In a world where AI can write strategy memos in seconds, employees can walk out over ethics and brands are cancelled in real time, business education can’t afford to stand still.
University business school leaders are also starting to recognise that many of the traditional pillars of teaching and learning – spreadsheets, strategy models and neat case studies – are starting to lose their shine as effective teaching and learning tools.
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To prepare students for a world being shaped by ambiguity, power, disruption and the unintended consequences of technology, we need to turn to less conventional thinking.
This is where the liberal arts and courageous business school leadership can come into play.
Looking beyond a case study approach
Some of the most forward-looking business school academics are now taking inspiration from a mix of unexpected places and subject areas, such as sociology, philosophy and education theory.
This is not simply an exercise in replacing traditional finance, operations or marketing models, but a process of enriching learning through a fresh approach.
It also involves asking harder questions regarding how a business school functions. For example, what does it mean to lead ethically in a post-MeToo world? How should managers prepare for decisions that no algorithm can optimise? And how do we build organisations to both survive disruption, and understand it?
To arrive at this point, educators would do well to draw on the work of six radical thinkers, whose work is helping students – and their professors – take a new look at business mechanisms:
Six thinkers changing business teaching
1. Jacques Ellul: the autonomy of technology
Technology shapes society, often in ways we don’t fully grasp. Ellul warns that technological change often happens outside our control and business schools must stop treating AI, automation or surveillance tools as neutral advances. His ideas encourage students to ask: “Just because we can, should we?”
2. Herbert Simon: decision-making with limits
Forget myths of the all-knowing CEO. Simon’s concept of “bounded rationality” shows us that leaders make decisions facing time pressures, with limited information and often under stress. It’s a reality check for many MBA students who expect utopian perfection at work, and offers a way to help us explore real-world human judgement.
3. Michel Foucault: power, truth and the business curriculum
Foucault’s big question is “who gets to decide what’s true?” This is surprisingly relevant in business schools. From ESG metrics through to leadership models, many accepted “truths” reflect dominant power structures. Teaching this helps students challenge case study bias and rethink what value creation really means.
4. Karl Weick: sense-making in chaos
Organisations don’t just respond to the world, they interpret it. Weick’s idea of sense-making shows how shared meaning – or the lack of it – can make or break teams, especially in fast-moving and ambiguous situations, such as remote work or crisis response.
5. Clayton Christensen: misunderstood disruption
Christensen’s disruption theory is often used to explain how start-ups topple corporate giants. But his deeper point is more subtle: successful firms often fail because they’re trapped by their own logic. Teaching this helps students see past surface-level innovation and focus on the opportunities of systemic change.
6. Paulo Freire: teaching as liberation
Freire believed that education should empower learners to question the world, not just accept it. That message resonates with Gen Z, who largely expect interactive, purpose-driven learning. Freire’s teaching also complements peer learning, corporate activism and leadership rooted in critical reflection.
A new role for business school leadership
This isn’t just a curriculum tweak, it’s a cultural shift that requires bold leadership.
Deans and programme directors need to lead the charge in rethinking what business education is for. This includes pushing back on outdated rankings, refreshing faculty mindsets and valuing interdisciplinary approaches, especially those rooted in the liberal arts.
The schools that succeed will be the those which blend analytical rigour with humanistic insight.
This is where the liberal arts can thrive – not as soft skills, but as essential tools for leadership action in a fractured, fast-changing world.
Why liberal arts are the future of business education
Philosophy sharpens ethical thinking, while sociology helps decode systems of power. History provides context for cycles of innovation and literature builds empathy and communication.
Such an approach is at the core of navigating complexity with clarity and integrity.
By integrating these fields, business schools are elevating their mission. Today’s students need more than frameworks. They need imagination, resilience and the courage to lead in uncertain times.
Five top tips to reimagine business classrooms
- Start with the big questions: Don’t wait for an ethics course to explore what it means to lead responsibly. Build critical reflection into each and every module.
- Bring liberal arts into the core curriculum: Integrate thinkers such as Foucault, Simon and Ellul into leadership, marketing and innovation classes. Make critical thinking a habit, rather than a bonus.
- Let students lead the learning: Use participatory, dialogue-led models inspired by Freire. Encourage debate, self-directed projects and peer-to-peer exploration.
- Rethink your case studies: Audit your materials. Whose perspectives are centred and whose voice is missing? Use Weick’s sense-making theory to unpack complexity rather than flatten it.
- Model the mindset you want to teach: Faculty development is crucial. Create space for instructors to engage with new ideas, interdisciplinary work and social critique, and recognise and value them for it.
Reimagining business classrooms is a much grander exercise than turning MBAs into philosophers.
It’s about helping future leaders ask the right and better questions, while empowering them to lead with vision, empathy and depth.
In a world increasingly defined by disruption, the most radical thing a business school can do is teach its students to think.
Lakshmi Goel is dean of the School of Business Administration and Yassine El Bouchikhi is undergraduate programme director, both at Al Akhawayn University.
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