An Examination of the Environmental Worldviews and Ecological Attitudes of Business Instructors

The topic of sustainability is now being added to many schools of business curricula. However, the environmental component of sustainability is not well understood by a number of business practitioners. Due to this gap in knowledge, business instructors teaching sustainability may not teach environmental aspects of the subject. The purpose of this nonexperimental survey was to examine business instructors' worldview and attitudes towards the environment, as compared to other instructors, through the use of validated survey instruments. The hypotheses for this study were two-fold: the first examined how an individual perceives the world and man's use of the world; the second hypothesis examined how an individual perceives man's interaction with the environment. Survey data were collected from participating business, environmental studies, and other subject instructors (N = 54). Data were analyzed using the t test, Levene's test for the inequality of means, and ANOVA to determine if business instructors' scores differed significantly from other instructors and to help determine what curricular support is necessary to integrate sustainability concepts into business curricula. The results indicated significant differences between business instructors' worldview and environmental ethics when compared to other instructors. Business instructors scored lower on the New Ecological Paradigm than other instructors, and they scored higher on anthropocentric ethics on the Ecocentric and Anthropocentric Attitudes Towards the Environment than other instructors. Positive social change may occur by disseminating these results to business schools. These results underscore a need to codify standards for sustainability education.