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Professors as value agents: a typology of management academics’ value structures

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Abstract

The paper addresses the paradox of value-free science and the need for value-oriented management education. Taking the values discussion in the German management community as an example, we identify two stereotypes in management literature: an allegedly value-free scientist who limits responsibility to economic aims and a value-laden academic who accepts responsibilities for societal aims and who aims to influence students’ values. These stereotypes are then challenged against empirical data from a global survey of management academics. While the stereotypes are shown to be of only limited relevance, five clusters of management academics are identified based on their economic values, their social values and their intention to influence their students’ values. As determinants of cluster attribution, cultural environment and discipline prove the most influential on value differences in the global sample. Gender, in contrast, has no significant impact. Finally, implications for higher education institutions are derived that may help to cope with values more consciously and more professionally.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to Ursula Hansen, Matthias Bode and Ulf Schrader for their invaluable joint efforts on the research project. The author also would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Moreover, the author gratefully acknowledges the support by the IFSAM and its member associations in supporting the data collection and from the IFSAM council members, in particular Denise M. Rousseau, Nelia Sue Bruning, and Pieter Terlouw, who provided insightful feedback at various stages of the project. Moreover, I would like to acknowledge the financial support provided to the project by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Germany.

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  1. Research Group for Management and Business-to-Business-Marketing, RWTH Aachen University, 52056, Aachen, Germany

    Dirk C. Moosmayer

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  1. Dirk C. Moosmayer
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Correspondence to Dirk C. Moosmayer.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 4 Measured items, means, standard deviations, factor analysis results
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Appendix 2

Table 5 Construct correlations
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Moosmayer, D.C. Professors as value agents: a typology of management academics’ value structures. High Educ 62, 49–67 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9364-0

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