DILEMMAS OF TEACHING SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR TO STUDENTS

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1 DILEMMAS OF TEACHING SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR TO STUDENTS Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zdenka Zenko Faculty of Economics and Business University of Maribor, Slovenia Abstract: Since the first economic crisis of 2008 crises have spread to many other areas. The new innovative requisitely holistic solutions are urgently needed. The creative environment should be based on well educated people with well formed and achievable long term ethical and sustainable goals. The motivation should be based also on self actualization in the society where ethical cooperation among specialists is well established. This presupposes the respect of all other members of (global) society and high moral standards not limited to business, political, legal, and educational and health professionals. As a teacher I face a dilemma. The theories of Dialectical Systems Theory, Innovations and Social Responsibility provide the knowledge base from which my students would be able to draw their future decisions. But the current political, legal and neo liberalistic economic environment and model is not only in Slovenia producing successful people with totally opposite moral and other values and a growing social group of modern slaves. Keywords: systemic thinking, creative processes, innovativeness, social environment, social responsibility DILEME UČENJA DRUŽBENO ODGOVORNEGA VEDENJA ZA ŠTUDENTE Povzetek: Od najprej gospodarske krize v 2008 so se krize razširile na mnoga druga področja. Nove inovativne potrebno in zadostno celovite rešitve nujno potrebujemo. Ustvarjalno okolje bi moralo temeljiti na dobro izobraženih ljudeh z dobro oblikovanimi in uresničljivimi dolgoročnimi etičnimi in trajnostnimi cilji. Motivacija bi naj temeljila na samouresničevanju v družbi, kjer je etika sodelovanja med specialisti dobro uveljavljena. To predpostavlja spoštovanje vseh drugih članov (svetovne) družbe in da visoki moralni standardi niso omejeni le na poslovne, politične, pravne, izobraževalne in zdravstvene delavce. Kot učiteljica se soočam z dilemo. Teorije dialektične teorije sistemov, inoviranja in družbena odgovornost nudijo teoretično osnovo na kateri bi moji študenti lahko utemeljili svoje bodoče odločitve. Toda sedanje politično, pravno in neoliberalistično gospodarsko okolje in model, ne samo v Sloveniji, proizvaja»uspešne«ljudi s popolnoma nasprotnimi moralnimi in drugimi vrednotami in naraščajočo skupino sodobnih sužnjev. Ključne besede: sistemsko razmišljanje, ustvarjalni procesi, inovativnost, družbeno okolje, družbena odgovornot 1. Introduction In paper some theoretical concepts will be presented from Dialectical System Theory as developed by Prof. DDr. Mulej, Innovation Management as described by Prof. ddr. Mulej and me, creative environment as presented by Prof. Dr. Pecjak, needs as described by Abraham H. Maslow and some cases from contacts with students (learning method with active participation), as well as some cases from newspapers about court decisions and report from The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of the Republic of Slovenia and reaction of leading political people and parties to their report. The impact on students and general public is devastating. The definition of innovations requires that novelty has completed the diffusion process and has been accepted as beneficial in society. The social responsibility requires active participation of many members of society 2. Dialectical systems theory some concepts in brief The modern society is increasingly complicated and complex, the global environment even more. Complicatedness arises from characteristics (attributes) of (increasing) number of components, parts. Complexity relates to the (growing) attributes, which are caused by relations between components, parts. Due to relations, interrelatedness new attributes emerge due to the synergy. Different specialists consider only narrow and selected viewpoint for their observation, thinking, understanding and acting. Since so many other viewpoints have to be left out or overlooked our system becomes unrealistic. With cooperation among specialist this overlooks could be limited.

