The Socially Conscious MBA

The New MBA Student
An emphasis on social responsibility and ethics is attracting a new breed of MBA student, says Christopher Puto, dean of the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas. “There’s a new type of student interested in becoming a highly principled leader,” he says. “The idea is that business can identify real needs in the community and deliver effective solutions while providing a safe, respectful work environment for employees. That’s the kind of company many of our students want to build.”

Under the leadership of Professor Ken Goodpaster, MBA students at St. Thomas have met with executives from several local companies (Medtronic, Toro, among others) and work on research projects that address business ethics, gaining a greater understanding of how ethical directives are employed at individual companies. They helped the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, for instance, establish ethical criteria for choosing strategic partners, vendors, and clients. 

In May, the Carlson School of Management launched its Center for Integrative Leadership, a jointly managed effort between Carlson and the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs that aims to develop a better understanding of how business, media, academia, government, and nonprofits can help solve complex societal problems.

“We’re very interested in the intersection of business and public policy, and giving students a more broad-based knowledge,” says dean Alison Davis-Blake. “More MBA students are looking at issues of social responsibility and thinking about how they can fit into a changing corporate culture.”

Another draw for Carlson students is its chapter of Net Impact, an international organization that promotes socially responsible business practices and leadership. Carlson’s chapter is very active, says former president Sarah Shanley Hope, a recent grad who notes that her involvement with the group and her coursework at Carlson gave her a robust knowledge of environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility.

“There’s greater awareness about these issues in general, but I do think it might also be something about our generation that’s driving the interest,” she says. “The Gen X group of the eighties was all about making money, and our parents, who grew up in the sixties, were the opposite of that. Now there’s more of a balance. We want a career where we can sustain a nice lifestyle but also feel good about what we’re doing every day.”

Although the ethics-centered MBA programs at Carlson, St. Mary’s, St. Thomas, and other schools have been well received, the trend is only just getting started, says Aspen Institute’s Leimsider.

Curriculum changes take time to evolve, but at the same time, there are pockets of innovation that could drive further shifts toward socially conscious MBAs. Over the next five to ten years, Leimsider predicts that more professors with business ethics and social responsibility experience will gain tenure, and other schools will start thinking of integrating the topics into their MBA programs.

“Business schools will start to embrace these notions more because the whole culture of business is shifting,” he says. “Graduates of these programs won’t just be at the head of nonprofit organizations, but also the chief executives of global companies. And they’ll change how business is done.”