Michel Anteby

In Manufacturing Morals, Michel Anteby tries to take an outside view on his workplace, the Harvard Business School. Prompted by his arrival as an outsider and the observations of strange habits and traditions, and by the drive to make sense of them, he noted his observations privately at first, but then, not completely endorsed by his environment in this book.

The core question is, how HBS manages to instil moral leadership values in its students, graduate, post-graduate and executive, one of its core missions.

On a more abstract level, this book is relevant to everybody, as it tries to answer the question how to teach values without preaching and dull indoctrination. The solution, to remain silent on the values themselves, while guiding the method of discovery and deduction with the confidence that the outcome will be in line with the aspired values is probably not unique to HBS. I recall reading about the transmission of knowledge in American indigenous peoples by letting the students grow, mature and discover truths when they are ready, rather than hammering them in, which is the same principle.

I liked this book, as ethnographies, especially written with an observant eye and a healthy dose of humorous challenging of the ways of "The School", are not so often found. And in my field of work, organisational culture could very well adapt some of these ideas, as the directive type of attempted culture change is quite prevalent, yet not overly successful.… (mais)