‘Have Business Schools Failed Society? How and why?’

Enron, Arthur Andersen, Sotheby's and Christie's, Martha Stewart and, most recently, the Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are most known examples of ethical lapses. Some academics, such as Ghoshal (2005), Giacalone and Thompson (2006), Mitroff (2004) and Pfeffer (2005) make most responsible for the recent scandals the influence of the theoretical underpinnings of business education on managers, teaching a profits-first perspective. Others affirm that MBA programs are irrelevant to the needs of practicing managers (Mintzberg 2004; Pfeffer & Fong 2002 as cited in Slater & Dixon-Fowler 2010). However, are these critics justified? Have business schools failed society? I answer: ‘Certainly’. The aim of this essay is to provide a critical analysis of the ideas I explored through my readings of academic literature about the responsibility of business schools in the past corporate scandals. To do so, I identify how business schools have contributed to perpetuate the wrongness of our society. Nevertheless, I finally depict some improvements encountered in current and for future practices.

Statement of claim

MBA graduates who have achieved positions of power and influence have made decisions with disastrous consequences on society. So what is going on here? Should business schools be more accountable? Yes. Indeed, they have propagated institutionalized and amoral economic theories valorizing economy over social concerns, have denigrated the usefulness of ethics studies to focus on ‘hard skills’ and have accepted corporations to dictate to them the orientation of their teaching.