CHAPTER 7

Integrating Anti-Corruption Teaching and Research in Management Education: A Framework for Giving Voice to Values Based Approach

Shiv K. Tripathi

Abstract

Teaching of anti-corruption in management and business education programs presents a challenge in the design and delivery of the contents. The varying requirements of teaching and research integration across the course value chain make the process further complex. The studies show that the teaching of “anti-corruption” should focus on the value transformation process in order to realize the desired outcomes. The situation triggers the need for innovation, not only in terms of content or pedagogy but also across the broader spectrum of education, including the adjustment of teaching and research subsystems. The chapter explores the need for value-focused anti-corruption education in graduate level management and business programs and shows how Giving Voice to Values (GVV) methodology could be utilized in research-teaching requirements of anti-corruption courses. The relevant literature has been reviewed to develop conceptual framework of the chapter. The chapter also captures author’s experiences with the use of GVV framework.

Introduction

Corruption is often seen as an outcome of ethical failure, both at the individual as well as at the organizational level. The last decade witnessed ethical failure in many leading corporations of the world, questioning the relevance of the management models, practices, and behavior. Despite a strong written code of ethics, derived from sound stated values of respect, integrity, communication, and excellence,¹ Enron collapsed. The examples of Siemens or Volkswagen in Germany reveal that those who engage in bribery to win contracts, for instance, oftentimes devise elaborate side-systems of kickback schemes or front companies through which they personally profit to the financial detriment of the company.² The situation indicates the origin of the managerial corruption from the managerial behavior perspective, which in turn, is a product of the value system. It implies that the managerial education and training should focus not only on the desired skill-knowledge set but on wider dimensions of managing the business–society interface and its far-reaching impact. This, undoubtedly, requires B-schools to engage in continuous experimentation with novel teaching-learning interventions in developing relevant content and methods for teaching of applied ethics and anti-corruption-related issues. Despite the repeated need realization, unfortunately, most of the B-schools appear not to place much importance to mainstreaming of such social issues in MBA education. A survey of 1,850 MBA students in United States³ indicated that majority of the students perceive the need for greater focus on social issues and business–society linkages in their respective programs of study.

Corruption, in its different degrees and forms, has been identified as a major cause of most of the social and economic problems, irrespective of region, country, and continent.⁴,⁵ The businesses, if not done ethically, can be a catalyst for fueling corruption, thus adversely impacting its sustainability in the long run. Looking into the emergent need for mainstreaming anti-corruption issues in business and management programs, the anti-corruption working group of United Nations Global Compact Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) has developed a curriculum framework⁶ for a systematic and scientific education of anti-corruption-related issues. The framework comprises of identified set of topics, cutting across the functional core management courses as well as the suggested teaching methodologies. The curriculum broadly aims at developing anti-corruption competencies among students studying at the postbaccalaureate level management and business education. However, implementation of the curriculum requires its alignment with the different education processes and subsystems, and that too without disturbing the spirit of mainstream management education. Anti-corruption integration in management education has a number of challenges in terms of how one should go about teaching anti-corruption and what methods and approaches are required.⁷ This becomes quite clear that in teaching the anti-corruption, teaching method “must” include the tools that look into the value-change dimension of the target learners. In view of the required value focus, the PRME Anti-corruption Toolkit⁸ also recommends the use of Giving Voice to Values (GVV) approach⁹ as a teaching tool for anti-corruption education in management and business education.

The integration of ethical and anti-corruption issues at graduate level academic program should look into the issue of relevant knowledge creation and delivery, as the process affects the overall quality of the program. Quality of the management program is a function of the quality of the input and efficiency of the process.¹⁰ It directly depends on the process quality, which in turn, depends largely on delivery effectiveness. While integrating anti-corruption issues in management program curriculum, it becomes essential to explore the required balance between subject-specific outcome and overall program quality and relevance. Further, the degree and magnitude of teaching–research integration varies according to the specific knowledge-skill requirement of a particular course of study. Given the high degree of variation in target learning groups’ perception about ethical issues, which is mainly due to subjectivity in the interpretation of moral dilemmas, the dynamic update of knowledge contents becomes quite a challenging task.

