The Oath: An Ethics Promise at the Harvard Business School
Is it a great development in contemporary business for freshly minted MBAs in the hundreds to voluntarily take a personal Ethics Oath prior to entering the workforce? Or is such a thing, like many critics declare, an empty gesture and a waste of time, or even an additional opportunity for cynical manipulation of fragile public confidence?
This week, The Harvard Business School graduated at least eight hundred new Masters of Business Administration. According to the New York Times, that's more than double the number of new medical doctors and lawyers emerging from Harvard this year, all together. At first glance, this may seem like an instance of extreme imbalance. Why do we need so many biz whiz operators, compared to practitioners in medicine and law? But these numbers should really be no surprise, since every law firm and medical office is now clearly a business, and the number of other businesses in the world outside these restricted realms is vastly more than double the number inside them. Every business needs managers. And Harvard provided more than a few this week.
About a month ago, one of the business students looking forward to this year's graduation ceremonies in Cambridge, Maxwell F. Anderson, had an idea. There should be an MBA oath, in some respects analogous to the famous Hippocratic Oath that's so famous in medicine. And it should focus on ethics. Perhaps it could help rehabilitate our current notion of business management and elevate it into more of a true profession, in the classic sense, like law and medicine. With the encouragement of two of his professors, and some fellow students, he began to formulate a pledge, and to promulgate the idea. He's reported he would have been delighted if a hundred of his classmates signed the pledge before graduation. In fact, more than four times that many did.
This act has drawn cheers, jeers, and much ink throughout the world of journalism. Supporters applaud its focus on all the right things. Detractors roll their eyes and say that it either abandons the core mission of business - in their view, doing whatever it takes to make as big a profit as possible - or that, at least, it encourages hypocrisy and empty grandstanding that results in nothing more than unenforceable promises.
This is the short version of the oath. The longer, explicated, version is available here.
The Oath
Preamble: 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 build alone. Therefore I will seek a course that enhances the value my enterprise can create for society over the long term. I recognize my decisions can have far-reaching consequences that affect the well-being of individuals inside and outside my enterprise, today and in the future. As I reconcile the interests of different constituencies, I will face difficult choices.
Therefore, I promise:
I will act with utmost integrity and pursue my work in an ethical manner.
I will safeguard the interests of my shareholders, co-workers, customers, and the society in which we operate.
I will manage my enterprise in good faith, guarding against decisions and behavior that advance my own narrow ambitions but harm the enterprise and the societies it serves.
I will understand and uphold, both in letter and in spirit, the laws and contracts governing my own conduct and that of my enterprise.
I will take responsibility for my actions, and I will represent the performance and risks of my enterprise accurately and honestly.
I will develop both myself and other managers under my supervision so that the profession continues to grow and contribute to the well-being of society.
I will strive to create sustainable economic, social, and environmental prosperity worldwide.
I will be accountable to my peers and they will be accountable to me for living by this oath.
This oath I make freely, and upon my honor.
The oath, available on a wallet size card, was actually put onto chairs at one of the graduation events this week.
What is an oath, pledge, or public promise like this? Basically it's an affirmation before witnesses of a commitment, the signaling of a personal intent and resolve. As such, it is clearly an act of speech or a performance of signature that can be either honest or dishonest in its inner intentions. Liars and straight talkers can utter the same words to do very different things. That isn't unique to this case.
I personally applaud Mr. Anderson and the signatories who took this oath out of personal conviction. They are taking a stand and drawing the attention of a much broader public to what matters most in business and in life. Integrity doesn't just make for good press. It makes for deeply satisfying and sustainable success. Ethics isn't just a way of staying out of trouble, or of reducing criminal fines and other sanctions under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Ethics is way of creating strength. It's a distinctive and unique path to relationships of trust, accomplishments of value, and a legacy of long-lasting meaning.
Ultimately, business ethics is all about:
Responsibility: to the greater good and the big picture of human life.
