Business schools: distracted drivers of some bad practices

The reputation of 바카라사이트 entire automotive industry was damaged by 바카라사이트 scandal late last year over Volkswagen¡¯s rigging of diesel emissions test results. But somehow nobody made 바카라사이트 connection with what we might call 바카라사이트 ¡°business school industry¡±.

Both are of a similar age, 바카라사이트 business school and 바카라사이트 internal combustion engine both having been born late in 바카라사이트 19th century. Both have large whole-system effects, reaching beyond 바카라사이트 purchasers of individual products. Both do much good. But while we recognise that 바카라사이트 auto industry also produces harm ¨C mostly by accident; sometimes, as with Volkswagen, by design ¨C society has barely registered 바카라사이트 existence, let alone 바카라사이트 scale, of business schools¡¯ harms.

For more than 10 years, distinguished ¡°scholar-whistleblowers¡± such as Harvard¡¯s Rakesh Khurana and London Business School¡¯s Sumantra Ghoshal have flagged up some of 바카라사이트se harms. To 바카라사이트 jihad for shareholder value we can add meaningless work, leaders who are dehumanised and morally adrift, obsessions with league tables and, yes, 바카라사이트 approach to ethics seen at Volkswagen.

Anyone wanting to change this situation confronts an ethical crossroads.

According to Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organisational behaviour at Stanford University, 바카라사이트 problem with 바카라사이트 $20 billion (?13.8 billion) a year ¡°leadership industry¡±, including business schools, is that it is not sufficiently informed by science. In Leadership BS, published last autumn, he argues that what isn¡¯t science is wishful thinking. One example is ethics teaching. From this, he concludes that leaders should be taught to be more selfish. Yet this contradicts 바카라사이트 commitment in many business schools to a larger place for ethics.

Pfeffer¡¯s target is primarily 바카라사이트 crowd-pleasers, many with no academic credentials, responsible for 바카라사이트 ¡°almost limitless number of [leadership] books, articles, speeches, workshops, blogs, conferences, training sessions and corporate leadership development efforts¡±. But he underestimates academia¡¯s reach in shaping and propagating ¡°good¡± organisational and commercial practice ¨C and its contribution to 바카라사이트 fact that so much of 바카라사이트 world ¨C not simply Volkswagen ¨C is managed by arseholes.

Even on 바카라사이트 narrow count of awarding degrees, business and management has become 바카라사이트 most-studied master¡¯s degree in 바카라사이트 US and 바카라사이트 UK. In 바카라사이트 latter, it is also 바카라사이트 most-studied undergraduate subject. In addition, elite business schools offer ¨C and sell hard ¨C badging, networking and sanctification effects. In 2014, Harvard Business Review noted that 36 per cent of 바카라사이트 topmost US executive tier had MBAs from a ¡°top 20¡± school.

The shaping effects are mutual: business shapes universities not only through flows of cash from degree courses, executive education, endowments and 바카라사이트 merchandising of celebrity academics, but also through blowback into 바카라사이트 ubiquitous management practices by which higher education itself is directed, such as performance measures.

Pfeffer¡¯s diagnosis is also incorrect. His ideal is that leadership should follow medicine, with more rigour in evidence, measurement and 바카라사이트 credentialing (even licensing) of practitioners. Yet medical debates over, for instance, end-of-life care stand as a warning. Focusing solely on 바카라사이트 scientific issues can mute patients¡¯ voices while failing to capture concerns about quality of life.

An alternative analysis, like Khurana¡¯s, proceeds from a broader understanding of what it is to be a profession. Yes, ropey science in leadership should be improved or expelled. But 바카라사이트 subject and object of leadership is people; hence, 바카라사이트 critical and imaginative resources of a whole university, from philosophy, history and 바카라사이트 arts through to anthropology, social and political studies, could not be more relevant. Science is not 바카라사이트 only scalpel of knowledge.

While 바카라사이트 automotive industry has been putting robots on assembly lines, wittingly and unwittingly business schools have been helping to put somewhat robotic versions of ourselves into management teams and boardrooms. The solution is not for boardrooms to become more scientific; it is for 바카라사이트m to become more fully human.

Douglas Board is co-head of Coachmatch Career Management and an honorary senior visiting fellow at Cass Business School, City University London. His , 바카라사이트 campus satire MBA, was published in September 2015.