Graduating Harvard MBAs Take Ethics Oath

Jun 8th, 2009 • Posted in: News

Pledge was drawn up by students

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
About half of Harvard Business School’s graduates last week took a voluntary oath to behave ethically.

According to the Harvard Crimson, the idea for the oath originated with students who had researched methods of reforming business education.

Some students who signed the pledge said they were drawn to it after witnessing the economic damage caused by reckless financial behavior, reports the Crimson, though others who did not sign on said the measure simply reflected empty rhetoric.

The oath includes a promise to “serve the greater good,” “act with the utmost integrity,” and “guard against decisions and behavior that advance my own narrow ambitions but harm the enterprise and the societies it serves,” reports the Economist.

Max Anderson, one of the students who organized the pledge, told the Boston Herald that he hopes that “at our 25th reunion our class will not be known for how much money we made or how much money we gave back to the school, but for how the world was a better place as a result of our leadership.”

The Financial Times notes that Harvard is not the first business school to come up with the idea of an MBA pledge that mirrors the Hippocratic Oath given to doctors or similar pledges made by other students graduating from professional programs. Thunderbird in Arizona has a similar pledge, and at the Ivey School at the University of Western Ontario, graduates not only take a pledge but wear a ring that signifies their commitment to “act honourably and ethically in all dealings, in the belief and knowledge that doing so will lead to a greater good and, above all, aspire to make a positive contribution to my society.”

Sources: Financial Times, June 5 — Boston Herald, June 5 — Economist, June 4 — Harvard Crimson, June 1.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 1 — Related Newsline story, May 25 — Related Newsline Commentary, May 4 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 20 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 6 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 30.

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2 Responses »

1. Ethics Newsline® » News » Business Ethics Featured in World-Press Reports on June 15th, 2009 at 11:02 pm:

   [...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 8 – Related Newsline story, May 18 – Related Newsline Commentary, May 4 [...]

2. Ethics Newsline® » News » Ethicists’ Personal Moral Behavior No Better than Anybody Else’s: Poll on June 22nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm:

   [...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 8 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 20 — Related Newsline story, Apr 6 — [...]

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