As part of a recent trend among business school graduates in several top-tier universities, an oath is spoken and signed at graduation concerning the pledger’s actions as soon-to-be businessmen. In the Harvard MBA’s case, approximately 20% of the class of 2009 sworn that “[they] will manage [their] enterprise with loyalty and care, and will not advance [their] personal interests at the expense of [their] enterprise or society.” [1] This is a very clear example of the so-called “social responsibilities of business in a free-enterprise system,” [2] the ones that Friedman says should not be called thus. This is because the only social responsibility of business is “to use [its] resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” [2]
The next generation in the business world is going to be made up of the recent business school graduates. As these people enter the business world, they may feel obligated to decrease the percentage of poor people and create a peaceful community. In Friedman’s ideology, their sole obligation as part of the business world is “to increase their business’ profits.” [2] A business’ responsibility may be only to increase its own worth and expand in order to gain more money, not the common obligations we can think of. When Harvard graduates make their oath, they are proclaiming their own individual responsibility as part of a society and not the responsibility of the business they would join.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/business/30oath.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A12%22%7D
[2] http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=10187339&page=171