Profs "punk" students

August 16, 2007

Professors “punk” their business students and win awards

At the Haskayne School of Business, Professors Daphne Taras and Piers Steel lied to their students and won multiple awards for doing so. It was for the students benefit after all. The purpose of the learning tactic was to use deception to create an environment where students would become more sensitive to the conditions that create labour unions. Furthermore, this experiential learning tactic was the featured paper in the British Journal of Industrial Relations (March 2007).

Both professors plotted to punk their students. The students showed up to the classroom one morning only to find Steel absent and Taras in charge. They were informed that Steel was “suspended” pending further unnamed investigation and that Taras was unhappy with the course curriculum. There would be changes. A few weeks before the final exam, she informed them that extracurricular work wouldn’t be considered and that they will be tested on the entire course, not just the material since the midterm. All objections were summarily and patronizingly dismissed. “Life is tough” she informed them and they had to just deal with it.

Students were immediately distressed at these changes and acted as expected. Denied any other channel to vent their grievances, they jumped at an opportunity to join a student association to represent their collective interests to the dean. How long does it take to unionize business school students? About eight minutes.

Professor Taras says the goal of the exercise is to reach students at a level that will create a lasting impact.

“It is especially important in the post-Enron era for business students to understand the consequences of their decisions on the lives of their workers,” says Taras. “That they will be able to vividly recall the feeling of betrayal, of the breaking trust with their professors, that is what we hope will be the lasting effect,” says Taras.

The study shows that 100 per cent of the students found the deception to be between neutral and extremely worthwhile. One comment states: “I think that this was a fantastic way of conveying to management-minded personnel the reasons for unionization. There is a tendency in all of us to ignore the needs and desires of others in our interests and, in the process of doing so, destroy the greater good.”