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1: ISSN: 2319-3344
Abstract: Modern management education has no clear ethical and social responsibility goalposts. This is now
imperative to analyze how to teach and inculcate among managent students and professionals about business ethics
and social responsibility as it is important to influence and shape their thinking. Thus helping them to become more
ethically sensitive and socially responsible is an important responsibility of the present management
education/institutes. This paper propose to analyze the effect of management education, (including past and present
managent education) on society as many organizations now believe that ethics, social responsibility and sustainable
practices are important to the long run success of the institutions. Business Schools must have higher responsibility
of positive social change and formulate corporate strategy to bring social progress. This paper also seeks to analyze
the challenges faced by business Schools in this regard as quality business practices and management education
have become critical factors in determining nations competitiveness and thus having larger implication.
Keywords: Management education, Business ethics, Social responsibility, Social progress, Competitiveness
JEL Classification Code: I20, I21, I29, M14
Accepted On: 27.10.2012
1. Introduction
The practice of management has always reflected
the times and social conditions, so now we are
seeing organizations responding to technology
breakthroughs and developing Web-based
operations. These new business models reflect
todays reality, information can be shared and
exchanged instantaneously anywhere on the
planet. Every organization has to be aware of the
fact that it must build its organizational division
that is flexible and innovative; it recognizes that it
is not always easy to implement new ideas.
The history of management practice is filled with
examples of evolutions and revolutions in
implementing new ideas about how organizations
should be managed. Here we shall look at the brief
history of management as to how it evolved, how
the principles were formulated and it mainly about
the steady march towards decentralization.
Knowledge of management history can help us
understand todays management theory and
practice. We shall determine the origins of many
contemporary management concepts and see how
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International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Management, Vol. 1; No. 1: ISSN: 2319-3344
workforce, but many pre-industrial enterprises,
given their small scale, did not feel compelled to
face the issues of management systematically.
However, innovations such as the spread of Arabic
numerals (5th to 15th centuries) and the
codification
of double-entry
book-keeping
provided tools for
management
assessment,
planning and control.
Looking back in the history of management we
see that the same principles which are currently in
practice regarding management had been
formulated a long time ago. From this perspective,
Frenchman Henri Fayol, considers management to
consist of six functions: forecasting, planning,
organizing,
commanding,
coordinating,
controlling. He was one of the most influential
contributors to modern concepts of management.
Another way of thinking, Mary Parker Follett,
wrote on the topic in the early twentieth century,
defined management as "the art of getting things
done through people". She described management
as philosophy. The Pre-twentieth-century events
played particularly significant roles in promoting
the study of management. The early writings have
created a background of works that assisted in the
modern management theories.
One of the important questions before the
Business Schools today is to look sincerely i.e.,
the school administration, faculty and students
must have some intense questions as to what
caused these banking, finance and real estates
scandals? What caused business and economy to
this situation specifically in the context of US?
James Rost pointed out that education is the most
important determinant of cognitive moral
development and ethical maturity. Heron [1] also
said that cognitive moral development is one of
the important critical personal characteristics
influencing the whole ethical decision making
process. Moreover, according to Newbaum et al.,
[2], We also know that the ethics can be taught,
and the educational programmes that integrate the
study of ethical theory with its practical
application can be highly effective. Turnley and
Mudwick [6] said that, Prior research suggests
that ethics instruction has the potential to make
people less likely to engage in unethical behavior.
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2. Business Ethics
Responsibility
and
Social
International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Management, Vol. 1; No. 1: ISSN: 2319-3344
shareholders. So therefore should the business
pursue all activities that enhance profitability and
increase the value of the business for the owners
and / or shareholders? This very purpose can be
achieved on a higher proportion when the business
behaves in a socially responsible and ethical
manner. It is not right or correct just to function
within the epistle of law. One of the best methods
to become successful for any organization is to
serve and help the local community and its
employees to lead better lives. By examining each
and every decision they make based on
profitability, business ethics and social
responsibility they display a fair chance to better
their brand and over the time higher profitability.
The need for this particular study is to be correctly
understood as the global management has a lot of
criticisms of the business patterns adopted lately.
The criticism has been about businesses seeing
value creation only in terms of achieving shortterm, unsustainable results and how business
schools prepare future leaders predate the financial
meltdown due to ignorance of following the
business ethics which would have help them
sustain. The crisis simply made it more obvious
that business as usual isnt working, either in the
classroom or boardroom. Adding value is the key
element and what is more important here is adding
values to management education. The piece of
management education reform that involves the
role of ethics has added importance not only
because trust in business has fallen so far, but also
because it is tied to how leaders behave and the
impact that has on a company culture as well as
society
3. Literature Review
Management students come from diversified
cultures, backgrounds and statures with a certain
confidence in what ethics and responsibility depict
but forget its real essence and fall in the pit of ego
centered motives. In order to be a globalised
citizen and to actually understand what this term
really stands for in todays modern day society we
need to understand the Ethics first. Ethics can be
expressed as social concept which caters to
morals. Executives become moral managers by
recognizing and accepting their responsibility for
acting as ethical role models. They must also
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International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Management, Vol. 1; No. 1: ISSN: 2319-3344
management education. The authors now consider
that the proposed world-view leads to moral
ethics-friendly worldview, and some consideration
of its implications [5].
These measures may more commonly be used for
research, but they can also serve instructional
purposes. Though reports with much more
extensive details concerning particular values and
ethics-related measures are available for
academicians willing to invest time and study, the
author has been unable to find a basic summary in
the business and professional ethics literature [6].
