Responsible governance on the table at business school conference

Responsible leadership: At the AABS conference and annual meeting were Dr Marcellina Chijoriga, dean of the University of Dar es Salaam Business School; Jonathan Cook, AABS chairperson; Dr Enase Okonedo, dean of Lagos Business School in Nigeria; and Prof Walter Baets, director of the UCT GSB.

UCT's Graduate School of Business (GSB) recently hosted the annual meeting of the Association of African Business Schools (AABS), and the first-ever AABS conference.

The theme for the gathering was responsible management. The event attracted deans and directors from more than thirty business schools across 12 African countries.

The one-day conference addressed the principles of the United Nations' Compact on Responsible Management Education. In turn, the annual meeting reviewed quality in management education from an African perspective.

"We are signalling that good governance, ethical behaviour and environmental responsibility are essential components in what we teach," said AABS chairman, Jonathan Cook, on the AABS choosing responsible management as the topic of this year's conference. "We need to produce managers who are both highly competent and deeply responsible."

Cook, director of the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria, described the conference as "an opportunity to bridge theory and practice by bringing together both academics from among our members and practitioners whose organisations we serve."

In addition to the Africa-based delegates, leading authorities from Europe also spoke at the conference.