Lawlor-Morrison, Natasha, Kofinas, Alexander, Chow, Candice and Watton, Emma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2299-8812 (2025) Exploring the tensions in management education for a sustainable future. In: BAM MKE Teaching Practice Conference 2025: "Innovating Management Education for a Sustainable and Responsible Future", 5th June, 2025, The Shard, London.

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Abstract

The current business climate is commonly described with the acronym VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (Taskan et al., 2022). It is difficult to prepare students for such an unpredictable future. Students are taught frameworks such as the PESTLE or STEEPLE analyses, and this helps them to explore the current macro environment (Kelly, 2018). However, this framework does not lead to the greatest generation of novel ideas (Gordon et al., 2022). The PESTLE analysis doesn’t explicitly encourage learners to think potential intersections and interactions between these external forces in creating the future environment. Based on an activity conducted with academics and practitioners to explore potential futures in the context of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), we propose an innovative approach to teaching strategy for a sustainable future. Leveraging the STEEP-V framework (social, technological, economic, environmental, political and values) students select two of these variables, for example social and economic. Participants identify what the extremes of these two variables would look like within a certain context, in this case the impact of GenAI to sustainability. So, for example, the social scale may have increased human-interactions at one extreme, and decreased interactions at the other, the economic scale may have expensive at one end, and free at the other. By using this tension map with opposing extremes at each end, students can map out (via a four box grid) potential futures (Hobbs & Curtis, 2013) and then brainstorm responsible, ethical and sustainable responses to these (Vallance & Wright, 2010). This tension map has broad pedagogic applications, e.g., generating research questions, business strategies and applying theories. Students can think of implications of each scenario, how to prepare and/or what needs to happen to ensure one future over another. Students can reflect on how their choice of variable and extremes may act as a mirror showing what they think is important – building self-awareness. Critically, by exploring which STEEP-Vs are and are not represented, it is possible to identify ‘blind spots’ in strategic planning. This work emerges from an international collaboration between academics and practitioners who teach management education across all levels. We present this tool to explore acceptability, familiarity and to get feedback on potential uses and anticipated challenges.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	foresight, future planning, tension mapping, foresight planning, STEEP-V, PESTLE, GenAI, generative AI, sustainability
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management L Education > L Education (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Greenwich Business School Greenwich Business School > School of Business, Operations and Strategy
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2025 15:16
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/50654

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