In view of the multidimensional requirements of anti-corruption integration in management education, this chapter looks into the following issues:

The conceptual foundations in the chapter are developed by reviewing the relevant literature on related issues. The chapter also draws insights from author’s experience in practically implementing GVV in teaching ethics and values in a master level functional management course, as well as in using as a framework for doctoral research concept development on the anti-corruption theme and thus partly utilizing the exploratory case method.¹¹ The chapter, in a logical and systematic way, establishes a generic model for incorporating GVV based anti-corruption curriculum integration into academic courses at graduate/postgraduate level management programs.

Value Focus in Teaching Anti-Corruption: Practical Issues

The teaching of ethics, sustainability, anti-corruption, and allied issues in management and business education requires a holistic perspective. Business education should be seen as an odyssey toward personal advancement with balanced spiritual and technocratic behavior, as it can lead to responsible and noble management behavior.¹² The teaching of ethical issues in management requires proper synchronization in contents and delivery method. There has been considerable amount of exploration in the content and teaching methodology for searching the right content and right pedagogical tools for effective teaching of business ethics and allied topics. A survey on sustainability issue integration in business education¹³ identified that B-school students need to develop skills that focus their attention both inside the company, toward daily operations and core competencies, and outside the company, toward the wider ramifications of business decisions. In addition there are also skills that traverse inside-outside boundaries. However, linking the required skillset to the teaching content and pedagogy brings a challenge in terms of balancing. In a critical evaluation of business ethics teaching in business schools, a study identified 10 challenging areas and four were related to teaching methods.¹⁴

Anti-corruption in business and management, being an allied area of the business ethics, also presents a set of challenges in design and delivery of the course. The challenges appear due to a number of factors including nature of the course; degree of fit between ethics curriculum and other courses in the program; and behavioral issues in terms of stakeholder value alignments. The issue of value alignment is directly linked with the methodology adopted for the course delivery. Recalling the Vrooms’ classical valence expectancy theory of motivation,¹⁵ it is evident that the effective teaching-learning of any new or emerging subject area requires considerable amount of efforts in delivery to strengthen both the valence and expectancy of the learners. This implies the need for an appropriate methodology that aims not only at delivering the content but also focuses on change in values toward perception of the subject issues and its implications in the real organizational situation.

Recent misconduct and highly questionable behavior has fostered considerable distrust, cynicism, and antagonism among the populace toward the leadership of virtually all social institutions.¹⁶ A study shows that students with more exposure to the ethics were influenced in their perceptions of the importance of instrumental values in comparison to those with less exposure. At the same time it was also found that increased emphasis on ethics in textbooks and courses has had a significant impact.¹⁷ Despite the standardization in curriculum and technological advancements, the student’s attitude and values toward management issues are found to vary across contexts.¹⁸ However, merely designing the course on ethical issues will not serve the purpose of ethics education unless it is supported by the sound teaching methodology aiming at developing the desired ethical values.

The study on a specially designed sustainability framework for MBA students relates sustainability with basic concepts and assumptions within the ecocentric, ecological modernization, and neoclassical paradigms to organizational practice and behavior.¹⁹ Organizational practice and behavior both are deeply linked with the managers’ values and, therefore, anti-corruption education requires developing a desired set of values. This requires a suitable framework for teaching and also a research framework for knowledge delivery and creation.²⁰

Students’ performance in management program is also linked to interaction between personality type and learning approaches.²¹ Therefore, the teaching methods should be flexible to take the students’ values to the set of desired values in a gradual and harmonized manner. This is also confirmed by a study indicating that the value orientation of the prospective managers should be an important aspect of their education and training as it is linked to the organizational culture and environment.²²

The learning outcomes of the management programs mainly focus on developing the managerial and technical capabilities. Even the behavioral components of the program are often found overshadowed with the management skill focus. For example, one may easily experience in the actual classroom settings how justification of corporate social responsibility or ethical practices is established in terms of their contribution to tangible corporate objectives. It does not necessarily mean that the teaching should not be linked to organizational performance but at the same time also triggers a question of “how to set the performance indicators?” The same logic applies to the issue of anti-corruption. Should our focus be on teaching students not to engage in corruption while pursuing the organizational goals or to move a step further and develop the managers who develop the performance indicators that would not contribute to encourage corrupt practices? Here comes the conflict between the capabilities and values. The business schools need to balance the curricula to focus not only on developing skills and capabilities, but also cultivating values, attitudes, and beliefs.²³ The development of required capabilities along with the desired values needs a continuous interface of teaching and research through synchronization of content and pedagogy.

