An excellent education system is imperative and considered as the precursor of societal progress. It helps develop an individual's morality, think beyond their thinking, and hopefully act ethically, identify what is wrong and what is good, and recognise the consequences of their actions in society. It helps citizens make better decisions equipped with knowledge and discernment, which over time can lead to wisdom. It aids in the development of creative and innovative minds, which in turn prove to be crucial to building a society that is healthy and responsible. A significant requirement to take society along this route is to ensure that the economy is managed well – that finite resources are managed judiciously and with prudence. This establishes the case for quality in education. Furthermore, this, in turn, means that providers of education must be strong enough to nurture achievement-oriented students who relish the challenge throughout their working lives to serve the society with the welfare of all in mind.
Central to the education system is the need to re-engineer or redefine education at every opportunity so that the students graduating from institutions will enter the world of competition with confidence and accept life-long learning as a fundamental requirement to strive for a better and more fulfilling life. Thus, the process enables them to practice what they learnt in the classroom, thereby strengthening the theoretical base of 'management education'. Potential employers would naturally welcome them to become integral to their organisational success. Therefore, no nation or society can ignore the importance of quality education for building a sustainable, prosperous, responsible, and robustly moral nation. The alternatives could jeopardise next-generation progress with serious consequences for society at large: poverty, inequality, social exclusion, hegemonic and uneven society.
An exacting and moral education system will help develop citizens who will be value orientated and more attuned as moral citizens to that includes factoring in social responsibility. However, it seems that the education system is in a malaise, one that results in self-doubt and a decline that has become visible throughout the world in recent decades in relation to the bringing moral education or education that will help individual to take better ethical decisions. Many large corporate scandals globally would appear to indicate that organisational moral duties towards society are absent or patchy at best. Can the education system be blamed for the failure of individuals` behaviour in society and at the workplace? Who will take responsibility for corporate misconduct and immoral societal behaviour and activities? Sumantra Ghosal, an Indian educator and scholar who served as a Professor at London Business School, asserted in his article: Bad management theories are destroying good management practices that in US Business Schools, the ways MBA students are taught often by promulgating unethical theories of greed and profit at all costs has freed them from any sense of social obligation and moral principles. This raises a series of salient questions about our current educations system. We are becoming a society of pretense of knowledge that is based on the use of series of assumptions and deductive reasoning and exclusion of human intentionality, mainly involving the rejection of ethical and moral dimensions of society. Educational institutions should share some of the blame for this as they are more concern about other factors such as external relations, fund-raising activities, building institutional face values, and showcasing to others other than quality and moral education. Many academics are detached from their students, more concerned with activities that promotes them than supporting and nurturing young minds. Institutions are more concerned about the institutions' financial aspects; management is more concerned about various board meetings, accomplish personal goals, and internal politics. Therefore, it is perfectly to suggest that educational institutions and academics should accept some responsibilities for the neglect of ethical corporate success. Regrettably, the current education system appears to set little store by morality and ethics and alumni go out into the world either with a skewed moral compass or no moral compass at all.
Anecdotally this would appear to be more visible in the context of Bangladesh where the education system seems to have become detached from the wider society and its social problems. In the realm of business and management education what is offered is a very narrow educational curriculum that is often poorly structure, lacks focus and fails to address corporate social responsibility. Where it exists maybe focusing too much to get the rapid and temporary solutions for the problems linked to maximising shareholders wealth other than fundamental principles of their role in the society and responsible attitudes. At the same time, some universities encapsulate in their teaching the concepts of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility as part of their curricula but without improving the communities and their social welfare by developing a universal principle of a responsible citizen. Many undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are not linked to societal problems. They do not recognise society's moral progress should be the central ethos of education for building a society that is ethically aware and that aspires to inculcate and celebrate honesty and integrity.
