MBA News: Students Focus on Corporate Social Responsibility

Leslie Wayne reports in this weekend’s New York Times about the recent trend led by MBA students and supported by MBA programs “to view business as more than a money-making enterprise, but [as] part of a larger social community.” More than 20% of this year’s graduating class at Harvard Business School has signed “the MBA oath,” a voluntary, student-led pledge that focuses on business leaders’ responsibility to serve the greater good. With so many significant scandals having tarnished the MBA degree’s reputation in recent years, students and administrators are now seemingly transitioning from defense to offense. Fearful of being tainted by the work of others years before them and acknowledging that they have learned from others’ mistakes, MBA students are accepting the responsibility of a future of leadership in the public eye.