When business schools get it wrong

Mthuli Ncube and Bobby Godsell penned an interesting piece for Financial Mail recently that has to give anyone in business pause for thought.  Why are our business school’s (in this instance Wits, but you can point a finger in any direction and come up lucky) training their students in business leadership if they are not making ethical or principle based leadership the very cornerstone of their syllabus? (See the quote below).  Why the sudden interest in business ethics?  Who is to blame for not making ethical business practice a condition for business leadership if not the schools themselves?  Around the world business schools are taking some serious flack for not emphasising the need for consistency or morality in decision making; nor that performance, at any cost, is just not an option.  A piece like this only inflames an already disappointing realisation:  SA business schools don’t understand the nature of leadership in business anymore than their northern hemisphere colleagues.  See full article at http://secure.financialmail.co.za/09/0529/opinion/bopinion.htm : Quote follows:

In these troubled times then, surely business schools need to be reflecting on their role in the current financial crisis and in shaping the environment for nurturing future leadership in business. The world economy is going through a “great dislocation” and it is not business as usual.  Ethics is the way in which people choose between morally significant alternative courses of action. The subject tends to exist only at the periphery of teaching. Leaders in every sphere of society must choose to exercise their power, authority and resources well or badly. The patterns of meaning that provide a context for responsible, “eyes wide open” choice in business should be a core and compulsory part of a business school’s teaching.  In these troubled times then, surely business schools need to be reflecting on their role in the current financial crisis and in shaping the environment for nurturing future leadership in business. The world economy is going through a “great dislocation” and it is not business as usual.   Indeed the current crisis provides a rich agenda of moral dilemmas. This is the crucible in which business leadership is and will be forged. If it is not to be found wanting, those who claim to teach business should address these issues. This will also require business leaders with courage and integrity. In dealing with these issues, are the world’s business schools up to the challenge?

MBA’s in the firing line

A while back I mentioned how much I enjoyed Philip Broughton’s take on ‘What they teach you at Harvard Business School’  and that it mirrored my own thoughts about the gap in what business school’s teach and what they should teach.  Performance, while doing the right things, and bringing about a balance in one’s life, seems a sensible purpose for a business school to me. Recently, I read in a Financial Mail column from Wits Business School that the Dean and his leadership reckons that business schools needed to address this.  Who’s fault is it I wonder that they don’t?  And now Matthew Lynn has been more direct by laying accountability for the worldwide economic meltdown we are witnessing directly at the door of the most prestigious business schools in the world.  How do you know someone has an MBA?  They tell you they do.  I found that funny first time and it sounds just as good now.  I think the economic crisis we are in though will turn that around:  How do you know someone has an MBA?  They don’t mention it.  Leadership should be inspiring.  Be inspired.