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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
The Teaching of Business Ethics: An Imperative at
Business Schools
Frederick G. Crane
To cite this article: Frederick G. Crane (2004) The Teaching of Business Ethics: An Imperative at Business Schools, Journal of Education for Business, 79:3, 149-151, DOI: 10.3200/
JOEB.79.3.149-151
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.79.3.149-151
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
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here has been much discussion over the decline of ethical business practices on a global scale. In recent years, in particular, we have witnessed a proliferation of well-publicized scandals involving corporate dishonesty and cheating, such as the cases involving Enron, Global Crossing, and WorldCom. Many experts have suggested that the numbers and magnitude of such scan-dals are not simply the result of the eth-ical failings of a few “rotten apples” (Adler, 2002). In fact, opinion polls now place businesspeople in lower esteem than politicians (Merritt, 2002). Even college students are disturbed by the recent corporate scandals. One study found that more than 80% of business students thought that the United States was having a business crisis (Weisul & Merritt, 2002). Moreover, a crosscultur-al study found that business students across four different countries (the Unit-ed States, Australia, Israel, and Taiwan) were very concerned about business ethics (Lin, 1999).
Yet, a recent Aspen Institute study of graduates of the top business schools in the United States found that business school (B-school) education not only fails to improve the moral character of students but actually weakens it. For example, the Aspen researchers found that students enter B-schools with ideal-istic ambitions, such as to create quality products and deliver customer
satisfac-tion, but that only 2 years later these goals take a backseat to the boosting of share prices (Schneider & Prasso, 2002). Alvin Rohrs, CEO of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), stated: “There’s a lack of understanding about ethics and how ethics are applied in real life. We have to get young people to stop and think about ethics and the decisions they’re making, otherwise, today’s stu-dents may be tomorrow’s criminals” (Weisul & Merritt, 2002, p. 8).
The Association to Advance Colle-giate Schools of Business (AACSB) has supported the teaching of business ethics in the B-school curriculum as early as the 1980s (Curren & Harich, 1996). However, over time, ethics courses have been disappearing slowly from many B-school programs as MBA programs have been redesigned (Adler, 2002). Ethical content has not been eliminated completely because the
AACSB requires it in the curriculum, but many of the newly designed MBA programs include just the minimum amount required to satisfy the mandate (Gioia, 2002). Some business ethics teachers have suggested that this mar-ginalization of business ethics in favor of other “hard” business topics is one of the reasons for the deterioration of ethical conduct in business (Gioia). In other words, B-school graduates may act unethically because they were neither exposed to the ethical dilemmas inherent in many situations in which they eventu-ally find themselves in the business world nor taught how to engage in ethi-cal decision making in such situations.
Many business school and corporate leaders are suggesting that B-schools have a responsibility to teach ethics, just like they do financial analysis and busi-ness strategy. Robert Dolan, dean of the business school at the University of Michigan, suggested that corporate America’s desire to restore its image has placed a greater burden on B-schools. Dean William Christie of Vanderbilt argued that if courses in ethics are not already part of a B-school’s curriculum, they had better be soon (Merritt, 2002).
McCabe, Dukerich, and Dutton (1991) reported that psychology literature sup-ports the argument that education is one of the most consistent and powerful cor-relates to the development of moral judg-ment in individuals. Moreover, Nonis
The Teaching of Business Ethics:
An Imperative at Business Schools
FREDERICK G. CRANE
University of New Hampshire Durham, New Hampshire
January/February 2004 149
T
ABSTRACT. This study reports the findings of an investigation of MBAs and their views on the teaching of business ethics. The author found that tomorrow’s business leaders believe that there are ethical standards that should be followed in business but that current ethical standards do not meet society’s needs adequately. Moreover, although most respondents indicated that they can determine what consti-tutes ethical and unethical behavior, there was widespread agreement among students about whether busi-ness ethics should be taught as a required course in business schools.
and Swift (2001) suggested that an indi-vidual’s values affect his or her ethical decision making. And, because values can be taught, ethical practices can be influenced. Finally, Gioia (2002) indicat-ed that indicat-educators influence students in their learning about business. Therefore, business faculty members should be able to influence students in their learning about business ethics as well.
Recently, the Critical Management Studies Interest Group of the Academy of Management met to discuss the issue of business ethics in B-schools. Some of the discussion focused on how business students can receive ethical training and be encouraged to commit to ethical behavior (Adler, 2002). Gioia (2002) argued that, currently, many business schools fail to take business ethics train-ing seriously. He suggested that in light of the recent corporate scandals, busi-ness teachers have both an opportunity and a responsibility to influence stu-dents about business ethics. In particu-lar, the teaching of practical ethics in MBA programs needs pronounced emphasis. Not only should there be a stand-alone business ethics course, but business ethics also should be integrated into finance, accounting, management, marketing, and other courses. Lynn Sharp Paine of Harvard also urged busi-ness schools to invest more in ethics research and “to ratchet up” the study of business ethics (Merritt, 2003).
With the heightened concern and in-terest in business ethics, business schools should consider how they might best use their strategic positions to encourage stu-dents to think more deeply about ethical issues and strengthen their powers of mo-ral reasoning. I specifically designed this study to assess current MBA students’ attitudes toward business ethics and to determine whether ethics can and should be taught in the business curriculum.
Method
To assess MBA students’ attitudes toward business ethics and the teaching of ethics in business schools, I devel-oped a survey instrument and adminis-tered it to a group of MBA students studying at two business schools in New England. The total sample con-sisted of 122 respondents. Respondents
were full-time day students who were on average slightly older than 26 years; 63% were men. Respondents indicated their extent of agreement or disagree-ment with various statedisagree-ments on a Likert-type scale with the following anchors: 1 (strongly disagree), 2 ( dis-agree), 3 (neither disagree or agree), 4 (agree), and 5 (strongly agree). I con-ducted an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine if there were any significant differences between male and female respondents regarding business ethics issues and whether they should be taught.
