The Corporation in Society: Pedagogical and Scholarly Implications

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The Corporation in SocietyPedagogical and
Scholarly Implications

• Jim Walsh
• Ross School of Business
• University of Michigan
• Ann Arbor, Michigan
• USA

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Business schools are on the wrong track

• By allowing the scientific research model to
  drive out all others, business schools are
  institutionalizing their way to irrelevance.
  Business school faculties simply must rediscover
  the practice of business. (Bennis and OToole,
  2005 100, 103)
• Business schools may pride themselves on
  teaching new product development and strategy,
  but their MBA programs have not been seriously
  re-evaluated since the 1950s (Mintzberg and
  Gosling, 2004 19).
• It is time to close down conventional M.B.A.
  programs (Mintzberg, 2000 65)

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Some Contemporary Perspective

• Unfortunately, we are engulfed in a contemporary
  enthusiasm for immediate relevance. It is an
  enthusiasm that I believe threatens to make
  business schools and management research minor
  contributors to the development of ideas about
  business management and organizations. (Jim
  March 2000 55).
• If the academic community were to move away
  from the tradition of standing back and trying to
  develop big ideas and instead got caught up in
  trying to generate short-term techniques,
  summarize best practices, or make other
  interpretations of business problems, we will
  lose some of the dynamism that has characterized
  the U.S. private sector (John Reed, 2000 62).
• to be a smaller version of McKinsey or some
  other consulting firm seems like a losing
  proposition (Pfeffer and Fong, 2004 1517).

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Aspirations

• Our universities operate too much like a guild
  system, throwing plenty of people with
  dissertations at students, not enough with
  practical knowledge. Why aren't there more
  scholars who teach students to be generalists,
  to see the great connections? Instead, the
  academy encourages squirrel-like specialization.
  (David Brooks, July 20, 2004)
• The best classroom experiences are those in
  which professors with broad perspectives and
  diverse skills analyze cases that have seemingly
  straightforward technical challenges and then
  gradually peel away the layers to reveal the
  hidden strategic, economic, competitive, human,
  and political complexities - all of which must be
  plumbed to reach truly effective business
  decisions. (Bennis and OToole, 2005 101)

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Wisdom

• Ideally, wisdom is total perspective -- seeing
  an object, event, or idea in all its pertinent
  relationships. Spinoza defined wisdom as seeing
  things sub specie eternitatis, in view of
  eternity I suggest defining it as seeing things
  sub specie totius, in view of the whole.
• You may be a young radical, or an old
  businessman crying out for limitless liberty, and
  as such you may be a useful ferment in a
  lethargic mass but if you think of yourself as
  part of a group, and recognize morality as the
  cooperation of the part with the whole, you are
  approaching perspective and wisdom.
• Durant, W. 1957. "What is Wisdom? Wisdom, II,
  8 25-26.

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Globalization The Integration of Trade and the
Dis-integration of Production

• Barbie Dolls, for example
• Sales
• In 1995, Mattel earned 1.4B in sales, selling
  the dolls at a rate of two per second worldwide
• Production
• Plastic and hair Taiwan and Japan
• Decorative paints United States
• Dress cloth China
• Molds United States
• Assembly Indonesia, Malaysia and China
• Tempest, R. 1996. Barbie and the World Economy.
• Los Angeles Times, September 22 A1-A12.

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Is AIDS Your Business?

• HIV/AIDS is a global problem of catastrophic
  proportions. And so today I come to you, the
  leaders of American business representatives of
  one of the greatest forces in the world, but one
  which has yet to be fully utilized in the
  campaign against HIV/AIDS. It is high time we
  tapped your strengths to the full. Business
  is used to acting decisively and quickly. The
  same cannot always be said of the community of
  sovereign States.  We need your help -- right
  now.
• Establish prevention and treatment programs at
  work
• Be public advocates for change
• Use your skills and assets in marketing,
  logistics, public affairs, human resources, and
  corporate strategy to help AIDS service
  organizations
• Contribute as donors (Global AIDS and Health
  Fund)
• Together, I believe we will succeed -- if only
  because the costs of
• failure are simply too appalling to contemplate.
• Kofi Annan, June 1, 2001

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Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives in
86 of the Top 100 US Firms (2005)
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Odd Bedfellows? A Keyword Search of the Wall
Street Journal
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And us?

• The Catholic 5
• Boston College
• Georgetown University
• Marquette University
• University of Notre Dame
• Seattle University

• Business Weeks Top 10 (2002)
• Northwestern
• Chicago
• Harvard
• Stanford
• Pennsylvania
• MIT
• Columbia
• Michigan
• Duke
• Dartmouth

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Business Schools InterestsInstitutional
Affiliation and Academy of Management Division
Membership (2003)
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Michigan MBAs Want More(2003 Survey Results)
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Business Stirrings
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Beyond Comforting Simple Truths
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Echoes of Their Own Voices

• In the age of dramatic recent increases in
  communications options, there is an omnipresent
  risk of information overloadtoo many options,
  too many topics, too many opinions, a cacophony
  of voices. What we now know, about both links
  and individual behavior, supports the general
  view that many people are mostly hearing more and
  louder echoes of their own voices.
• Sunstein, C. 2001. Republic.com, (pp. 56, 60).
  Princeton Princeton University Press.

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The Purposes and Accountability in the
FirmCorporate Governance at a
Crossroads(Bradley, Schipani, Sundaram, and
Walsh, 1999)
Corporate Social Initiatives Financial
Performance Margolis Walsh (2001)People and
Profits? The Search for a Link between a
Companys Social and Financial Performance Margol
is Walsh (2003)Misery loves companies
Rethinking social initiatives by
business Elfenbein, Margolis Walsh (in
progress) Corporate social initiatives and
financial performance A meta-analysis
Social Issues Management Scholarship Walsh
Weber (2002)The prospects of critical management
theory in the American Academy of
Management Walsh (2003)Review of Worked Over
The Corporate Sabotage of an American
Community Walsh, Weber Margolis (2003)Social
issues and management Our lost cause found
Theoretical Reforms Stakeholder Theory Walsh
(2005) Taking stock of stakeholder
management Walsh Kacperczyk (in
progress) Stakeholder management and the promise
of a normative theory of the firm Bottom of the
Pyramid Walsh, Kress Beyerchen (2005)
Promises and perils at the bottom of the
pyramid Gordon, London Walsh (in
progress) Appraising worldwide bottom of the
pyramid initiatives
Purposes Accountability Redux Purposes Sandela
nds Walsh (in progress) Theology and the theory
of the firm Accountability Walsh Avi-Yonah
(in progress) The unfettered corporation The
coming crisis of corporate accountability Theory
Barney Walsh (in progress) From one to many
residual claimants
Teaching MBA CS 579PhD OBHM 899BBA CSIB
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The Corporation in Society (book project)