2 Complicatedness, complexity, interrelatedness, emerging synergy, selected viewpoints, etc. are all subjects studied in dialectical system theory. Most of us are specialists limited to a selected narrow viewpoint and are as a result neglecting many important viewpoints and thus selected components and their interactions. Educational system is similar: many specialists are involved in a process of building our future society. From dialectical system theory (DTS) point of view many influential Slovene narrow specialists in recent years made decisions without the requisitely holistic understanding of this process. DTS includes interrelations among components. Systemic approach is enabling us to prevent oversights and resulting mistakes, loses, catastrophes, crises or wars. Ethics of interdependence or cooperation did not become a commonly accepted principle or practice. Yet. Humans as individuals do not have the capacity to think and act holistic. A whole contains everything, all parts and their relations. Since total holism cannot be achieved and limited viewpoints selected within the single profession are too narrow, the middle way of requisite holism is more appropriate, realistic and can be achieved. Mulej and Kajzer (1998) developed the law of requisite holism, which makes possible the implementation of the concept of the dialectical system theory. 3. Innovativeness and innovation management Similar concept applies to innovations. Innovations can be developed from ideas with complicated and complex management processes and in similarly complicated and complex environments. Creativity means producing new ideas. We express it in methods, deeds, written works or products. All humans have capacity of being creative. Due to environmental support and genes some people better develop their creativity. Some groups, societies or families raise more creative children (Pecjak, 2001). Creative and stimulating environment needs to be created and managed in families, education facilities, companies and society. Prof. dr. Vid Pecjak describes characteristics of creative spirit as: 1. Non- conformism, 2. Originality, 3. Flexibility, 4. Ingenuity (smart, clever, humorous), 5. Fluidity of thought, 6. Elasticity (verbal, associative, ideal, expressive), 7. Perseverance, 8. Connection between creativity and humor, 9. Weak one: creativity and intelligence. My students of economics, civil or mechanical engineering need improvement of the 1 st, 2 nd, 6 th, 7 th, and 8 th element. The creative spirit is also renowned for using all four ways of thinking: convergent, divergent, vertical and lateral. While convergent and vertical ways of thinking are common in Slovenia the other two ways are not. In divergent thinking thoughts disperse into different directions looking for different solutions. This way is essential and crucial in the initial preparation stage of creative thinking. Creativity is a distinctive feature, to see ordinary things in an extraordinary way. The Gestalt psychologists connect creativity with oscillations in perception. In Slovene educational system even on the university level students are more encouraged to uncritically repeat than to search for different possibilities, ways, and solutions. In this the origins of Puritan educational system can be traced (Zenko, 1999). With vertical thinking (from one point to another) a person comes up with one solution. Such thinking is common in logical, mathematical thinking and reading in Slovenia. Also vertical thinking results in one and only solution. Due to the appearance (many strokes for 1 character), the vast number of many different characters and their meaning deriving from their interconnectedness vertical thinking is not so commonly used for reading by Chinese and Japanese people. The Japanese etiquette of politeness and the vague language require some lateral thinking. In lateral thinking ideas derive from the side, unexpectedly, depend on coincidence. We use wide horizon of our attention or focus. Lateral thinking is used in dreams, creations, imagination, art, science, fiction. To support creative processes lateral thinking should be encouraged in our students. We can use some methods to support this (Six thinking hats by DeBonno) (see more in Mulej Matjaz and Nastja, 2006). The process of creating ideas could be briefed in four stages: 1. Preparation, 2. Incubation, 3. Illumination, and 4. Verification. Only in the fourth stage the convergent and vertical thinking are required or could prevail. The different ways of thinking also take place in different parts of our brains. Culturally more supported and in educational system more emphasized convergent and vertical way of thinking is predominant in our left side of the

3 brain. Lateral thinking is predominant in the right side of our brains. The third important feature is more balanced development and use of different ways of thinking and use of our brains with communication as a path of expressing it. Thus neglecting importance, development and use of the lateral and divergent way of thinking in the social environment has a negative impact on creativity of people! As a teacher in this society I understand my obligations to stress the more balanced use of different ways of thinking and create environment where the less commonly used ways of thinking can be practiced and communicated among students and teacher. 