Results
In Table 1, I present the statements posted and the responses provided by the students. Unlike some previous studies on business ethics, my study did not turn up any significant differences (at the .05 level) in responses between male and female students regarding business ethics issues and the teaching
thereof (Beltramini, Peterson, & Kozmetsky, 1984; Stewart & Felicetti, 1996). Over 82% of all respondents believed that there are ethical standards that should be followed in business, yet less than 25% believed that current eth-ical standards are meeting the needs of business and society. Seventy percent of the respondents thought that business ethics have deteriorated over the years, but only 10% thought that they had deteriorated to an “anything goes” situ-ation. Overall, only 12% agreed that the ethics of businesspeople are worse than the ethics of officials in government.
More than 80% of the respondents thought that they could determine what is ethical and unethical business behav-ior. However, 80% thought that ethics in business could be improved and more than 70% thought that they could be taught business ethics. Moreover, 83% stated that a required ethics course should be taught and 85% thought that they would learn something of value in such a course. Still, only 35% of the
150 Journal of Education for Business
TABLE 1. Percentages of Male and Female Respondents Agreeing or Strongly Agreeing With Survey Item Statements
Agreeing or strongly agreeing (%) Overall Men Women Level of Survey item (N= 122) (N= 77) (N= 45) significance
1. There are ethical standards that
should be followed in business. 82 81 83 .706 2. Current ethical standards meet
the needs of business and
society. 23 23 24 .878
3. Business ethics have
deteriorated over the years. 70 70 70 .974 4. There are no ethical standards
in business; “anything goes.” 10 9 11 .647 5. The ethics in business are
worse than the ethics in
government. 12 12 12 .949
6. I can determine what is ethical
or unethical business behavior. 81 80 83 .731 7. It is possible to improve ethics
in business. 80 80 80 .963
8. You can be taught business
ethics. 71 70 72 .843
9. An ethics course should be
required in business schools. 83 84 82 .912 10. I believe that I could learn
something of value in a required business ethics
course. 85 84 86 .825
11. Business ethics will improve
in the future. 35 34 36 .712
respondents thought that business ethics actually would improve in the future.
Conclusion
Notwithstanding the limitations of this study, specifically the sample size and possible representativeness of the data, I could draw some major conclu-sions. First, there is a need for ethical training among business students. Because three out of four respondents felt that current ethical standards fail to meet the needs of business and society, a need exists for an increased apprecia-tion of ethical consideraapprecia-tions in busi-ness. This is further strengthened by the fact that almost 70% of the respondents thought that business ethics had deterio-rated over time. Furthermore, only 35% of the respondents felt that business ethics would improve in the future. If these MBAs, as future business leaders, believe that the current situation is unacceptable and deteriorating and fear that it may not improve in the future, business faculty members must embark on a concerted effort to teach students about ethics in the business classroom. Second, students apparently are very receptive to information and learning about business ethics. Majorities of respondents believed that business ethics can be improved, that this improvement can be facilitated through education, that they can be taught busi-ness ethics, and that a required course in business ethics should be part of the business curriculum. More important, more than 80% of respondents thought that they could learn something of value in such a course. Such receptivity
should make it much easier for instruc-tors who wish to teach business ethics. Thus, we can conclude that business ethics indeed should be taught in busi-ness schools and move on to the next question, how business ethics can be taught most effectively.
Third, business ethics education needs to show students how to handle ethical problems or situations that arise in business. Because more than three in four respondents thought that they could determine ethical business behav-ior, it is unlikely that this group of stu-dents would respond well to a moraliz-ing approach to business ethics. Thus, we can conclude that students want programs that teach them how to handle problematic ethical situations and how to avoid becoming involved in them in the first place. A simple listing of acceptable behaviors such as those con-tained in standard codes of conduct most likely will not suffice. Just as graduate business students need to develop tools and skills to aid them in the decision-making process in man-agement or marketing, they also need tools and skills for ethical decision making. Experiential exercises, role play, scenario analysis, and other activ-ities that involve ethical decision mak-ing might be appropriate tools to deploy in classroom situations.
This study clearly reveals that stu-dents support the teaching of business ethics. Business faculty members may not be able to change the character of scoundrels or influence corrupt individ-uals, but they can work diligently to per-suade the overwhelming majority of stu-dents to accept the idea that ethical
behavior should be the overriding imper-ative in today’s marketplace. In short, as Gioia (2002) suggested, we should focus on educating the 99% who “get it” and not the 1% who seem to believe that “anything goes.” This study’s results demonstrate that students do want and deserve help from business teachers in learning to think and act ethically.
REFERENCES
Adler, P. (2002). Corporate scandals: It’s time for reflection in business schools. Academy of Management Executive, 16(3), 148–150. Beltramini, R. F., Peterson, R. A., & Kozmetsky,
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Curren, M. T., & Harich, K. R. (1996). Business ethics: A comparison of business and humani-ties students and faculty. Journal of Education for Business, 72(1), 9–11.
Gioia, D. A. (2002). Business education’s role in the crisis of corporate confidence. Academy of Management Executive, 16(3), 142–145. Lin, C. (1999). A comparison of perception about
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McCabe, D. L., Dukerich, J. M., & Dutton, J. E. (1991). Context, values and moral dilemmas: Comparing the choices of business and law school students. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, 951–960.
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