The “EDUCating for Positive Management” project was designed by the six members of the EDUC European University selected by Erasmus+ in 2019. They all share an interest in developing new learning materials to promote more responsible management approaches, including entrepreneurship. Each partner has key expertise related to the project topic: the University of Paris Nanterre with responsible strategies and business models, the University of Potsdam with entrepreneurship, information system and public information, the Masaryk University and the University of Cagliari with stakeholder management and governance, the University of Pécs with marketing approaches and the University of Rennes1 with ethical human management. In the context of international engagements on social, environmental and economic issues (UN Sustainable Development Goals, EU Agenda 2030, European Green Deal, “Accord de Paris”, …) and of the digital revolution, universities in management have a great role to play in the environmental and social transition by providing and teaching new economic tools that could help to face 21st century challenges. It could also be very consistent with needed new management solutions to face the post-COVID 19 crisis. The general objective of our project is to tackle the gap of existing management fundamentals and teaching by proposing alternative contents, new tools and pedagogical models. We aim to produce and experiment with innovative pedagogical methods, tested in interdisciplinary and intercultural environments with digital, blended and face-to-face approaches. A programme of four courses for the master’s degree programme will be produced: an online course about “Management for the Digital Age”, a Positive Business game, a blended learning course about “Innovation in Positive Management” and a Positive Manager study programme. Around 400 master degree students of the EDUC partners will experiment with these innovative management programmes to integrate this new way of managing business. As future business managers, they will be equipped with innovative and sustainable business models, which will increase their employability. After finishing their studies, they will start their careers with a mind-set of positive management priorities and realize their role in achieving a more sustainable world. All these new approaches will help all our management curricula to be more responsible. As a result, our professors will improve competencies and networks in positive business approaches and strengthen their focus on management as being essential to face social and environmental issues. We plan that the project will involve around 60 professors. The six universities involved in the project will build a closer relationship that can be broadened later to other flourishing fields to develop other projects. The idea of labelling EDUC courses as European modules will make the universities involved in the project more attractive for students. A possible issue of the project is a future development of the Erasmus Jean Monnet module to underline the importance of positive business as an important European political issue to help the preservation of the humans and the planet. This project could also identify “European expertise centres” which can help the dissemination of business good practises teaching through, for example, a European summer school. A joint master’s programme between each EDUC partner could also be developed. Therefore, the results of the project will be used and exploited within the scope of the EDUC alliance in the long term, of course, and far beyond if the approach arouses interest among other teachers, students, universities and companies. As this project wins wide publicity it will become a benchmark for other universities as the impact goes beyond the university boundaries. It also affects the economic, ecological, social, technological, environmental, political and ethical environments of the regions. Thanks to the project, companies may change their perspective towards management, considering it as being crucial to facing environmental, climate and social issues. The joint collaboration movement might change the mind-set of managers of multinational corporations and their global consumers in a way that positive business operations and management are above the traditional management perspectives. Policy makers will recognise the opportunities and the importance of positive management perspective at both the European and International levels. In the long term, they might implement changes in the regulations as well and be able to enact better opportunities for developing business.
1/ General objectives: EDUC+M was an occasion to develop and reinforce international relations with other universities and to foster and ameliorate the scope and quality of the EDUC alliance. EDUC+M aimed to tackle the gap of existing management fundamentals, by producing and experimenting with innovative pedagogical methods, tested in interdisciplinary and intercultural environments with digital, blended and face-to-face approaches. This project intended to partially open the developed teaching materials and tries to produce Open Educational Resources (OER), which can be further used by other universities and institutions from different fields in the future. 2/ Sub-objectives - Digital courses which aimed to tackle the gap of existing management fundamentals and teaching by proposing alternative contents. - Positive business game, which aimed to develop gamification of the learning process with an e-learning application. - Blended learning courses, to develop a comprehensive view of the concept of positivity with mixed media learning. -Positive Manager study programme, to reinforce skills in management by using the concept of an “escape game”.
The current social and environmental context leads to engagement at an international level such as the Paris Agreement in 2015 (COP21), the Agenda 2030 of the European Union and the new European green Deal. 1/ NEED TO ADDRESS ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC TRANSITION ISSUES The EDUC+M partners have a great role to play in the environmental and economic transition. They need to contribute to teaching business models that are frequently not consistent with consuming fewer resources. The project aimed to answer the need of proposing alternative pedagogical models concern with the social environment and sustainable development but also with human sustainability, especially in terms of the psychic equilibrium of future managers. 2/ NEED TO ADDRESS DIGITAL CHALLENGE The context of a digital revolution has accelerated after the Coronavirus crisis and has led to a new universe empowering people through better information and more transparency. There was a need to provide new tools that could help to face environmental and social challenges. 3/ NEED TO BUILD INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION The EDUC+M project strengthened the dynamics and outreach of the EDUC alliance by including the same partners and network.