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George I am not sure how to reply to the entire group so I am copying Charlie on this in the hopes that he will add this post to the digest..

After reading the responses to your excellent post, it occurs to me that several points are lacking:

1. Business schools have deliberately excludes faculty from the disciplines of philosophy, sociology, psychology, political science, and the other social sciences (not to mention public administration) from consideration in new hires; such disciplinary faculty typically are not graduates of AACSB accredited programs, which was a requirement for some time.  This has resulted in a deplorable condition of academic inbreeding.  I concur with your observation that it will take Ph.D. faculty from outside of the field of business to prompt some of the changes you advocate.
2. Much of the "greed" that many students exhibit is a function of their student loans and trying to work their way through school. This is a demonstrated driver to the fact that business majors comprise over half of the undergraduate majors in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
3. The difficulties we are experiencing now with the economic collapse have been perpetuated by the educated class.  Same was true of Enron. This should give every one of us as educators considerable pause, as our teaching has direct moral consequences.
4. Historically, decades ago, the Conference Board embraced a strong sense of employees and communities as stakeholders in business enterprise, and this view was widely practiced and assumed. Obviously, this changed over time. The dynamics of these changes, the associated consequences and impacts, are well worth a step back to examine.
5. The argument that it is legitimate to teach students how to take advantage of others with the expectation that the students will obtain wealth and then give back to the community/university, becoming philanthropists, is one that any ethics/philosophy professor can easily dismantle. 
6. In my day, academic buildings were named for leaders of the nation and community: Washington Hall, Mason Hall, Monroe Hall, etc. These names represented our icons to emulate.  That practice on many campuses has since been replaced by corporations as the icons.
7. A question worth asking:  How has U.S higher education (in general and structurally) contributed to fostering a culture of greed in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>?

Many thanks for launching this valuable conversation.

Best regards, Laurie

N. DiPadova-Stocks, Ph.D.

Dean and Professor of Public Administration

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hauptmann</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> for Public Affairs

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Park</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>

<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">911 Main Street, Suite 900</st1:address></st1:street>

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Kansas City</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">MO</st1:state> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">64105</st1:postalcode></st1:place>

816.559.5617 (phone)

816.527.0858  (fax)

Email: ldipadovastocks@park.edu

www.park.edu/hspa

http://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriedipadovastocks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laurie,

Thank you for directly asking me your seven interesting queries.  I'll comment on them in your order.  Our colleagues may also offer their comments.

1. Business schools have changed over the years.  At first B-schools were staffed by retired business people.  They were trade schools for accounting and generalists who could quote the "principles of management" for every question, e.g., "the span of control should not exceed 3 to 5".  Next came the operations research people with their promise of a math model for every important problem, e.g., the "salesman problem".  OR faculty were replaced by behavioral science faculty who were trained in psychology, sociology, economics industrial engineering and most recently ethics.  Behavioral science faculty produced many of the new management faculty.  Today we have AACSB accredited programs with some of each generation of faculty.  We may need to add faculty for international business and other areas, but we should change our thrust from trade school to a more professional school balance, e.g., medical school model.
2. I agree with the Harvard faculty that no undergraduate business degree should be offered.  It should be a graduate program.  My two sons were business BAs, but that was my mistake.  They missed the wider exposure to the many great thinkers and artists. 

I agree with you that life is too short to be ego-centric at the unfair expense of others.  I think that we also need to use our gifts to serve others.

3. Please don't let the military-industrial-government complex that President Eisenhower warned us about off the book.  They built the corporate systems model that systematically promoted the more greedy and amoral people to the top power positions.  It began with our "robber barons" who made corporations the weapons that they have become.  Clearly, the corporate system has become too harmful to our society.  It has become too powerful and too corrupt in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the world.  We need to build a new and better corporate system that is honest, open and responsible with methods for effective and speedy correction of abuses.
4. I agree with you.  Unfortunately the conference board had little impact.  It takes a more powerful force to ensure the fundamental "<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">greenfield</st1:place></st1:city>" model.  The crash of 9-11-2008 should supply the necessary push, but we need to give it direction and support.  Please write to President Obama and volunteer.  I did.
5. Wow!  That's a new one for me.  I knew that the private schools had welcomed special children of the power elite, e.g., G. W. Bush.
6. The problem is that universities and colleges have been taken over by corporate leaders appointed by the military-industrial-government complex and they hire and fire presidents.  We have gone from hiring academics to hiring business managers.  It is not a business, but something much more valuable to our society.
7. I think that we start dealing with issues of greed as soon as our children can understand that it is bad and sharing is good.  Our society is structured to reward individual competitiveness at the expense of teamwork.  When teamwork loses out to selfish work, a society will fail.  Ayn Rand tells us that she is Buddha

Thank you for your great questions.

