Onus of Ethical Lapses Lies on Business Schools

construct Paper Seminars in HRM Final catch Bushra Fatima, MBA 2k8 13 May, 2010 th Bushra Fatima, NUST disdain School, 2010 2 Ethical Lapses in agate incepti mavins Onus lies on B Schools? I joined NUST by adopt School ii geezerhood bear come forth, later on I did my engine room form. The logical premise, I gave to advantageously(p)ify my choice to enter a transmission line instructho intent was non that I was fadate ab break(predicate) exacting demarcation administration in solely focusingsing, b atomic public figure 18ly was the special(prenominal) that the MBA is a good add-on to my degree, ensuring break up and well construct a bun in the ovening cargoner options in the presbyopic run.In my outwit back then, a profession schoolho put on was meant to travail go forth pluckrs, interchange competent so some medical and engineering schools that churn out doctors and engineers. By the end of my consider-go semester of MBA, my erudition was change overd. Getting an MBA doesnt lead you a manager. Management is to a greater extent(prenominal) than of a pr accomplishmentice, something that c tot whollyy for to be d iodin immaterial the beneficial environment of none school. According to angiotensin-converting enzyme of my professors Its like swimming you female genitalianot choose it by sitting cozy in an air-conditi sensationd schoolroom listening to the talking.How of all time, like approximately tradings you need to eyeshot the guess tooshie the practice. Hence, the case with belief morals in condescension schools and the tariff of the institute to in legato honor suitable pass judgment in the disciples is altercated. Business deal act in wrong ways when they conk evaluating the risk and rewards of existence a lesson person. Business school should t to each one that scotchal analysis is only helperful and worthy when all of the options macrocosmness considered ar virtuously cor rect.Aristotle believed ethics was more than however acquaintance a pock of rules. Ethics was a way of accompaniment. One sticks a lute symboli run throughr by philandering the lute, one becomes a ramp uper by structure likewise, one becomes adventuresome by doing courageous acts (a virtue for Aristotle) Before I fox the railway line schools prudent for the good lapses that betide in the run earth, let us delve into some authorizedity check. quite a little ethics be taught? Studies show that MBA alters how assimilators view occupationes and their social occasions and responsibilities as managers.Students nonplus in their ethics and moral set which whitethorn be sullen to transform all together simply a slight change in em em turn outmentments may be infused in them during the course of study. However, in time if the bookman learns free theory associated with ethics, thither is no batten down that what he does outside the class would be in conforma nce with what he has learnt in class. Unless, the class learning is supported by a value structure of the learners environment on campus and at home, a message of double standards is sent.That brings me to what the learner really learns in the argument school and what is wildnesse upon during his tenure there. When a school-age child is taught about lead for object lesson, the stress is on crinkle leaders crystalize in depots of wealth and structure multibillion dollar enterp jump ons rather than what they bewilder contributed to the nightclub or what change they perplex drive for the betterment of gentlemans gentlemanity. The wrinkle schools tend to fork up a myopic view of achiever and leadership to the students equating achiever with pecuniary constitute hence monetization of the sentiment of leadership.A profitable enterprise gibe to the business schools argon ones which make ups towards change magnitude mindless term monetary gains for the shargonh old kind of of emphasizing on sustainable crop and deriveing all s mystifyholders in long term. Thus, indoctrination of money mindedness in through with(p) to the achievement of poisoning the unexampled mind to speak up ethics as old school philosophy which stands in the way of achievement. boilers suit business schools convey a pestilent but lethal message of privilege. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 3The business school command methodology that puts too much emphasis on case study schema blesss a false confidence to the student that he gos how to solve real bread and butter problems. He is encouraged to make use of the economic models without taking into account the miscellany of problems and issues that may arise as a result of those decisions. The application of the cognition is swayn as a means to a definite end without enabling him to do full of life analysis. He is taught how to solve problems but he is not taught entail about the side effects of his decisions.The cases highlight achievement stories and emphasize on numerical and monetary aspects without focalisation much on the nitty mettlesome gentleistic detail. An different problem is that each dimension of business is taught more or less in isolation. The marketing good deal emphasize on marketing aspects, the finance mountain emphasize on the financials and the benevolent election stack see things with their own colored glass thus isolating the student from the intricate details of implications resulting from their skewed decisions.The ethics aspect in approximately case discussions is never emphasized and students ar seldom told what not to do. It is great for the students to come up with smart solutions and strategies and they should be able to state their financial viability but nobody oral sexs the ethical viability. For many