Futuríveis
terça-feira, janeiro 11, 2005
On business schools and morality
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What is needed, he argues, is a radical change in what business schools teach. The problem with business school education is that it has no higher order ideals. It teaches that profit is the sole proof of business success, whether it is achieved by producing drugs that cure cancer or cigarettes that cause it. Business schools have nothing to say about "love, forgiveness, gratitude and hope", none of which can be reduced to money. Business schools have none of the aspirations for society as a whole that medical or engineering schools take for granted. What is needed, he says, is "a transcendent business education for the 21st century".
With this polemic, Prof Giacalone joins a growing group of business professors attacking their schools and what they stand for. The group includes some of the best-known names, including Henry Mintzberg of McGill and Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford.
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Central to the problem, it seems to me, is that business school professors have made fundamentally different career choices from their students. The professors have chosen to become educators; the students - the few non-profit managers apart - go to business school in the hope of reaching the highest echelons of business. Educators, for the most part, choose their jobs because they want to improve the life chances of the young. Business leaders aim for power, challenge, control and the opportunity to make money. Business school professors may not be badly paid, but, by choosing their careers, they have opted to earn less than their charges.
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Business schools can and should invite trade unionists, environmentalists and anti- globalisation campaigners to address their classes. But they will probably achieve more against corruption if they remind students of the consequences of getting caught. Some schools already invite business convicts to speak. According to the New York Times last year, Walter Pavlo, who spent more than 18 months in jail, spoke at the University of California Berkeley's Haas School. But the newspaper also reported that Mr Pavlo expected to earn up to $200,000 a year from his speeches, so he may be more of an inspiration than a deterrent.
FT.com / Business life - Michael Skapinker: On business schools and morality
What is needed, he argues, is a radical change in what business schools teach. The problem with business school education is that it has no higher order ideals. It teaches that profit is the sole proof of business success, whether it is achieved by producing drugs that cure cancer or cigarettes that cause it. Business schools have nothing to say about "love, forgiveness, gratitude and hope", none of which can be reduced to money. Business schools have none of the aspirations for society as a whole that medical or engineering schools take for granted. What is needed, he says, is "a transcendent business education for the 21st century".
With this polemic, Prof Giacalone joins a growing group of business professors attacking their schools and what they stand for. The group includes some of the best-known names, including Henry Mintzberg of McGill and Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford.
...
Central to the problem, it seems to me, is that business school professors have made fundamentally different career choices from their students. The professors have chosen to become educators; the students - the few non-profit managers apart - go to business school in the hope of reaching the highest echelons of business. Educators, for the most part, choose their jobs because they want to improve the life chances of the young. Business leaders aim for power, challenge, control and the opportunity to make money. Business school professors may not be badly paid, but, by choosing their careers, they have opted to earn less than their charges.
...
Business schools can and should invite trade unionists, environmentalists and anti- globalisation campaigners to address their classes. But they will probably achieve more against corruption if they remind students of the consequences of getting caught. Some schools already invite business convicts to speak. According to the New York Times last year, Walter Pavlo, who spent more than 18 months in jail, spoke at the University of California Berkeley's Haas School. But the newspaper also reported that Mr Pavlo expected to earn up to $200,000 a year from his speeches, so he may be more of an inspiration than a deterrent.
FT.com / Business life - Michael Skapinker: On business schools and morality
posted by CMT, 12:42 da manhã
