Teaching Business Ethics: Targeted Outputs

Business ethics is once again a hot topic as examples of improper business practices that violate commonly accepted ethical norms are brought to our attention. With the increasing number of scandals business schools find themselves on the defensive in explaining what they are doing to help respond to the call to teach ‘‘more’’ business ethics. This paper focuses on two issues germane to business ethics teaching efforts: the ‘‘targeted output’’ goals of teaching business ethics and when in the curriculum business ethics should be taught.     

Designing and Delivering Business Ethics Teaching and Learning

The recent corporate scandals in the United States have caused a renewed interest and focus on teaching business ethics. Business schools and their faculties are reexamining the teaching of business ethics and are reassessing their responsibilities to produce honest and truthful managers who live lives of integrity and ethical accountability. The authors recognize that no agreement exists among business schools and their faculties regarding what should be the content and pedagogy of a course in business ethics. However, the authors hold that regardless of one’s biases regarding the content and pedagogy, the effective teaching of business ethics requires that the instructor in designing and delivering a business ethics course needs to focus particular attention on four principal questions: (1) what are the objectives or targeted learning outcomes of the course? (2) what kind of learning environment should be created? (3) what learning processes need to be employed to achieve the goals? and (4) what are the roles of the participants in the learning experience? The answers to these questions provide the foundations for any business ethics course. The answers are major determinants of the impact of a business ethics course on the thinking of students and the views on the ethical and professional accountabilities and responsibilities of managers in the workplace.     

The Effectiveness of Corporate Ethics On-site Visits for Teaching Business Ethics

This paper describes and reports the evaluation ofusing corporate ethics field site visits in a businessethics course. The dilemma of how to design ameaningful business ethics course has been the subjectof debate for business school ethics instructors andis reviewed here. The structure of the site visitsand how student work is evaluated is presented. Twostudies evaluating the field site visits were done. The first study utilized qualitative methods toevaluate students' reactions as well as comments fromthe corporate ethics officers who host the visits. The second study utilized a pretest-posttest surveydesign to quantitatively evaluate student reactions tothe site visits. Results showed a statisticallysignificant, positive change in students' attitudes. This effect was moderated by gender, showing astronger positive effect for females than for males.     

Teaching Business Ethics: The Role of Ethics in Business and in Business Education

The paper begins with an examination of traditional attitudes towards business ethics. I suggest that these attitudes fail to recognize that a principal function of ethics is to facilitate cooperation. Further that despite the emphasis on competition in modern market economies, business like all other forms of social activity is possible only where people are prepared to respect rules in the absence of which cooperation is rendered difficult or impossible. Rules or what I call the ethics of doing, however, constitute just one dimension of ethics. A second has to do with what we see and how we see it; a third with who we or what I describe as the ethics of being. Of these three dimensions, the first and the third have been most carefully explored by philosophers and are most frequently the focus of attention when teaching business ethics is being discussed. I argue that this focus is unfortunate in as much as it is the second dimension which falls most naturally into the ambit of modern secular educational institutions. It is here that moral education is most obviously unavoidable, and most clearly justifiable in modern secular teaching environments. I conclude by describing the importance of this second dimension for the modern world of business.     

Teaching Business Ethics: A Case Study Of An Ethics Across The Curriculum Policy

The faculty within the undergraduate businessdepartment at Nova Southeastern University hasinstituted an Ethics Across The Curriculum Policy. This paper shares the steps the faculty followed inthe development and adoption of this policy. It isour hope that sharing our experiences concerning thispolicy implementation will help others consider asimilar policy. Recommendations are provided forpolicy development.     