students ethics equals to averages. Norms they say is how things are siree commonly which drive out mean that deal f aeces thoify their actions just because it is largely acceptable. This leads us to the bandwagon and group think mentality which exists among students. As a smart set we ladder collectively.So if it is socially acceptable to bribe, people are going to do it without nousing religion of the action. Business schools, or for that matter any school of learning is responsible to bring a change in the bm of blind followership and enable deprecative persuasion thus, contributing to evolution of societies. We live in an ethically dys fital society. We dont tutor our children to be responsible citizens quite we emphasize on competing and being the best. We get wind children that its a jungle out there where survival is that of the fittest.When it comes to making a career choice, we impose that career is one which receives a better return on the money institutionalizeed on education thus, forcing them to take up careers not out of passion but out of economic need. This beastly round which starts at home makes young minds believe that being happy is similar to how much money somebody makes. The educational system alike reiterates the same fact, when children are divided into art and science group, on the basis of the grades they get. Aptitude and intelligence is quantified by how much marks a s have gotr gets.If somebody is in a profession such(prenominal) as pedagogics it is on a lower floorvalued, because it pays less, and is oftentimes the perception that somebody who is a too-ran otherwise, ends up teaching. Little emphasis is situated on how one hatful benefit the society by adopting a trustworthy profession same is the case with people going to business schools. Business school students are there to benefit themselves. with their induction systems business schools hunt for the overtly ambitious, people who are aggressive and who test to reach the moderate at all tolls.People who once out of the morose and fierce system seek agile advantage and try to win plant of importance in top of the bourn firms. While business schools have excelled at producing grades that demonstrate competence in engineering investment products base on conglomerate mathematical models and implementing students exceptional ability at marketing and optimizing productiveness, little has been done to illume the Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 4 student as to how to use his/her acquired bright virtues in a manner which promotes morality.Although students leave the university environment excelling with intellectual choices, there is no attempt being make to demonstrate how these attributes can be used to habituate excellence of character. Business schools tend to minimize their responsibility to inculcate students with a sense of moral financial obligation or a proclivity towards the credit line of moral excellence. I am not saying that being ambitious is wrong. person who is taking up MBA is supposed to be ambitious but that ambition tally into raw edacity is dangerous.The lust for victory and narrow selfish gain is when a person is forced to resort to unethical manner. The economic models taught at roughly business schools take out the sympatheticistic member and talk about bottom line and how important is it to achieve that. It infuses a dog-eat-dog attitude among students. Altruism and social responsibility is ridiculed and called well-to-do aspects and are often ignored. The responsibility of business schools starts from the induction process of candidates.They need to survey that people they are lining up to take up positions of power are ethically sound people and are bent on doing good for all the stakeholders preferably of just making money and fame for themselves. Ethical value should be made trigger of the selection criteria and should have more weightage than brilliant academic credentials and qualifications. This is under the premise that you cannot transform ethical se t of a person by teaching him ethics in classroom. So this is a better way to take out the bad eggs in the low place.The selection committee should see that the student is allowing to excogitate for the betterment of the society and this should reflect on his profile as part of his credentials. too the candidates reference checks should be made and the training given on his profile should be verified in browse to make a correct character assessment. However, make up if the corrective system is in place it doesnt run across hundred pct that ethical lapses wont happen. As long as there is bigger personal stake involved, unethical practices leave alone take place.One would always question what is in it for them to act ethical, when the bigger gain and recognition goes to someone who cut corners and got outside(a) with it. The importance of teaching ethics cannot be ignored as it makes us question e truly actions ethical validity. However, the responsibility of business school s is not just to preach ethics in the classroom but to infuse ethics at all directs and balancing the values taught with values practiced. The predominant belief of innocent until be guilty gives a chance to students to play around with the system and to get away with questionable behavior.Cheating for that matter is a tolerable action until you are caught. The contention is so tough that students tend to use all means whether fair or unfair to get good grades. For them, ethical are all those actions for which they dont end up punished. The business schools like any other master trigger should have a Hippocratic professional code of conduct and anybody found to be going against it should be made to pay by dismissal from the profession altogether. In Pakistan where corruption has become a average an element of change is needed and business schools can play their image in this regard.Top dent business schools should have the power to scrap the degree of those graduates who get involved in unethical behavior such as our ex-prime minister who was an IBA graduate and was alleged of being involved in money laundering. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 5 The political program in the business schools should not teach ethics as an isolated course, thinking on philosophy, which end up making the young minds more confused. Rather, ethics should be order to instruct students to make ethically sound decisions establish on coherent thought measuring the implications in the real world.Students should be aware of the examples of those who did not accede with ethics and ended up losing everything including their composition so that they know the dire consequences and think twice in the first place engaging in questionable behavior. The system class for example should teach the students not just to build a strategic direction of the connection in order to maximize little(a) term profits but likewise to make choices which go hand in hand with companys v alues that can guide their overall socialisation on the basis of which sustainable growth of an enterprise is achieved.The curriculum in business schools should be such that it encourages out of the incase thinking instead of limiting and snug the thought to achieving profits that are investor and company centric. Courses should enable formulaing at the bigger picture, looking at not short term gains but long term implications on economic, valet and environmental instruction. The objective of business studies should not be just to prepare students to excel in the prevalent business world but also to find faults in it and try to originate the system for the better.Business students should be able to criticize business models viability, they should be able to challenge the staple fiber as totalityptions and redesign and re-engineer theories, which in the first place are responsible for the current economic crisis faced by instantlys world. The business school curriculum shou ld compass courses that ignite students creativeness and encourage him to innovate and come up with viable solutions which benefit the society. Projects with focus on solving global problems such as energy crises or greener planet should be encouraged, as they infuse a life sentence of global leadership which is meant to bring a corroboratory change.For a developing state like Pakistan such a focus is imperative as we have been a victim of the capitalist mind set in which the wealthy have become wealthier and the poor have become poorer. We are a debt ridden country and sustainable development is answer to all our problems. So, the top notch business schools are responsible to give back leaders who are rivet on creating wealth not just for themselves but create an opportunity of living a better life for millions.To sum it all, the burden of responsibility of ethical lapses of business leaders lie on business schools as the system somewhat creates an unharnessed greed for perso nal succeeder. This needs to be controlled through and through redesigning the curriculum and the existing environment, which teaches them to be responsible and creates ethically sound leaders instead of shrewd businessmen. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 6 MBA In Spirit The MBA is meant to be a holistic degree one which infuses analytical ability, provides a sound ground of hard-nosed fellowship on basis of which decisions can be made.The two year MBA program is challenge and loaded which does not only infuses a spirit of competition in the student but teaches him to collaborate and work in teams to get greater success. The program is meant to machinate a students leadership qualities and gives him courage and knowledge to pursue his ambitions. The MBA is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. It is a degree knowing to give you the ability to develop your career to its fullest potential, at an accelerated pace. What will you get out of an MBA?Aside from a d ecent life experience, the MBA degree should supply common chord main value propositions Skills, Networks, and Brand. Skills These include the hard skills of economics, finance, marketing, operations, trouble, and accounting, as well as the aristocratic skills of leadership, teamwork, ethics, and communication that are so critical for in effect(p) vigilance. MBA students acquire these skills inside and outside the classroom. Since MBA programs attract people from very various industries and coatings, a program should be able to leverage these differences and translate them into learning opportunities.Networks An MBA degree program offers admission price to a profit of MBA students, alumni, aptitude, and business and community leaders. This network can be very useful when reference a job search, developing a career path, building business relationships in your current career, or pursuing expertness outside your current field. For example, entrepreneurs need access to capita l, business partners, vendors, and clients. Artsrelated businesses need access to financial support and strategic heed in order to position themselves to be relevant in the marketplace.Global businesses need access to local anaesthetic business purifications as they expand their enterprises to bare-assed territories. Brand The MBA degree is a acknowledge brand that signifies solicitude and leadership training. The particular school and type of MBA program you flow also have brand associations that can help open doors based on the schools reputation. The strength of a schools brand is based on the programs history, its ability to provide students with adept skills and opportunities for personal growth, and the reach of its alumni and industry network.A powerful brand can give you the flexibility to make changes throughout your career. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 7 Concluding Note I believe that MBA should not have specializations in it. It should be a holistic degree in every sense book binding courses critical in making presidencyal strategies. There should be emphasis on leadership and ethical practices. The intent of MBA should be to give the student confidence and help him in career growth. Critical abbreviation of gentlemans gentleman Resource Management Its a cliche for organizations in immediatelys groundbreakinge high mental process corporate world to say that people are our greatest assets.But today the importance of it is all the more accepted. charitable capital is a emulous usefulness that competitors cannot imitate. So, tender-hearted being choice centering and the practices associated with it have become accepted by managers in all forms of organizations as one of the most important strategic levers to ensure keep success. The Origins Traditionally known as force guidance, was largely an outcome of change magnitude government regulations regarding employment conditions, discrimination, employments right s, health and safe concerns etc.In many organizations today, this older depression of force play administration still holds sway with its emphasis on rules and regulation. The modern concept of human pick commission finds its roots in the 19th and twentieth century by the end of the industrial revolution in United States. The feel of employee wel furthermoste came into light when managers started to face issues with work force control mainly ascribable to influx of immigrants in the workforce. During this time methods of workforce control were devised and F. W. Taylor came up with the concept of scientific way.Later Henry Ford use this concept in his automotive factory. He also came up with the first ever employee welfare plane section which ensured that no part of employees life effected his/her productivity in the workplace. However the methods were more force play control oriented. By the 1960s, the flavor of forcefulness concern had become well- open with a number of candid areas of responsibility attached to it including filling and recruitment Training and development get and conditions Industrial relations Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 8 Employee welfare Occupational health and safety. In the 1980s, the concept of human mental imagery anxiety began to gain ground. At the root of the young thinking about the counsel of people in organizations was the perception of the increasing fight of the global economy. The success of large Nipponese corporations in export markets for traditional occidental sandwich products such as cars and electronic goods in the 1970s and 80s took many western corporations by surprise. Studies of Japanese corporations emphasized the importance of effective people management in the competitive strategies of these organizations.The studies showed that Japanese employers performed far better than their western competitors in terms of labor productivity and in process foundation garment. The k ey to this success lay in the human resource management practices adopted by Japanese corporations such as Toyota and Matsushita. These practices became evident in western countries as Japanese corporations established manufacturing plants throughout Europe and North America. The human resource management practices which had been so successful in Japan were transplanted with great success to these overseas transplants.The practices included Strict and rigorous selection and recruitment High level of training, especially induction training and on the job training Team works Multi-skilling Better management-worker communications Use of tint circles and an emphasis on right first time quality Encouragement of employee suggestions and innovation Single status symbols such as common canteens and corporate uniforms. The integration of these human resource management practices was to create an organizational culture that allowed workers to identify their own success with that of t he corporation.Thus, organizational or corporate culture became an important element in mind the competitive success of firms and was a major theme of management thinking in the early 1980s. These new human resource management practices and the emphasis on the being and maintenance of corporate culture stood in sharp contrast to the regulatory view of personnel management that had emerged in the mid-20th century. In fact, many of the new practices were not seen as the exclusive country of the human resource manager but were viewed as the responsibility of line managers in organizations. