Middle-Level Thinking: The Cultural Mission of Business Schools

Purpose – Business education should be seen as a form of professional education which assists the student to acquire the virtue of practical wisdom. This article seeks to discuss the issues. Design/methodology/approach – A middle level thinking (MLT) approach is taken to engage business education and practice that seeks to fashion explicit and vibrant ties between broad ethical principles and the concrete decisions, policies, and processes which shape how an organization operates. Findings – The financial crisis of 2008 and past business scandals are symptoms of a broader cultural crisis. Universities and their business schools have contributed to this cultural crisis by providing students with an overly compartmentalized and specialized form of education. Business education must be re-envisioned as professional education which prepares students to engage in a form of middle level thinking (MLT). For this kind of thinking to become sustainable within a university context, it must draw upon the university\u27s own cultural mission; otherwise, it will be susceptible to the economic and specialized pressures which bear upon these institutions

Middle-Level Thinking: The Cultural Mission of Business Schools

Purpose – Business education should be seen as a form of professional education which assists the student to acquire the virtue of practical wisdom. This article seeks to discuss the issues. Design/methodology/approach – A middle level thinking (MLT) approach is taken to engage business education and practice that seeks to fashion explicit and vibrant ties between broad ethical principles and the concrete decisions, policies, and processes which shape how an organization operates. Findings – The financial crisis of 2008 and past business scandals are symptoms of a broader cultural crisis. Universities and their business schools have contributed to this cultural crisis by providing students with an overly compartmentalized and specialized form of education. Business education must be re-envisioned as professional education which prepares students to engage in a form of middle level thinking (MLT). For this kind of thinking to become sustainable within a university context, it must draw upon the university\u27s own cultural mission; otherwise, it will be susceptible to the economic and specialized pressures which bear upon these institutions

A Baldrige Process for Ethics?

In this paper we describe and explore a management tool called the Self-Assessment and Improvement Process (SAIP). Based upon the Caux Round Table Principles for Business – a stakeholder-based, transcultural statement of business values – the SAIP assists executives with the task of shaping their firm’s conscience through anorganizational self-appraisal process. This process is modeled after the self-assessment methodology pioneered by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program. After briefly describing the SAIP, we address three topics. First, we examine similarities and differences between the Baldrige approach to corporate self-assessment and the self-assessment process utilized within the SAIP. Second, we report initial findings from two beta tests of the tool. These illustrate both the SAIP’s ability to help organizations strengthen their commitment to ethically responsible conduct, and some of the tool’s limitations. Third, we briefly analyze various dimensions of the business scandals of 2001-2002 (Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, etc.) in light of the ethical requirements articulated with the SAIP. This analysis suggests that the SAIP can help link the current concerns of stakeholders – for example, investors and the general public – to organizational practice, by providing companies with a practical way to incorporate critical lessons from these unfortunate events

Modern Risk Management: Managing risk through the ethical business culture model

What does it mean to state that risk management is an expression of an organisation’s values? This article discusses the basis for identifying the connection between organisational values through the lens of ethical business culture and attempts to draw out linkages with current risk management thinking. The approach described allows an analytic approach to risk management to be inserted into an ethical assessment method

Modern risk management through the lens of the ethical organizational culture

Most recent efforts to create guidance for modern risk management practices emphasize the importance of connecting risk management policy and practice with an organization’s culture and values. However, identifying or establishing that connection is not widely discussed or understood. What does it mean to state that risk management is an expression of an organization’s values? This article discusses the basis for identifying the connection between organizational values through the lens of the Ethical Organizational Culture and attempts to draw out linkages with current risk management thinking on the subject. The stablishment of a basis of identifying organizational values and their link to risk management policy and practice is illustrated through a case analysis of the Veritas Institute’s Self-Assessment and Improvement methodology