The Mba Oath

"As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone..." So begins the MBA Oath, conceived in early 2009 by Max Anderson, Peter Escher, and a team of Harvard Business School students. They saw that in the wake of the financial crisis, the Madoff scandal, and other headlines, MBAs were being vilified. People were angry because business leaders, many of whom were MBAs, seemed not to care about anything beyond their own private interests. Many began to question the worth of business schools and the MBA degree. The oath quickly spread beyond Harvard, becoming a worldwide movement for a new generation of leaders who care about society as well as the bottom line. Thousands of graduating MBAs have now pledged to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity, just as medical students swear by the Hippocratic oath before they can practice. This book is the manifesto for the movement. It provides not only a strong case for why the MBA Oath is necessary but also examples of how it can be applied in the real world. It will help guide businesspeople through some of the toughest decisions they'll make in their careers.

"As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone ..." So begins the MBA Oath, conceived in early 2009 by Max Anderson, Peter Escher, and a team of Harvard Business School students. They saw that in the wake of the financial crisis, the Madoff scandal, and other headlines, MBAs were being vilified. People were angry because business leaders, many of whom were MBAs, seemed not to care about anything beyond their own private interests. Many began to question the worth of business schools and the MBA degree. The oath quickly spread beyond Harvard, becoming a worldwide movement for a new generation of leaders who care about society as well as the bottom line. Thousands of graduating MBAs have now pledged to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity, just as medical students swear by the Hippocratic oath before they can practice. This book is the manifesto for the movement. It provides not only a strong case for why the MBA Oath is necessary but also examples of how it can be applied in the real world. It will help guide businesspeople through some of the toughest decisions they'll make in their careers.

The second edition of Security Operations Management continues as the seminal reference on corporate security management operations. Revised and updated, topics covered in depth include: access control, selling the security budget upgrades to senior management, the evolution of security standards since 9/11, designing buildings to be safer from terrorism, improving relations between the public and private sectors, enhancing security measures during acute emergencies, and, finally, the increased security issues surrounding the threats of terrorism and cybercrime. An ideal reference for the professional, as well as a valuable teaching tool for the security student, the book includes discussion questions and a glossary of common security terms. Additionally, a brand new appendix contains contact information for academic, trade, and professional security organizations. Fresh coverage of both the business and technical sides of security for the current corporate environment Strategies for outsourcing security services and systems Brand new appendix with contact information for trade, professional, and academic security organizations

Corporate accountability is never far from the front page, and as one of the world’s most elite business schools, Harvard Business School trains many of the future leaders of Fortune 500 companies. But how does HBS formally and informally ensure faculty and students embrace proper business standards? Relying on his first-hand experience as a Harvard Business School faculty member, Michel Anteby takes readers inside HBS in order to draw vivid parallels between the socialization of faculty and of students. In an era when many organizations are focused on principles of responsibility, Harvard Business School has long tried to promote better business standards. Anteby’s rich account reveals the surprising role of silence and ambiguity in HBS’s process of codifying morals and business values. As Anteby describes, at HBS specifics are often left unspoken; for example, teaching notes given to faculty provide much guidance on how to teach but are largely silent on what to teach. Manufacturing Morals demonstrates how faculty and students are exposed to a system that operates on open-ended directives that require significant decision-making on the part of those involved, with little overt guidance from the hierarchy. Anteby suggests that this model—which tolerates moral complexity—is perhaps one of the few that can adapt and endure over time. Manufacturing Morals is a perceptive must-read for anyone looking for insight into the moral decision-making of today’s business leaders and those influenced by and working for them.

What makes political freedom valuable to us? Two well-known arguments are that freedom contributes to our desire satisfaction and to our personal responsibility. Here, Boudewijn de Bruin argues that freedom is valuable when it is accompanied by knowledge. He offers an original and systematic account of the relationship between freedom and knowledge and defends two original normative ideals of known freedom and acknowledged freedom. By combining psychological perspectives on choice and philosophical views on the value of knowledge, he shows how known freedom is crucial to satisfy our desires and assume responsibility. Known freedom is compromised when salespeople deploy consumer-obfuscation, or when news outlets use contextual framing techniques to steer the way their audiences process information. Conversely, carefully developed consumer protection and information disclosure regulation can foster known freedom. Acknowledged freedom, from ethical and economic perspectives, offers protection and makes our freedoms more stable. It embodies an ideal of mutual recognition that underlies informed consent and the ethics of communication, and can also contribute to a flourishing corporate culture. This book integrates and extends cutting-edge research from philosophy, economics, psychology, and law to reorient debates on privacy, neuromarketing, sustainable finance, corporate culture, consumer protection, media violence, and freedom of speech.