In simple words, to get on the path of World
Development it is important to materialize the all
possible Human Capital; which can be optimized
if they are educated. For research in business and
professional ethics, various measures related to
individual values, ethics attitudes and moral
reasoning exist and are being increasingly applied.
Many of these measures, beyond research usage,
offer potential for instructional purposes.
Knowledge of the characteristics and limitations of
the values and ethics-related measures allows
better selections of possible supplements to
traditional instructional methods for business
educators [7]. The main findings of the literature
survey are shown in a nutshel in Table 1.
4. Criticisms on
Responsibility
Businesses
Present Social
Models
for
International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Management, Vol. 1; No. 1: ISSN: 2319-3344
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International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Management, Vol. 1; No. 1: ISSN: 2319-3344
Figure 1. McKinsey model of CSR (Source: The McKinsey Quarterly, Chart Focus Newsletter, Dec. 2006)
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International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Management, Vol. 1; No. 1: ISSN: 2319-3344
corporate boards, and having an apparent and
enforceable system of accountability [30].
While business school curricula do teach scientific
research,
efficiency,
accuracy,
operations
management, and economic theories, they also
teach students about value creation by maintaining
a healthy relationship with their suppliers,
colleagues, unions, government entities, etc. for the
long-term sustainability of their success. This
dichotomy would suggest that studies are needed to
see if business schools are in fact driven to more
toward revenues and profits or are they more
focused on the long-term success of their graduates.
The culture of each school heavily influences what
the faculty and staff actually focus on. And the
institutional culture of each school is heavily
influenced by their top leaders, including the Dean,
department chairs and program level directors. As
such it becomes imperative that academics focus on
the state of business schools, education, and ethics
since all graduates will eventually end up in the
workplace where they will face a challenging and
competitive work environment.
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International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Management, Vol. 1; No. 1: ISSN: 2319-3344
To help students practice integrating ethics into the
decision-making
mix,
Loyola
Marymount
University (LMU) has developed an invitational
intercollegiate business ethics case competition
which attracts international participation. It is also
sponsored by the Ethics and Compliance Officer
Association, a professional group for corporate
compliance officers, whose members serve as
judges. MBA and undergraduate teams make
presentations showing their understanding of the
legal, ethical and financial dimensions of problems.
Every decision you make in business generally
occurs when you are under pressure, without all the
information or time you like, and in the midst of
competing factors usually financial, legal or
ethical issues, says Thomas White, professor and
director of the Center for Ethics and Business, who
created the competition. There needs to be more
emphasis on ethics education in MBA programs
(however, it is done) because individuals need more
technical ability in recognizing and resolving
ethical issues, which are as sophisticated and
complex as any financial problem, and getting more
so. The success of business education reform has
many champions, and is coming up again at a time
when there is crisis fatigue as well as examples of
successful companies with a value proposition that
puts a priority on social good.
In response to the demands of the 21st century
marketplace and the need to stay in step with peers,
companies continue to seek the help of business
schools in redefining what it means to be socially
responsible, and teaching students to have a
socially responsible mindset with decision-making
skills that look beyond short-term benefits. Going
beyond the basics, here is a description of how
some quite different universities combine theory
and research with robust practical learning to
develop high-potential employees who understand
and embrace corporate social responsibility and
business ethics.
In Haas School of Business, University of
California-Berkeley - a defining part of the culture
at the Haas School is its commitment to teaching
and exploring ethical and social responsibilities of
business. This is accomplished through cuttingedge research and bringing real world consulting
challenges into the classroom. "About 40 percent of
the graduate students come to Berkeley specifically
because of its reputation as a premier CSR
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International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Management, Vol. 1; No. 1: ISSN: 2319-3344
Not-for Profits, investing their earnings for their
enhancement and diversification.
Why there is a necessity of a separate Social
Responsibility Model for Management Education?
The Management education should shoulder the
social responsibilities for the upliftment of not only
the society but Nation at large. There are education
societies in India that are shouldering the social
responsibilities as corporate organization does by
imparting education free of cost to the members of
the society. By doing so the job of the education
societies does not get restricted but they should
look beyond and create business leaders those can
shoulder the social responsibilities further and
contributes towards the nation.
The sense of social responsibility on the business
leaders cannot be imbibed at the later stage of their
higher education but same can be made felt from
base level of education hence forth making the
individuals feel socially responsible for the society
at large. The present CSR models may be fit for
business but not for business education. As it has
lot of criticisms and gaps there is a necessarily a
separate model for Business Education (Social
Responsibility of Educational Organizations,
SREO) that can decipher Business from Education
as Business.
While many Management schools are already
deeply involved in renewing and reinvigorating
their commitment to ethics in business education,
social responsibility and continuous improvement
are as important in this field as in any other.
Making the world a better place isnt the
exclusive province of business schools; but
business schools canand want toequip their
students to be ethical and successful managers and
leaders. While the task force does not prescribe a
particular curriculum or course, it recommends that
followers of management education encourage its
member and their faculties to renew and revitalize
their commitment to ethical responsibility at both
the individual and organizational levels. Schools
should be encouraged to demonstrate this
commitment throughout their academic programs,
assessment processes, research agendas, and
outreach activities.
The task force recommends that management
education should support and encourage a
renaissance in business ethics and social
responsibility exercise its leadership role to ensure
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