Enhancing Arthur Andersen business ethics vignettes: Group discussions using cooperative/collaborative learning techniques

Arthur Anderson & Co. has made a significant contribution to assist and encourage the teaching of business ethics. They provided assistance initially through workshops and curriculum materials; currently they are using campus coordinators to disseminate information and materials. The curriculum materials can be used by the instructor to assist students in practicing their moral reasoning skills and cover four academic areas: Accounting, Finance, Marketing, and Management. These materials include business ethics video vignettes, suggestions on presentation methods, guidelines for implementing a stakeholders' analysis approach to ethical reasoning, and possible discussion questions. The vignettes present ethical dilemmas that persons may encounter in entry level positions. We have used the vignettes, the accompanying discussion questions, and the suggested stakeholder analysis in class presentations. This paper presents a discussion of the basic concepts associated with cooperative learning, an example of the implementation of cooperative learning techniques using the Arthur Andersen Accounting Ethics Vignettes, and empirical results of the influence of these particular group discussions on the students' ethical responses. We did not attempt to measure whether the individuals' moral levels changed, but whether the group discussions stimulated any changes in the students attitudes toward the particular ethical dilemma they viewed.Lucia E. Peek is Associate Professor of Accountancy at Western Illinois University. She has published articles inAuditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Public Personnel Management, Management Accounting, Illinois Issues, The Accounting Instructor's Report, andThe Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication.George S. Peek is Associate Professor of Accountancy at Western Illinois University. He has published articles inManagement Accounting, Kent/Bentley Journal of Computers and Accounting, The Accounting Instructor's Report, The Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication, Journal of Education for Business, andComputers in Composition.Mary Horras is Instructor of Accountancy at Western Illinois University. In 1991 she was awarded the Arthur Andersen/Richard E. Claire Faculty Development Award for Outstanding Beta Alpha Psi Faculty Advisor. She has published an article in theCollege Student Journal.