: An Axiological Approach

Abstract

In this article, we rely on the development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to show the relevance of a values-based approach to responsible management. To clarify the notion of values, we draw on Heinich’s axiological sociology, which presents values as principles of judgment and action. Building on this approach, we interviewed 35 management scholars to understand the values they attribute to responsible management. Our analysis led to the identification of seven actionable values that can be used to circumscribe responsible management. We also show how three interrelated levels of analysis—namely, individual (micro), organizational (meso), and societal (macro)—allowed us to further organize the interview data to produce rich content for the MOOC. Our contribution is twofold: first, our values-based approach helps overcome the axiological ambiguity of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), which invoke the importance of incorporating “the values of global social responsibility” (Principle 2), but fail to define and operationalize these values. Second, we provide a rationale and guidance for implementing values-based responsible management education in Business Schools.