Transparency: in our decision-making and actions.
Honesty: in what we say, show, and do.
Accountability: with respect to what we've caused or contributed to in our actions.
The core commitments of business ethics aren't complicated in principle. But their application in the real world demands nuance, sophistication, hard thought, wisdom, skill, and consistency.
Congratulations to the Harvard Business School Class of 2009 for bringing all this to our attention in a vivid way, and for generated a new conversation about business ethics when we clearly need one. I'd love to be able to talk to each of those graduating students who signed the pledge, as well as those who didn't, and follow them through the next ten years of their careers, watching what they do and how they do it. Too much modern education focuses on perfecting the means to our ends. We need to focus on the ends as well, analyzing them and assessing them wisely, as recent events clearly demonstrate.
I think that the early crew of leaders at Harvard, like the Puritan divine, Increase Mather, would have applauded this novel development, perhaps added a few clauses of their own, and urged such an oath on us all.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Today the MBA Oath is receiving press from around the globe. Students signing the Oath is growing exponentially. Could it be approaching a “Tipping Point?”
I believe we’re in the early stages of the debate. If this wasn’t important, the discussion wouldn’t be growing. Secondly, what's occurring parallels many stories in my book Without Warning and the launching of a CAP Initiative. I’d encourage the students heading up the MBA oath initiative to pursue these next steps.
1. Listen to the debate taking place around the globe and take notes. This is a valuable feedback loop that shouldn’t be ignored.
2. Revise, clarify and define what you and the Oath truly stand for. Make it dynamic so it can withstand the test of time.
3. Create a sense of urgency around the Oath and its goal.
4. Take it to the next level. Find avenues for academia and the business community to embrace and support it.
5. Encourage other MBA programs from around the globe to sign-on, and become partners. Make a lasting impact by collaborating with the hundreds of MBA institutions and their students.
6. Create a ongoing program to reinforce the values.
7. Make it visible for the world to see on an ongoing basis.
This is a story that could change the world, or just as easily fail. There a many doubting Thomases out there, having seen and experienced similar programs fail. You have a chance to make a difference. It’s in your hands.
In last week's Weekly Leader podcast (http://bit.ly/Op1HL) Pam Fox Rollin (@PamFR) and I discussed the MBA Oath alongside Predictably Irrational author Dan Ariely's TED Talk video on our buggy moral code. Ariely conducted research in a "cheating lab" that we felt is directly applicable to The MBA Oath argument. As a juxtaposition, we also discussed Stanford professor Bob Sutton's recent post about his views on codes of ethics.
Pam and I both came out on the side of The MBA Oath being a positive thing. We'd love feedback from you and the HuffPost readers.
Fair Winds, Peter A. Mello
@petermello @weeklyleader
Peter, I view it as a positive thing that have lasting implications, however it depends. From my perspective which i've written about at my blog over at www.withoutwarningcoach.com. The best analogy I have would be how Julie Gilbert at BestBuy created WOLF and how she instilled inside the organization. A great story with lasting benefits - case study in my book Without Warning.
Peter, this is just the beginning. They have a lot of work to do, and most are expecting them to fail. the heat is on...
Rodney Johnson
www.withoutwarningcoach.com
PS Again, I love the idea of the oath, and find it commendable that students and faculty would think of such as business IS a profession and most if not all professions have such oaths. But those oaths are short (like the Hippocratic) & with good reason. Lawyers love such long-open ended oaths, in fact, many make their living finding the Achilles Heel in wording of such oaths. And I see so many here that truly could be a "legal holiday" for unscrupulous attorneys. Even given the Hippocratic oath being 4 words, we still see malpractice gone haywire. Can you imagine if the medical oath was this long and open-ended. No doctor would stay in business, too busy fighting law suits over simple wording. Same true here. I think even Harvard Law School would agree. But still I believe a short-but-sweet oath that work is a necessity.
Rick London
Londons Times Cartoons
www.LondonsTimes.us
What sounds good in print, such as this oath, in all practicality are be meaningless.