There is a crisis of trustworthiness in business and corporate integrity. This book identifies the specific actions to create and sustain integrity in businesses and corporations—steps that can restore the public's trust and confidence as well as improve company performance. Business and Corporate Integrity: Sustaining Organizational Compliance, Ethics, and Trust addresses a critical, contemporary topic of wide public concern from a pragmatic, solution-oriented perspective. Offering insights from world-class scholars and a range of subject matter experts, this accessible, two-volume work defines the nature of corporate integrity and business ethics in the current climate of scandals and an increasingly skeptical public, allowing readers to fully understand the importance of the subject. In addition, it uniquely provides practical methods, tactics, and tools to effectively address issues of integrity in the organizational environment. The first volume of the series contains contributed chapters that address the foundational approaches for ethics and integrity in the business world. The second volume presents practical ways to assess and enhance integrity and encourage ethical behavior in corporations, businesses, and other organizations. All companies—regardless of size or financial clout—need to avoid the significant consequences of ethical misconduct and illegal behavior by their employees and managers, which can result in erosion of public trust, customer loyalty, investor confidence, and employee morale, not to mention debilitating fines and criminal indictments. This book identifies the key mindset and values that should guide decision making for businesspeople every day.

The global financial crisis has led to a surprising interest in professional oaths in business. Examples are the MBA Oath (Harvard Business School), the Economist's Oath (George DeMartino) and the Dutch Banker's Oath, which senior executives in the financial services industry in the Netherlands have been obliged to swear since 2010. This paper is among the first to consider oaths from the perspective of business ethics. A framework is presented for analysing oaths in terms of their form, their content and the specific contribution they make to business ethics management: oaths may foster professionalism, facilitate moral deliberation and enhance compliance. This framework is used to analyse and evaluate the MBA Oath, the Economist's Oath and the Banker's Oath as well as various other similar initiatives.

Economics is today among the most influential of all professions. Economists alter the course of economic affairs and deeply affect the lives of current and future generations. Yet, virtually alone among the major professions, economics lacks a body of professional ethics to guide its practitioners. Over the past century the profession consistently has refused to adopt or even explore professional economic ethics. As a consequence, economists are largely unprepared for the ethical challenges they face in their work. The Economist's Oath challenges the economic orthodoxy. It builds the case for professional economic ethics step by step-first by rebutting economists' arguments against and then by building an escalating positive case for professional economic ethics. The book surveys what economists do and demonstrates that their work is ethically fraught. It explores the principles, questions, and debates that inform professional ethics in other fields, and identifies the lessons that economics can take from the best established bodies of professional ethics. George DeMartino demonstrates that in the absence of professional ethics, well-meaning economists have committed basic, preventable ethical errors that have caused severe harm for societies across the globe. The book investigates the reforms in economic education that would be necessary to recognize professional ethical obligations, and concludes with the Economist's Oath, drawing on the book's central insights and highlighting the virtues that are required of the "ethical economist." The Economist's Oath seeks to initiate a serious conversation among economists about the ethical content of their work. It examines the ethical entailments of the immense influence over the lives of others that the economics profession now enjoys, and proposes a framework for the new field of professional economic ethics.

The tools you need to deal with ethical dilemmas in business In today's world, it's increasingly important for all businesses and government agencies to implement ethical conduct in the workplace. Therefore, business ethics has become required coursework for most students in undergraduate and postgraduate business programs. Mapping to a business ethics course, Business Ethics For Dummies examines ethical theory and discusses the moral issues facing corporate America. It covers topics such as conflicts of interest, trade secrets and insider trading, product safety and product liability, hiring, drug testing, sexual harassment, diversity, and much more. The basics of ethics and making ethical decisions How-tos on incorporating business ethics in the workplace A discussion of moral issues facing corporate America Packed with easy-to-understand explanations and examples, Business Ethics For Dummies is a helpful resource for students, professors, business owners, managers, and CEOs who seek a clear understanding of the importance of ethics.

Business Ethics: Best Practices for Designing and Managing Ethical Organizations, Second Edition focuses on how to create organizations of high integrity and superior performance. Author Denis Collins shows how to design organizations that reinforce ethical behavior and reduce ethical risks using his unique Optimal Ethics Systems Model that outlines how to hire and train ethical employees, make ethical decisions, and create a trusting, productive work environment. Taking a practical approach, this text is packed with tips, strategies, and real-world case studies that profile a wide variety of businesses, industries, and issues. New to This Edition: Premium Ethical Dilemma videos located in the Interactive eBook challenge students to practice their ethical reasoning and ethical decision-making skills. New case studies tackle complex ethical issues through real-world companies such as the NFL, Wells Fargo, Exxon Mobil, and Volkswagen. New chapter-opening ethical dilemmas based on real situations allow students to grapple with the grey areas of business ethics. Optimal Ethics System Check-Up surveys summarize the best practices discussed in the chapter to allow students to assess, benchmark, and continuously improve their own organization. Ethics in the News activities profile real-world events such as United Airlines’ removal of a passenger on an overbooked flight to challenge students to think critically about how they would respond in a particular situation. Up for Debate features highlight contentious issues that students encounter in real life (such as Facebook privacy).