Teaching Business Ethics in UK Higher Education: Progress and Prospects

A large proportion of students in UK highereducation now study business and management. Although universities might be expected to aimto produce well-rounded graduates, there hasbeen a perception that business schools havetended to take a narrow view of businessstudies, paying little attention to ethicalissues. However, recently there have been somesigns of change. A survey was thereforeconducted to investigate the teaching ofbusiness ethics at both undergraduate andpostgraduate levels in the UK. Althoughprovision is still on a limited scale, signs ofgrowth are evident, with a significantproportion of institutions offering at leastsome business ethics teaching, either within a``mainstream' subject or as a separate module. This provision was reported as being wellreceived by students, but several challengesfor the future were identified, including thesupply of suitably qualified lecturers and theavailability of non-US case study material. The findings provide a baseline for trackingthe future development of business ethics inthe UK. Several suggestions for furtherresearch are also made.     

The Team Teaching of Business Ethics in a Weekly Semester Long Format

This article describes our team teaching of asemester long course in business ethics taught oneevening a week to mostly part-time MBA students. Wediscuss the differences and similarities in ourbackgrounds, disciplines, and preferred teachingstrategies. Our team teaching approach, thesubject matter, and teaching strategies are alsodiscussed. A typical session of the course is brieflydescribed. We discuss how student performance isevaluated. Finally, we provide some thoughts on teamteaching a business ethics course and briefly commenton our redesign of this business ethics course in afour Saturday schedule.     

Predicting Student Demand for Online Courses in the College of Business

ABSTRACT

Demographic and behavioral characteristics of students in four undergraduate online business courses were analyzed in order to build profiles of online demand, as well as to determine the market segment(s) being served. The analysis revealed student traits that demonstrate multiple market segments being served by these courses. A predictive model was prepared that incorporates key independent student variables that can forecast student demand for courses and degree programs online.     

‘The Business of Ethics and Gender’

Unethical decision-making behavior within organizations has received increasing attention over the past ten years. As a result, a plethora of studies have examined the relationship between gender and business ethics. However, these studies report conflicting results as to whether or not men and women differ with regards to business ethics. In this article, we propose that gender identity theory [Spence: 1993, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 64, 624–635], provides both the theory and empirical measures to explore the influence of psychological gender traits and gender-role attitudes on ethical perceptions of workplace behaviors. Statistical analyses of the data reveal that based on sex alone, no differences occur between men and women in their ethical perceptions. Yet, when a multidimensional approach to gender is applied, results show that expressive traits and egalitarian gender-role attitudes contribute to both men’s and women’s propensity to perceive unethical workplace behaviors as unethical. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are presented.     

The Ethics of the US Business Executive: A Study of Perceptions

Gallup Polls have reported on the perceived ethics of various professions in the US since 1976. Clergymen and pharmacists were consistently identified as two of the most ethical professionals in the 1980's and 1990's. Business executives have not fared well in these polls and have not been rated among the top ten most ethical professions in any of the years the poll was taken. Ethical codes have not done much to belay the perception that the US business executive is not very ethical. Whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will impact the ethical behavior of business executives remains to be seen.     

浅析高校学生评教的信度与效度

作为教学质量评估的重要组成部分,学生评教工作是充分保障和提高高校教学质量的有效手段。但在评教实践中去却存在着学生评教的目的性不强、评估指标不完善、学生个体差异影响大、评价结果处理不当等影响学生评教信度和效度的问题。为此须树立正确的评价目的,建立科学合理的评价指标体系,加强宣传,提高评教者的素质,正确处理学生评教的结果,以提高学生评教的信度和效度。     

Business Ethics Curriculum Design: Suggestions and Illustrations

Designing business ethics teaching as anintegrated part of business school curriculashould start with a school-wide dialogue aboutgoals and working conditions. This articlesuggests different premises that can serve asnext steps to follow the school-widedialogue about goals and working conditions. The paper also provides several experienceswith offering business ethics modules withinother courses. Since the article is written asan invitation to a dialogue, assumptions andsuggestions are formulated in a discussionthesis format.     