4. Creative environment From dialectical system theory we know that every activity takes place in a certain environment and is conditioned or influenced by the possibilities and needs of the environment. In the focus of our attention is an individual, organization, society, etc. with its characteristics in groups of: emotions, values, talents, knowledge of what, and knowledge of how. They form the subjective reality and determine in the early stages of every activity the selection of the most important viewpoints. They also present the capacity of individual, organization, society, etc. to achieve requisitely holistic approach and act. For innovating and creativity the emotions are very important. The subject of emotions in my formal educational background was not adequately addressed. In the classroom I still hear reasoning: we should not think about our emotions, we are economists and have to be objective. Some emotions can also be culturally less appropriate (like openly expressing love, sadness ). If we do not know our emotions, how can we understand and manage them? Being creative is not only a style of life it is also being emotional. Emotions need to be developed in the sensitive and supportive environment (Rebula Tuta, 2011). The development of human being is related to the kindness, emotional support and nurturing in the very early stages of our life (studies of premature babies with or without close emotional support, studies of orphans and their learning disabilities). Without sufficient stimulation of a baby or child, some parts of our brains weaken in development. The supportive environment during the early stages enables the development of emotions that can lead to a creative and responsible person. Similar positive emotions should be created and stimulated in the learning, working and social environment. This emotional support is strongly connected to two other subjects: values, needs and social responsibility; which will be addressed later. 5. Values and needs The philosophy is deeply rooted in the system of social values. The system of social values also determines the organizational structure (Zenko, 1999). The values also influence the hierarchy, rules of social conduct, face to face relationship (Japan, USA) or avoidance of confrontation (France). Immoral or even illegal activities acceptable in Slovenia could not be tolerated in Japan or some other country. In Japan social values have developed through centuries and are sturdily rooted in their philosophy. After the WWII they were probably the first to connect improvement in quality of products with innovating processes. With dialectical system s requisitely holistic approach the innovation processes can provide sustainable development. Social responsibility supplements or even is an element of DTS and ethics of interdependence. Creativity was part of human life century ago but somehow neglected or even suppressed in educational system. Today we need to re-evaluate it for remediation of our human activities worldwide. As a part of it the concept of human creativity and self actualization needs some attention. Maslow first presented the hierarchy of needs as a five stage model. 1. Biological and psychological needs (air, water, food, sleep, sex...). 2. Safety needs (security, limits, order, law, stability). 3. Belongingness and love needs (family, relationships, and group). 4. Esteem needs (self-esteem, achievement, independence, status, dominance, prestige). 5. Self Actualization needs (realizing person s potential, self fulfilment, seeking personal growth). Needs are grouped in hierarchical order. Until the basic biological needs are not adequately fulfilled, the higher needs are not in focal point. The human development moves from the lower to the higher needs. Later to this five stages were added: A. Cognitive needs (knowledge, meaning); B. Aesthetic needs (appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form). C. Transcendence needs (helping others to achieve self actualization). Maslow writes that human motivation is based on seeking fulfilment and change through personal growth. The need for personal growth is present through all life. So the person is through all life seeking meaning to life with self-actualization. Maslow (1993, 1971, p. 55) writes, that his feeling is that the concept of creativeness and the concept of healthy, self-actualizing human person is coming closer. Thus encouraging creativity in society is not only a political goal to move from poor or underdeveloped to a more innovative society. It is a natural need of every human being to be creative in the self actualization process of searching for a meaning of life. Maslow also writes (1993, 1971, p. 55) that he is impelled toward conclusion that creative art education is not so much important to turn out artists as for turning out better people. We might ad: better socially responsible people.

4 Education in music, literature, painting and other types of art stimulates and develops different ways of thinking and different parts of our brains. Physical therapists are using this concept in rehabilitation of patients with brain injuries or after haemorrhages. How many such subjects and activities are financed by the Slovene Ministry of Education in High schools and on Universities? From their web page: Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport is responsible for regulating education of pre-school children, basic education, music schools, secondary education, adult education institutions, higher education and sport. The Minister might justify his acting with the lack of funds. Another interesting concept needs to be presented here. Creativity leads to innovating processes. Innovations are the way to more developed society, more social rights and democracy, better quality of life. The paradigm is that lack of funds leads to social inequalities, poverty and deterioration of society. At the same time a small group (1% worldwide) increased their wealth in these crises since 2008! Expressing our emotions, feelings, ideas, needs... develops the communicating channels. Both communications and different ways of thinking are crucial for the successful creative processes as well as requisitely holistic dialectical thinking and acting. 