Managing Risk and Decision Making in Times of Economic Distress

Simon Grima, Ercan Özen, Inna Romānova, Simon Grima, Ercan Özen, Inna Romānova

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781801174282
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Sustainable Development
• Index: Economics

Managing Risk and Decision Making in Times of Economic Distress adds much needed scholarly analysis of the fledgling decision/control approach, arguing the merits of its empirical content to shed light on the structure of capital contracts and rationale for diversity of objectives.

Underpinning the book's central arguments are questions surrounding the identification and realisation of opportunities during periods of distress or disruption. Although such questions have been the focus of corporate finance, risk management, and financial management studies and literature, within the context of COVID-19 gaps remain unresolved.

Continuity should be a proactive living plan to return to the norm we know, and continuity planning forms an integral part of a risk management strategy. With the future set to be shaped by these many disruptions and humanity's responses to it, critical insights are more important than ever, to ensure and determine progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and recovering from these economic and social challenges.

Contemporary Studies in Economic and Financial Analysis publishes a series of current and relevant themed volumes within the fields of economics and finance. Both disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies are welcome.

CHAPTER 1

DESIGNING CURRICULUM ABOUT GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY

Clinton Cassar

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Public administration has always been at the forefront of promoting sound and ethical values in society. The myriad of events that are shaping our world, such as global warming, deforestation, poverty and economic instability, calls for a shift from government to governance. This change demands a collaborative type of governance on the quest to implement sustainability. Collaborative governance can be initiated by its workforce, who are the individuals closest to the structures of public administration and can act as agents of change in this mission. Thus, personnel need to be equipped with the required knowledge, attitudes and skills, about and for, sustainable development. This can be addressed through education for sustainable development (ESD), a lifelong tool which requires adaption to national requirements, but most importantly to societal needs.

Aim: This research focusses on a longitudinal case study from the Maltese islands, the smallest state of the European Union. Since enacting the Sustainable Development Act in 2012, through which sustainable development has been mainstreamed in the Maltese public sector, never was the need felt to educate public officers for sustainable development. Hence, this research aims at shedding light on the curriculum design process of an education module called ‘Public Administration and Sustainability’ as part of a Bachelor of Art’s programme at the University of Malta.

Method: Framing an educational module in a tertiary institution requires tact in aligning the syllabus, not only to the pedagogical requirements, but also to the place of work. In this exploratory study, two research questions, each linked with a set of original hypotheses are tackled through a pool of data obtained from a variety of methodological tools employed, by analysing two important variables – the curriculum and the student. The former is reviewed through a content analysis exercise whereas feedback from the latter is scrutinised through a questionnaire.

Findings: Data triangulation demonstrates that the curriculum design of the educational module promotes a holistic learning experience, since it integrates effectively the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of the Bloom’s Taxonomy. Furthermore, the different student cohorts share common positive views about this module.

Originality of Study: Previous studies indicate that there is a lacuna in research regarding curriculum design and review, especially regarding sustainable development. This research is significant as it attempts at filling this void by scrutinising closely curriculum design in higher ESD.

Implications: Drawing upon the results, a number of recommendations are provided, among them is ‘The Multiplier Transformation Triad Model’, which portrays the institutional, educational and individual transformations needed to promote sustainability. Moreover, this research might provide more insights about governments’ commitment towards sustainability but should also serve useful to researchers or practitioners in various fields such as public administration, governance, sustainability and even higher education.

Keywords: Governance; public administration; sustainability; education for sustainable development; curriculum design; higher education

INTRODUCTION

Our future often appears exceptionally bleak and grim with the prospect of many issues, such as climate change, deforestation and pollution enmeshing the world and leaving their toll on many countries. In response to this, Counce, Holmes, Reimer, Heckrotte, and Alderson (2010) postulate that following the more spontaneous Agricultural and Industrial Revolution, our society is now facing a third and more conscious revolution – The Sustainability Revolution. Indeed, the quest for such revolution calls for a paradigm shift that envisions the integration of ‘environmental, social and economic factors to reduce radically resource use, while increasing health, equity, and quality of life for all stakeholders’ (Zheng et al., 2009).

As Romano (2004) rightly asserts, when the population encounters a new problem or threat, action is usually taken in the form of legislation to protect society’s endangerment. While legislation evidently plays an essential role in the implementation of sustainable development, many a time, education utilised as a lifelong tool, is considered as a requisite to address its core principles among different members of society:

It can thus be argued that the higher education sector bears a modicum of responsibility for the current crisis, and consequently, has a role to play in educating students about, and for, sustainability. (Everett, 2008 as cited in Howlett, Ferreira, & Blomfield, 2016, p. 2)

It is for this reason that governments’ onus is to recognise the need of implementing sustainability. In doing so, it needs to articulate and shape human resources in view of future skills, as asserted by the International Labour Organization (2015) which states that ‘without skilled workers and competent enterprises, the shift to a greener economy, will be neither technically feasible nor economically viable’.

Offering a fruitful and effective educational experience is hard, but it is even harder to align it with the future job market through upskilling and reskilling. The job market often calls for the need of sustainability to create a fairer and just world not only for our contemporaries but especially for future generations. Public administration is paramount for the implementation of sustainable development in all its intricacies such as planning, policies, environmental management and even education, since it shapes the lives of people at large. Equipping and engaging learners with the above-mentioned, necessitates investment in education that promotes active learning through real-life examples synchronised with values central to public administration. As a result, it should ensure that its workforce all have a stake in education for sustainable development (ESD). In fact, this research underlines the process involved in designing a higher education curriculum for public officers and scrutinises the impact it left on them. This is examined through a longitudinal case study, which will be discussed in the successive sections of this chapter.

THE RESEARCH SCOPE

This research is motivated by the lack of studies and underestimation of pedagogical content vis-á-vis sustainability in higher education (Adomßent et al., 2014; Milutinović & Nikolić, 2014). Milutinović and Nikolić (2014, p. 108) assert that ‘education about sustainable development means teaching and learning about the concept itself, politics, policies and sustainable development theories’. However, its main crux is to encourage students to ‘improve their sustainability awareness and contribute sustainability in their professional lives’ (Lindgren, Rodhe, & Huisingh, 2006).

Taking this into consideration, this chapter seeks to unravel, reconceptualise and assess the relevant theoretical underpinnings of governance and sustainability that lay the foundation to the case study from the Maltese Islands about curriculum design in higher education for sustainable development (HESD). A dual perspective approach, encompassing the curriculum content and student, is adopted to determine the objectives of this research, which consist of: (i) mapping out the different phases in designing this educational module; and (ii) analysing students’ perceptions towards the learning experience. Careful consideration was vital in formulating two core research questions, each linked with a number of original hypotheses. Rooted on the aforementioned variables, the following research questions and hypotheses are being rolled out:

• Research Question 1: How is the module’s content grounded on principles of curriculum design?
• H1. There is no difference between low-order thinking and high-order thinking across the teaching blocks.
• H2. There is no difference between the learning outcomes pertaining to the course syllabus and the learning objectives for each lecture.
• H3. There is no difference between the three learning domains (cognitive, affective and psychomotor) across the various teaching blocks.
• Research Question 2: What impact does the educational module leave on students?
• H4. The impact left by the educational module v...