The scam in the Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services which has imploded this 2 billion dollar company and stained the reputation of Indian industry as a whole, has brought corruption — the blindspot of Indias estimated 1,500 business management schools — into sharp focus. The prime objective of B-school education is to impart land, labour and capital management knowledge and skills salted with entrepreneurial capability, to make students productive in various specialisations required by society for material progress. The other important but usually ignored component of business management or any other education, is character building and ‘man-making to develop graduates entering industry and the professions into honest, upright and cultured citizens, working to build prosperity and harmony in society.Unfortunately not even 1 percent of study time in Indian B-schools is devoted to this vital component. Historically, values-education has been connected with religious faiths and beliefs and was excluded from post-independence Indias secular education system. But mere preaching and prayer cannot trans-form people into ethical, values-conscious citizens. Over 100 million Hindus visit temples every day and listen to learned discourses on ethics. Despite this, according to Geneva-based NGO Transparency Inter-national, India is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In Denmark and other Nordic countries, people rarely go to church, yet they are ranked among the least corrupt. This is because moral and ethical values are built into their education systems and translate into managerial and administrative systems characterised by transactional transparency. Currently B-school syllabuses are drawn from the social sciences — politics, economics, sociology, psychology, law, logic, statistics, information technology and productivity studies. There is urgent need to add ethics, morals, values, philosophy, yoga, meditation, theories of karma-dharma, laws of cause-effect, compassion towards animals, and respect for natures endowments, to B-school curriculums, because these principles are rational, logical, scientific, fair and humanistic, and indeed independent of orthodox religious creeds. In essence, the science of business or enterprise management is a by-product and instrument of the capitalist system, in which the prime motivation of work is self-interest. Yet resources management is an all-pervasive activity which governs transactions and relationships between man-animal-nature. For sustaining life on the planet and building harmonious human relationships, values such as selflessness, service, sacrifice, concern for other living species, cooperation, compromise, culture, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, etc need to be consciously aroused to negate conflict, envy, greed, jealousy, hatred, cheating, ego-centricity, arrogance, lust. Regretably, the unethical base of formal and informal business management education is responsible for most of the ills and disasters of society. Too great an emphasis on the utilitarian component of business education has resulted in violence and vulgarity in cinema and television which routinely use women to promote consumer and even capital goods. Moreover corporate managers entice and induce people to buy products they dont want, to borrow beyond their means to finance wasteful consumption, display women to sell goods and services, and profit from the indebtedness and dissatisfaction of consumers. On the other hand, in balanced and well-developed societies shaped by values-driven…