The management program curricula needs continuous alignment and adjustments to address the changing business requirements.²⁴ The multi-disciplinary nature of the management programs makes the dynamics complex, as the need of course or subject-specific changes vary from one to another. Ethical issues in the management program should be integrated with the regular business courses.²⁵ When it comes to integrating the ethics or more specifically anti-corruption, it adds to challenge in an effective design and delivery of anti-corruption modules, which are aligned to the changing forces in the business environment. Looking at the fast pace of environmental changes and comparing it with the relatively longer course design-delivery lifecycle, one can easily sense the need for some real-time teaching–research methodology, which can bring the desired equilibrium in the process without compromising with the spirit of the course content.

Deciding the degree of localization or standardization is another important area of concern. The challenges from the ever-changing context require a balance between internationalization and localization.²⁶ Adoption from other contexts could be feasible for management development in the initial stage, but localization is required for ensuring the flexibility and sustainability of the process.²⁷ Experience shows that this requirement varies according to the nature and orientation of the course, leading to important questions in terms of “how much,” “what contents,” and of course, “which course.” In context of anti-corruption teaching, it technically appears to influence the applied ethics domain and, therefore, requires methodology that can balance both the dimensions. Similarly, when the anti-corruption content is integrated in other functional courses like operations, supply chain marketing, human resource, international business, etc., the major challenge appears in balancing the content and corresponding course objectives. In the different subject areas, the plenty of anti-corruption-related study material can be easily found, but the question remains how to synchronize the learners’ individual values with the required knowledge-skill value-set in the subject/knowledge area under focus?

The different reports and guidelines look into the issue of methodology and delivery of the anti-corruption modules and courses. NIZA (2005) manual, which is based on the experiences from the anti-corruption training sessions, suggests that the anti-corruption teaching sessions should be participatory and teaching tools should be context-specific according to demand and needs of the target audience. U4 Guidelines (2009) also confirm this and suggest that training methods on anti-corruption should be

Based on the review of the emerging issues, requirements for effective anti-corruption teaching method in management and business can be summarized as follows:

The parameters identified above are based on the subjective interpretation of the existing knowledge and, therefore, are only suggestive in nature. The desirability of these characteristics would depend on many other factors, which can be judged by the course instructors in view of the context, requirements, and positioning of the course.

Giving Voice to Values as Anti-Corruption Education Methodology

Ethics teaching at large is often confronted with balancing the rigor and relevance of the course in management programs. On the one side, the course may focus on the complex philosophical enquiries²⁸ and thus positioning the course as applied philosophy course. Some students find such approaches intellectually engaging; others find them tedious and irrelevant.²⁹ On the other hand, those advocating the relevance focus may shift the focus too much on the practical management challenges, thus diluting the ethical spirit of the course. Also the issue of right level of ethical analysis makes the content and pedagogy decision difficult. For example, the average 30-year-old MBA graduate is not likely to decide whether to run that pipeline across the pristine wilderness or whether to close the company’s manufacturing plant. One school of thought on GVV believes that instead of only analyzing the situations, ethics teaching should help future managers and leaders figure out what to do next.³⁰ The same applies in context of anti-corruption education in the management. It can be seen that building the strong ethical foundation is one aspect of the anti-corruption education while tailoring it to the graduate level program requirements needs something more pragmatic, with potential to demonstrate the tangible and real-situation impact of ethical or unethical decisions. This appears to the point where the graduate level anti-corruption teaching requirements seem to meet the purpose with the GVV approach.

GVV was developed at Babson College in collaboration with The Aspen Institute Business and Society Program as incubator and as founding partner along with the Yale School of Management. Drawing on both the actual experience of business practitioners as well as cutting-edge social science and management research, GVV aims to fill a long-standing and critical gap in business education. The GVV curriculum comprises of a set of exercises, questionnaires, short cases, scenarios, readings, teaching plans, and annotated bibliographies. However, it is interesting to note that the methodology provides for development of the context-specific material based on the active participation of the target learning groups. This makes the approach useful, not only in delivering the contents, but also in developing the knowledge-contents suitable to the need of a specific learning environment. This makes it equally applicable for the purpose of exploratory and qualitative research, aimed at behavioral issues.

