Symposium Concept Note

The prevalent global economic order is facing a major crisis since the Great Depression. The world hasn’t witnessed this kind of economic uncertainty in the last seventy five years. While the root causes of this malady are many, one of the reasons for the recent global financial crisis has been the unethical business practices, and questionable/ unprofessional behavior of established corporate and financial institutions.

Business schools cannot absolve themselves of their graduates’ unethical behavior; after all, the CEOs and executives of leading firms are graduates of the top global business schools. 

Capitalism is at cross roads and there is moral crisis questioning the probity of the free market system; this moral crisis has triggered an intense debate in the B- Schools worldwide on the relevance of imparting professional values through the academic curriculum.

The debate focused mostly on the:

• Nature and content of professional values

It is a general observation that the focus, the content and the teaching methods adopted are mostly ethics oriented in general rather on specific professional values.  The result is that students become peripherally aware of ethical values but do not imbibe them molding them into professionals of impeccable integrity.  Some of the universal values are honesty, integrity, professionalism, and responsible management, commitment, conforming to the laws at the macro- and micro- levels and finally serving the interests of all stakeholders in the society including the voiceless environment. 

• How to promote professional values?

As an integral part of cultivating a managerial professional culture values should be instilled in the management students. These inculcated value systems are equally applicable during the students’ academic tenure and throughout their long professional careers. 

At present most of the higher education programs in management offer a course on “Business Ethics” in the curriculum; unfortunately, the focus on “ethics” is too narrow and has taken on rhetoric undertones.

Imparting Professional values is an interactive process and not a one-way street from the teacher to the taught. Iterative interactions amongst the students make them realize the significance and relevance of these values in their decision making and actions in their professional careers.

Relevance of Case Studies

The debate on effective learning methods to impart professional values has generally concluded that, inter alia, case method is the best. As case studies reflect the genuine issues based on real situation at micro- and macro-levels as well as their mutual interface, a series of interactive and iterative case discussions would help imbibe and apply professional values in practice.

It is in this context, ISME has selected the topic on "Developing Indian Case Studies to Impart Professional Values in Management Education." The objective is to relate professional values to the latest developments in the Indian corporate setting.