Among the survey's key findings:

"MBA students are sending the signal that they want to be better trained to balance the complex, interdependent needs of business and society," said Nancy McGaw, Deputy Director of The Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program. "They want to understand the relationship between business success and socially responsible corporate behavior, but the courses they are taking are not helping them connect the dots. With such clear demand from students, business schools have a golden opportunity right now to embed training about values-based decision making into the full range of MBA courses -- including finance, accounting, marketing and management."

 

Recent events have had a sobering impact on MBA student attitudes. Students expect that companies will pay less attention to their social roles and responsibilities during an economic downturn. Faced with real-world business situations, such as downsizing and investing in less-developed countries, students say they anticipate struggling with a personal conflict of values. However, students anticipate working from within a company to catalyze ethical and socially responsible change. When faced with values conflicts in the workplace, 54 percent of students said they were "very likely" to stay and advocate alternative values or approaches, rather than leave the company.

 

MBA students want their education to provide a broader understanding of the role of business in society. In 2002 the percentage of students who think courses should include issues related to corporate responsibility went up in nearly every discipline -- with accounting and finance topping the list.

 

Interestingly, women MBAs place more emphasis on corporate responsibility than their men counterparts. For example, women are more likely to be concerned about the corporate social responsibility of companies than their male colleagues. Women respondents also place more emphasis on adhering to mission and values when defining a well-run company than their male colleagues.

 

Conducted in November 2002, twelve prominent business schools from the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom participated in the survey of 1,700 MBA students.