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Your Turn A Clarion Call for Business Schools The economic crisis has sparked sharp debate about how MBA degree programs influence the behaviors of their gradu- ates, as critics cite the failures of high- profile business leaders and financial firms. At the same time, spiced-up, recurring surveys report that MBA students generally evidence a ques- tionable moral compass and a weak ethical foundation. As business schools are called to account for the philosophical tenets they impart or reinforce, many have responded by restructuring the curriculum. Some have expanded practicums and introduced community service programs. Others have added new courses in social responsibility and sustainability, put heavier emphasis on behavioral topics such as leadership and management effectiveness, and clarified their cur- ricular focus. Yet the skeptics believe these efforts are mere nods to topical con- cerns. Moreover, business schools face overarching questions: How will they help students acquire the mindsets and attributes of respected businesspeople and citizens? Do they have an obligation to teach MBA students not only how to pursue business success, but also how to meet societal obligations? Should the educational contract include a clause for teaching individual values? For the institutions that grant MBAs, reconciling these concerns with the motivations of MBA students is not a distraction but a serious dilemma. Rebalancing the MBA is a daunt- 54 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2010 ing task for faculty and administra- tors. Curricular overhauls do not come quickly, and they always pose some risk to the business school brand. Among elite universities, pro- tecting reputation can easily trump the benefits offered by unpredictable educational makeovers. Schools that take up the challenge should weigh two principal categories of questions: how they impart skills and com- petencies, and how they approach learning and understanding. As schools consider teaching skills and com- petencies, they should ask: ■ How can students be engaged in econom- ic, social, and political subjects while acquiring essential management knowledge? ■ How will the curriculum reflect re-regulation, calls for enhanced executive accountability, and government's expanded role in private enterprise? ■ What programmatic and cur- ricular adjustments will improve management skills applied across commercial organizations, the public sector, and not-for-profit enterprises? ■ How can business schools equip graduates for careers that may encompass multiple changes between public and private sectors over their working lives? They have a second set of ques- tions to answer when they consider learning and understanding: ■ How can MBA programs pro- mote a worldview that goes beyond simply affixing the "global" adjective? by Francis Bonsignore ■ How can management be joined with social science subjects to provide MBAs with an enriched context for their career endeavors and personal lives? ■ Can humanitarian subjects find a legitimate place alongside the hard- nosed empiricism of business analysis and management science? ■ How can MBA programs help instill responsibility, integrity, civility, and character among their graduates, contributing to their development both as professionals and as people? In the MBA classroom, discipline area studies and integrated analyses of business issues help students learn and apply fundamental skills. Outside the classroom, projects and group work expose students to valuable simulations of the real-world work- place. I don't suggest that these time- tested elements of the business school experience should be cast aside, but perhaps they could be enhanced if they were combined with the basics of a liberal arts education. Arguably, what a liberal arts education does best is help students understand themselves and cultivate an ability to think, while guiding them to an appreciation of moral, social, and political principles. Inte- grating the teachings of Pride and Prejudice, Walden, Animal Farm, or The Grapes of Wrath in MBA study can broaden student perspec- tives. This enriched context can go a long way toward shaping how students will relate to the workplace roles they will find among commer- cial and public enterprises. In Everett D. Martin's 1926 book The Meaning of a Liberal Education, he wrote, "It is the aim of education to develop the insight and foresight and breadth of vision which make it possible for an indi-