At the Desautels Faculty of Management, the Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management (MDIIM) champions an integrated management approach that includes cross-disciplinary programs and the linking of teaching, research, and practice.
We develop and foster an integrated approach to management education by:
- Driving cross-disciplinary teaching across the different streams and programs within the Faculty.
- Leading innovative integrated research, teaching, and outreach initiatives. We leverage the research of our professors and the expertise of top business practitioners to create exceptional programs and course content. During their time at Desautels, students contribute to academic research and engage with practitioners through experiential learning opportunities, feeding directly back into practice.
- Encouraging different understandings of value that go beyond business as usual to include economic, social, and ecological concerns.
These goals inspired us to develop a brand of management education with positive personal, organizational, and societal implications, driven by a wave of young new leaders with both a practical and theoretical appreciation of the importance of integrated management. This is why the Desautels Faculty of Management has become a global leader in integrated management education and why the MDIIM exists today.
What is Integrated Management?
The significant ecological, social, and economic issues with which our society is now wrestling and the major challenges confronting contemporary managers are closely related. As these challenges grow, leaders must be able to appreciate the interconnectedness of different forms of capital and develop innovative solutions that create value for their organization and its stakeholders.
Whether one considers the relationships between different functional areas inside an organization or the relationships between an organization and its external stakeholders, there is a growing need for managers who can articulate and reconcile issues from multiple perspectives.
Goals
MDIIM has several goals, which are to:
- Encourage management students, researchers, and practitioners to take a cross-functional, holistic, and context-sensitive approach to management and organizations to promote the validity and innovative potential of different perspectives on value;
- Foster within management students the capacity for the innovative and informed responsible decision-making required by today’s complex global environment through interdisciplinary curriculum design;
- Serve as a focal point for promoting collaborative, interdisciplinary management research by facilitating grant applications and sponsoring seminars, speaker series, workshops, networking events, etc., and in general providing a forum for sharing ideas and exploring collaborative research within the Desautels Faculty of Management and McGill University as a whole; and
- Improve integration between academia, policymakers, industry, and community leaders to better reflect the belief that management skills are applicable across all organizational sectors.
Pedagogical approach
An integrated approach to management is embedded in Desautels' programs, including the redesigned MBA and PMBA, the McGill-HEC Montréal EMBA, and the IMHL and IMPM. Moving forward, the MDIIM continues to work with faculty members, areas, and program offices to prioritize – and expand – integrated management pedagogy and to develop bold new approaches to curricula, combining research, teaching, and practice.
We also work with other McGill faculties to develop innovative new inter-faculty programs, including entrepreneurship minors for non-management students, that leverage Desautels’ strengths in integrated management pedagogy.
The following lists summarize the types of integrated management learning experiences and outcomes that we promote when designing new or modifying existing teaching programs.
Inside the classroom
- Team teaching, with instructors covering multiple perspectives
- Teaching cases analyzed from multiple perspectives
- Real world cases analyzed from multiple perspectives, on an ongoing basis throughout a semester
- Role-playing during case discussions
- In-depth discussion and analysis of current events
- Course materials that provide exposure to both success and failure in business situations
- Courses on integrative thinking &/or creativity
- Student teams competing in business simulation
- Reflections on personal objectives, course materials and current events
Outside the classroom
- Internships
- Mentoring
- Opportunities to shadow practicing managers
- Guest speakers and panel discussions
- Student-run businesses, creation of new enterprises, development of marketable quality products and services
- Service learning / hands-on community service projects
Learning outcomes related to thinking
- Holistic understanding of organizations and their environments
- Ability to identify, describe and summarize complex information relating to the nature of organizations
- Ability to identify, describe and summarize complex information relating to the environments of organizations
- Ability to identify, describe and summarize complex information relating to the people and processes within organizations
- Critical thinking skills
- Systems thinking skills
- Integrative thinking skills
- Appreciation of diverse values and perspectives
- Worldliness
- Ability to structure and enact self-directed learning
Learning outcomes related to doing
- Teamwork and interpersonal skills
- Collaboration skills
- Conflict resolution skills, including negotiation skills and mediation skills
- Tolerance for diversity
- Emotional intelligence
- Communications skills, including persuasive writing and argument construction
- Personal accountability, ethics, social awareness and civic engagement
Meet the Team
Sabine Dhir, PhD
MDIIM Acting Director
Sabine Dhir is Acting Director of the Marcel Desautels Institute of Integrated Management. She holds a doctorate in Neurology and Neurosurgery from McGill University and a Hon BSc from the University of Toronto (Victoria College). Following her academic training, Sabine joined McGill University as the Interdisciplinary Programs and Academic Affairs Officer at Graduate Studies, where she oversaw and facilitated the development of innovative academic and research programs. Sabine has served as the Manager of the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). Composed of 130 scientists and over 400 students and fellows across the six MUHC affiliated research sites, Sabine oversaw major scientific initiatives and determined strategic areas of investment in collaboration with donors and academic partners of the BRaIN Program.
