Max Anderson, an author of the MBA oath, Responds to My Criticism
What a great conversation. My name is Max and I’m one of the students who worked on putting together the oath. I can tell you that we’ve had many of these same discussions internally. One of our primary goals for this initiative was to spark discussion about what the MBA degree means and what responsibility, if any business has to society. Whether you sign the oath or not, if you are going to be in business, its worth thinking about these things. I think the more thoughtful and reflective people are, the better. For many, the problem is never thinking about their broader role in society at all.
A few thoughts: We don’t just want MBAs to be perceived as more responsible. We want them to BE more responsible. Is the oath a magic formula for guaranteeing that? No way. However when you intentionally make a public commitment it means something. In times of crisis you either make up your values as you go or you fall back on the ones you have thoughtfully assented to before. We think the latter is a better option.
Tyler also argued that character is a function of previous experience, formed by family and spirituality. Totally agree. However I would also push to say that our characters are being formed every day of our lives, with every decision we make. The early years are most formative, but nothing we do is value-neutral. Why not push for character to be shaped in a positive way, however small, for future managers?
Many diet plans encourage dieters to tell their friends that they are changing their eating habits so they can lose weight? Why do that? Because then you feel inherently accountable to your friend to live out the plan you said you were following. Its not a guarantee of success, but those who publicly commit tend to succeed more at losing weight than those who don’t. I think the same mechanism can work with ethics in business. If you’ve publicly declared you’re going to do business one way, you can be held accountable by your peers, coworkers, classmates etc in a way that you couldn’t before.
Originally posted as a comment by maxA on The Mind of an Independent using Disqus.
