The Influence of Institutional Mission on Students’ Values: A Comparison Among Three Universities

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/basr.12155
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Author: James Weber,Jessica McManus Warnell

Business and Society Review 123:4 567–600

© 2018 W. Michael Hoffman Center for Busi ness Ethics at Bentley Uni versity. Published by

Wiley Period icals, Inc., 350 Main St reet, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9 600 Garsington

Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, U K. DOI: 10.1111/basr.12155

The Influence of Institutional

Mission on Students’ Values:

A Comparison Among Three

Universities

JAMES WEBER and JE SSICA MCMANUS WARNEL L

ABSTR ACT

Many business schools profess a commitment to ethics in

their mission statements and focus a spotlig ht on the

intersection between the un iversity’s mission and atten-

tion to business ethics. To explore this t rend, we analyze

a sample of students’ values from two universities wit h an

explicit religious foundation and recogn ized commit ment

to ethics against students from a nother university where

this attention is not as explicit. Th is study identifies the

personal values orientations (P VOs) for these students,

born between 1980 and 2000, thus m illennia ls, and con-

siders if differences can be att ributed to the university ’s

culture and mission or business school cur riculum. We

utilize S ocial Identity Theor y as a promising fra mework

for illuminati ng these considerations. Our results con-

firm th at a religious-orientation character izing a

James Weber is a professor of Busine ss Ethics and Ma nagement, Palumbo- Donahue School of

Business, Duquesne Un iversity, Pittsbu rgh, PA. E-mai l: weberj@duq.edu. Jessica McManus

Warnell is an a ssociate teaching profess or of Management & Organiz ation, Mendoza College

of Business, Unive rsity of Notre Dame, Notre Da me, IN. E-mail: jmcmanus@nd.e du.

568 BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW

university’s mission may inf luence the business students’

(or millennia ls’) PVOs. Students at the two religious insti-

tutions manifested a stronger soc ial, rather tha n per-

sonal, and moral, rather t han competence, value

orientation. Only marg inal dif ferences were discovered

when assessing with in group differences in t he value ori-

entations among our sample of business students.

T he space occupied by business schools professing in their

mission statements a commitment to eth ics and integrity

is increasingly crowded (AACSB 20 04; de los Reyes et al.

2016). This attention is welcome, importa nt and necessary, as

equipping students to responsibly navigate business in an era of

interconne ctedness, g lobali zation, t ranspa rency, and accou ntabil-

ity is more critical now t han ever. As these mission statements and

stated goals of educating for ethica l business leadership prolifer-

ate, consideration of the impact of these efforts is now possible.

Moving beyond intentions to outcomes is key; though encourag ing,

a risk is that abundance of professed attention to issues of ethica l

business allows us to conclude that today’s students—tomorrow’s

business leaders—are poised to lead w ith integrit y. Consensus on

how we teach business ethics is far from determ ined (de los Reyes

et al. 2016). Exploring a nd understanding t he impact and mean-

ing of these offerin gs, and how they might man ifest in the values

expressed by today’s students, are vital. We describe a nd contrast

how three universities attempt to inst itutionaliz e ethics education

in their mission statements and pur pose or goals, and consider the

connection to the expressed va lues of their students.

The abundance of professed attention to ethics in business

schools is contemporaneous with an interesti ng public conversa-

tion on the nature of these young people themselves. We are inun-

dated with messages about these f uture leaders—today’s business

students and early-career business people, christened t he millen-

nials. This generat ional cohort, typica lly identified as t hose born

between 1980 and 2000, includes those students studying busi-

ness and those young professionals just now entering and as cend-

ing to management positions in our cor porations. Millenn ials are

illustrated in popula r media and academic ana lysis as a mix ture

of young people who are entitled and social ly conscious, hyper-

connected and search ing for meaning, a nd representing both t he

569WEBER AND MCMANUS WARNELL

bane and the promise of our collect ive future (McManus Warnell

2015). This dissect ion of millennia ls’ preferences and interests,

gifts, char acteristics, and chal lenges is undertaken by educators

and employers (not to mention marketers). The intersection be-

tween mission and goals of t he university’s attention to business

ethics, and the intentions and perspe ctives of these young people

studying wit hin this space, is a r ich area for study.

As business school educators who believe in the promise of busi-

ness for prosocial impact, we are intr igued by how these emerg-

ing business professionals see the world. For the purposes of our

study, we are interested in exploring their form ative education—are

they drawn to colleges a nd universities with proso cial missions,

given their express ed desire for aligni ng values with t heir work

(McManus Warnell 2015)? Do students flourish and competencies

take shape and al ign with ex pressed commitment to eth ical for-

mation? Does the mission of their educational in stitution matter?

We describe a representative sample of student values from three

business schools; two universities wit h an explicit foundational,

recognized com mitment to ethics and prosoci al business, and an-

other university where this attent ion is not as explicit nor framed

in religious contexts. Th is descriptive contrast may be helpful to

explore students’ values orientations and relationship to university

mission.

Duquesne University, the University of Illinois and the University

of Notre Dame were invited to pa rticipate in this st udy. Examining

a large set of responses from a geographica lly and mission-diverse

group of three U.S. universities enables us to closely investigate

the data representing students from two u niversities with a pro-

fessed, long-standing commit ment to ethical business education

with a universit y where this commitment is not as expl icit. This

study identifies the personal va lues orientations (PVOs) for stu-

dents from our three inst itutions. Then, we consider how the stu-

dents’ PVOs may differ across institutions and ex plore whether

differences can be att ributed to the university’s culture a nd mis-

sion or other forces that may characterize t he religious-oriented

universities compared to the public inst itution.