PROGRAM NEWS: Ethics reform begins from within an organization. Radical changes need to take place in business schools to address the need for greater accountability and transparency in business decision-making. These were some of the views put forward by Dean Rich Lyons of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in a recent article in the European Business Review.
Talking about the need for corporate reform to address fraud and corruption, Lyons advances the importance of creating a culture within business schools that encourages students to go beyond themselves as future business leaders in learning to accept responsibility for the impact on society of their actions. “We shape our world by leading ethically and responsibly,” he says. “As stewards of our enterprises, we take the longer view in our decisions and actions. This often means putting larger interests above our own."
Under Lyons leadership, Haas has become one of the pioneers of executive education programs focusing on business ethics, tailored for Chief Ethics and Compliance Officers (CECOs). The school’s Leading with Ethics and Compliance program, taking place in February 2012, focuses on providing CECOs with the necessary tools that will empower them to achieve strategic relevance, by partnering with key decision makers to:
• cultivate influence;
• earn a reputation as a creative thinker intent on progress and not obstruction; and
• measure how ethics and compliance improves the organization’s ability to meet its corporate objectives.
The program looks set to be attended by around 35 participants from firms such as McKesson, PG&E, VTB Bank France, Elan Pharmceuticals, Experian and Kaiser Permanente.
Although recent events, such as the Occupy Wall Street movement and the collapse of large firms such as Enron, have brought the subject of ethics to the forefront of business discussions, this program at Haas is still one of the first of its kind, concentrating on strategies and essential tools that CECOs should be equipped with. However, a number of other schools are also actively incorporating ethical issues into their teachings, such as the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
“It’s easy to teach ethics to executives,” says the school’s CEO of Executive Education, David L. Newkirk, “because they know that business is human and messy.” Speaking about how the school highlights ethical issues to participants, he explains that at its heart, ethics is about understanding the different stakeholders and their interests and objectives, and making judgements that reconcile them most effectively.
Melbourne Business School (MBS) is another that recognizes the importance of ethics in business school curricula; in an article last year, Professor Bob Wood (Director of the MBS Centre for Ethical Leadership) commented that “if we are to develop ethical leaders, our ethics training must go beyond simply teaching models of ethics applied to static case studies and teach students how to provide leadership of dynamic, complex problems, through their communications and through the development of systems and cultures that promote ethical behaviour.”
Adopting a strong stance on ethics has become the focal point of latest research too. Recently, IEDP highlighted the Institute of Leadership and Management’s 2011 Index of Leadership Trust, which considered the need for emphasis on ethical corporate behaviour.
Such research, coupled with executive education specifically focusing on ethics as the upcoming program at Haas does is a significantly positive step towards achieving the long-term goal of corporate ethics reform.
Further Information:
Leading with Ethics and Compliance, The European Business Review
What is Ethical Leadership? Melbourne Business School
In Leaders We Trust
Nuclear Tsunami: A Lesson for Ethics and Responsibility
Berkeley Centre for Executive Education’s profile on IEDP
Darden Business School’s profile on IEDP
Melbourne Business School’s profile on IEDP
