Debates among business school faculties these days mirror those taking place on the business (and sometimes front) pages of our newspapers. The question: What are appropriate responses to the perceived breakdown in trust between leaders, those who work with them, those who advise them, and those who invest in their organizations?
The educational responses will take many forms. First, increased emphasis may be placed on the teaching of ethics—socially acceptable decision-making and decision-implementation behaviors—to those who will become leaders and managers confronted with alternatives that some would view as involving right and wrong, and others would view as involving a selection of the lesser of two or more wrongs. Taken to its extreme, this may involve some effort to effect moral change among those studying ethical issues.
Other approaches to instruction will place heavier emphasis on values—individual, organizational, or both. Here, more attention will be paid to the careful development of, and adherence by managers to, what in the past often have been meaningless organizational value statements. These may or may not reflect ethical values, but include preferred behaviors such as treating people with respect, exercising speed in decision-making, insuring transparency and the sharing of information, and emphasizing simplicity in ways of getting things done.
Just how these topics are to be taught will occupy a significant portion of faculty discussion and planning time as well in the coming months. Should the topics be addressed in separate courses staffed by those with substantial training in philosophy as well as management theory? Or should they be examined in courses primarily designed to address marketing, accounting, financial, human resource, and operational matters and taught by those only with strong functional backgrounds?
Of course, only a limited amount of time can be allocated in a curriculum to these topics, whether taught in stand-alone courses or as integral to all courses. Any school that cuts back on basic courses such as marketing, accounting, and the like does so at the risk of inadequately providing its graduates with the basics needed for success in the early years of their careers.
Do recent events warrant this reallocation of educational time and effort? What kind of emphasis should it have: on ethics, values, or something else? And just how should the instructional effort be carried out: in stand-alone classes, integral to all courses, or in some other manner (recognizing the shortcomings of any one approach)? What do you think?