Key Competencies in Sustainability: Assessment of Selected Academic Programmes in Management

This paper presents the review of the extent to which sustainability-related courses are included in business and management education curricula at selected Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) in the Czech Republic. It demonstrates how HEIs incorporate sustainability issues into preparation of future managers. Design/methodology/approach: The paper research design is qualitative analysis of business and management curricula. It is based on the investigation of courses that names are directly connected to sustainability (Palma et al., 2011). Courses mentioned in the study plan are reviewed. This paper considers curricula of public universities in the Czech Republic that offer accredited programmes in business and management. It explores curricula of academic programmes in business and management at HEIs as a preliminary reference for the research. The results provide insights for further quantitative and qualitative research. Findings: Of 14 public universities that offer "Business Economics and Management" specialization of "Economics and Management" programmes, 6 universities (around 43%) include sustainability-related courses into their curricula. Most of these courses (56%) are elective, compulsory optional courses take 38% and the rest 6% is compulsory. These courses include sustainability management, corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainable development, environmental impact assessment (basics) and some other subjects.Research/practical implications: The paper provides evidence for representation of sustainability-related courses in business and management programmes. However, the present study has lack of confirmation if students graduate with sustainability capabilities. The key competencies in sustainability (KCS) framework (Wiek et al., 2011) supports implementation of sustainability-related courses into academic programmes that prepare future managers. The further research will explore competencies that sustainability-related courses form.Originality/value: This research demonstrates the HEI attention to sustainability courses in programmes that focused on economic pillar of sustainable development. The paper contributes to HEI programmes development by suggesting the possible way of including sustainability competencies into non-sustainability oriented programmes.