From maintaining the status quo to promoting free thinking and inquiry: Business students’ perspective on the purpose of business school teaching

Abstract

We are facing a world where business schools have made it their primary aim to enhance student career prospects and/or salaries by teaching business solely from a business perspective. The authors of this article explore international business students’ viewpoints on the purpose of business school teaching and business school graduates. Having operationalized a typology of business school graduates as a student survey, the authors show that students expect a balanced education. As a business school graduate, they see their purpose not only to replace the existing successful managers and increase the effectiveness of organizations but also to be able to ensure humane, ethical and eco-friendly organizations promoting economic and social welfare and justice. In addition, and quite contrary to what many claim in extant literature, students value and identify with intellectual curiosity, critical thinking and introspection which would ultimately pave the way for serving the public interest. We therefore suggest that for a business school to ‘legitimately’ position itself as a university and rightfully provide academic degrees, it should, in addition to providing students with a profit-maximization toolkit, deliver a wider education balancing different (human, moral, environmental, social and so on) perspectives.