Things they really need to teach at B Schools - Part 1

One of the major life skills important to success in business is the ability to say 'no' gracefully.

Most of us are completely lacking in this skill. Perhaps it starts with our schooling system where we have no say at all in what home work gets dished out and what is a realistic time frame for delivery.

At B School this problem is only compounded, where were are given unreasonable volumes of readings and assignment all due tomorrow. Looking back on my B School days now, I do not believe anyone ever argued against an unreasonable deadline. (Actually, I did once, during the very first HR class, and got ridiculed for it in my yearbook:-)

When the stuff hit the fan, most students' response was to stop doing the assignments, or if their graduation depended on turning something in, borrowing heavily from their colleagues' work.

I wonder if professors realize that they might be the reason that students take to cheating and submitting someone else's work as their own.

Here's something I am going to try the next time a I teach a course. I will ask them when they can reasonably submit the assignment. In turn I will hold high expectations about the quality of work submitted and be extremely stringent about levels of ethics and integrity.

I wonder if that will work.