Concluding Remarks from the 2009 Theme Program Chair
Andrew Hoffman
2009 All-Academy Program Committee Chair

It was indeed a pleasure to serve as the All-Academy Theme Program Chair for Green Management Matters for this year’s Academy meetings in Chicago.  To read about the full program, see “Green Management Mattered in Chicago,” by Susan E. Jackson, the 2009 AOM Program Chair.

I feel great satisfaction in seeing that the topic I’ve been working on for nearly 20 years has finally arrived! But, while such high level attention is gratifying, this is only the beginning.  Environmental issues are a present and ongoing topic requiring the attention of the Academy, both as theoretically and empirically interesting areas of research, and also as socially and politically important problems for which society needs solutions. 

Judging by the submissions, it would appear that others agree. I received 53 submissions with a diversity of topics, disciplines and participation.   The 34 sessions that made up the final agenda covered topics like climate change, renewable energy, industrial ecology, systems analysis, research, rigor & relevance and even some sessions on the financial crisis.  The disciplines ranged from psychology, sociology, strategy, systems dynamics and more.  And finally, the sessions included both academics and practitioners. 

All of this comes together to offer a jolt of energy to the Academy that comes at the right time.  Climate change poses a real and imminent threat to the global society in multiple ways (increased storm severity, droughts, disease migration, species extinction, etc.).  At the same time, management today faces a real and imminent crisis of confidence around the world.  And further still, debate is growing as to the role of management education in contributing to these dual problems (i.e. Ghoushal, 2005; Jacobs, 2009). In short, while the activities of business alter our global climate in negative ways, the confidence that people have in business to do what’s right for society is severely strained and management education is beginning to feel the brunt of its role in this pending calamity. 

But lying within these multiple challenges exists the opportunity for business education to step up and offer a solution.  Addressing environmental issues (and sustainability more broadly) in our research, teaching and outreach (to both scholars and practitioners) holds the promise to restore our field, craft and profession – as well as the profession we serve -- towards addressing the pressing needs of our day.  But it will take some real leadership in terms of our own careers as well as the institutions by which those careers are judged. All too often the rules of academia direct us away from this very pursuit (i.e. Bennis & O’Toole, 2005; The Economist, 2007). Consider the following four questions that, for many, should present a strange irony.  

1.    How many of us believe that climate change is real? 
2.    How many of us believe that the threat of climate change is urgent and potentially devastating?
3.    How many of us devote the bulk of our research attention to publishing in academic journals?
4.    Finally, how many believe that these academic journal articles will help address the urgent and potentially devastating implications of climate change?

My guess would be that questions 1, 2 and 3 would be answered with a very high percentage in the affirmative.  But question 4 would be answered with a very high percentage in the negative.  This disconnect should be cause for concern. Many of us were motivated to become academics by our desire to impact the world beyond the ivory tower.  And even if that were not our original intent, many of us are coming to recognize that to remain vital and salient we must engage the critical business concerns of our day.  Certainly the degradation of the environment is one of those issues -- others may include global poverty, global health, basic education (Kanter, Khurana and Nohria, 2005), new technologies, the globalization of trade, demographic trends, the growing inequality between rich and poor, and even questions of whether the investor capitalism model itself may be unsustainable, if not actually obsolete (Khurana, 2007).

The focus on “Green Management” in this year’s Academy of Management is an acknowledgement that we are paying attention to such issues as a community.  But, as I said, it is just the beginning.  There is much work still to be done in research, teaching and outreach.  And, critically, we must also begin to consider how to change our own behavior to better model what our research is directing us to do.  We must green our own backyard. To read more about that point, be sure to see “Green Management Matters for AOM Operations,” by Gordon Rands and Mark Starik, who offered an All Academy session on this important question.

Bennis, W. and J. O’Toole (2005) “How business schools lost their way,” Harvard Business Review, 83(5) 96-124.

Ghoushal, S. (2005) “Bad management theories are destroying good management practices" Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4(1): 75-91.

Jacobs, M. (2009) “How business schools have failed business,” Wall Street Journal, April 24: A13.

Kanter, R. M., R. Khurana and N. Nohria (2005) Moving Higher Education to its next Stage: A new Set of Societal Challenges, a New Stage of Life and a Call to Action for Universities, working paper (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School).

Khurana, R. (2007) From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).

The Economist (2007) “Practically irrelevant? What is the point of research carried out in business schools?” The Economist, August 28.