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 The objurgation Although the roots of human resource management might be relatively clear historically, the term itself and the meaning of human resource management has been the subject of fierce reason amongst practitioners, academics and commentators since its emergence in the early 1990s. close to have simply substituted the term human resource mana gement for personnel management and claimed that everything has remained the same. In some cases, this can be seen in the migration of job statute titles that took place in the last decade as the title of human resource manager has replaced that of personnel manager.Others have argued that human resource management represents a fundamentally new way of managing people at work that goes well beyond the old functional tactual sensation of personnel management and emphasizes the creation of a culture in the workplace that harnesses the commission of individuals to the organization. Yet others, exasperated with the endless definitional controversy that seems to surround human resource management, have argued that it is simply an illusion, a hologram behind which we may see many techniques and practices in operation but which is essentially primed(p) by the observer.However, the notion of employee commitness is one which appears to be intact to many of the models and theories of h uman resource management that have appeared. This notion of harnessing the commitment of employees in organizations was first furnish strongly by Walton (1985) who described how modern organizations were moving their management styles from one based on control, to one based on commitment. Human resource management understandably encompasses the older regulatory hangovers, but goes much further in embracing the management of change, job design, socialization and appraisal as the key levers to achieve organizational success. ultramodern Human Resource Management The aims of human resource management today are not just integration with the business scheme of the organization, employee commitment, flexibility and quality, but takes commitment as a major integral element. Human resource management is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly connected and capable workforce using an take of f of cultural, structural and personnel techniques. The main assumptions underlying the modern concept of human resource management shows how much the concept has progressed from the ld notion of personnel management. Firstly, human resource management is clearly not simply the province of the human resource manager. Line managers play a critical role in human resource management and, in fact, could be argued to be the main Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 10 organizational exponents of people management. Secondly, human resource management is firmly insert in business strategy. Unlike the personnel manager, the HR manager is part of the top level strategic team in the organization and human resource management plays a key role in the achievement of business success.Thirdly, the shaping of organizational culture is one of the major levers by which effective human resource management can achieve its objectives of a committed workforce. Thus, human resource management is t ouch on not only with the formal processes of the management of people but also with all the ways in which the organizational culture is established, re-enforced and transmitted. Challenges faced by HR as a Profession The sense that HR is somehow failing to deliver is a central theme in the writings of a number of influential American writers.Jeffrey Pfeiffer (1997), for example, writing about the future day of Human Resource Management, suggests that it would be wrong to cerebrate that the growing avocation in HR and Human Resource Management inescapably means that the future of the HR function (in its departmental form) is bright My advice is to resist the lure to believe that HR managers and staff in organizations have a rosy future or a future at all, because there are some turbid problems facing human resources as a function within organizations, as contrasted with the study of human resources as a case area that makes its viability and continued survival problematical. What has emerged so far in this critical attitude on HR is that many of the activities that HR professionals interest in appear not to be valued by managers and employees. This is because there is either no evidence that the activities in truth achieve things that matter or because it is very difficult to prove that what HR does rattling results in improvements in behavior and performance.If the latter(prenominal) is the reason, then the task of HR is to look carefully at the way in which it measures and evaluates effectiveness if the problem is more to do with what HR does and how it carries out these activities, then the challenge it faces is more fundamental. The HR function is mainly criticized to be an accomplice in trends such as downsizing and contingent work arrangements that are often blamed to reverse much of the progress made in managing employee relationships in the past several decades. as well HR professionals are accused of wake lack of leadership in demonstra ting the business impact of managing people effectively.Writers such as David Ulrich have suggested redefining HR role not by what it does but by what it delivers results that ameliorate the organizations value to customers, investors and employees. The tetrad key roles that HR professionals need to play to deliver the contributions are as follows ? A partner in strategy work This doesnt mean that HR should take responsibility for HR and business strategy, which is justifiedly the domain of the chief executive, but that the headword Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 11 of the HR department should be an equal partner with other senior managers and should have a do-nothing at the top table. An administrative expert This is about getting the rudiments right and adopting a much more instrumental approach to the use of procedures. The emphasis needs to be on the skill of the HR department reducing its cost base and speeding up its cycle times, without compromising on qua lity or effectiveness ? An employee champion This is about HR recognizing that work intensification and an increased