The Twenty‐First Century and Legal Studies in Business: Preparing Students to Perform in a Globally Competitive Environment

• Author: Ronald A. Johnson,Deborah J. Kemp,Debra D. Burke
• Date: 01 February 2010
• Published date: 01 February 2010
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2010.01066.x

The Twenty-First Century and Legal

Studies in Business: Preparing

Students to Perform in a Globally

Competitive Environment

Debra D. Burke,

n

Ronald A. Johnson,

nn

and Deborah J. Kemp

nnn

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what

direction we are moving: To reach theport of heaven, we must sail sometimes

with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie

at anchor.

FOliver Wendell Holmes

1

I. INTRODUCTION

As Justice Holmes observed, the world is moving, and business education

must progress as well and neither drift nor lie at anchor. ‘‘Business today is

widely decentralized, fiercely entrepreneurial, and relentlessly global.’’

2

Business schools must respond to this reality and prepare twenty-first

century graduates who can make a positive impact and maintain our na-

tion’s leadership position. This article first examines the dynamic role

business education must play in a flat world economy. Second, the article

explains how legal courses in the business curricula already equip students

with portable twenty-first-century skills and relevant academic content.

The article then advocates the acceptance of the Boyer Model of

Scholarship,

3

which defines scholarly pursuits in terms of activities involv-

r2010 The Authors

Journal compilation r2010 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

1

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 27, Issue 1, 1–33, Winter/Spring 2010

n

Professor, Business Administration & Law, Western Carolina University.

nn

Dean, College of Business, Western Carolina University.

nnn

Professor of Business Law, California State University, Fresno.

1

William S. Cohen, Remarks at the Swearing-In of Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, Nov. 16, 1998,

http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=804 (citing Justice Holmes).

2

R. Glenn Hubbard, The Best Business Education Ever,BIZED, Sept.-Oct. 2007, at 46.

3

See infra notes 39–48.

ing teaching and learning, engagement with the relevant community,

and basic research pursuits designed to expand discipline-based knowl-

edge, as a means of enhancing the discipline’s already valuable role in

business education. It explains the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

(SoTL), and provides resources for embarking on such scholarly pursuits,

as well as examples. It then explores the Scholarship of Engagement

and explains the importance of applied research in partnerships between

universities and their communities from the perspective of economic

competitiveness. Finally, it analyzes an emerging trend that measures

the significance of basic research in terms of its impact. In sum, the arti-

cle concludes that measurable impact is critical to all types of scholarly

pursuits in this century’s academy and that faculty members in business

law can impact significantly their students’ learning, their communities’

development, and their discipline by embracing Boyer’s definition of

scholarship.

II. BUSINESS EDUCATION IN THE TWENTY-FIRST

CENTURY

The world in which businesses now operate is much more complex than in

previous decades, in part because of pervasive computer technology. The

global marketplace makes the inputs of production fungible. Manufactur-

ing jobs moved to economies with lower prevailing wage rates, and knowl-

edge-value-added services are now the differentiator for success. In order

to maintain a competitive advantage, the United States must produce

knowledge workers who are able to produce idea-based jobs that can be

sold globally.

4

Passion and curiosity are important characteristics of participants in

the new flat world economy.

5

Passion, curiosity quotients, and initiative

translate into the intellectual vitality demanded for success in the new mil-

4

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN,THE WORLD ISFLAT:ABRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 265

(2006). Friedman examines the effects of globalization and the ability of individuals to com-

pete on equal footing in a flat world. Id. at 256–75. For a discussion of Friedman’s ground-

breaking book, see Lucien J. Dhooge, Actually the World Is Quite Bumpy: Using Friedman in the

International Business Law Classroom,23J.L

EGAL STUD.EDUC. 243 (2006).

5

FRIEDMAN, supra note 4,at 363.

2 Vol. 27 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

lennium.

6

Success has less to do with where individuals are educated and

more to do with their level of practical and emotional intelligence and their

willingness to put in the time required to achieve mastery in their field.

7

The United States will be at a competitive disadvantage if its educational

system fails to produce postsecondary school graduates who have a passion

for learning and a solid work ethic.

8

Both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs

9

in corporate structures must

manage the range of issues in business collectively and not as separate func-

tions. Today, ideas for new products and services must evolve rapidly to a

market-ready stage, necessitating the employment of cross-functional teams

of employees who understand how the functions are connected. Business

schools must graduate students who can contribute from day one because

they have a holistic perspective. As a result, business educators must move

beyond a focus on basic competency in core subjects and discipline-specific

knowledge to promoting the development of the behavioral skills and tools

required to be effective and productive in the workplace over a career that

spans from managing projects to managing people to managing policies.

While twenty-first-century talent continues to need basic fundamen-

tal skills in order to be adaptable and synthesizers of information,

10

it is the

6

Intellectual vitality may be defined as ‘‘the spark, the passion, that sets the truly exceptional

studentFthe one driven to pursue independent research and explore difficult concepts from

a very early ageFapart from your typical bright kid.’’ Christine Foster,In a Class by Themselves,

STANFORD ALUMNI MAG., Nov./Dec. 2000, available at http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/

magazine/2000/novdec/articles/homeschooling.html. For a discussion of the importance of

passion and curiosity, see generally BILL BRADLEY,VALUES OF THE GAME (1998) (identifying el-

ements of measuring success in terms of passion and stressing the importance of intellectual

vitality); MICHAEL JORDAN &MARK VANCIL,DRIVEN FROM WITHIN (2005) (explaining the energy

generated when people combine their creativity and passion). See also Carmine Gallo,From

Homeless to Multimillionaire,BUS.WK., July 23, 2007, available at http://www.businessweek.com/

smallbiz/content/jul2007/sb20070723_608918.htm(quoting self-made millionaire Chris Gard-

ner as stating that passion is everything behind success).

7

See MALCOLM GLADWELL,OUTLIERS:THE STORY OF SUCCESS (2008) (postulating a 10,000 hour

rule as being the time required to master a task).

8

See FRIEDMAN,supra note 4, at 303–05 (lamenting the shrinking numbers of engineers and

scientists, along with the problematic lack of work ethic exhibited by students).

9

An intrapreneur is defined as ‘‘a person within a large corporation who takes direct respon-

sibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and

innovation.’’ intrapreneur.com (citing THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE (3d ed. 1992), http://www.intrapreneur.com/MainPages/History/Dictionary.html.

10

FRIEDMAN,supra note 4, at 372.

2010 / The Twenty-First Century and Legal Studies in Business 3