CAZENOVIA — Recently, Jim Joseph, a Cazenovia resident and dean of the Madden School of Business at Le Moyne College, was invited to serve on the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) Task Force supporting the Inspirational Paradigm for Jesuit Business Education.

Founded in 2018 and run by the Society of Jesus, the IAJU is an association of Jesuit Catholic universities and institutes of higher education.

Members come from the six educational associations representing geographical areas where the Society of Jesus operates. These include more than 200 Jesuit-run higher education institutions in more than 50 countries.

In 2019, 12 business education leaders came together at the invitation of the IAJU to develop a pathway to drive transformation in Jesuit business education. The resulting paper, titled “An Inspirational Paradigm for Jesuit Business Education,” was published in June 2020.

According to the IAJU website (iaju.org), the paper aims to present the case for a reexamination of how Jesuit institutions prepare the next generation of business leaders to respond to the challenges facing humanity and to lead in the creation of a more inclusive and just world.

The global challenges referenced in the paper include extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and lack of access to the goods and services necessary to survive and thrive such as nutrition, healthcare, education, decent jobs, clean water, sanitation, affordable housing, and clean energy.

The paper states that it is typically those on the margins — including women, children, minorities, migrants and refugees, and indigenous communities — who are most excluded from the benefits of the market system. At the same time, the paper argues, inequality in income and wealth remains high both within and between countries, and in some instances, inequality is increasing.

An Inspirational Paradigm for Jesuit Business Education proposes that universities, particularly undergraduate and graduate business schools, play a crucial role in addressing these challenges and building opportunities for positive change.

“We have a responsibility not only to reshape our curricula, but also to touch our students’ hearts and minds so that they can be a light to the world and use their skills and talents to address the grave challenges facing us all,” the paper states. “While individual faculty members and schools have made progress, business education in general has not systematically made this essential shift.”

Made up of 14 scholars from Jesuit universities across six continents, the Inspirational Paradigm task force is charged with driving the Inspirational Paradigm initiative forward.

Joseph was formally invited to join the task force on Aug. 1, 2022.

Prior to this appointment, he served as co-chair of the Inspirational Paradigm Selection Committee.

“This is the culmination of everything I have been working for over the past decade,” said Joseph. “The opportunity to impact Jesuit business education on a global scale is the honor of a lifetime.”

Joseph explained that his role on the task force is to help Jesuit business education accomplish three goals, the first of which is to renew business curricula.

According to Joseph, new curricula will be developed considering the insights of Catholic social teaching and will encompass anthropology, ethics, corporate social responsibility, governance, sustainability, and understanding of the current social reality.

The curricula will embrace the efficacy of the market economy, while also emphasizing that economic activity must serve the common good, especially by meeting the needs of the poor and the excluded. Additionally, curricula will stress that all private and public economic activity must be based on environmentally sustainable practices.

The second goal centers on the use of the Ignatian pedagogical paradigm, which Joseph explained recognizes the importance of context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation.

“The Ignatian paradigm is one of holistic formation,” the June 2020 paper states. “It seeks to inculcate the right attitudes and values in our students based on the premise that ‘becoming’ is more important than simply knowing. A ‘co-curricular’ component, including direct contact with the poor and excluded, is central.”

The final facet of Joseph’s work will involve developing a vision of the skills needed by the next generation of business leaders.

According to Joseph, Jesuit business education must build upon the foundation of humanities and technical education and include the essential skills needed for a “new kind of leadership.”

The Inspirational Paradigm calls for these new leaders to view uncertainty and ambiguity as opportunities and to rely on creativity, communication, and storytelling as important skills for bringing about positive change. At the same time, they must view leadership as an opportunity to serve others and the common good.

Joseph graduated from Le Moyne in 1983.

He served as president and CEO of Oneida Ltd. — one of the world’s largest designers, marketers, and distributors of housewares products — from 2006 to 2012, leading the company’s turnaround and subsequent sale to Monomoy Capital Partners in 2011.

Recently, he was elected lead director of the Austin-based, publicly traded real estate development company Stratus Properties, Inc. He has been on the board since 2015.

At Le Moyne, Joseph served as the Madden School executive-in-residence from 2012 to 2014. He was then appointed dean of the Madden School in 2014 and special assistant to the president in 2017.

In 2021, he was elected to his third three-year term on the International Association of Jesuit Business Schools Board of Directors.

In spring 2021, the Carroll School of Management at Boston College named him its inaugural Ignatian Global Carroll School Fellow. The fellowship was established to further connect the Carroll School to the global network of Jesuit business teachers/scholars and institutions.

Joseph is currently pursuing a doctorate in executive leadership from Le Moyne. His dissertation will explore collaboration within the Jesuit business school worldwide network. At the time of his appointment to the Inspirational Paradigm task force, he had completed all the required coursework and was preparing to defend his dissertation in spring 2023.

“When I left the private sector and returned to my alma mater, I had two goals in mind,” said Joseph. “[Number one,] give back to Le Moyne College by helping to build not only a top-ranked business school, but one with a heart and soul. The Madden School has become all of this and more. [Number two,] give back to the Jesuit Order on a global scale. This appointment is another step in that direction.”

To learn more about the Inspirational Paradigm for Jesuit Business Education, visit iaju.org/working-groups/newparadigm-jesuit-business-education.