6. Social responsibility It is the core issue of this institute and conference. Please find other relevant sources like: Hrast and Mulej eds. 2010, 2009, 2008; Hrast, Mulej, Knez-Riedl, eds. 2007, 2006). Becoming socially responsible requires great change in our human mentality, understanding, reasoning and decision making. Applying dialectical system theory in our creative and invention-innovation diffusion processes provides theoretical, methodological and practical basis. Social responsibility should be used to promote such values, norms, culture and ethics to support the development of individuals as creative members of our society (Zenko and Mulej, 2011a) Learning process The vast importance of educational system emerges from the simple fact: the majority of young people enter the educational system in their early ages and are socially modified for many years. Their creativity in preschool children is very high, yet the educational system is still oriented towards mass production. Students are encouraged to accept and develop attitudes for functioning in the society, work related values and store a large amount of data. Slovene and some other educational systems in Europe should encourage the development of creativity, individuality of each child, respect for other human beings, and utilization of advanced data processing methods. We should also stress learning of communicating and team work. Students should learn to clearly formulate their ideas, openly express their individual opinion, and defend their positions, decisions. Many Slovene students avoid active participation in class. During my learning years with professor ddr. Matjaz Mulej and while attending some courses aboard I started to appreciate the open discussion of different viewpoints. We introduced active participation as method of teaching in all our courses. My grading system includes 10-20% for active participation during lectures. Half of it can be earned by presentation of cases followed by active participation of students. 40% can be earned by seminar research project. Students select their topic and team members. Research project includes theoretical part, practical case and their own contribution (critics, comments, ideas, suggestions, model...). 40% of the grade presents the written exam. Questions cover the theoretical part of our subject and cases from Slovenia and global environment. Higher grades are reserved for originally selected and presented cases. There are still some students who state, that this is their first class, where they can really participate in the learning process. Due to their long term formation in Slovene educational system, it takes me several weeks to build a creative environment. These characteristics qualify them to compete on the job market and in politics. At the end of semester many students state, that being able to participate in the learning process and my teaching with practical examples makes our classes very good. Some of their statements this year: Great lecturing, lectures are based on active participation of students, encourages critical thinking and provides great support. Subject was interesting; we did interesting things, which will be useful also later. Not only she is always available for discussion, she also tries very hard that we understand the topic. She always has presented several cases, related to the theory. She also encouraged us for higher achievements! Subjects of Prof. ZZ are the best prepared and interesting for participating! Professor ZZ is always extremely reachable for students, always ready to help and lecture on subject of interest for students. She has great plan of work for the whole semester, she is very very kind and advanced. Super subjects, super attitude, super lecturing, practical training and participation in team work! The important question remains: what prepares them for the challenges they will face during their active life? In recent past majority of working force was required to follow the routinized (mass production) or standard procedures (productivity) in the relatively stable environment. Our students will face quite a different environment.

5 Are our students capable of solving complicated and complex problems in rapidly changing global environment? Do they have the right attitude and knowledge to innovate and provide (custom oriented) products and services? Can they observe such knowledge and attitude in our social leaders? In our teachers? In our society most respected and most paid politicians, judges, medical doctors, lawyers, managers...? 8. Modern immoral corruptive society The Slovene daily news are full of scandalous data of two opposite types. Among recent political issues are the reports of The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of the Republic of Slovenia. The major of the Slovene city appealed to their report on his incomes and the increase of his assets. The court did not rule in his favor. He appealed to the higher instance. He appealed again. He was fined by court 3,000 EUR for violating the rule of integrity of public officials. He does not want to resign as a Major or president of the political party. His political party still supports him! His family members owe many millions of EUR to different individuals, private parties or state bodies. They do not respect the court decisions. They perceive themselves very successful and beneficial for the city and nation. The second recent report of the Commission for corruption was about high political officer. He also finds no reason to resign. He appealed to the court. Lost. Applied again. Now the work of Commission and their leading investigators are under investigations! His political party supports him! Judicial system in Slovenia needs a lot to improve. The case of international drug dealers called Balkan worriers was going on for several years. During this time they were found guilty by courts in different states. Slovene court in Ljubljana found some of the evidence against them inadmissible and they were released from the detention! The costs of this case were only in Slovenia many millions of EUR. Corruption among public prosecutors. One of