Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/61375
at the Helm by Sandra Waddock illustration by Diane Fenster We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion... —T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men" Men Until business schools teach future managers how deep the connections are between business, society, nature, and the world, corporations will continue to be run by hollow leaders with no sense of ethics or responsibility. The hollow men of T.S. Eliot's poem might double as some of today's corporate leaders, who seem to be lacking both reacting to the systemic pressures and performance expectations of Wall Street. In 2002, leading scholars in the Academy ofManagement debated the Academy's role in respond- ing to the ethical scandals of the early part of the decade. They diagnosed the root caus- es as the "overemphasis American corporations have been forced to give in recent years to maximizing shareholder value without regard for the effects of their actions on other stakeholders," according to an article written by Thomas A. Kochan. currently dominates management thinking. Many of the abuses that have come to light in the past few years are the result of CEOs 24 BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2004 a major turning point in the conversation about corporate ethics and integrity. At the same time, it raised compelling questions about the role of management education in preparing business leaders. Certainly, in these post-Enron days, it is difficult to ignore the impact of the supposedly value-neutral economic theory that substance and heart. Yet troubling questions must be asked when we consider how these top executives evolved.How did they learn their basic business principles? Why have they been so prone to scandals? Did widely held beliefs and attitudes at major business schools contribute to the corporate disasters that opened the decade of the 2000s? The collapse of giants like Enron and Arthur Andersen signaled