GVV is an innovative, cross-disciplinary business curriculum and action-oriented pedagogical approach for developing the skills, knowledge, and commitment required to implement values-based leadership.³¹ Emphasis upon the importance of finding alignment between an individual’s sense of purpose and that of the organization makes the GVV curriculum distinct. Further, it offers (1) the opportunity to construct and practice responses to frequent reasons and rationalizations for not acting on one’s values and framework to build commitment by providing opportunities for participants to practice delivering responses and to provide and receive peer feedback and coaching to enhance effectiveness.³²

The instructors recommend it for its high potential in facilitating co-creation of contents based on active research–teaching interface.³³ Other scholars using this approach in teaching and research also confirm this co-creation aspect of GVV, i.e. strong bi-directional research–teaching linkage.³⁴ The GVV curriculum has seven foundational concepts, or pillars. The seven pillars are: (1) values, (2) choice, (3) normality, (4) purpose, (5) self-knowledge, self-image, and alignment, (6) voice, and (7) reason and rationalization.³⁵ These pillars form an action framework for students and practitioners to realize that it is possible to act on their own values in the workplace and to speak up when confronted with ethical dilemmas.³⁶

In the previous section, our discussion focused on identifying and developing set of parameters desired in effective anti-corruption education. The present section focuses on analysis of the important characteristics of the GVV as anti-corruption education framework. Table 7.1 summarizes the desired characteristics of any effective anti-corruption education framework and shows how GVV fits as an effective teaching methodology for teaching anti-corruption.

Based on the analysis presented in Table 7.1, it can be seen that GVV offers a systematic and practical way to approach to educate the managers/prospective managers in anti-corruption issues. However, in order to adopt the methodology in the management programs, some important issues need to be addressed, which are presented in the next section.

Framework for GVV Adoption in Anticorruption Education in Management Programs

Like the other subject disciplines at higher education level, the management education could also be conceptualized across the dimensions of teaching, research, and outreach. However, the nature and orientation of activities across all these three dimensions vary greatly from the other disciplines, as knowledge body is multidisciplinary in nature and draws heavily from the other subject areas.⁵⁰ The inclusion of anti-corruption issues in the management presents the challenge in terms of aligning the research, teaching, and other outreach activities requirements. Based on the prior studies,⁵¹ Figure 7.1 presents conceptualization of the GVV’s contribution across these dimensions while designing and delivering anti-corruption modules in the management education.

Figure 7.1. Anticorruption teaching-research integration using QVV.

Conventionally, the higher or tertiary level management education has three major dimensions of teaching, research, and outreach, which finds its place in the program design depending on the learning outcome requirements. When we design the content/course for any management or business education program, it becomes important to ensure a proper balance between course learning outcomes and overall program outcomes. This balance is achieved through: the knowledge-skill development requirement, derived from the stakeholder requirements; the teaching–research interface for course and context-specific knowledge evolution; and flexibility in the process adopted for course development and delivery.

As shown in Figure 7.1, the selection and design of the content for anti-corruption issues require a balanced mix of both ethical foundations and management core and functional area issues. By nature, most of the management courses fall in the interdisciplinary category. Further adding the perspectives from the humanities and behavioral science subjects like law, philosophy, psychology, sociology, etc. add to complexity of the course design process. This appears due to the fact that extra-inclination in one direction may disturb the overall purpose of the course, as sometimes reflected in the students’ appraisal of the course. At the next level, the issue comes in delivery of the course. Even best-designed courses would fail to accomplish the objectives if not supported with the appropriate teaching methodology.

We have discussed in the previous sections how the GVV methodology can help in addressing the issues related to course delivery and design. Figure 7.1 explains the GVV’s possible contribution in content delivery and creation by systematically addressing the teaching–research requirements. Analysis shows that the GVV can effectively help in anti-corruption education by

It can be observed that the framework offers innovative ways to integrate the wide spectrum of anti-corruption course delivery value chain. The focus on ethical value development without losing the focus of required managerial competencies makes it a valuable methodology for the course delivery. The questionnaires and learners’ feedback, particularly in the executive classes, facilitate real-time knowledge content creation and modification in the view of the specific context, where the course is administered. For example, while using the framework in the strategic procurement and supply chain course, we first discussed a set of two GVV cases in the class followed by recording the feedback on GVV questionnaires. After analyzing the responses, we then developed a context-specific case by linking a local ethical issue to the students’ responses. In the next cycle of the responses, we felt the positive improvements in the students’ perception of the issues. At later stage in the course, we asked students to administer the same questionnaire to other colleagues in their respective workplaces and submit the summary of responses, which helped in integrating teaching with the research and action-learning.

