University of Pretoria – Gordon Institute of Business Science & Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute at EMS

The University of Pretoria (UP) is a GRLI Partner whose engagement connects two significant parts of the University’s economic, management and business education landscape: the Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute (ALLI) within the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS), and the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), UP’s business school in Johannesburg. Together these provide a particularly rich institutional setting for GRLI’s continuing inquiry into what it means to be globally responsible. Within EMS, ALLI creates a distinctive space for critical, transdisciplinary work on responsible leadership, sustainable development and social, environmental and economic justice. GIBS connects this inquiry directly with management education, executive development, organisations and the world of business practice.

The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and the Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute

The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) is one of the University of Pretoria’s largest faculties and encompasses teaching and research across economics, financial sciences, management sciences and public management. Its stated mission is to advance relevant knowledge and develop employable, innovative and diverse graduates who can co-create value for society, while its vision places economic, financial and management education, research and community engagement within national, African and global contexts. Responsible, visionary and committed leadership is explicitly identified among the Faculty’s institutional commitments. EMS is also the first faculty of its kind in Africa to achieve AACSB accreditation, placing it within the international business-education community while retaining an explicit commitment to African relevance and societal impact. Its research strategy emphasises work that contributes to knowledge while addressing complex societal problems — an important context for understanding the role played by ALLI within the Faculty. The Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute (ALLI) is situated within the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and is associated with its Department of Business Management. It provides a focal point within the Faculty for programmes and research concerned specifically with responsible leadership. Its roots lie in the Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership, established in EMS in 2011 to explore responsibility in the context of a sustainable future. The Centre evolved into the Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute in 2020, broadening its mandate to enable work across disciplinary and faculty boundaries. With the vision “Reimagine Leadership”, ALLI pursues scholarship, education and societal engagement that seek to reimagine leadership in Africa towards social, environmental and economic justice. Its work deliberately extends beyond conventional approaches to management and leadership, drawing on inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives to engage the interconnected challenges facing organisations, communities, societies and the planet. This orientation is reflected in ALLI’s postgraduate programmes and research. The Faculty, through ALLI, offers programmes including the MPhil in Responsible Leadership, Master’s in Development Practice and PhD in Leadership. The PhD explicitly approaches leadership as a transdisciplinary discourse connected to the management and sustainability of socio-ecological systems, while responsible-leadership teaching critically examines business leadership, corporate responsibility and assumptions underpinning contemporary economic and organisational life. ALLI’s work extends from responsible leadership into development practice and implementation of complex societal agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals. Initiatives associated with the Institute include the South African SDG Hub, the South African SDG Policy Support Initiative and engagement with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. More recently, ALLI has also been appointed to lead UP’s participation in South Africa’s G20 Legacy Knowledge Initiative, strengthening its role at the intersection of scholarship, policy, global governance and Global South knowledge systems. Through ALLI, the EMS Faculty therefore brings to the GRLI partnership more than a specialist interest in leadership. It provides an institutional home in which assumptions about leadership, management, development and responsibility can be critically examined — and where alternative approaches can be researched, taught and translated into practice.

Gordon Institute of Business Science

The Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) is the University of Pretoria’s business school, based in Johannesburg. Proudly African and internationally connected, GIBS focuses on general management and aims to improve responsible individual and organisational performance in South Africa and the broader African environment through high-quality business and management education. Its purpose is to “inspire exceptional performance to make business healthier.” GIBS extends UP’s contribution to globally responsible leadership directly into the worlds of management education, executive development and organisational practice. Through its academic programmes, executive and corporate education, research and engagement with business, the School works with current and future leaders confronting the economic, social, technological and environmental realities shaping organisations and society. Responsibility and sustainability form an explicit part of this agenda. GIBS is a United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Champion and holds Triple Crown accreditation through AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS, alongside regional accreditation from the Association of African Business Schools. This places GIBS within several of the key international and African networks shaping the future of management education. Its contribution to the GRLI partnership is consequently strongly practice-facing: connecting questions about globally responsible leadership to how managers are educated, how organisations are led, how business engages society and how African perspectives can inform — and challenge — global management practice.

A complementary University of Pretoria partnership within GRLI

Through ALLI and the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, together with GIBS, the University of Pretoria brings a distinctive combination of capabilities to the GRLI community. EMS provides a broad academic environment spanning economics, management, finance and public administration, with an explicit commitment to relevant knowledge, responsible leadership and societal value. Within that environment, ALLI provides a concentrated space for challenging and reimagining leadership through the lenses of responsibility, sustainability, justice and development. GIBS, in turn, brings deep engagement with managers, executives, organisations and the wider business-education ecosystem. The partnership therefore connects questions of who we are as leaders, how our organisations learn and act, and the wider social, economic and ecological systems for which leadership and business share responsibility. It creates opportunities to bridge scholarship and practice; responsible leadership and responsible management education; economic and organisational life; African experience and global inquiry. In doing so, the University of Pretoria contributes a powerful institutional platform for GRLI’s shared work of making global responsibility real in how we learn, live and lead.