Business Ethics for Introductory Courses

Of late philosophers have begun to write about the implications of research in social and personality psychology for the study of ethics. The spirit of this movement is that ethics should be founded on a realistic conception of human nature and that social and personality psychology have important things to say about these matters. Examples of philosophers involved in this movement are, inter alia, and most prominently, Doris, Flanagan, Harman, and Vranas. On the psychologists’ side, Ross and Nisbett are the most prominent examples of those attempting to insure that the findings of psychology find their way into our conception of human nature. We want to sign up for this movement too. But we are afraid that these philosophers and psychologists have drawn wrong conclusions from psychological results. We believe the lesson to be learned is substantially narrower than the movement seems to believe.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Contemporary Virtue Ethics

In light of the myriad accounting and corporate ethics scandals of the early 21st century, many corporate leaders and management scholars believe that ethics education is an essential component in business school education. Despite a voluminous body of ethics education literature, few studies have found support for the effectiveness of changing an individual’s ethical standards through programmatic ethics training. To address this gap in the ethics education literature the present study examines the influence of an underlying social cognitive error, called pluralistic ignorance. We believe that if pluralistic ignorance is reduced, the result will be more effective business ethics education programs. Eighty undergraduate management students participated in this longitudinal study, and a mixed-model ANOVA revealed that the reduction of pluralistic ignorance (due to an ethics education program designed to reduce pluralistic ignorance) resulted in higher personal ethical standards over the course of a semester, when compared to a class that did not receive a formal ethics education program as part of their course. We discuss the implications of pluralistic ignorance in training business ethics and ethics education.

This research examines the relationships between education in business ethics, Reynolds’s (J Appl Psychol 93:1027–1041, 2008) “moral attentiveness” construct, or the extent to which individuals chronically perceive and reflect on morality and moral elements in their experiences, and Singhapakdi et al.’s (J Bus Ethics 15:1131–1140, 1996) measure of perceptions of the role of ethics and social responsibility (PRESOR). Education in business ethics was found to be positively associated with the two identified factors of moral attentiveness, “reflective” and “perceptual” moral attentiveness, and with the PRESOR “stakeholder view” factor. Also, reflective moral attentiveness was found to act as a mediator in the relationship between education in business ethics and the PRESOR stakeholder view factor. Evidence of gender and social desirability bias effects was also found. The implications of these relationships and social cognitive theory for improved understanding of the mechanisms by which a variety of variables have their effects on PRESOR in business are discussed.

It has been suggested that the introduction of a universal code of ethics for business, similar to that of the Hippocratic Oath, would encourage business leaders to engage in ethical decisions. The aim of this study is to empirically investigate what future business leaders learn in business school ethics class and to critically examine if there is any correlation between the education that the Hippocratic Oath refers to and modern business ethics education. This quantitative study surveyed 128 academics that teach ethics to business students in 29 Australian universities in order to find out what business students learn when they study ethics in business schools. The study found such an overall inconsistency in business ethics education that no specific conclusions can be made apart from concluding that there is no uniform and universal standard into the discipline of ethics and what it teaches. The experts are mainly split between the view that ethics education is about teaching critical thinking or that it is about learning academic and theoretical aspects of the discipline of ethics. A third of the experts also thought the purpose of ethics education was to teach ethical conduct. This paper also argues that the laissez-faire approach about ethics education from Association for Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has marginalised business ethics education as business schools overwhelmingly tend to scattering ethics topics superficially and incoherently across the curriculum. The study argues that it is critical to establish a universal standard in business ethics education in order to ensure future ethical business leaders and that the first step is to determine a universal definition of ethics.