Interestingly, some of the GVV tools have also been found useful for developing the research agenda on the anti-corruption-related issues by utilizing the GVV tools in the pilot surveys/focus group interviews. However, this requires some customization according to the need of the research area and participant characteristics. This is particularly useful for the research in subject areas like ethics and anti-corruption, which lacks in recorded context-specific evidences about the behavioral issues and practical challenges.

The discussion shows how GVV framework can be an effective methodology for anti-corruption teaching and research at masters’ or postgraduate level. However, in view of the practical challenges, the implementation of the methodology requires some alignments and adjustments before use for content delivery or creation. Some of the important implementation-related issues can be summarized as follows:

The model of GVV adoption in anti-corruption education and suggestions for its implementation arebased on the theoretical conceptualization and experience in using the GVV. The implementation framework discussed above is suggestive in nature and aims to bring the modifications/improvements based on the experience of the scholars and instructors in different contexts. Also, during adaptation, the methodology can be taken as complementary to the other teaching methods/tools on the subject.

Summary

Anti-corruption teaching and research in management programs has presented a great challenge in terms of design and delivery. The lack of available context-specific material further adds to this problem. United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education developed a comprehensive toolkit for mainstreaming the anti-corruption issues in MBA and other related master’s level program in business and management. However, adoption of anti-corruption issue in the management programs required an effective teaching methodology to support the program delivery. The teaching methodology for anti-corruption should conform to the set of desired parameters. Analysis established how Giving Voice to Values (GVV) approach can be an effective approach in teaching anti-corruption. Looking at the anti-corruption education requirements in the management, an implementation framework has also been suggested to effectively adopt the GVV by integrating it in the teaching and research activities. In view of the challenges in adoption, the implementation of the GVV framework would require some context-specific modification, depending on the course requirements.

Key Terms and Definitions

Anti-corruption education: Refers to inclusion of anticorruption-related teaching, research, and outreach activities in graduate level management degree courses.

B-schools: Are any business and management education provider recognized by law. It includes autonomous institutions, university departments, and institutes.

Course value chain: Refers to the different stages from enrollment to completion of the course including examination and evaluation.

Design and delivery: Refers to the need-based selection of the anticorruption-related contents and delivery methods while integrating anticorruption in management courses.

Giving Voice to Values (GVV): Is a framework, comprising of a set of exercises, questionnaires, short cases, scenarios, readings, teaching plans, and annotated bibliographies, developed for value-focused teaching and research.

GVV Integration: Refers to the application of GVV framework in a particular course for required anti-corruption teaching and research.

Graduate level business and management programs: Refers to any fulltime, part-time, or executive business or management related program at master’s level.

Managerial corruption: Is defined as corrupt practices and behavior within or outside the organization for private gains using organizational means and resources.

Process quality: Refers to the quality of teaching and research as measured against the intended outcomes of the course.

Teaching and research subsystems: Are interdependent parts of anticorruption education process, allowing creation of the contents and their application in the targeted courses.

Study Questions

Additional Reading

Anti-Corruption Training and Education, U4Brief, CHR Michelsen Institute October 2007, No. 13, p. 2 (Retrieved from http://www.cmi.no/publications/file/2762-anti-corruption-training-andeducation.pdf on September 9, 2012).

Anticorruption guidelines (“Toolkit”) for MBA curriculum change, Anti-Corruption Working Group, Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative, United Nations Global Compact (Retrieved from http://www.unprme.org on August 28, 2012).

Gentile, M. C. (2010a). Giving Voice to Values: How to speak your mind when you know what’s right, Yale University Press (Available at http://www.giving voicetovaluesthebook.com/).

GVV (2010b). “New Approach to Values-Driven Leadership Curriculum,” Giving Voice to Values Curriculum Collection (Available at http://www.aacu.org/meetings/psr11/documents/CS11.pdf).