– 47 – Leadership, Business Schools and Financial Crises: The search for a missing link Dr Ashfaq Khan University of New England (Australia) Dr Wiqar Ahmad University of Malakand (Pakistan) ABSTRACT Business schools produce leaders who command ‘power’ and ‘governmentality’, as per Foucault’s theoretical conceptualisations, to institutionalise routines and social practices in contemporary organisations. These leaders must uphold ethics in their business decisions; however, this has not been refected in many instances, as recurring fnancial crises have depicted over time. Eforts to address the issue and reach its root cause have failed to deliver concrete results so far, which necessitates an objective probe into today’s business education. This conceptual-cum- analytical paper proposes an alternate, indirect approach to efectively tackle the issue. We suggest two remedies: frst, transformative teaching and learning activities that inculcate ethical values into students should be implemented at the grass root level – primary and secondary schools, that feed into business schools with future business leaders; second, a conducive corporate governance environment within business organisations that supports ethical decisions and nurtures ethical behaviour needs to be developed – arguably the frst being the prerequisite for the second. Introduction Deducing an optimal solution to a problem requires a thorough and objective understanding of the problem’s root cause(s). The occurrence of fnancial crises around the world has become a cyclical phenomenon, with people expecting such crises every few decades. Whether we speak of the 1929 Great Depression, the largest one-day stock market plunge of 1987 in the US, or the 1989 Japan crisis, the fraudulent and/or unethical practices of big players in the fnance world – the banks’ and large corporations’ executives – frequently have had a role in causing the harm. Regulatory frameworks, work ethics models, law-enforceable standards, criminal courts, audit requirements and severe punishments, among other measures, have been operative for at least two decades.