Alumni

Valpo Business Professors Contribute to Book on Educating Leaders

A new book that offers advice for educating a new generation of business leaders features insights from two professors in Valparaiso University’s College of Business Administration.

“The Challenges of Educating People to Lead in a Challenging World” includes four chapters written by Michael McCuddy, Morgal professor of Christian business ethics, and Wendy Pirie, associate professor of finance. McCuddy served as editor in chief of the book.

The book focuses on two major issues: the challenges encountered by business schools and professors as they seek to educate future business leaders, and how institutions can prepare business students to effectively address their own future challenges in the workplace. Chapters address the key competencies and attitudes business students need to develop, how to best use technology to engage students in the learning process, developing leaders who can thrive in an increasingly complex and values-driven world, and a variety of related issues.

McCuddy wrote the book’s introductory chapter and “The Ethical Education of Future Leaders: An Approach for Helping Students Become Authentic Ethical Role Models,” and co-wrote with Pirie the chapters “Implementing and Sustaining Educational Innovations” and “Willingness to Innovate: Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Student Evaluations of Instruction.”

The book was written for both teachers of business and economics courses and instructors of corporate or business-based training programs.

McCuddy’s teaching and research interests focus on business ethics, including the relationships between freedom and corruption in a global context, the roles that stewardship and financial acumen play in the success of corporations, and methods for educating people regarding the ethics of emerging technologies. In 2003, he won the Best Paper Award from the International Academy of Business and Economics for “Freedom and Ethics: The Case of the Former Soviet Republics.”

In 2007, McCuddy co-authored two award-winning papers on ethics: "Actions Speak Louder than Words: Organizational Ethics, Success, and Reputation from the Perspective of Members of the Institute of Management Accountants" and "Implementing a New Approach to Teaching the Ethics of Emerging Technology." The former paper award was received from the Oxford Business and Economics Conference and the International Journal of Business and Economics. The latter paper award was given by the American Society of Engineering Education.

Pirie has conducted research on microstructure issues in finance and issues in business education, curriculum design and assessment. She has appeared on the History Channel and her scholarship has been published in the Journal of Financial Research, Journal of Economics and Finance, and Educational Innovation in Economics and Business.