Purpose beyond profit in business schools. Download the CoBS research pod
Corporate executives, Business School students, and thought leaders are all looking at business from a new lens – of CSR, sustainability, and spirituality – ending the reign of the pay check as the sole measure of success.
Typically, business schools are perceived as a shortcut to success, measured more in terms of money than by the quality of education, even by influential ranking lists. However, given increasing student interest in achieving a higher purpose in addition to professional success, higher education institutions are being called upon to instil and fulfil social purpose.
As such, there is a need to impart education that motivates students to be ‘good people’ as they move forward in their careers, with the knowledge that ethics plays a key part of what success is all about.
So how can internal change occur in business schools to this aim?
Moral self-awareness, a motivational system comprising 4 development levels driven by pride and potential shame avoidance is one of the answers, useful in developing civic-minded behaviour in humans, and serving as an initial trigger for change to take place.
How Purpose Beyond Profit Can Reboot and Reignite Business Schools
Professors Tanusree Jain of Trinity Business School and Julian Friedland of Metropolitan State University of Denver, share their research into raising moral awareness and point the way ahead for those in business and academia alike.
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How Purpose Beyond Profit Can Reboot and Reignite Business Schools: The latest in an ongoing series of Council on Business & Society Research Pods. Condensed learning capsules inspired from internationally published research. Fields covered include CSR, management & leadership, HR, sustainable finance & reporting, greentech, social enterprise, ethics, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and sustainable business practices.
The 3Ps in a CoBS Research Pod
How Purpose Beyond Profit Can Reboot and Reignite Business Schools. Download the CoBS Research Pod
Learning objective: Understand the interests and motivations at hand for young people wishing to undertake studies at business schools and the stereotypes surrounding business school education. Learn about the moral self-awareness (MSA) model. And implement a series of strategies and initiatives to transform perceptions and instil higher purpose into your higher education institution.
Related research: Reframing the Purpose of Business Education: Crowding-in a Culture of Moral Self-Awareness, Julian Friedland and Tanusree Jain, Journal of Management Inquiry, online first 2020. From Homo-Economicus to Homo-Virtus: A System-Theoretic Model for Raising Moral Self-Awareness, Julian Friedland and Benjamin M. Cole, Journal of Business Ethics, 2019.
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The Council on Business & Society (The CoBS), visionary in its conception and purpose, was created in 2011, and is dedicated to promoting responsible leadership and tackling issues at the crossroads of business and society including sustainability, diversity, ethical leadership and the place responsible business has to play in contributing to the common good.
In 2020, member schools now number 7, all “Triple Crown” accredited AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA and leaders in their respective countries.
- ESSEC Business School, France-Singapore-Morocco
- FGV-EAESP, Brazil
- School of Management Fudan University, China
- IE Business School, Spain
- Keio Business School, Japan
- Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
- Warwick Business School, United Kingdom.
