Behavioral Ethics and Teaching Ethical Decision Making

Abstract

Business education often renders students less likely to act ethically. An infusion of liberal learning in the form of behavioral ethics could improve this situation by prompting students to develop higher levels of professionalism that encompass ethics, social responsibility, self‐critical reflection, and personal accountability. More specifically, teaching behavioral ethics, which draws upon psychology, sociology, and related fields, can improve students’ ethical decision making in a manner that can lead to a more ethical climate in organizations and in society more generally. This article introduces key concepts of behavioral ethics, argues that teaching behavioral ethics can have a positive impact, discusses materials that can be used to teach those concepts, and addresses action‐research approaches to assessing the effectiveness of the instruction. There is significant evidence, though preliminary and incomplete, that teaching behavioral ethics is a promising new approach for improving the ethicality of students’ decisions and actions.

Impact of Ethical Information Resources on Independently Licensed Counselors

“…In contrast, participants reviewing Kitchener's () five moral principles and Gottlieb's () model rated only two boundary crossings as slightly more ethical at a negligible magnitude. It appears, then, that Kitchener's five moral principles and Gottlieb's model offered minimal protection from ethical decision making being subsumed by subconscious reasoning (Drumwright et al, ) and cognitive shortcuts (McMahon & Good, ).…”

“…Ethical decision making begins subconsciously and automatically before it reaches conscious reasoning in the brain (Drumwright, Prentice, & Biasucci, ). Drumwright et al () expressed concern that the foundation of ethical decision making occurs before conscious thought is involved.…”

“…Ethical decision making begins subconsciously and automatically before it reaches conscious reasoning in the brain (Drumwright, Prentice, & Biasucci, ). Drumwright et al () expressed concern that the foundation of ethical decision making occurs before conscious thought is involved. Furthermore, McMahon and Good () reported that individuals in general look to “cognitive shortcuts” (p. 357) in order to streamline the ethical decision‐making processes.…”

The Dystopian Future of Leadership

“…Evidence from several research projects demonstrated that students can be taught to make ethical decisions (Drumwright, Prentice, & Biasucci, ; Kennedy & Malatesta, ), and the capacity to develop one's moral reasoning has been known for millennia. The plethora of ethics textbooks lends one to believe that ethics within different contexts can be taught.…”

Moral muteness of faculty in management education

“…Clearly, not all faculties should teach ethics exclusively at the expense of other equally important knowledge, but surely this means that the faculty cannot delegate the entire responsibility for ethics education to the elective courses offered in the philosophy department. Management faculty can and should incorporate various ethical dilemmas that a practitioner may encounter in each of our courses, for example (Drumwright, Prentice, & Biasucci, 2015). Many argue that faculty should but do not know enough nor do enough to promote and protect diversity and social justice in classrooms (Bell & Kravitz, 2008;Bell, Connerley, & Cocchiara, 2009;Evans & Weiss, 2008;Nicholson & DeMoss, 2009).…”