Abstract
Industry standards have a significant impact on business as a means to eliminate waste, reduce costs, market products (e.g., for quality, safety, interoperability) and lessen liability (Thompson, 2011). Consequently, an understanding and the ability to use standards, agreed upon practices among interested or vested parties, is a critical workplace competency for those engaged in business and industry. To have a workforce competent in the use of standards, higher education curricula must be developed to integrate standards education at appropriate points within the curriculum. Despite the importance of standards, they are not universally integrated into the college and university curricula.
Given the widespread use of standards in business and industry, a study was undertaken by four academic librarians (two business librarians and two engineering librarians) to explore the use and potential integration of standards in undergraduate business management curricula. This was accomplished through curriculum mapping of two top-ranked undergraduate business management programs. Syllabi of the two undergraduate business management programs were examined for pre-established terms (e.g., ISO, standards), as well as potential opportunities for integration of standards in the future. Of the 62 courses examined only five (or 8%) specifically mentioned standards; however, half of the courses examined were found to have potential for the integration of standards across nine business curriculum areas: business and management strategy, business law, ethics and social responsibility, human resources, information systems, international/global, marketing, process/product development, and project management. This study found that few undergraduate business management courses specifically taught or used standards based on the syllabi, but considerable potential exists for the integration of standards into undergraduate business management courses.
Keywords
industry standards, workplace preparedness, business education, information literacy, curriculum mapping
Date of this Version
7-9-2019
DOI
10.1080/08963568.2019.1638662
Recommended Citation
Phillips, Margaret; Howard, Heather; Vaaler, Alyson; and Hubbard, David E., "Mapping industry standards and integration opportunities in business management curricula" (2019). Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research. Paper 220.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08963568.2019.1638662
Comments
This is the author accepted manuscript (AAM). The published version of record (VoR) is available in the Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship, a Taylor & Francis journal. DOI: 10.1080/08963568.2019.1638662.