Cheers,

George Graen

/jag

George I am not sure how to reply to the entire group so I am copying Charlie on this in the hopes that he will add this post to the digest..

After reading the responses to your excellent post, it occurs to me that several points are lacking:

1. Business schools have deliberately excludes faculty from the disciplines of philosophy, sociology, psychology, political science, and the other social sciences (not to mention public administration) from consideration in new hires; such disciplinary faculty typically are not graduates of AACSB accredited programs, which was a requirement for some time.  This has resulted in a deplorable condition of academic inbreeding.  I concur with your observation that it will take Ph.D. faculty from outside of the field of business to prompt some of the changes you advocate.
2. Much of the "greed" that many students exhibit is a function of their student loans and trying to work their way through school. This is a demonstrated driver to the fact that business majors comprise over half of the undergraduate majors in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
3. The difficulties we are experiencing now with the economic collapse have been perpetuated by the educated class.  Same was true of Enron. This should give every one of us as educators considerable pause, as our teaching has direct moral consequences.
4. Historically, decades ago, the Conference Board embraced a strong sense of employees and communities as stakeholders in business enterprise, and this view was widely practiced and assumed. Obviously, this changed over time. The dynamics of these changes, the associated consequences and impacts, are well worth a step back to examine.
5. The argument that it is legitimate to teach students how to take advantage of others with the expectation that the students will obtain wealth and then give back to the community/university, becoming philanthropists, is one that any ethics/philosophy professor can easily dismantle. 
6. In my day, academic buildings were named for leaders of the nation and community: Washington Hall, Mason Hall, Monroe Hall, etc. These names represented our icons to emulate.  That practice on many campuses has since been replaced by corporations as the icons.
7. A question worth asking:  How has U.S higher education (in general and structurally) contributed to fostering a culture of greed in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>?

Many thanks for launching this valuable conversation.

Best regards, Laurie

N. DiPadova-Stocks, Ph.D.

Dean and Professor of Public Administration

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hauptmann</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> for Public Affairs

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Park</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>

<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">911 Main Street, Suite 900</st1:address></st1:street>

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Kansas City</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">MO</st1:state> <st1:postalcode w:st="on">64105</st1:postalcode></st1:place>

816.559.5617 (phone)

816.527.0858  (fax)

Email: ldipadovastocks@park.edu

www.park.edu/hspa

http://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriedipadovastocks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laurie,

Thank you for directly asking me your seven interesting queries.  I'll comment on them in your order.  Our colleagues may also offer their comments.

1. Business schools have changed over the years.  At first B-schools were staffed by retired business people.  They were trade schools for accounting and generalists who could quote the "principles of management" for every question, e.g., "the span of control should not exceed 3 to 5".  Next came the operations research people with their promise of a math model for every important problem, e.g., the "salesman problem".  OR faculty were replaced by behavioral science faculty who were trained in psychology, sociology, economics industrial engineering and most recently ethics.  Behavioral science faculty produced many of the new management faculty.  Today we have AACSB accredited programs with some of each generation of faculty.  We may need to add faculty for international business and other areas, but we should change our thrust from trade school to a more professional school balance, e.g., medical school model.
2. I agree with the Harvard faculty that no undergraduate business degree should be offered.  It should be a graduate program.  My two sons were business BAs, but that was my mistake.  They missed the wider exposure to the many great thinkers and artists. 

I agree with you that life is too short to be ego-centric at the unfair expense of others.  I think that we also need to use our gifts to serve others.

3. Please don't let the military-industrial-government complex that President Eisenhower warned us about off the book.  They built the corporate systems model that systematically promoted the more greedy and amoral people to the top power positions.  It began with our "robber barons" who made corporations the weapons that they have become.  Clearly, the corporate system has become too harmful to our society.  It has become too powerful and too corrupt in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the world.  We need to build a new and better corporate system that is honest, open and responsible with methods for effective and speedy correction of abuses.
4. I agree with you.  Unfortunately the conference board had little impact.  It takes a more powerful force to ensure the fundamental "<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">greenfield</st1:place></st1:city>" model.  The crash of 9-11-2008 should supply the necessary push, but we need to give it direction and support.  Please write to President Obama and volunteer.  I did.
5. Wow!  That's a new one for me.  I knew that the private schools had welcomed special children of the power elite, e.g., G. W. Bush.
6. The problem is that universities and colleges have been taken over by corporate leaders appointed by the military-industrial-government complex and they hire and fire presidents.  We have gone from hiring academics to hiring business managers.  It is not a business, but something much more valuable to our society.
7. I think that we start dealing with issues of greed as soon as our children can understand that it is bad and sharing is good.  Our society is structured to reward individual competitiveness at the expense of teamwork.  When teamwork loses out to selfish work, a society will fail.  Ayn Rand tells us that she is Buddha

Thank you for your great questions.

Cheers,

George Graen

/jag