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In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, the seemingly regular drumbeat of corporate misdeed and missteps (most recently, General Motors' ignition switch problems), and a larger mistrust or even cynicism about the validity of communication by corporate actors in general, the call for values and ethics in business practice and accordingly, in business education, has become louder and more strident. The accrediting bodies for business education - AACSB and EFMD among others - have been revising their requirements with regard to ethics in the curriculum, and companies themselves are increasingly taking it as a matter of course that they must develop and disseminate corporate codes of conduct and values statements and that they report on their practices with regard to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibilities.
Nevertheless, as soon as we move from the realm of rhetoric and public clamor to the arena of implementation, we tend to become mired in all too familiar skepticism and reluctance. The familiar refrains concerning a lack of time for deliberation and debate over the "niceties" of business practice in an increasingly fast-paced marketplace; the suspicion that company statements and programs are too often simply window-dressing; and the frustrated conviction that even if we know what the rules, laws and codes dictate, it is just not possible to act on them and still survive competitively.
It is in this world of dichotomy between an expressed demand and felt need for greater accountability and values-driven leadership juxtaposed with an increasingly intractable sense that such leadership is not feasible, that the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) took shape during Kofi Annan's time as Secretary General. Companies across the globe were invited to publicly commit themselves to Ten Principles of responsible corporate behavior around human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. And as more businesses signed on to this compact, increasingly business schools began to take an interest in this initiative as well as it seemed to be a useful way to introduce students to some of the fundamental premises of responsible business. So in 2007 the UNGC launched the Principles for Responsible Management Education initiative (PRME), as a mechanism to encourage business schools to prepare their graduates to effectively address the same challenges around human right, labor, environment and anti-corruption...