If business is seeking a new type of leader, then mainstream business education is failing to address this crucial need. In April an article in the Financial Times reported on a survey conducted by the Aspen Institute, which studied MBA students' attitudes to business and society. 11 The report surveyed MBA students from 13 business schools at three points in time: before they started their programme, halfway through and, most recently, on graduation.

Ben & Jerry’s, The Body Shop, Hewlett-Packard and Johnson & Johnson are four of the companies that graduating MBA students would most like to work for—but most of them end up in traditional MBA job sectors such as management consulting and investment banking. The Financial Times reported that ‘what is abundantly clear is that students' sense of social responsibility decreases as they go through their MBA programme', lending weight to the joke that MBA stands for 'Moral Bankruptcy Assured'. For example, as they begin their degree, more than 40% say that one of the primary responsibilities of a company is to produce useful, high-quality goods and services; but by the end of the programme just over 30% think this is valuable.

Students are not altogether happy with what they are being offered. The report shows that MBA students are unsure how social responsibility contributes to business success but most would like to learn more about it. Unfortunately, these sorts of course are rarely available at business school. Judith Samuelson, executive director of the Aspen Institute, says students are very clear that they want issues of social responsibility to be part of the core MBA programme.

By assessing only MBA courses, the report does not mention the work of the New Academy of Business, established in 1996 by Anita Roddick after she became dismayed at the state of education in business schools. Run jointly with the Bath School of Management, its MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice has been oversubscribed in recent years and boasts alumni that include Lise Kingo, now Senior Vice President, Stakeholder Relations, Novo A/S, and Paul Dickinson, a co-founder of the Social Venture Network and of sustainability-oriented start-ups such as Eye Network. 12 New Academy's Dr Rupesh Shah notes that 'not only do we have people coming from major players like PWC, Accenture, Rio Tinto, Volvo and Allied Domecq, but also people who aren't seeking to change old businesses—people who are setting up new ones that do business differently'. 13

The Financial Times also notes the worrying implications for business. 'One of the most disturbing findings of the report is that although business schools are supposed to train leaders who can raise complex issues within the companies in which they work, most MBA graduates say that if their values conflict with those of the company in which they work, they will simply look for another job.' Or, in Fast Company parlance: '"Big" and "powerful" may describe an MBA's ideal employer today, but "bad" is not sexy anymore.' The magazine asserts that 'the prospect of losing top MBA talent can strike terror into the heart of any red-blooded CEO, even in lean times'. 14

Given the macho metaphors in much business reportage, it is interesting that the Aspen study found differences between male and female MBA students' perspectives on potential employers. When defining a well-run company, women put emphasis on stable employers that adhere to a strong mission, produce high-quality goods and services, and operate according to a strong code of ethics. Men, on the other hand, put more emphasis on offering high financial returns to shareholders. Women report that, if the values of the company they work for conflict with their own, they are likely to find it more stressful than men. They are, though, more likely to opt out and find another job than to raise the issue. Although no empirical data is available to confirm this, it does seem that there are more female than male professionals working on CSR portfolios in Europe and North America.

The research is heavily biased to North America, where 11 of the 13 international business schools participating in the Aspen study are located: Columbia, Yale, Darden School, Carnegie Mellon, Haas School at UC Berkeley, Kellogg School at Northwestern University, Mendoza College at the University of Notre Dame, Wharton School at Pennsylvania (all US) and the Ivey School at the University of Western Ontario and Schulich School at York (both Canada). The London Business School and IMC in Budapest were also included. In Europe there has been significant movement in this field in recent months, culminating in the launch of the European Academy on CSR, in July. The academy aims to integrate CSR into the mainstream of European business education, helping deans and professors at business schools and universities promote new teaching models. 15