Decision Line (v28n2), Dec/Jan 1997

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From the Editor

BARBARA B. FLYNN, Decision Line Editor, Babcock Graduate School of Management, Wake Forest University

One of the features which makes the Decision Sciences Institute unique among its peer organizations has always been its focus on excellence in teaching, in addition to excellence in research. The Institute has a long record of encouraging and rewarding teaching excellence through its annual Instructional Innovation Award Competition. Each year, members submit examples of new and exciting ways to teach the decision sciences, along with student reactions to the innovative approaches. Members of the Innovative Education Committee carefully review all applications and invite the very best to present their work in a competitive session during the Annual Meeting. The winner is recognized during the luncheon.

I attended my first Instructional Innovation Award Competition this year and it was an event to behold. The standing-room-only room was packed with members who were eager to learn from the presentations, as well as from discussions with each other. The presentations included live descriptions, videotaped comments from students, demonstrations and exhibits of specially developed student materials. Topics ranged from a decision support system for teaching the introductory operations management class to an exercise in building small vehicles from K-nex toys to teach inventory management concepts. One presentation featured an International Business class taught through focused study of a particular Asian country, combined with market research for a firm in that country. The final project was a trip to that country to present the results to its managers, as well as spend some time learning about the culture of that country.

In the next four issues of Decision Line, we will feature columns which provide detailed descriptions of each of the Instructional Innovation Award Competition finalists. We begin in this issue with an article on the winning presentation, "Sustainability Perspectives in Resources and Business: An Interdisciplinary Course for Business and Science Majors." This innovative class deals with the important and current topic of sustainability, which is perhaps more difficult to teach due to both a lack of teaching materials and the need for an understanding of science as well as business concepts.

Students master the concepts of sustainability through a class which is jointly taught by business and science faculty. The students are assigned to teams comprised of both business and science majors, who tackle the difficult problems associated with sustainability through interacting with specially written cases, articles and other materials. Business students come away from the class with a better understanding of the scientific underpinnings of sustainability decisions, while science majors learn how to assess the business implications of sustainability decisions. Not surprisingly, the class receives rave reviews from both students and faculty.

I hope that you will take the time to read this interesting column and join me in congratulating the winners: O. Homer Erekson, Orie L. Loucks, Raymond F. Gorman, Pam Johnson and Timothy C. Krehbiel, all of Miami University.

Sustainability Perspectives in Resources and Business: An Interdisciplinary Course for Business and Science Majors

by O. Homer Erekson, Department of Economics; Orie L. Loucks, Departments of Zoology and Botany; Raymond F. Gorman, Department of Finance; Pamela C. Johnson, Department of Management; Timothy C. Krehbiel, Department of Decision Sciences and MIS; Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

The 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (commonly referred to as The Brundtland Report) introduced the world to the concept of sustainable development. The commission defined sustainability as, "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (Willums, 1990). Today, sustainability, sustainable development, and other similar terms, are commonly used but do not have universally accepted definitions or connotations. We believe that sustainability envisages a system whereby economic growth and/or improvements in the quality of life occur in a unified system which is complementary with, rather than antagonistic to, natural capital. Sustainability is the attempt to persuade industry, political institutions and the general populace to adopt policies that will "close the loop" and reconcile manufacturing and use and disposal of goods with the need to maintain the earth's capital, as through waste management, minimization of chemical residues, recycling, adoption of benign technologies, and environmental conservation.

We believe that we are entering a new era; one in which profitability and environmental responsibility are not diametrically opposed goals, and sustainable initiatives make good business sense.

The traditional university structure that separates students and faculty from business and science is not well equipped to develop effective leaders in this new era. Science students graduate without a sufficient understanding of the business contexts in which environmental problems occur. Similarly, business students are too often ill prepared in the sciences to understand the technical side of many environmental issues. An even larger problem is that these two groups of students have not been trained to work together. In a world that requires cooperation and synthesis between business and science, the typical university structure has promoted an atmosphere of isolation and distrust between the two fields of study.

To overcome these problems, we have developed a course entitled Sustainability Perspectives in Resources and Business. The course is designed for seniors majoring in business or in the natural sciences. The three credit-hour course meets twice a week for 75 minutes and is team taught by at least one professor from the School of Business, and at least one professor from the School of Arts and Sciences. Due to the lack of appropriate books and cases for such a course, we have developed the majority of the materials currently used in the course. This includes a textbook containing eight chapters and eleven case studies, and an anthology of readings, both of which are currently in press.

The objective of the course is to bridge the disparities between business, economic and scientific views of resource use. This goal requires class participants to embrace the best scientific knowledge on efficient resource use, waste minimization, pollution prevention, economic valuation and accounting for natural resource use, the parameters of corporate planning, marketing and profitability, and the role and impact of government on policy making. The course addresses the need for interdisciplinary understanding of the pattern of declining quantities of critical resources, growing public awareness of environmental degradation, relevant ecosystems, social and economic institutions and policy, and the prospects for the business community to facilitate resolution of environmental concerns.

Faculty who have taught the course are from the departments of zoology, geography, geology, marketing, finance and economics. The textbook is coauthored by faculty from the departments of zoology, geology, decision sciences and MIS, economics, finance, management, and marketing. Students taking the course have come from a wide variety of majors from across the university. This synthesis of business and science professors, students and materials provide for a learning environment which truly encourages an understanding of, and appreciation for, divergent points of view. This leads to a well-informed, thoughtful, and creative discussion of complex issues unobtainable in a traditional business or science course.

We recently finished teaching the course for the sixth time. It was taught by Orie Loucks from the Departments of Zoology and Botany, and Ray Gorman from the Department of Finance. There were 20 students in the class, with the business students comprising a slight majority. Some of the students were immediately enthused by the unique dynamics in the course, while others were a bit bewildered at first, not quite knowing what to make of a class with such diverse students and teachers. Because of the diversity in the students, we found that the most effective classes were those during which the students had the opportunity to talk with and learn from each other.

At the end of the semester, the students formed teams to produce and present reports on various environmental policy issues. It was an excellent opportunity to view the business science synthesis that the course is intended to create. In one presentation a chemistry major was using molecular models to illustrate how mercury combines with other chemicals to create environmental hazards while a business major explained how to evaluate the costs and benefits of cleaning up these toxic wastes.

Each time that the course is offered it changes as a result of the feedback that we receive from the previous semester, as well as from the unique dynamic created by the particular combination of business and science faculty. We like to think that it started out as a good course and each time it gets a little better. The students' written comments on the course evaluation form indicate that they seem to agree. The students often describe their "new awareness" or "altered world view" when asked to discuss the benefits of taking the course. One student stated that the course, "challenged my philosophical approach to life.''

Reference

Willums, Jan-Olaf, The Greening of Enterprise: Business Leaders Speak Out. International Chamber of Commerce, 1990, page 1.

from Decision Line, March 1997, 28(2)