MBA会计学课程教学相关问题研究

高质量的会计学课程教学,对提升MBA教育的内在质量、提高MBA教育的社会声誉至关重要。本文对MBA会计学的课程设置、教学内容、教学方法以及教材与案例的选择等相关问题进行了研究,强调教师对MBA差异化教育规律、教学内容以及教学方法的不断探索与恰当运用是提升教学质量的关键所在。     

Australian Business Majors and Their Attitudes Toward the Teaching of Business Ethics

Seven hundred seventy-three questionnaires were completed by students enrolled in an undergraduate business administration program at a university in Victoria. The survey instrument was adapted from one used by Professor John Milton-Smith (1992) in his Australian Business Ethics Project. The results indicated that (a) students place importance on business ethics education, (b) students who have taken a business ethics course found that experience to be valuable, (c) students view ethical behavior as leading to positive outcomes for the corporation and (d) some measures are underway in Australian higher education and in the community at large to enhance learning in this area.     

协作知识建构理论在MBA《管理学》教学中的应用

《管理学》作为MBA专业硕士研究生开设的核心课程之一,在MBA的培养体系中具有重要作用。论文针对MBA的培养目标、培养方式、学生特点,运用群体动力学、协作学习和协作知识建构理论,构建MBA《管理学》教学模式,提出基于协作知识建构的《管理学》教学六步骤,旨在提高MBA教学质量和水平。     

Exposure to Ethics Education and the Perception of Linkage between Organizational Ethical Behavior and Business Outcomes

This study focused on the effects of individual characteristics and exposure to ethics education on perceptions of the linkage between organizational ethical practices and business outcomes. Using a stratified sampling approach, 817 students were randomly selected from a population of approximately 1310 business students in an AACSB accredited college of business. Three hundred and twenty eight of the subjects were freshmen, 380 were seniors, and 109 were working managers and professionals enrolled in a night-time MBA program. Overall, the respondents included 438 male students and 379 female students. Exposure to ethics in the curriculum had a significant impact on student perceptions of what should be the ideal linkages between organizational ethical practices and business outcomes. Gender based differences were found with female students having a higher expectation regarding what should be the “ethics practices and business outcomes” link. Exposure to ethics in the curriculum had a positive moderating influence on the gender-based effects on perceptions of ideal ethical climate. The interaction effect showed that exposure to ethical education may have a positive impact on males and allow them to catch up with females in their ethical sensitivities concerning the ideal linkage between organizational ethical behavior and business outcomes. Further, consistent with the literature, the study found that gender differences in ethical attitudes regarding the ideal ethical climate, while significant for undergraduates, appeared to narrow considerably for the working professionals who were part-time MBA students. Harsh Luthar is an Associate Professor of Management at Bryant University. He received his Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic University, Pamplin College of Business, in the Department of Management. His research interests include international differences and cross-cultural issues impacting global human resource practices, ethical attitudes of students, and the nature of spiritual leadership. Ranjan Karri is an Assistant Professor of Management at Bryant University. He received his Ph.D. in strategic management from Washington State University. His research interests include corporate and business strategies, enterpreneurship, ethical leadership and corporate governance.     

Teaching Business Ethics in Africa: What Ethical Orientation? The Case of East and Central Africa

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.     

A Comparison of the Ethics of Convicted Felons and Graduate Business Students: Implications for Business Practice and Business Ethics Education

This research compares and contrasts the ethics of convicted felons in three midwestern United States prison systems with those of a cross section of MBA students from previous research. Building on and replicating seminal works in business ethics, this study identifies the differences and many similarities between students and inmates on several dimensions of ethics and values. Both groups expressed similar views of which ethical issues need attention from the business community, those constituencies that are most important to business firms, and perceptions of the ethics of other salient groups. When confronted with difficult ethical situations, inmates usually, although not always, tended to be more willing do what was asked and less willing to speak out regarding the conflict. Inmate priorities for ethical issues and constituency groups tended to be very similar to the MBA student sample. Implications for business practice and business ethics education are discussed.