THE Buck Starts Here

Many believe that management education has contributed to the systemic failure of today's leaders. After reading the Podolny (2009) article, in your reflection blog share your thoughts on how business schools can best prepare future leaders to adopt a holistic approach to business problems and ethical dilemmas. Be sure to share benchmarks and examples of how some of the B-Schools are accomplishing this.

            It is no secret that many people have an issue with what they perceive the typical business personnel to be. Many people believe that business men and women in today’s society are crooks and are only out for their own good and wealth. With large cases like “Enron” and the fact that many CEO’s earn vast amounts of money compared to their subordinates much further below, it is no surprise that the MBA students and schools can sometimes have a bad reputation.

            In this article Podolny talks about what is lacking in the education of an MBA, not until recently schools have begun to show interest and also a need in exploring the benefits of classes dealing with leadership, ethics, and business law. “With corporate scandals and billion-dollar bankruptcies dominating headlines for more than a year, ethics has become almost a hotter topic than earnings on business-school campuses” (Newsweek, 2003).  Business schools have come a long way from what the normal topics were considered to be, from the 1950’s to the 1990’s many business schools were mainly concerned with analytics, the numbers side of business. In many major business schools today, there is a culture in which many people have heated discussions on ethics and how to be a good leader. As a proud student of the Embry Riddle business school, I myself am amazed by all of the different topics which we have covered in this business leadership degree.

            What many people have come to realize, and what I believe is the future of business, is the leadership qualities which a manager will possess.  It seems to me that the analytics portion of business, all though it is very important, this is a job which can be accomplished by a computer with today’s technology. The part if business which cannot be taken over by technology will be the leadership portion of it, a computer can never compute what is ethical and have good moral standing. It is important that as business students we realize that even though technology will take away some jobs, good business leaders will be able to find new ways to make their business much more successful.

            As business students if we are to regain the trust of the people which we serve, we need to recapture the human side to business and not solely look at the profit which we can make through loop holes. I thought it was a great idea which Podolny had when he said “Managers can learn from doctors and lawyers. Before those professions had strong national associations, they created governing groups, usually connected to universities, which certified individuals as worthy of practice. In the same way, a business school, its faculty, and its graduates can constitute a governing group” (Podolny, 2009). This is a great new approach and the right direction we need to take towards having accountability in this profession. It is a way to restore trust in not only the MBA, but also in the business student and in the business man. If business men and women deal with human lives, large sums of money, and the future of our nation; similar to how doctors and lawyers do, then why should we not be held accountable to the same standard as they are? I believe that having a business degree which can be revoked if you are involved in unethical work is a step in the right direction. A step like this could change the way in we hire future business employees, and it will also hold us all accountable.

            I believe that future of the business world is a strong one because we have continued to evolve on many different fronts. There are so many different topics which range from ethics, to leadership, to even the way we handle business with other cultures across the globe. The business schools seem to be heading in the right direction, it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world gets on board and realizes that the business man or women of the future is a truly developed being with skills in many departments.

References

-       Podolny, J. M. (2009). The Buck Stops (and Starts) at Business School. Harvard Business Review, 87(6), 62-67.

-       "An Ethical Dilema." News Week, 18 Feb. 2003. Web. 14 Aug. 2015. <http://www.newsweek.com/ethical-dilemma-139869>.