The question addressed in this paper is whether action learning as a management development technique can be more effective in promoting ethical decision-making than more traditional approaches. Recent examples of moral failures which have emerged in both corporate and public sector organisations in the UK during recent years have prompted a review of some of the literature about the teaching of business ethics in and by business schools. While the use of theoretical approaches to ethical analysis (such as consequentialist and deontological approaches), coupled with the discussion of scenarios or cases is a common way of structuring the teaching of business and organisational ethics, it may be limited as an approach insofar as it does not necessarily address the affective aspects of the learning process which contribute to the development of moral sensitivity and moral character. It is suggested that an action learning approach may help fill this gap, particularly if coupled with an Aristotelian focus on the development of moral character. Action learning as a technique seeks to replace instruction with facilitation, and to enable individual personal growth rather than the acquisition of knowledge. It emphasises practical action in the workplace and working with peers as part of an action learning set. The action learning method may be more suitable to fostering both technical/scientific wisdom (poeisis) and practical or prudential wisdom (phronesis) and could be adapted for use with both business students and practising managers.

This paper starts off from what seems to be a difficulty of ethics in African Business today. For several years now Transparency International has placed some African countries high on its list of most corrupt countries of the world. The conclusion one draws from this assessment is that either African culture has no regard or concern for ethics, or that there has been a gradual loss of the concept of the ethical and the moral in contemporary African society. Equally problematic is the teaching and promotion of Business ethics in organizations. Western philosophical theories and systems alone have not succeeded in providing access to ethical life of people in modern Africa. This paper is an attempt to inject an orientation that takes into account African manners and customs, their religious convictions and their understanding of the world as a whole, in the teaching of Business Ethics. East and Central Africa have been selected due to their common lingua franca, Kiswahili, and the fact that the author has more teaching experience within that region.

Introduction.- About the Contributors.- Part I: Theoretical Aspects of Business Ethics.- The Competitive Edge of Moral Leadership.- Rethinking the Impact of Religion on Business Values: Understanding its Reemergence and Measuring Its Manifestations.- Part II: Business Ethics in Asia.- Understanding Integrity Across Generations in China: Implications for Personnel Choices in Chinese Corporations.- Corruption and Anti-Corruption in China: Challenges and Countermeasures.- Taking Your Codes to China.- Do as the Romans do in Rome?.- Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha: A Business Ethics Paradigm.- Part III: The Asian Dimension of Teaching Business Ethics.- Teaching Business Ethics: Challenges and Responses.- Reframing Business Ethics in the Management Education Curriculum.- Implementing Business and Professional Ethics in an Asian Context: Three Steps to Integration.- Why and How to use Case Studies in teaching Business Ethics.- Indian Experiment in Teaching Business Ethics.- Part IV: Towards a New Paradigm of Business Ethics in Asia.- Can Business Schools Lead the Way To a World Worth Living In?.

Developing best practices for the business ethics classroom is an ongoing endeavor. One area of interest is the influence of mindsets on teaching and learning business ethics. Various mindsets are proposed to increase student awareness of the body of business ethics knowledge and motivate them to incorporate ethical knowledge in the real world. This paper reviews the current dominant consumer mindset that is argued to have unproductive effects on pedagogical practices in business ethics. Because human beings are biological production systems and live in a world of dynamic natural and human-made production processes, this paper proposes replacing the consumer mindset with Producer Mindset, a world view that is a far more natural way for humans to think, talk, and make decisions. A Producer Mindset framework is constructed for the business ethics classroom and details are provided as to how it can grow the cognitive and emotional capacity of students to independently produce ethical decisions in business and in their personal lives.

