According to a 2008 report from the Aspen Institute, MBA programs definitely influence the way students think about the role of business and its relationship to society once they become managers and leaders.
Many of the report’s key findings were related to shifts in student attitudes on corporate social responsibility. The Institute reported that:
- Business school students are thinking more broadly about the primary responsibilities of a company. In addition to citing shareholder maximization and satisfying customer needs, the students surveyed in 2007 also said that “creating value for the communities in which they operate” is a primary business responsibility.
- MBA students are expressing more interest in finding work that offers the potential for making a contribution to society (26 percent of respondents in 2007 said this is an important factor in their job selection, compared with 15 percent in 2002).
- Though MBA students are clearly seeing the benefits of social responsibility in terms of a good public image, they aren’t seeing the connection to such other business benefits as increased revenue, fewer legal or regulatory problems or reduced operating costs.
Comments
I have a couple of concerns about the reporting here. First, and very obviously, this is based on survey data. So what we're getting more than anything is what students would like to believe (or what they think the surveyor would like to hear), rather than true, underlying beliefs. And naturally the "right" answer is to say that it's good when companies do nice things. A much more compelling statistic would be the fraction of students who act on their stated principles, for example by taking jobs where they contribute to society in some way (including working for a company with strong values). I'm also concerned about the statement that students aren't seeing the connection to business benefits. I am generally troubled by this view of corporate citizenship - if we base our case for "doing good" on "doing well," what will happen to corporate good works when we find out that there isn't always this free lunch of social betterment AND higher revenues/profits? What's wrong with doing good even when it's costly?
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