Profiles in executive education: George Odiorne

This is the fourth in a series on executive education “gurus” of the 20th century. The first three installments, profiled by Harper W. Moulton, featured Harry Levinson (Jan–Feb '95), Ken Andrews (Sept–Oct '95), and Philip Sadler (Jul–Aug '96).     

The compleat executive: The state of international business education and some future directions

This essay examines the current state of International Business education worldwide and comments on evolving trends. The degree of internationalization of curricula at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels is examined. In a world facing the contrary pulls of global consumerism versus the search for a local identity, what exactly should the manager learn about International Business in order to complete his or her education? The essay also examines alternative methods for organizing International Business studies at universities, as well as in the growing number of off-site and certificate programs. It also ventures opinions on the value of an International Business major in the job market for graduating students, on whether the International Business label confers an advantage on faculty, or whether it confers a stigma, and on academic orthodoxies which have slowed the internationalization of business curricula.     

Responsible Leadership as Virtuous Leadership

Responsible leadership is rare. It is not that most leaders are irresponsible, but responsibility in leadership is frequently defined so that an important connotation of responsible leadership is ignored. This article equates responsible leadership with virtuousness. Using this connotation implies that responsible leadership is based on three assumptions—eudaemonism, inherent value, and amplification. Secondarily, this connotation produces two important outcomes—a fixed point for coping with change, and benefits for constituencies who may never be affected otherwise. The meaning and advantages of responsible leadership as virtuous leadership are discussed.     

Sustainable consumer empowerment through critical consumer education: a typology of consumer education approaches

It has always been assumed that consumer education serves the purpose of empowering people in their consumer role. This paper reviews the conventional understanding of consumer education and empowerment and then suggests an alternate approach. The argument is made for consumer education that helps people find their inner power and social potential to challenge the status quo, to change the system from a holistic perspective. Consumer empowerment of this type is totally self‐sustaining. Once learned, it cannot be unlearned. This form of sustainable consumer empowerment is the preferred direction for the future of consumer education.     

Leadership training and organizational learning climate: Measuring influences based on a field experiment in education

Research considering the effects of leadership training and development is underresearched. However, leadership behaviour can generate greater levels of performance and satisfaction. In this study, the effect of a group reflective learning programme for school leaders is examined. The study questions whether leadership development, using a group reflective learning programme that focuses on coaching skills, can influence teacher perceptions of the organizational learning climate. Gaining a deeper insight in factors influencing organizational learning climate is important because organizational learning climate is associated with job motivation, job satisfaction, positive working conditions and the optimizing of training outcomes. Hence, a positive organizational learning climate can contribute to organizational performance, in the case of primary education delivering quality education to pupils. Based on a sample of 289 teachers, it turned out that school leaders’ participation in the group reflective learning programme resulted in a significant increase of teachers’ perceptions of the organizational learning climate. The results are inspiring for scholars, policy makers and practitioners.     

战略性领导

卓越的领导才能包括诸多因素,其中之一就是能够识别真正的市场机会并通过组织的调整抓住机遇。这一战略才能使得商业活动不断产生并相互关联。最近,我在蒙大拿州待了几个星期,在那里我继续对飞钓进行探索,并试图弄明白人们为何对其如此狂热。可以毫不夸张地说,一个优秀的飞钓者就是一个战略家。他们对这项运动的热爱与我对获取战略机遇的热情难分高下,下面就是我从这些垂钓大师身上学到的。1.这些人是狂热的垂钓者:飞钓者们会整日整夜地钓鱼。他们通过因特网获取河流中的信息。从河流的流量(流速)到水温,他们努力获取所有的细节,一杯啤酒过后他们会侃侃而谈水温下降了10度的各种原因。他们每个人不只有一根钓竿,而是有很多根。他们不仅有一些鱼饵,而是有数百个。     

Leadership for Sustainability: An Evolution of Leadership Ability

This article examines the existing confusion over the multiple leadership styles related to successful implementation of corporate social responsibility/sustainability in organisations. The researchers find that the problem is the complex nature of sustainability itself. We posit that organisations are complex adaptive systems operating within wider complex adaptive systems, making the problem of interpreting just in what way an organisation is to be sustainable, an extraordinary demand on leaders. Hence, leadership for sustainability requires leaders of extraordinary abilities. These are leaders who can read and predict through complexity, think through complex problems, engage groups in dynamic adaptive organisational change and have the emotional intelligence to adaptively engage with their own emotions associated with complex problem solving. Leaders and leadership is a key interpreter of how sustainability of the organisation ‘links’ to the wider systems in which the organisation sits, and executing that link well requires unusual leaders and leadership systems.