them, claimed he could not understand what he was being accused for. Since his suspension early last year he gets a great part of his salary. Much greater than mine as teacher at university! News this past week: new and young bank manager in Ljubljana selected for his new company car an A6 for about 80,000EUR. Another car for 57,000 EUR. He stated that such cars are normal for his rank. A manger of similar bank in Maribor is using his (used) Audi bought from his previous employer. Both banks needed vast capitalization from the state in recent years. More than 600 mio EUR last year! Even in medical profession socially responsible behaviour is not a norm. Medical doctors (not even the best ones) employed in the University Clinical Centre have contracts also with university and private clinics. If we could ignore their enormous incomes, we cannot ignore the fact that a day has only 24 hours. In recent weeks we hear among common people the same statement: these influential, powerful and successful people are alienated from the realty! These influential people have lost the grounds. In the language of DST: the consequence of un-systemic thinking and acting, the lack of co-operation (especially of an interdisciplinary one) is oversights, several kinds of blindness: they do not see reality! The second also scandalous type of news are about the poverty, unemployment, working without pay, employees with minimal pay not being able to pay all their bills, children and students losing their scholarships or benefits, children being hungry, Dillemas The Gilbert Rist (2008, p. I) writes that conventional thinking now is, that all human activities are now subject to an economic logic. For him Homo Oeconomicus is a dangerous paradigm; as well the growth obsession. He believes that a purpose of human life should not be and is not to behave as Homo Oeconomicus and to maximize his interests. Economics became the most important part of our modern society. The development and success of whole countries is measured by GNP. The real wealth is not even included in it (Zenko and Mulej, 2011b). Some accidents, like car accidents, casualties, weapons will even enlarge GDP! At the core of every society is a human being. His success is measured in his economic transactions, how much money he exchanged and accumulated in society. This is a dangerous illusion. The purpose of human being is to fulfil his basic human needs. A part of his purpose is also reflected in his position or role in society. He draws his self esteem and self fulfilment from the social connections he has created. So his intermediate family, group, society determine part of the fulfilment of his basic needs. So the economics cannot be the grounding stone of our society and our lives. The main purpose of human life is maintenance and creation of new life. This is why the sustainable development and social responsibility were not part of neoliberal economy in recent years. Babies, education, natural environment are perceived as costs and obstacles to their accumulation of wealth in the hands of few. So are now teachers in Slovene public education system.

6 6. Conclusions and implications for research What is real success in life? Money, position, power, abuse, deception? Self actualization through creative processes in harmonious family, group and social environment? The knowledge of dialectical system theory reminds me that oversights have severe consequences. The creative environment requires several preconditions. Innovative society is the only way out of the crises. Neo liberalistic concept of accumulation of money and power in the hands of few is devastating. What should I teach? Should I encourage the development and enforcement of socially acceptable value system in students? If I require honesty, hard work, caring for society and respect of all other beings on this planet, development of their creative capabilities... will students be able to survive and succeed in the world of today? References Hrast, A. and M. Mulej, eds. (2009), Druzbena odgovornost in izzivi casa (in Slovene), IRDO, Maribor. Hrast, A. and M. Mulej, eds. (2008), Socialni izzivi in izzivi casa (in Slovene), IRDO, Maribor. Hrast, A., Mulej, M. and J. Knez-Riedl, eds. (2007), Družbena odgovornost (in Slovene), IRDO, Maribor. Hrast, A., Mulej, M. and J. Knez-Riedl, eds. (2006), Družbena odgovornost in izzivi časa (in Slovene), IRDO, Maribor Hrast, A., Mulej, M. eds. (2010), Narava in človek = Social responsibility: Nature and humans, IRDO, Maribor Hrast, A., Kojc, S., Fistravec, A., Mulej, M., Anterer, A., eds (2011) 6 th IRDO International Conference: Social Responsibility and Current Challenges 2011 Youth in Focus of World Changes, Conference Proceedings. Zbirka Druzbena odgovornost. IRDO Institute for development of social responsibility, Maribor Maslow Abraham H. (1993, 1971), The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, Penguin Books, En Salen Books. Arkana. USA. Mulej, M. et al. (2000), Dialekticna in druge mehkosistemske teorije, EPF, Maribor Mulej, M. and Nastja Mulej (2006), Innovation and/by systemic thinking. In: Proceedings of 18 th ECSR, ASCS, Vienna, Mulej, M. and S. Kajzer (1998), Ethic of interdependence and the law of requisite holism. In: Proceedings of STIQE '98, ISRUM, Maribor: Pecjak, V. (2001), Ways to New Ideas, New Moment, No.16. Rebula Tuta A. (2011), Globine, ki so nas rodile, Mohorjeva druzba, Celovec. Rist, G. (2008), The Delusions of Economics, Zed Books, London, New York. Zenko Z, Mulej M. (2011a), Diffusion of Innovative Behaviour with Social Responsibility, Kybernetes 40(9/10): Zenko Z, Mulej M. (2011b), Innovating measurement of economic success for more accurate information, Nase gospodarstvo 57(5/6): Zenko, Z. (1999), Comparative Analysis of Management Models in Japan, United States of America, and Western Europe, doctoral dissertation, University of Maribor, EPF, Maribor. Many sources from daily public press