Lawyers take an oath to uphold the law, but many don't: Best example are the "torture" memo's.
Physicians take an oath, but fail to uphold them.
Psychologist take an oath, but see what they allowed at military detention centers in AF, Iran and GTMO?
POTUS swear to uphold the Constitution and then subvert it with executive orders and faulty legal opinions (ok, they may not understand the legal opinions that were written as they are not lawyers).
CEO's are supposed to be responsible for their corporations, but plead ignorance (oath not required).
All who fail to uphold their oaths and standards are not punished, so why would we suspect that MBA's would fare any better.
Tom, you are billed as, "one of America's most active public philosophers." and appropriately so.
That said as a context, would you consider making, ethics, honor codes, value statements, ..., any public declaration of an intention to be a decent human being and an honorable citizen one of your regular themes.
It is too easy for us all to forget, as the headlines focus on one crook or another, that the vast majority of students, business people, citizens in general, aspire to lead decent lives - and do.
I suspect that some student who have not accepted the invitation to sign an honor code have declined, not out of a rejection of the code or any of its specific promises, but out of a rejection of what could be considered to be implicit in the request to sign it - your not honorable unless you sign.
The media loves highlighting malfeasance - in the executive suite, congress, wherever they find it. Because it generates audiences and sells their advertising slots. Not because social values or public morality is threatened. Because it is good for business.
The media's fixation on the crooks creates a suspicion that executives, and public figures in general, are only out for their own self interest and they are not afraid to bend or break the law and offend public morality in the process. This is not accurate, or even close to accurate for the vast majority - with or without a signed code of honor.
I celebrate this initiative as a means to make us reflect on the set of values that have placed the ends before the means. It provides a framework that move us beyond the narrow minded bottomline "quarterly results" mindset that we have used as the yardstick to measure success. It widens the scope of success in ways that include the elements for real value based, buble free, sustained growth. There is a non-material dimension to abundance that is in the realm of the power harnessed by those that have acted with integrity throughout their lives. I congratulate the effort wholeheartedly as another important contribution to a paradigm shift that we all have to produce from within!
Isn't being ethics a virtue, striking up the ages old debate of whether a virtue can be taught. If we question whether can be taught, then by extension we ask whether one can simply chose to adopt an ethical stance ala taking an oath. The herd mentality will always yield high numbers moving in the direction of goodly appearance. It means nothing, however, if the ethical foundation did not exist well beforehand.
I too personally applaud Mr. Anderson & the signatories who took the oath. Often we forget the greater good to pursue our personal goals. This is symptomatic of the collapse of the financial system where individuals making reckless business decisions and doing so without regard to their company or community. Will you be following the careers of any of the signatories? It would be interesting in 10 yrs to see how effective it was. I can think of no one we would trust more to report back to us.
While I commend the newly minted Harvard MBA's for taking this public oath, I am cynical of the need for it. You aptly compared it to the Hippocratic Oath taken by all doctors. If we look at the state of HMO's, it is clear how necessary it is to remind MD's of their obligation to "never do harm to anyone". The conflict between making decisions for the good of the patient vs the good of the corporate bottom line must be a difficult one for many practitioners of the healing arts.
Vladimir Lenin stated it far better than I could, so I will let his words speak for me: "As capitalist economies mature, as capital accumulates, and as profit rates fall, the capitalist economies are compelled to seize colonies and create dependencies to serve as markets, investment outlets, and sources of food and raw materials. In competition with one another, they divide up the colonial world in accordance with their relative strengths.'' Lenin wrote this prophetically in 1917. Just as he went on to say Russia had had its capitalist period and was ready for a socialist revolution, the same thing can be said for the United States. Maybe this oath is the first step. One can only hope.
