Ek onthou hoedat ek op ‘n keer in ‘n hotel in Boston in die V.S. waar ons op ‘n koue wintersaand gaan eet het, ‘n funksie raakgeloop het van een van die bekendste sakeskole in die wêreld: die Harvard Business School.
Dit was almal jong outjies wat ons in die gang en hyser omring het. Hulle was duidelik ‘n klomp baie selfversekerde mense, vol bravado en gedrewe energie.
Maar wat my soos ‘n vuishou in die maag getref het, was die naakte materialisme wat uit hul opmerkings, houdings, kleredrag en optrede getref het. Vroegaand was hierdie welaf, uitgedoste en luidrugtige jongmense duidelik al aangeklam en vulgêr.
Dit was nou seker al ‘n twintig jaar terug. In die tussentyd het ons een van die wêreld se grootste ekonomiese krisisse beleef. Die totale korrupsie in die besigheidwêreld het nie deur die mafia of die dwelmsmokkelaars ontstaan nie. Die wêreld se ekonomiese en finansiële sisteem het dramaties tot ‘n val gekom deur hoogs gesofistikeerde eerste-wêreld maatskappye en invloedryke individue wat miljarde dollars van hulle beleggers skaamteloos gesteel het en hulself ten koste van ander verryk het.
En die naakte, skaamtelose dryfveer agter hierdie witboordjie kriminaliteit was gierigheid en, nog dieper, materialisme.
Dit was ‘n ramp wat gedryf is deur die wêreld se hoogs opgeleide sakeleiers – vele van hulle seker produkte van ‘n sakeskool soos die HBS.
Daar is ‘n gees los in die sake-omgewing wat my herinner aan Openbring 18 as een van die beroemdste hoofstukke in wêreldliteratuur oor die promiskue en afstootlike materialisme van geïnstitusionaliseerde magsinstellings. ‘n Mens moet ver gaan om ‘n teks te vind wat met soveel afsku praat van die onderliggende materialisme wat skepsels van God van hul menslikheid ontneem en dit in ‘n demoniese magwellus omkeer.
Die sake-omgewing kan ‘n plek wees waar mense groot opheffingswerk kan doen. Maar dit is ook ‘n ruimte waar onreg hoogty kan vier. En wat ‘n mens ‘n Openbaring 18 gevoel gee.
Dit alles kom by my op toe ek vandag hierdie artikel in die NYT lees. Dit gaan oor die assertiewe manier waarop die nuwe dekaan van die HBS begin het om die minderwaardige posisie van vroue in die skool en in die besigheidswêreld om te keer. Dit vertel hoedat vroue deur dosente in punte-toekenning benadeel is, hoe jong vroulike dosente deur manlike klaslede geïntimideer is, hoe vroulike studente deur hul manlike klasmaats benadeel is, maar dit vertel ook hoe in hierdie uiters mededingende omgewing die ultra-ryk studente ‘n geheime vereniging het waartoe net hulle behoort en hulle bevoorregte posisie op die manier verder versterk. Maar dit vertel ook van die weersin van die manlike studente in pogings om sake reg te stel. Maak nie saak hoe hulle oortuig is van die nodigheid van aanpassings nie, of moes hoor van die verhale van die uitgebuite groep in hulle midde nie. Die antenna om ongeregtigheid te herken, is nie daar nie.
Dit is ‘n artikel wat myns insiens in elke etiek-klas aan universiteite verpligtende leesstof moet wees. Dit is die moeite werd om dit versigtig deur te lees. Hier is die skakel daarna en dan ‘n enkele uittreksel.
Hier is enkele aanhalings:
BOSTON — When the members of the Harvard Business School class of 2013 gathered in May to celebrate the end of their studies, there was little visible evidence of the experiment they had undergone for the last two years. As they stood amid the brick buildings named after businessmen from Morgan to Bloomberg, black-and-crimson caps and gowns united the 905 graduates into one genderless mass.
