Negative Effects of Business Schools on Promoting Corruption

what they telling about and give a touch of whole content what is in the case study. you can see i write some guidelines the way you have to do it because thats what our teacher in demanding.

This particular assignment focuses on exploring through the significant role that business plays in motivating corruption in business as well as the probable impacts that the concept of business ethics may have on the concerned students. The thesis statement of this assignment thus, is to find out the extent to which business education can lead to or put a check on infractions in context to business scenario based on ethical grounds.

In accordance to the case study that is presented, the learner realizes that the role of business schools is to make the students aware of the different corruptive situations that the organisations and the people engaged with them need to be subject to when conducting a business. Many researchers like Matten and Moon (2004) come up with their opinions and viewpoints regarding the negative effects that the business schools have on motivating the students towards the corruption in business.

In fact, most researchers such as Jones et al. 2005) refer to business schools as ‘school for scandal’. In case, qualified students of business schools can be like Andrew Fastow (Enron’s chief financial officer) or Jeffrey Skilling (Fastow’s senior) who stand convicted under law, then it definitely raises a question on the role that the business schools play in transforming the young minds into business professionals or to talented cons. Researches done in The Economist (2005) reveal that business schools needs to be condemned because they tend to misguide the students with the amoral techniques as well as the theories, thereby paying negligible heed to conducting business in an ethical manner. In fact, Mintzberg (2004) moves on to condemn the MBA model thereby arguing that it needs to be subject to criticism since it assists the wrong individuals in wrong manners, thereby leading to wrong outcomes.

Modern researchers such as Ghoshal (2005) criticizes the former theoretical underpinnings and conceptual models and holds them responsible, thereby putting forward that the worst incidents that the business world experiences at present and the failure of the current management practices can be traced down to the ideas and the studies that have been done the business schools as early as 30 years ago. He, in fact moves on to disapprove of the importance of Porter’s 5 forces model since its focus on self interested attitude, mistrust on managers, zero-sum game of the business sole legitimacy of the shareholders, tends to make the students believe that there is no sense of moral accountability of business professionals. Moreover, there are arguments put forward by many critics such as Ghoshal (2003), which reveal the fact that while some business schools are found to incorporate business ethics module in their curriculum, other business schools hardly bother to do so, thereby focussing on the paradigms of innovation, strategies, finances, marketing and other aspects. Relevant investigations put forward by McDonald and Donleavy (1995) indicate that business ethics undoubtedly contributes in making individuals adhere to the ethical considerations that one needs to maintain while conducting business. However, it is due to the rush to obtain the competitive advantage in the market that business professionals prefer to execute the cunning and unethical procedures taught.

Debate on the Importance of Business Ethics as an Integral Part of Curriculum

In accordance to reports, there are arguments, which negate the business schools are solely to blame for the unethical operations that are found to take place in the business scenario (Boston Globe. 2003). In fact, they put forward that there are many corporate crooks who have not received any form of formal business education and still they successfully run businesses by coning people (Lacy, 2005). Thus, the debate of whether business education tends to cause or avoid infractions in learning to do business, ultimately leads to another debate as to whether business ethics needs to be an integral part of the curriculum in this business-oriented education.

In order to better understand whether the business schools manipulate the minds of the students in undertaking corruptive measures to conduct businesses and the importance of business ethics, the learner undertakes secondary research thereby focussing on the case study. Nonetheless, this specific case study not only produces theoretical knowledge but also manifests the empirical investigations done to find out whether the business schools play a part in corrupting people while conducting business.

It is from a recent survey done based on quantitative method (as laid down in the case study) that the learner obtains research findings that although about 34% of the US business schools require to implement an ethics course at the undergraduate level, only around 25% of them successfully execute it in their MBA degrees. On the contrary, half of the Europe based business schools already implement a module on ethical responsibility as an optional subject at the undergraduate level and about 30% at the post-graduation level (Matten and Moon, 2004). However, on analysing the situation it can be interpreted that, most of the students who undertake the MBA degree hardly receive any exposure to the topic related to business ethics.

In fact, in Australia most of the organisations, as Lacy (2005) points out, do face ethical issues related to conflicts of interests among the employees, workplace safety, environmental issues, sexual harassment, employee privacy, employee health screening and many other issues. As per the survey that St. James Ethics Centre conducts in 1996 conducts in Sydney in Australia, employment conflicts, employee privacy, sexual harassments and workplace safety along with environmental issues do emerge as some of the challenges that the executives in the Australian organisations face (Milton-Smith, 1997). Nonetheless, it is to be interpreted from the above research findings that the management comprising the executives, which have been part of the business schools once, undoubtedly did not lay much concentration on the improvisation and maintenance of business ethics while undertaking the courses.

Another research does substantiate the fact that about 200 professors are undertaking certain campaigns to make it mandatory in undertaking courses on ethical responsibilities. However, AACSB puts forward that the efforts of the professors of the business schools do not seem to be sufficient enough (Swanson and Frederick, 2005). Nonetheless, the professors even present the arguments that since ethical business is a wide topic, therefore it may not possible for them to cover everything at one go. Nonetheless, Alsop (2005) in the Wall Street Journal, records a survey done on MBA students as well as professors who put forward their opinions, thereby stating that the ethical requirements in business are somehow introduced in the class. In fact, the ethical based module is somewhat squeezed in the syllabus.

Conclusion

On the completion of this assignment, it can be concluded that the students are like tabula rasa in context to business operations, when they are admitted to business schools, therefore there is undoubtedly an influence of the education on the students. The business schools do manipulate the students’ minds by teaching them effective strategies that stand out as important to run a business. However, the individuality and the personal traits of people also play significant roles along with the business schools in inclining the people to undertake corruptive business measures. Hence, it stands out as necessary to introduce the topic of business ethics widely in the main curriculum of all the business schools and be given special attention while teaching so that students lay focus on it. It is to be noted that the business schools do bear the capability to install the sense of conducting ethical business in the minds of the students. The learner certainly gains adequate knowledge from the empirical investigation done in the case study.

References

Books

Jones, C., Parker, M., and ten Bos, R. (2005). For business ethics. London: Routledge.

Mintzberg, H. (2004). Managers not MBAs: a hard look at the soft practice of managing and management development. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall.

Journals

Alsop, R. (2005). “At MBA programs, teaching ethics poses its own dilemmas”. Wall Street Journal.

Ghoshal, S. (2005). “Bad management theories are destroying good management practices”. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 4 (1), pp75–91.

Lacy, P. (2005). “From the margins to the mainstream: corporate responsibility and the challenge facing business and business schools”. Business Leadership Review, 1 (2)

Matten, D. and Moon, J. (2004). “Corporate social responsibility in Europe”. Journal of Business Ethics, 54,pp 323–37.

McDonald, G.M. and Donleavy, G.D. (1995). “Objections to the teaching of business ethics”. Journal of Business Ethics, 14, pp839–53.

Milton-Smith, J.(1997) “Business Ethics in Australia and New Zealand”, Journal of Business Ethics,16(14), pp. 1485-1497

Website

Swanson, D. and Frederick, W. (2005). Campaign AACSB: status report, January. www.pitt.edu/~rorst6/sim/aacsb.

Newspapers

Boston Globe. (2003). “Harvard raises its hand on ethics”. Boston Globe, 30 December.

Ghoshal, S. (2003). “Business schools share the blame for Enron”. Financial Times, 18 July.

The Economist. (2005). “Business schools, bad for business”. The Economist, 17 February.