The results of a survey of MBA students at top business schools released today reveals that a business’s commitment to positively impacting society is rising as a top concern for students seeking employment upon graduation, especially among women. That said, a full 83 percent expect that their values will sometimes conflict with what they are asked to do in business, and of those, only 45 percent see themselves speaking up to express their objections.
The survey, conducted in 2007 by the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education, included interviews with 1,943 students at 15 top business schools around the world on a variety of issues, ranging from business ethics to business school coursework to the corporate recruiting process. Survey results help identify changing attitudes among MBAs since the survey was last conducted in 2002.
“In a broader sense, the most important finding is that students seem to be taking a more holistic view of the role of business in society,” Nancy McGaw, deputy director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, said in a statement announcing the report’s release. “But the findings also suggest that while students may have these values, many of them sense those beliefs are not valued by employers or linked to career opportunities.”
Here McGraw refers to findings that only 50 percent of students surveyed felt that recruiters placed a high value on personal integrity, and only 7 percent think recruiters value their understanding of sociopolitical issues.
Though students at all the schools surveyed – from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania to the London School of Business to Berkeley’s Haas School, to name a few – expressed stronger interest in a job that will positively impact society in this year’s survey than five years ago, this priority decreases in importance for men as they move through their MBA program.
According to the survey findings, only 29 percent of men place high importance on this issue by the time they graduate, down from 43 percent in their first year. Women’s commitment to positive social impact was higher to start and remained relatively constant, according to survey results, with 52 percent of women naming it as a top priority in their first year and 50 percent holding the same view as they near graduation.
Interestingly, while values, ethics and corporate reputation are increasingly important to MBAs, environmental issues are not yet considered as important to a majority of students.
“We would have expected a large percentage of students to say that a company’s environmental practices are very important to them when choosing an employer,” McGaw said, especially given the emphasis that companies themselves are placing on green initiatives. But not according to the survey. “At this point, only one-third of students say so,” she said.
To view an executive summary of the survey, entitled “Where Will They Lead?
MBA Student Attitudes About Business & Society (2008),” click here.