Sadly, we do not need to look far to see examples of the moral degradation of the citizens whether it is the case of the public at large, be it with the policymakers, corporate executives, civic officials, medical professionals, and those who in public espouse who say one thing in public but do the opposite as soon as their back is turned. There are many hypocrites who think that they manage to deceive. An education system that lacks purpose, is ineffective, impractical, and on some occasions corrupt adds to a society-wide problem, as does a culture that seems more concerned with the ends not the means, with matters made worse by weak government regulations and the seeming inertia of the judiciary.
The education system has a specific scope/remit on which it builds its policies, practices, and means of operation. The scope is narrowly defined to immediate qualifications; measuring and grading moral progress and etiquette is not in the remit of the education system and as a result they are not monitored or penalized for this. The lack of accountability and incorrect premise results in behaviour and teachings that do not support moral growth. Humans tend to focus on short term as they want to reap rewards that are in sight, achievable and recognised by others. The cult of pride corrodes society. There is no obvious benefit to the organization in teaching strong moral principle and having a focus on that; does this pose a question around governing bodies? Is the education sector being governed appropriately in the right areas?
It is as if the whole of society has increased its focus on maximisation of personal wealth and self-interest where corporation mainly focusses on creating the shareholder's profits, not the wellbeing of the broader stakeholders. Society has become fixated with greed and status. We all are running after profit and wealth maximisation. To do this, lies, cheating, crime, dishonesty, bribery, multiple untruths and unethical relationships, falsification, fabrication, and unethical acts are an acceptable norm. A sad unbearable social philosophy. This is now the standard feature of our society and the way of life. Respect, love, affection, morality, humility, social responsibility, dignity, honesty and ethics, and true and meaningful emotions are unfamiliar and an unknown territory. This unendurable social philosophy is the result of what they have been taught in educational institutions. Large corporate scandals, unethical attitudes of politicians, parents' attitudes towards their children to accomplish a specific dream of their parents, a bribery culture by civil servants, continuous switching ideological mentality of civil society members are the results of amoral thinking and lack of societal responsibility. This at the same time is due to the lack of implementation of political will and government regulations.
My discussion here is all about corporate scandals and corruption in society. Public attitudes and societal moral obligations may be another topic to discuss while all are interconnected. When earning profits and maximisation shareholder wealth becomes the prime goals of an organisation rather than moral, ethical, and legal practices that provide the fundamental framework for generating profits, social consequences are profound.
Socially responsible organisations and moral leadership all play an essential role in providing management and employees' moral guidelines. Therefore, moral education must start from the educational institutions. Integrity, trustworthiness, and honesty are essential features for being an ethical corporate citizen. However, sadly the current education system does not fully recognise such elements, rather their primary focus on unrealistic profit-driven theories and models. Most of the theories are not well connected to human emotions and ethical values. Instead, they propagate the concepts of profits through specific managerial practices. These practices are not well aligned with the core elements of moral principles. Acceptable managerial practices should include uprightness and ethics, but wistfully these are missing from the theories being taught in educational institutions. Opportunistic behaviour of management becomes the norm of the current education system. When moral responsibilities are in ignorance, legal responsibilities should become an essential part of protecting social morality and harmony. However, if both are in the state of chaos, then society follows societal suicide.
It is perfect to say that Bangladesh's education system should take greater responsibility for many corporate scandals (such as the Hallmark group and many financial institutions), the opportunistic behaviour of public citizens and corporate executives. Simultaneously, we also must appreciate that an inappropriate corporate moral culture, unfair corporate practices, and lack of government regulations create an immoral national crisis that becomes the new normal of society. The long-term consequences are dire, and no nation can afford to continue like this. Therefore, it is the time for the whole society to think seriously especially the educational institutions and national government to promote the ethical concepts, well-being of the society and the environment through which organisation should promote their profit maximisation ideology. Incredibly, all business schools should change their business curricula to include such fundamental elements of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance to build a nation of executives with high ethical behaviour, reduce the number of corporate scandals, and enhance community well-being. We all can and must affect positive change, especially in respects to ethics.