Moral Perception and Particularity

Business ethics teaching can be improved when ethicists integrate the ethical theories they apply to business with the organizational design of the course. By utilizing three techniques – implementing a Total Quality Management-style survey and review, “nominating” and “electing” class virtues, and telling personal stories of moral action – classes can be organized to operate by the social contract, rights, stakeholder, and virtue theories that dominate business ethics literature. Classes then become laboratories for the practical articulation and application of the theories as well as providing “real” examples of the theories in action. This methodology produces benefits for the particular class and for the development and refinement of the theories themselves.This paper describes each of the three pedagogical techniques; and then explicitly relates them to these leading business ethics theories to demonstrate how the integration can lead to a “community” seeking and discovering moral truth in the classroom.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to closely assess the level of business ethics education in one of the Lebanese educational institutions, namely the American University of Science and Technology (AUST) through shedding light on how the Faculty of Business and Economics' curriculum is set to meet the national and regional markets' requirements of sound business education.Design/methodology/approachDescriptive, analytical and statistical analyses are used in this study.FindingsThe study reveals several factors that affect business ethics education at AUST, namely students' ethics literacy and ethical perceptions, students' attitudes towards ethical issues, ethics and personal actions, personal morality, religious and ethical business conducts. This is in addition to the impact of formal business ethics education as implemented in the university's curriculum.Research limitations/implicationsSeveral insights could be inferred from this study. First, business ethics could be taught if a comprehensive formal and purposeful direction exists in an institution to make students internalize their perception of business ethics. Accordingly, the Faculty of Business and Economics is recommended to provide formal coverage of an ethics chapter in all business fields, and objectively expose the differences in applications as related to culture and national preferences; and third, reinforce the use of case studies on ethics dilemmas and make such studies obligatory for all majors. Another insight that is considered an important outcome of the study is its academic contribution to the few publications found on the subject matter in Lebanon and the region. Its results can be used by Middle Eastern educational institutions to analyze the reported western ethics' know how and practices and perform a series of research projects to address the differences between these two cultures in perception, applicability, sensitivity to beliefs and their influence on the way business is conducted in Lebanon and the surrounding Arab nations. Finally, this paper is an eye opener to the fact that individual's religious entity and beliefs may make a difference in the formation of ethical judgment and decision making. However, further research studies on the latter issue is needed, knowing that Lebanon is considered a mosaic religious community with 18 different official religions.Practical implicationsThe findings presented in this research can be used by Middle Eastern as well as by Western academicians, managers, employees, and students as an eye opener to the implications of business ethics education on decision making.Originality/valueThe paper adds to the minimal body of knowledge of business ethics education in the Middle East; and its findings constitute a catalyst for further research on how ethics education enhances students' future decision making in the real world.

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the application of Aristotelian virtue to business ethics. The objective of this paper is to describe the moral and intellectual virtues defined by Aristotle and the types of pedagogy that might be used to integrate virtue ethics into the business curriculum. Virtues are acquired human qualities, the excellences of character, which enable a person to achieve the good life. In business, the virtues facilitate successful cooperation and enable the community to achieve its collective goals. The cultivation of virtue in students requires imparting knowledge about virtue and training students to be virtuous. A variety of instructional techniques are discussed including using case studies, collaborative and cooperative learning, role-playing, and video presentations. Business educators should emphasize to students that virtue considerations apply both to possible actions they may take and to themselves as moral agents. Since faculty may be viewed as role models, it is especially important that they set proper standards of behavior for students to emulate.

Today, capitalism is in question, as the 2013 Academy of Management conference theme claimed. Many view business skeptically because they see capitalism as incompatible with ethics. The same problem pervades the business ethics education classroom. Business ethics can be taught in a way that demonstrates that economics and ethics are compatible and are integrated most directly in the function of management. This essay provides an overview of Ayn Rand’s philosophy as an alternative to current conventions but largely consistent with approaches such as virtue ethics and conscious capitalism. The essay concludes with challenges to teaching Objectivism in business schools.

This study explores the business ethics education literature published between 1982 and 2021. A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of 862 scholarly articles spanning 40 years of research on business ethics education revealed a thematic shift in the literature. Whereas older articles were predominantly concerned with ethics, relatively newer articles mainly focus on addressing the broader concept of sustainability. A content analysis of the 25 most locally cited articles between 1987 and 2012 identified two main research streams: (a) integration of business ethics into business school curricula and (b) the pedagogical approaches and tools used to teach business ethics. An additional content analysis of the 15 most locally cited articles published between 2016 and 2021 revealed that discussions related to integration and pedagogical approaches and tools were still ongoing in the literature, albeit with a focus on sustainability-related concepts such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Building upon our findings and existing literature, we develop a framework that we refer to as Transforming Ethics Education in Business Schools (TEEBS), which we argue may help business schools reclaim the ‘ethics’ in business ethics education.