03.10.2012
Business Ethics course delivered to leading Moscow universities and business schools
On September 25, 2012, within the framework of the meeting devoted to the role of business schools in the formation of ethical standards of running business in Russia arranged by IBLF Russia and held on the premises of the British Embassy in Moscow, the authors of the new curriculum ‘Business Ethics’ – Polina Kalnitskaya, Corporate Management and Business Ethics Advisor, Mary Gentile, Senior Research Scholar at Babson College, Wellesley, USA, the creator and director of ‘Giving Voice to Values’ program, and Gerald J. Rohan, visiting professor at Moscow State University Business School - held a presentation for the representatives of leading universities and graduate business schools in Moscow.Even during the presentation, some educational establishments signed the respective license agreements giving them the right to include the new training course in the Bachelor, Master and MBA programs. The unique project is being realized in Russia by IBLF supported by the British Embassy in the RF and Siemens Integrity Initiative.
The attendees were welcomed by Barbara Habbergam, Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs of the British Embassy in Moscow, and Olga Ostrovskaya, Designated Officer on Compliance with Corporate Legal and Ethical Standards, Siemens Russia.
The international team of the authors of ‘Business Ethics’ told about their work on the curriculum which is based on an extensive scientific, research and practical information related to the ethical issues of running business. The researchers have developed a six module course including theoretical aspects and case studies as well as a special teacher’s block.
The course methodology is based on Mary Gentile’s concept of value oriented leadership which was developed by the researcher as a result of over 20 years of investigations focused on business ethics problems. The author’s unique concept called GVV (Giving Voice to Values) constitutes the basis of the MBA curriculum at Babson College in Boston.
The practical part of the course, including description of major companies’ experience and a number of case studies, is based on realistic situations from the extensive research portfolio of Gerald Rohan, Professor of Moscow State University Business School, who is also a years-long practitioner in the field of business ethics.
The training course is accompanied by explanatory notes and a library. Apart from the course prepared by IBLF in the electronic format, the representatives of the educational establishments were presented with sets of teaching materials. Those materials, unique for the Russian research practice, constitute, in the author’s opinion, a compulsory reading stock for managers who seek to comply with ethical standards in their work.
The necessity to nurture a new generation of managers with a special ‘ethical’ flair was emphasized in the course of the discussion following the ceremony of signing license agreements. The course was distributed to the State University of Management, Moscow State University Business School, Corporate Management School of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow International Higher Business School MIRBIS, where it is bound to start a new life.
“The main has been done. ‘Business Ethics’ course is starting its independent life in the best national universities. We suggest that the MBA programs supplement it with the Toolkit developed by the Anticorruption Working Group of the PRME Initiative of the UN Global Compact, which is a set of practical instruments for solving moral, ethical and practical problems that our students are going to face upon entering the market”, stressed one the authors Polina Kalnitskaya in her talk with the representatives of the schools.
The interest in the course is growing – even now a number of prominent corporate training centers and educational establishments are considering the possibility of using the IBLF research products in their programs.
The event within the framework of Siemens Integrity Initiative was moderated by the Head of the Branch Office IBLF in Russia Boris Tkachenko.