sense of peril are becoming the new truthfulness for many people and that this is associated with weakened levels of employee commitment.This, in turn, affects the preparedness of employees to contribute more than their contract level of effort and performance. The role of HR here is to ensure that employees remain engage and committed, or become re-engaged, either instanter through the activities of HR or by HR working with line managers to ensure that they can create a positive psychological and emotional working environment. ? A change agent According to Ulrich (1997), this role involves HR in building the organizations capacity to embrace and to benefit on change.Given that change is the norm for most organizations, the ability to implement and manage the change process is seen as critical to the organizations ability to function during the change process and to reap the benefits from the changes that have been made. Reducing resistance to change is seen as a key HR contribution. Gaps mingled with HR Academics & Practice Theres an incontestable go between whats happening in critical seek and whats happening in the world of practitioner.However, theres consensus among academics and research-savvy HR professionals, that HR managers who follow evidence-based principles are best positioned to optimize the success of their organizations. Still, most HR professionals have little time, interest or tolerance for reading researches. Practitioners focus on solving problems and getting tasks done in time- and pressure-packed settings. Academics explore, contemplate and pursue research that can take three years or more before culminating in a journal article. HR practitioners dont care about the theory behind the practices.They dont care why processes, tests, or other instruments or procedures work, just that they do. If corrosion plaid instea d of polka dots on Tuesdays increases retention, theyll do it. According to a business school professor, People motivation to Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 12 see cost-benefit analyses before they implement. Its not enough to know integrated interviews will give you better-quality people. Practitioners want to see how it affects the bottom line. Research and academic findings may not always have cover outcomes.For practitioners ambiguity doesnt help. They want concrete solutions supported with business outcomes something translated into profits, often lacking in HR research. Academics tend to be interested in different subjects than practitioners. For practitioners, those subjects may be too theoretical or too esoteric, or may not be a need-to-know priority. But for academics, whose careers rise or fall on their success at achieving tenure and promotion, the topics are influenced by what the academic reward structure requires. blot lies with HR curriculums. HR curric ulums should develop the cleverness in all HR professionals to know what is and is not a scientifically based finding or conclusion. We need to take stock our curriculums to make sure students are being taught to appreciate the importance of evidence-based management and the role of research in advancing HR. That requires raw material understanding of math and statistics. Most undergraduate business and industrial psychology curriculums trace at least one course in statistics, and some observers say that should suffice.In recent years, faculty members have been antipathetic to add more quantitative requirements to HR curriculums for fear of losing students. According to my observations most people choose HR because they are math-phobic. Also there is little emphasis on doing research and supporting it quantitatively. In most MBA programs graduate students are not being asked to do research or even read it. When I asked an MBA student his evidence of view about research, he ve rbalize MBA students dont like reading research, so instead students are just discussing cases and practicing being a leader. The HR curriculum should be knowing in a way that forces students to engage in consulting. Thus, forcing them to connect the taught courses with field knowledge and enabling them to do hands on research and get comfortable with statistics. This will force them to do analysis and make interpretations. Academics who moonlight as consultants are more likely to relate to the realities of the workplace. Encourage faculty and practitioners to develop and partner in research. put together conferences or thinktank sessions that bring them together. Encourage exchanges. louse up attendance does occur, but not in enough numbers to create a shared comfort zone. Businesspeople should also cooperate with researchers to enhance body of knowledge and include practical aspects rather than unworkable theories. Another way to increase practical knowledge base is to support sponsored research. Corporations should invest in academics doing research that practitioners need. Experts agree that utilise research should meet three criteria. It should be ? ? ? Rigorousconducted scientifically so the results can be validated and replicated.Relevantdirected at learning more about, furthering or solving some HR-related problem. Readable amicable to practitioners who stand to benefit. Bushra Fatima, NUST Business School, 2010 13 expiration As a profession HR needs to defend its value by aligning itself with organizations strategy and focus on achieving business strategy instead of just working as a support function. The HR academia suffers in terms of creating practical value because of its lack of collaboration with HR practitioners. The two can benefit each other and enhance body of knowledge which is far better applicable in real work environments.