Unfortunately, some things don’t change.
In 2001, the Enron scandal made headlines. Since then, we’ve found ourselves living a nightmare waiting for the other shoe to drop, either in the form of the next scam or another spectacular white-collar crime conviction. Since Enron, nothing has changed. Every year the shoe has been dropped several times. Strangely, no one seems to care. Apparently, the status quo is acceptable. As cheating in one form or another has become the biggest ethical crisis facing our business leaders and business school deans, they are seemingly powerless to stop it. Does this strike anyone else as even slightly curious?
While our leaders and deans have fiddled, Rome has burned. Now, shrouded in smoke and ash, we find ourselves living in that nightmare, a situation similar to the nightmare of working for an expensive law firm. Some of us have been through that particular nightmare. For those who haven’t, this might help describe the current nightmare we’re experiencing.
In our law firm’s nightmare, there is a problem that we need to solve, but unfortunately, it can only be solved by the lawyers of our expensive law firm. We can’t do it ourselves. We are powerless. We have already engaged with this company. It would be too expensive for us to start the process over again with another firm. The only saving grace is that we know that the sooner they present us with their solution to our problem, the sooner we will know if their solution is worth it. For our law firm, they know that the sooner they come up with a solution, the sooner they have to stop billing us for every waking hour they spend on our case. They have no incentive to speed up the process. None…
As our law firm’s nightmare continues, we began receiving his monthly bills. They seem to hang out a lot and chat endlessly. They are also generating regular reports that someone is reviewing and fixing before sending them out to others to read and comment on. And each comment begets another comment that begets more meetings that beget more documents, all of which need to be read and discussed. And the meter never stops. As our exasperation over their lack of progress grows, they respond by bringing more high-priced reinforcements. And, all we know for sure is this: Unless they solve our problem quickly, we are facing total and complete financial ruin. But they are not in a hurry…
To our utter relief, we finally woke up, albeit with a jolt. Still in the cold sweat from our nightmare, we read the morning papers clutching our steaming coffee. We found ourselves reading about the subprime mortgage debacle and the real-life financial ruin it created. We are in awe to read about what nearly brought the world’s economies to their knees. It was a series of outlandish financial schemes that relied on fluff, pixie dust, and lies.
It seems these deals were conceived and sold by our best and brightest. These creative souls were all alumni from our best law and business schools. And when they conceived their schemes, did their colleagues recognize the fluff, pixie dust, and bullshit? Absolutely. And did someone raise their hand and suggest that something was not right? No they did not… What was that for? Then we realized that this was nothing new. This is what happened at Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth, Bernard Madoff, and countless less high-profile scams.
Where are the schools now?
Certainly when it comes to business schools, they haven’t made any significant progress in the fight against cheating, unless you count the introduction of ethics courses and Codes of Honor as progress. However, based on the number of scams since the Enron scandal, the practical impact of these courses and honor codes has been minimal to none. And one measure of how far they have not worked is an indisputable fact: academic dishonesty continues unabated in business schools despite the courses and Codes. The culture of cheating and looking the other way is alive and thriving in our schools. And that’s why our nightmare continues… Surely someone is responsible for this?
Schools cannot afford to continue to do nothing, and yet they seem to be doing nothing as new generations of business leaders graduate as alumni. And while deans stand by and accept cheating at any level as nothing too serious, and while they effectively look the other way when cheating occurs, can we really be surprised when their alumni later follow suit?
A closer look at the deans of business schools and their lack of moral authority…
Over the years since the Enron scandal and countless commissions, we have been assured that the deans were actively tackling the cheating crisis. goal, wWhat were they doing?
Like the nightmare lawyers at our law firm, the deans have presumably spent countless hours chatting about this, or on committees, or writing reports, or helping with legislation, or in various other activities. While they and legions of high-priced experts have been kept busy trying to find solutions, they have very little to show for their time. But, to be fair, no one could accuse them of not taking this seriously. After all, they have been talking about this for years. But what have they been talking about?
They have been engaging in a seemingly endless internal debate about the merits of introducing a required stand-alone ethics course instead of addressing ethics across the board in their curricula. Amazingly, as their endless debate continued unabated, their students engaged in academic dishonesty at unprecedented levels. The deception was rampant. At the very institutions that had a responsibility to instill in their students the need to be honest and ethical and not to cheat, their students were cheating. While the deans conversed, Rome burned.
Unless and until someone shakes the deans out of their torpor and complacency, and unless and until someone addresses the cheating crisis, we face the sure prospect of more scams and our economy will once again be shaken to its roots. . We are helpless. We are living a nightmare. What should we do to wake up from this nightmare? Someone better figure this out, and fast. For no one to hold the deans accountable for their inaction and refusal to lead is itself a world class scandal. Someone should, but who will? Until someone takes the initiative, scammers will hold all the cards and it will become increasingly difficult to detect the scam.