How Business School Research Values Shape the Student Experience

Abstract

This chapter examines how the values of UK business school academics interact with the values of the students they teach. The chapter proposes that the dominance of research as the basis for academic progression, particularly in the top business schools, contributes to an environment where academics are challenged to conform to norms of ethical behaviour. These, and other environmental pressures such as the ratings and rankings merry-go-round, and major corporate failures such as Enron and Lehman Brothers, shape the academic value system and impact on the way that staff design and deliver their teaching. Conversely business school students also bring their values containing dysfunctional aspects, such as the increasing troubles associated with plagiarism. In particular the chapter draws on the case of the MBA, a business school's flagship programme to examine how the value systems of these two groups, academics and students, interact. The essence of this chapter is to investigate this interaction by integrating theory, secondary data and the author's reflections. The particular focus is on how staff research priorities shape and interact with the student experience in business schools.