The characteristics of social and environmental sustainability have a profound effect on how academic institutions should go about generating knowledge so as to include the subject among their goals because the generation of interdisciplinary research and scientific knowledge based on the resolution of the problems encountered in society is one of their most important roles. This essay argues that the Brazilian educational institutions that prepare managers need to extend their current epistemological basis in order to able to more fully resolve the issues related to social and environmental sustainability. Thus, based on the available literature, the aim here is to reflect on and contribute towards the process of generating knowledge arrangements that facilitate the inclusion of environmental sustainability in Brazilian management programs. Articles dealing with the issue published in the Brazilian and international literature were analyzed in an attempt to identify the extent to which the subject of sustainability is currently integrated into management training. The theory base underlying this article adopts the ideas of complex thinking, as viewed by Edgar Morin. Thus, in order to propose a bases for building knowledge arrangements for sustainability that include pluralistic and reflexive features for Brazilian management programs, this article seeks to relate ideas about complexity with propositions from authors who view the relationship between structures and processes. This article is intended to be a starting point for reflection on the practice of management and, to further develop the subject, research will need to carried out among actors involved in the teaching of and research into management regarding their perceptions and knowledge about constructing a path towards including social and environmental sustainability in a pluralistic and reflexive manner in the training of Brazilian managers. Regarding the social implications of this paper and its impact on society, the intention is to propose different ways of dealing with the complex problems of the situation, link them with the dynamic and interdependent world, and so create a more plural knowledge that is in harmony with the complex changes that are occurring in the world.
Education; Sustainability; Manager; Complexity; Management Programs