NATION Business schools add ethics, social studies

Environmental studies are becoming more common as companies go global.
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -- At business schools across the country, future business leaders are learning to be kinder, gentler managers. In fact, if you're thinking about getting an MBA, be prepared to learn how to use your financial analysis, accounting and marketing skills to help the environment and the community.
While that may come as a surprise to those who think of business school as a breeding ground for hard-charging executives obsessed with bottom-line results, it also reflects the realities that businesses are dealing with today. As companies go global, their shareholders are demanding more responsible business practices.
Jen Boulden, 30, is a big believer that businesses can be powerful agents of change in the environment. After working in technology marketing for eight years, she decided to get her MBA at George Washington University, in part because the school's curriculum would allow her to combine her passion for the environment with her business skills.
"I wouldn't have gone back to school if I didn't find an environmentally oriented program within an MBA structure," said Boulden.
Once relegated to the fringes of a business school's curriculum, schools are slowly integrating ethics, social and environmental management into their classes.
Examples
At Stanford University, for example, classes on social and environmental issues are woven into 12 of the 14 courses that business school students are required to take.
At some schools, students can choose a concentration in environmental management or sustainability, the idea that a company can meet its financial goals without hurting the environment. And outside of the classroom, schools are holding more seminars and conferences on corporate social responsibility.
The Aspen Institute's Business & amp; Society Program and the World Resources Institute's Sustainable Enterprise Program recently issued a report on the trend titled "Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003." The study found about 45 percent of the schools that participated require students to take one or more courses on such subjects as ethics and corporate social responsibility. That's up from 34 percent in 2001, the last time the survey was conducted.
The survey's highest-rated schools -- George Washington, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, Stanford, Yale University and York University in Toronto -- offer four times as many courses on social and environmental subjects as the other schools.
"The idea of just focusing on shareholder value isn't enough for companies," said Meghan Chapple, manager of business education at WRI. Now, companies have to work with broader constituencies, such as the community, environment and employees, she noted.