Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to explore the ways in which business schools and business school education have been transformed (or not) in South Africa since Apartheid and to posit ideas about the kinds of pedagogical, structural, and ideological changes that could accelerate transformation. The chapter begins with a summary of the current South African context and the associated challenges for business schools. This is followed by an overview of the key features and prevailing philosophical assumptions of business school education during the Apartheid years. The second part of the chapter evaluates the extent to which business school curricula, ideology, content, and pedagogy have been redesigned in the post-Apartheid era in response to political and social transformation. This evaluation includes discussion of the impact of Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) on business education and whether commitment to these principles is sufficient to encompass the scale of educational transformation needed in South Africa. The third part of the chapter considers what changes might look like in practice and suggests key elements of a transformational business education in the South African context.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnold, M. (2017). Higher education in management: The case of South Africa. In S. Dameron & T. Durand (Eds.), The future of management education: Volume 1: Challenges facing business schools around the world. Springer.
Bank, A. (2015). Fathering Volkekunde: Race and culture in the ethnological writings of Werner Eiselen, Stellenbosch University, 1926–1936. Anthropology Southern Africa, 38(3–4), 163–179.
Bezuidenhout, A. (2005). Post-colonial workplace regimes in the engineering industry in South Africa. In E. Webster & K. von Holdt (Eds.), Beyond the Apartheid workplace: Studies in transition (pp. 73–96). Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Blasco, M. (2012). Aligning the hidden curriculum of management education with PRME: An inquiry-based framework. Journal of Management Education, 36(3), 364–368.
Bond, P. (2017). South Africa: Elite schism allows consensus to emerge. Green Left Weekly, 1156, p. 20.
Bonnin, D., & Ruggunan, S. (2016). Professions and professionalism in emerging economies. In M. Dent, I. Bourgeault, J. Denis, & E. Kuhlmann (Eds.), The Routledge companion to the professions and professionalism (pp. 251–264). London: Routledge.
Butler, A. (2017). Contemporary South Africa. New York: Springer.
Cave, A. (2017). Deal that undid Bell Pottinger: Inside story of the South Africa scandal. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/sep/05/bell-pottingersouth-africa-pr-firm
CHE (Council on Higher Education). (2004, October). The state of the provision of the MBA in South Africa. In Higher Education Monitor. Pretoria: The Council on Higher Education.
Cloete, N. (2014). The South African higher education system: Performance and policy. Studies in Higher Education, 39(8), 1355–1368.
Dubow, S. (2006). A commonwealth of knowledge: Science, sensibility, and White South Africa 1820–2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ehrensal, K. (2001). Training capitalism’s foot soldiers. In E. Margolis (Ed.), The hidden curriculum in higher education (pp. 97–113). New York, NY: Routledge.
Ehrensal, K. (2016). Making managers: Towards an understanding of how textbooks, lectures and management case studies interact to inculcate linguistic and managerial habitus. Tamara Journal of Critical Organisational Inquiry, 14(2), 65–73.
Goldman, G. (2016). On the possibility of fostering critical management studies in South Africa. Acta Commercii, 16(2), 3–30.
Goldman, G. A., Callaghan, C. W., Lee, G. J., Moraka, N. V., Nienaber, H., Ruggunan, S., et al. (2016). Critical management studies in the South African context. AOSIS.
Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria. (2016). UN principles of responsible management education report. Sharing information on progress (SIP).
Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. (2015). Report on Progress PRME 2015.
Jammulamadaka, N. (2017). A postcolonial critique of Indian’s management education scene. In Management education in India (pp. 23–42). Singapore: Springer.
Krige, K., & Silber, G. (2016). The disruptors: Social entrepreneurs reinventing business and society. Bookstorm Pty Limited.
Mills, C. W. (2000). The sociological imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ndevu, Z., & Muller, K. (2017). A conceptual framework for improving service delivery at local government in South Africa. African Journal of Public Affairs, 9(7), 13–24.
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Business School. (2016). UN principles for responsibility management education, sharing information on progress report.
Nkomo, S. (2015). Challenges for management and business education in a ‘developmental’ state: The case of South Africa. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(2), 242–258.
Prinsloo, L. (2017). U.S. authorities probe Germany’s SAP as Gupta scandal escalates. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-26/sap-finds-indications-of-misconduct-in-s-africa-on-gupta-links-j9887hnz
Rhodes Business School. (2016). Principles for responsible management education; Sharing information on progress report.
Ruggunan, S. (2016). Decolonising management studies: A love story. Acta Commercii, 16(2), 103–138.
Ruggunan, S., & Sooryamoorthy, R. (2016). Human resource management research in South Africa: A bibliometric study of authors and their collaboration patterns. Journal of Contemporary Management, 13(1), 1394–1427.
Sharp, J. (1981). The roots and development of Volkekunde in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, 8(1), 16–36.
Sisk, T. (2017). Democratization in South Africa: The elusive social contract. Princeton University Press.
Terreblanche, S. (2002). A history of inequality in South Africa, 1652–2002. University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
University of Kwazulu-Natal. (2017) Sharing information on progress report.
University of Stellenbosch Business School. (2016). Sharing information on progress (SIP) on the implementation of principles of responsible management.
Webster, E., & Adler, G. (1999). Toward a class compromise in South Africa’s “double transition”: Bargained liberalization and the consolidation of democracy. Politics & Society, 27(3), 347–385.
Webster, E., & Von Holdt, K. (Eds.). (2005). Beyond the apartheid workplace: Studies in transition. University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Weybrecht, G. (2017). The future MBA: 100 ideas for making sustainability the business of business education. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Wilkinson, A., Pettifor, A., Rosenberg, M., Halpern, C. T., Thirumurthy, H., Collinson, M. A., et al. (2016). The future MBA: 100 ideas for making sustainability the business of business education. Greenleaf: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ruggunan, S., Spiller, D. (2018). The Transformation of Business Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In: Christopher, E. (eds) Meeting Expectations in Management Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76412-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76412-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76411-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76412-2
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)