Knowing right from wrong is intuitive

Last month, 119 applicants to Harvard Business School followed a link on a Business Week message board to access a website containing confidential information about their admittance, a Financial Times report says. Harvard decided this constituted hacking and Kim Clark, the dean of the business school, decided the applicants would all now be rejected.

This quote by Kim Clark puts the debate about ethics in PR and other aspects of organizational communication into stark perspective:

“Our mission is to educate principled leaders who make a difference in the world,” he explained. “To achieve that, a person must have many skills and qualities, including the highest standards of integrity, sound judgment and a strong moral compass – an intuitive sense of what is right and wrong. Those who have hacked into this website have failed to pass that test.”

The FT reports that a poll taken by the business school’s own newspaper showed that 70 per cent of Harvard’s MBA students approved of the dean’s stance. Many students spoke of the importance of protecting the Harvard brand.

The full story has a good analysis discussion on ethics in business and education including opinions from the London Business School and INSEAD.

Financial Times | A lesson in moral leadership (paid sub required)