There is a new book, The MBA Oath, on the shelves.

From the website, The oath is a voluntary pledge for graduating MBAs and current MBAs to “create value responsibly and ethically.” Our mission is to facilitate a widespread movement of MBAs who aim to lead in the interests of the greater good and who have committed to living out the principles articulated in the oath.. Started by a group of Harvard MBAs, this movement has gained momentum and I am all for it.

However, do we really need this? If you look closely at the people perpetrating scandals of late you would find many of already professing to adhere to other codes. Many of them attended houses of worship on a regular basis and were subject to those tenets of behavior but that didn’t stop them. Olympians take an oath, here it is

“In the name of all competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these
Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules that govern them, in the
true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams.” …but that doesn’t stop them from cheating.

The MBA oath ends with This oath I make freely, and upon my honor. and I guess that is where it all breaks down. People with honor do not need an oath. People without honor will do whatever they want even if they did pledge an oath.

The best chance you have for ethical behavior in your firm is to lead ethically, faciliate conversations about it and give no one a free pass for unethical actions.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 16th, 2010 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.