Social justice and a distance education business education curriculum: unlikely bedfellows?

Business schools have been accused of being the ‘academy of the apocalypse’, serving and perpetuating greed and ‘rapacious capitalism’. There are increasing calls for business schools to redefine the purpose of business and to empower students to serve broader society whilst being profitable. Social justice is not considered to be high on the agenda of the curricula of many business schools, on the contrary. While the debate rages on regarding the complicity of business schools in pursuing a capitalist path, an important question is whether students and (potential) employers care about social justice as an essential element of the MBA curriculum? This paper shares the findings of a study undertaken to establish the expectations of various stakeholders including students, faculty and employers on the curriculum and pedagogy of the MBA curriculum in an open and distance learning institution. The study indicates that social justice issues are very low on the ‘wish list’ of students and employers, while representatives from the faculty had differing views regarding the value of including social justice issues in the MBA curriculum.