Two INSEAD professors, Theo Vermaelen and N. Craig Smith, provide a set of well-thought-out perspectives on the MBA Oath.
Vermaelen makes the provocative argument that the Oath actually invites violation of fiduciary duties and ethical standards. Meanwhile, Smith states that the Oath may be one of a number of appropriate responses by business schools to business misconduct.
Both provide different viewpoints on that core MBA Oath dilemma – can the Oath encourage improved behavior?
Two 2010 MBA students present very different viewpoints on the MBA Oath in the Harbus, HBS’ weekly student paper. Larry Estrada calls the oath “an opportunity to reassert the purpose of the business profession”.
As MBA students and future business leaders, we have an opportunity to promote a higher standard aimed at professionalizing business and ensuring a purpose rooted in responsible long-term value creation not simply short-term value extraction.
Meanwhile Andrew Sridhar is skeptical of the Oath’s aims.
Follow the law and your personal ethics, but resist the urgings to “play fairly.”
The Oath acknowledges the usefulness of capitalism, drive, and the profit motive, but also encourages managers to consider a broader sense of purpose. Is there an insurmountable chasm between the two viewpoints?
In a provocative essay on Businessweek.com, INSEAD Dean J. Frank Brown suggests that business schools need to seize on the current environment as an opportunity.
If business schools don’t focus more on ethics now, today’s concern about business ethics will fade away, and no progress will be made after all the world has been through in the past couple of years.
We only need to look back at news articles from 2002 to find talk of a pre-Enron and post-Enron environment and its effect on business education. Many point out that not enough was done at that time and that following a path of inaction now will lead to yet another sense of deja vú a few years down the road.
The MBA Oath continues to generate a lot of discussion online, with a great recent discussion at 12Manage.
Also Time has a short review of Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s new book on “How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good.”
From South Korea, we get word that several graduates from the first graduating class of the SolBridge International School of Business have embraced the MBA Oath. Along with the newly-minted graduates, we are seeing an increasing number of MBAs with years and sometimes decades’ worth of experience taking the MBA Oath. Among them is our 1,500th signer, David Epstein (Boston U MBA ‘83) as well as several signers whose post-MBA experience spans more than 40 years. We are very pleased to see experienced professionals commit to the principles of the oath.
We are ramping up efforts to build on the MBA Oath momentum by providing MBA students worldwide the opportunity to start official MBA Oath chapters at their schools.
Those who embark on starting a chapter will face a challenging task, but will also join the passionate group of founding students who are aiming to change the business world by setting higher standards for management.
More information, as well as a chapter kit, is now available.
The Christian Science Monitor’s piece on the MBA Oath brings up a student’s questioning of whether “serving the greater good” is compatible with capitalism.
Such dialogue highlights “a deep fundamental difference about what the purpose of the corporation is and whether it has any responsibility to society other than maximizing profits,” says Rakesh Khurana…It will take this kind of pressure, he says, for business schools to shift curriculum and practices to emphasize different values.
The MBA Oath is based upon the idea that self-interest is an important driver of capitalism, but that it is not incompatible with having a responsibility to different stakeholders and to society at large. The intent isn’t to force a binary choice between raw individualism and collectivisim, but to encourage the acknowledgement of broader responsibilities.
The Utah Economist blog posts an interesting question in the context of intellectual property rights and profit protection – how much societal value creation or destruction is there in companies protecting their innovations through patents?
A similar dillemma can be found in matters as diverse as regulated utilities with a guaranteed return and Mickey Mouse’s copyright restrictions. A certain degree of protection helps motivate innovation, but when does it turn into an unjust protection of incumbents?
An incoming 2010 Duke EMBA student has posted a critique of the MBA oath which reflects two common concerns that we have seen from MBAs regarding the oath.
At its core, the “MBA Oath” reads as if historically, the only reason that a person pursued an MBA was to become a better grifter. Someone proficient at stomping on subordinates, polluting the environment, and who would kick their Grandma down a flight of stairs just to make a buck…So as an incoming student, I will not be signing the “MBA Oath”, even though Duke Honor Code played a large part in my decision to attend. At best, it is redundant; at worst, it is dangerous in setting the expectation that anybody pursuing/possessing an MBA is someone to watch for unethical behavior.
We don’t intend for MBA Oath signers to be viewed as grifters restraining themselves from a “natural” set of unethical behaviors, just as doctors who have taken the Hippocratic Oath aren’t generally viewed as restraining a natural tendency to do harm.
That said, the MBA Oath is also born out of an environment that has shown that changes are needed in the management profession, and we hope MBAs can take the lead in driving those positive changes. The Oath is not a magic bullet or a vaccine against poor ethics or a lack of responsibility, but it is a public affirmation and a pledge to do better. As we’ve said earlier, affirmations themselves have been shown to be powerful, and we intend to offer mechanisms to help people live the Oath.
We also don’t think the Oath is redundant in the face of individual school honor codes. The Duke Honor code cited by the student in their blog post, for example, is primarily oriented towards actions during the MBA, while the MBA Oath pertains to actions taken by MBAs after graduating. Some schools, such as Columbia and Thunderbird, have codes and oaths which are outward looking. These various initiatives have played a part in setting the building blocks for the MBA Oath, and it is our intent to draw on that spirit of honor, professionalism, and ethics of all schools in order to promote an oath which can apply to all MBAs.
In a news bulletin on Oxford Said Business School’s website, the Vice-Dean of Student Programmes and a current student share their thoughts on the MBA Oath. Raj Tulshan, a current student, commented:
“Many of us have found this initiative to resonate with our own convictions. The point of an MBA should not just be about equipping individuals with tools for their own enrichment, but also to deepen our appreciation about the impact of our actions.”
Oxford Said is building on its important prior efforts in addressing the role of business in society. Its students have been among some of the most eager to embrace the MBA Oath and its principles, with Said being one of the schools with the largest number of signers.