But during that week’s festivities, the Class Day speaker, a standout female student, alluded to “the frustrations of a group of people who feel ignored.” Others grumbled that another speechmaker, a former chief executive of a company in steep decline, was invited only because she was a woman. At a reception, a male student in tennis whites blurted out, as his friends laughed, that much of what had occurred at the school had “been a painful experience.”
He and his classmates had been unwitting guinea pigs in what would have once sounded like a far-fetched feminist fantasy: What if Harvard Business School gave itself a gender makeover, changing its curriculum, rules and social rituals to foster female success?
The country’s premier business training ground was trying to solve a seemingly intractable problem. Year after year, women who had arrived with the same test scores and grades as men fell behind. Attracting and retaining female professors was a losing battle; from 2006 to 2007, a third of the female junior faculty left.
Some students, like Sheryl Sandberg, class of ’95, the Facebook executive and author of “Lean In,” sailed through. Yet many Wall Street-hardened women confided that Harvard was worse than any trading floor, with first-year students divided into sections that took all their classes together and often developed the overheated dynamics of reality shows. Some male students, many with finance backgrounds, commandeered classroom discussions and hazed female students and younger faculty members, and openly ruminated on whom they would “kill, sleep with or marry” (in cruder terms). Alcohol-soaked social events could be worse.
“You weren’t supposed to talk about it in open company,” said Kathleen L. McGinn, a professor who supervised a student study that revealed the grade gap. “It was a dirty secret that wasn’t discussed.”
But in 2010, Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard’s first female president, appointed a new dean who pledged to do far more than his predecessors to remake gender relations at the business school. He and his team tried to change how students spoke, studied and socialized. The administrators installed stenographers in the classroom to guard against biased grading, provided private coaching — for some, after every class — for untenured female professors, and even departed from the hallowed case-study method.
The dean’s ambitions extended far beyond campus, to what Dr. Faust called in an interview an “obligation to articulate values.” The school saw itself as the standard-bearer for American business. Turning around its record on women, the new administrators assured themselves, could have an untold impact at other business schools, at companies populated by Harvard alumni and in the Fortune 500, where only 21 chief executives are women. The institution would become a laboratory for studying how women speak in group settings, the links between romantic relationships and professional status, and the use of everyday measurement tools to reduce bias.
The men at the top of the heap worked in finance, drove luxury cars and advertised lavish weekend getaways on Instagram, many students observed in interviews. Some belonged to the so-called Section X, an on-again-off-again secret society of ultrawealthy, mostly male, mostly international students known for decadent parties and travel.
Volg die skakel vir die res van die artikel:
Hier is een van die kommentare van ‘n leser op die artikel, wat, geresigneerd, wonder of die inherente vooroordele ooit uit die weg geruim sal kan word.
My girlfriend and I saw vastly different cultures at Harvard’s different schools. We took classes at the Law School and at HBS, as guest students from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (where the mission is to try to help make the world a better place; shucks). We were revolted by the materialistic, macho atmosphere at HBS. Neither of us hates business, or business schools, but HBS is without peer when it comes to elistist, starry-eyed kids lusting after titan-of-the-world status. Gosh, you get discombobulated in the presence of snobby social cliques, but you thought going to HBS would be a good move? Who are these shy HBS women who, on a quest for immense wealth, are shocked that aggressive class participation is required? We should worry for them?! Cure that place of gender bias? Please. Better to try curing cancer with a Band-Aid.
Ek is veral getref deur die een vraag: wie is dan in hierdie artikel van die NYT oor die HBS die skaam vroulike studente wat daar gaan aanmeld het? Waarom is hulle per slot van sake daar? En dan die kernopmerking: hulle is almal sekerlik “on a quest for immense wealth.” Dit is nogal ‘n opmerking wat in alle geskryf regtig vassteek. Onthou van die wortel van alle kwaad?
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