Breaking Down the Barriers: Bringing Initiatives and Reality into Business Ethics Education

Abstract

A new paradigm imposes special demands on business ethics education: (a) merging financial and social imperatives; (b) stemming recurrent scandals without being compliance obsessive; (c) infusing ethics awareness into all areas of business to remain relevant to the real world, motivate students, and keep up with innovations; (d) mediating cross-cultural differences to promote competitiveness and foster positive social integration. However, four barriers—assumptions, goals, disciplines, and context—impede the ability of business ethics education to meet those demands. Identifying and analyzing the barriers, this article advocates breaking them down. To breathe life into the suggestion of bringing more reality into ethics education, the article offers practical recommendations for business schools in redesigning ethics initiatives.

Creating an Interdisciplinary Business Ethics Program

“…A value-oriented ethics program, on the other hand, is oriented towards aspirations (what we want to be, what we value, the behavior we want to support). Business ethics curricula are often focused on compliance with the law (Canales et al 2010), but some consider this inferior to value-based reasoning with philosophical principles (Jackson 2006). Weaver and Trevino (1999) suggest that these two approaches are not mutually exclusive.…”

More than Lip Service: The Development and Implementation Plan of an Ethics Decision-Making Framework for an Integrated Undergraduate Business Curriculum

“…Even if a faculty member wishes to raise ethics issues, this does not ensure that any systematic examination of the issue takes place, even if the instructor has the best intentions (Jackson 2006). It is difficult enough for professors to stay current in detailed nuances of rules and regulations, let alone the broader matters of ethical principle (Jackson 2006). 4.…”

“…The compliance approach has a tendency to focus on structures, systems and rules. Jackson (2006) summarized the argument in the following terms. Many business situations are too complex for the straightforward application of rules; what is needed is judgment and discernment which depends on an understanding of the goals and purposes of the rules.…”

“…Armed with a BSBA, graduates begin a career that is likely to involve managing others in which they will make decisions which require balancing competing, conflicting and mutually exclusive interests. An example would be the competing interests of employees for higher wages, lower product prices for consumers, and higher returns on investment for owners (Jackson 2006). To prepare students for these challenges, we argue along with Atkinson (2008), Poff (2007), and Caldwell et al (2005) that within the undergraduate program there lies an obligation to equip students with ethical awareness, ethical reasoning skills based on core ethical foundations and principles, and the capacity to critically respond to changing environments that contain competing interests and complex obligations to numerous stakeholders.…”

Desafiaments interdisciplinars i socials de la psicologia moral contemporània: obertura i reflexivitat

“…Inclús, hi ha qui ha considerat la possibilitat de què formar·se com a advocat, a més de ser particularment negatiu per a la salut mental dels estudiants, els faça retrocedir quant al seu desenvolupament moral, donat l'èmfasi de la carrera en les recom· penses extrínseques o purament materials, en lloc de recompenses intrínseques com ara el creixement personal o l'autoestima (Hartwell, 2004). Donat el per· sistent problema de la corrupció, la necessitat de repensar l'educació ètica dels gerents o administradors públics i privats és igualment clara (Jackson, 2006); així com la de parar molta més atenció de què han rebut fins ara a les relacions entre el desenvolupament moral i l'economia, la qual cosa implica que l'edu· cació moral i ciutadana adopte la forma d'una educació per a i mitjançant la controvèrsia (Frisancho i Delgado, 2016;Hess, 2009). Per sort, almenys als Estats Units, el model dels quatre components (Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau i Thoma) ha inspirat algunes iniciatives de renovació de l'Ètica professional en distintes àrees (Bebeau i Monson, 2014).…”