Are Business Schools Clueless Or Evil? - Gianpiero Petriglieri - Harvard Business Review

Are Business Schools Clueless Or Evil?
People listen to an explanation of the stock chart during the Expo Money in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on September 20, 2012. The Expo Money became the largest event of financial education and investment in Latin America since 2002 and today the annual expo covers 13 Brazilian cities. AFP PHOTO/Yasuyoshi CHIBA (Photo credit should read YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/GettyImages)
People listen to an explanation of the stock chart during the Expo Money in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on September 20, 2012. The Expo Money became the largest event of financial education and investment in Latin America since 2002 and today the annual expo covers 13 Brazilian cities. AFP PHOTO/Yasuyoshi CHIBA (Photo credit should read YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/GettyImages)

The last decade has been a one of soul-searching for business schools worldwide. Since the collapse of Enron, through the financial crisis, to the insider trading and LIBOR scandals, the question just keeps recurring: How did those institutions of higher learning, whose claim is to develop business leaders, influence the conduct of leaders who let so many people down?

The public and the press are not alone in raising the question. The list includes the brightest stars in the firmament of management thinkers. Pfeffer, Goshal, Bennis, Mintzberg, Adler, Khurana, Starkey, Podolny, to name a few. Leading scholars, best-selling authors, deans. All agree that business schools share responsibility for the lapses of judgment and unfettered self-interest that wreaked havoc on the global economy and sank people's trust in corporations.

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