Sabine’s broad portfolio as a subject matter expert for interdisciplinary and collaborative initiatives includes multiple change management projects at McGill, the development of policy and institute-wide guidelines, as well as the creation of international collaborations and government dossiers. Sabine holds awards from multiple organizations including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Association of Neuroscience, the Endocrine Society, and the New York Academy of Sciences. Sabine is an early recipient of the TD Canada Trust Scholarship for Outstanding Community Leadership and has lectured extensively on cultivating interdisciplinary teams and collaborative leadership.
Alexandra Samra
Project Manager
Alexandra Samra is responsible for a wide range of duties within MDIIM including administrative and program support for special initiatives and events. As the Program Manager for MDIIM’s experiential leadership development program, the Integrated Management Student Fellowship, she is responsible for coordinating and overseeing all logistical aspects of the Fellowship.
Alexandra is a McGill BCom graduate and understands the value and importance of receiving guided support as students prepare for impactful careers. Alexandra has varied career experience in both marketing and finance, as well as experience in both the private and public sectors. She previously worked at Limited Brands (La Senza International) in a marketing role supporting international partners around the globe. In addition, Alexandra has extensive experience in both academic and research environments, working closely with investigators and scientists as a Financial Administrator at the world-class Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre and in a managerial capacity in Finance at Desautels.
Saku Mantere, PhD
Editor in Chief, Delve
Saku Mantere is a Professor of Strategy and Organization in the Desautels Faculty of Management and Editor in Chief of Delve. Following work as a high school philosophy teacher and telecommunications engineer, he completed his PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management in his native Finland. Prior to joining McGill, Saku taught at the Warwick Business School, UK; Hanken School of Economics, Finland; Rouen Business School (now NEOMA Business School), France and Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University), Finland.
Saku’s research focuses on strategic organizations with a particular interest in strategic change, middle management and organizational communication, as well as the methodology of studying management and organizations. He holds several awards for his teaching and research, most recently for his co-authorship of the best published paper in Organization and Management Theory (Academy of Management, 2015).
Robyn Fadden
Delve Managing Editor
Robyn Fadden is responsible for managing the content and distribution of the Desautels Faculty of Management thought-leadership publication, Delve, featuring the latest insights in research-based management thinking.
Robyn is an editor and writer with extensive experience in journalism, marketing, and communications, producing forward-thinking content across digital, print, and radio. She’s covered arts and culture, business, science and technology, and the spaces where disciplines intersect. Robyn has collaborated long-term on content and strategy with Tourisme Montréal, C2 Montréal, MUTEK, technology start-ups, and multimedia companies. Engaged in community building through local media, Robyn was Arts and Culture Editor at Montréal alt-weekly paper Hour and has produced and hosted interview-based radio shows on CKUT 90.3 FM since 2006. She holds a Masters in Media Studies from Concordia with a focus on knowledge sharing.
Sofia Chaudruc
Assistant Editor, Delve
Sofia Chaudruc is responsible for ensuring the quality of communication of the Desautels Faculty of Management thought-leadership publication, Delve, featuring the latest insights in research-based management thinking. She produces and edits videos, creates data visualizations for articles and podcasts, oversees the digital marketing strategy, and plans events for Delve.
Sofia worked for Delve as a Research Assistant from 2021-2022 in her final undergraduate year at McGill. She then graduated in Spring of 2022 and took on a full-time role as Delve’s Assistant Editor. She holds a Bachelors in Cultural Studies from McGill and minored in Musical Applications of Technology and Political Science during her studies.
Contact MDIIM
MDIIM general inquiries
mdiim.mgmt [at] mcgill.ca
MDIIM mailing address
Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management, Desautels Faculty of Management
McGill University
680 Sherbrooke Street West, 8th Floor
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0B8
T.: 514-398-6061
