I am excited about the ethics class in B-School. I belive it is a key subject for making a positive difference through quality management, but I am not so sure how it is going to be taught. In some schools, the focus on ethics has been increased in the last years, but the approach is still very sesame street like:

Bert: “Hi Girls and Boys! Today we are going to learn the differnce between good and evil! But before that I have a question: Who wants to be evil?”.

“Not me!” the audience responds.

Ernie: “Ok, good! Now do a paper on the subject, you will get graded and let’s move on to the finance class!”

You know what I am talking about. Not a single corporate crook answered “Yes I want to be evil!” in his B-school class and got an E on his paper. They all wanted to do good at that time. However, they ended up all famous for the wrong reasons.

I want to see the approach that the ethic class takes, I have higher expectations for London Business School! (for one thing, MBA tuition is way higher than the price tag for the full set of Sesame Street DVDs).

Back to the topic of this post: Now that we are getting some more Enron News, I have a suggestion for my beloved school ethics class. Can anyone forward it to the responsible professor? Here it goes: Do an on-site ethics class at the nearest prison, active or historic. I am not kidding!

My rationale: My own visits to one of San Francisco’s top attractions, Alcatraz [W]. I have visited it every time a friend comes to town. The place is amazing and the views on a sunny day are priceless, and you can recreate Clint Eastwood trying to escape or Sean Connery & Nicolas Cage trying to break in (depending on you age). On top of that, a visit to Alcatraz gets me thinking (WOW! A nice attraction that induces reflection, a wonder of the World!). The visit of the facilities and the audio guide provide an idea on how life was for the inmates, and imagining myself staying there, with limited movements, limited interaction with others, limited everything, it is extremely depressing. After a few minutes visiting, I get anxious and I want to get the hell out! I do not want to imagine what serving sentence in any prison feels like! The thing I would lack the most, I realized, would be social interaction.

Imprisonment has many goals, depending on who you ask: Punishment, rehabilitation, isolation of dangerous people, state repression, and last but not least, serve as a deterrent! That could be used in any ethics class.

While I firmly believe that ethical behavior should come from personal rectitude, no sensible person would deny that social pressure contributes to proper conduct or that having a clear picture of the consequences of severe wrongdoings also helps. Visiting alcatraz gives a very powerful gut feeling, avoid prison at any cost!

Therefore, in the next ethics course, do visit a prison! And if your nearest BSchool is not offering the day trip, do yourself a favour, visit a prison and reflect on what would life be inside that place.

I believe that such an excercise can make anyone wonder whether an improper action is worth it, if crime pays. Maybe, if the University of Missouri or the University of Houston had organised a similar day trip back in the 1960’s, Kenneth Lay would have made diferent actions as Enron CEO. Don’t you think so?