Human rights lessons in spotlight at B-Schools

NYU Stern School of Business, which has opened world's first human rights centre at a B-School, is keen to learn from faculty in India. NYU Stern School of Business is set to integrate human rights in its MBA curriculum and into the way the business school operates by launching the world's first human rights centre at a business school this year. Some Indian business schools, however, seem to have beaten Stern to this, by broaching the subject through active discussions and graded courses with its students. Stern is open to collaborations with Indian and other overseas faculty members for teaching human rights at the campus.

"I'm happy to hear that issues of reservation, and gender discrimination, which are so relevant to India, are being discussed and taught at business schools there. This is very encouraging. At Stern, we are keen to connect with faculty members from India and other countries to exchange ideas on how best to do this," says Michael H Posner, professor of Business and Society at Stern and the man charged with the task of setting up the centre.

"There needs to be a greater focus on business and human rights and our discussions led us to conclude that a business school would gives us the opportunity to work directly with graduates and businesses to create greater awareness," he says. A lawyer by qualification, Posner worked as assistant secretary of state for the bureau of democracy, human rights and labor at the state department under Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Obama administration before coming to Stern.

Posner will be taking a course on global markets and human rights this fall and says the decision to zero in on NYU Stern for setting up the centre was because of the city's status as the financial capital of the United States and the school's proximity to Wall Street. "Stern is less than two miles from Wall Street and is moving in the direction of taking a broader view of business and society."

Indian Modules

Back in India, Indian business schools like IIM, Calcutta, IIM, Kozhikode (IIM-K), Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Indian School of Business and XLRI have increasingly tried to emphasise the importance of human rights in their MBA curriculum in a bid to create more responsible managers over the past few years. Some of them have embedded the content in separate courses and have even allocated grades to those subjects. Human rights module is not included in the MBA curriculum at IIM Bangalore.

The business schools have human rights modules as compulsory or optional courses. But the new focus on human rights in B-school curriculum globally is expected to provide impetus to these modules in India. Professor Dishan Kamdar, senior associate dean, academic programmes at ISB, feels building awareness on human rights among students is extremely important for business schools focused on emerging markets.

ISB does not have a separate course on human rights but important elements of the subject are embedded in their course called 'Responsible Leadership, Government Business and Society. The subject covers bottom of the pyramid issues, sweatshops, and cases of human rights violations in India.


(2013-08-20/indiatimes)