...advance broader cause of corporate social responsibility (see Box 1). The Principles have been developed by an international task force of 60 deans, university presidents and official representatives of leading business schools. The initiative has been co-convened by the United Nations Global Compact, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program, the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) and Net Impact.

Box 1 THE PRINCIPLES FOR RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION As institutions of higher learning involved in the education of current and future managers we are voluntarily committed to engaging in a continuous process of improvement of the following Principles, reporting on progress to all our stakeholders and exchanging effective practices with other academic institutions: Principle 1: Purpose. We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy. Principle 2: Values. We will incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact. Principle 3: Method. We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership, Principle 4: Research. We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value. Principle 5: Partnership. We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our know edge of their challenges n meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges. Principle 6: Dialogue. We will facilitate and support dialogue and debate among educators, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organizations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability. Source: www.unglobalcompact.com/HowToParticipate/academic_network/ index.html#bus_ed

The launch of the Principles is the latest illustration of a trend in management education that appears to be responding to criticism of business schools from business, students and wider society during the first years of the 21st century. The Economist recalled.

five years ago, business schools, particularly in America, came under attack from all sides. Fairly or not, they took some of the blame for the corporate scandals that erupted at firms such as Enron and WorldCom. Jeffrey Skilling, the former boss of Enron, was a star of the Harvard Business School class of 1979. Other corporate villains and their lackeys have boasted MBAs. Many agreed with one commentator that the only way to solve the ethical problems of corporate America was to fire everyone under 35 with an MBA. (1)

Even esteemed professors of management were critical. In an article published in 2005, the late Sumantra Ghoshal of London Business School argued that, by assuming executives are the self-interested agents of shareholders, driven by maximisation of their self-interest, business-school teachers had freed their students from 'any sense of moral responsibility'. (2) Applications for MBA courses began to dip and graduating MBAs began to experience great difficulty in finding work, according to The Economist.

Since 1999, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program have been publishing reviews of the social and environmental content of MBA programmes. The 2007 report ranked universities on their incorporation of such issues into the business curriculum, as well as their research. The top ten of the schools studied in 2007 are listed in Table 1. The global rankings are dominated by North American business schools which might reflect the methodology of the rankings, including the way different issues are weighted. Nevertheless, the publication of this ranking has increased the pressure and incentive for business schools to consider corporate responsibility in their teaching and research.

Some of the more recent innovations in teaching challenge the normal approach of management education entirely, The Economist described the new approach taken by Yale School of Management during 2007.

Instead of the well-worn method of teaching functional subjects, such as marketing, strategy, accounting and so forth, students who are now completing their first year at Yale are taught with eight courses that each address different themes, such as the customer, the employee, the investor, competitors, business and society, and innovation.

To rewrite the curriculum, weekly meetings of multidisciplinary teams discussed...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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