Though I see this as a noble way to elevate the business administration profession, I cannot help but wonder if the cut throat world of financial greed has bitten off more than it can chew. I mean, all of the declarations included in this prolific oath are based on moral common sense. The first and most important statement, as in the famed Hippocratic Oath, should read: 'First, do no harm'. The simplicity of the Hippocratic oath is universally excepted as physicians are faced with life and death moral/ subjective dilemma’s on a daily basis. There are instances when prolonged periods of time to discuss critical issues regarding the failing patient's treatment is not an option and quick decisions have to be made. An error can be the difference between life and death. A creed was developed to act as a guideline providing tangible bulletins including such topics as drug overdoes abortions, and surgery. An oath regarding business endeavors should reflect how we 'all' should live on a daily basis, regardless of the profession. It should not be inclusive to the business industry. An oath that promotes the formation of good character. And if we live as good human beings, an oath such as this would not be necessary. With that said, a great article (as usual), Tom and I look forward to many more.
Tom Love the article, and love the idea of an "oath". But I think it needs a bit more flexibility.
For example: # 2: "I will safeguard the interests of my shareholders, co-workers, customers, and the society in which we operate." We all learn that in business school, but we ("learn" more or less in code, that stockholders are protected first" albeit much less so today, than yesterday in that the new paradigm reads "community comes first" often equal to bottom line. So if all three shareholders, co-workers and customers are safeguarded, will it be equally?
This entree: "I will be accountable to my peers and they will be accountable to me for living by this oath." insinuates that we can control another person or our peers behaviors. We cannot. We can lead by example, but that does not guarantee (in the least) that a peer is going to follow suite. I think that needs to be spelled out.
Another: "I will strive to create sustainable economic, social, and environmental prosperity worldwide", many firms (as much as they would like to be) cannot be sustainable firms due to the fact that they often MUST co-brand or associate with unsustainable firms such as manufacturers, vendors, . etc. that make it impossible. Many firms prefer "local".
So why not shorten the Oath to "I will always strive to be honest and ethical", wherever I am"?
Sincerely,
Rick London
www.LondonsTimes.us
I find it laudable that the graduate thought of it, and that he was encouraged to develop it by his professors. I find it heartening that fully half the class signed it. But it troubles me that it is long enough to be open to any kind of interpretation. I would have loved this critical profession to be challenged by something as simple as the Hippocratic oath's "First, do no harm," rather than
"I will safeguard the interests of my shareholders, co-workers, customers, and the society in which we operate."
which leaves open the order of importance. Are shareholders to be held more important than society as a whole? It seems to me it could be assumed so, from that -- if it served someone's purposes to assume it.
Though I see this as a noble way to elevate the business administration profession, I cannot help but wonder if the cut throat world of financial greed has bitten off more than it can chew. I mean, all of the declarations included in this prolific oath are based on moral common sence . The first and most important statement, as in the famed hypocratic oath, should read: 'First, do no harm'. The simplicity of the hypocratic oath is universally excepted as physicians are faced with life and death moral/ subjective delimma's on a daily basis. There are instances when prolonged periods of time to discuss critical issues regarding the failing patient's treatment is not an option and quick desicions have to be made. An error can be the difference between life and death. A creed was developed to act as a guideline providing tangable bullitins including such topics as drug overdoes, abortions, and surgery. An oath regarding business endeavors should reflect how we 'all' should live on a daily basis, regardless of the profession. It should not be inclusive to the business industry. An oath that promotoes the formation of good character. And if we live as good human beings, an oath such as this would not be necessary.
I'm reminded of a radio program I heard, gracious, maybe 8 to 10 years ago, with Dr. Laura Schlessinger. A caller asked Dr. Laura if she felt like the 10 Commandments was a document by which we should still govern ourselves and if it was still relevant. She retorted, rather pithily, "Well, which one would you like to throw out?"
As we consider all the students who neglected to sign the oath, I just keep thinking to myself "which of these promises would you like to throw out?"
The oath is so incredibly laudable at one end of the spectrum, but the sins of omission of the other students concern me deeply.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
