Measuring the impact of teaching ethics to future managers: A review,assessment, and recommendations

This paper takes a critical look at the empirical studies assessing the effectiveness of teaching courses in business and society and business ethics. It is generally found that students' ethical awareness or reasoning skills improve after taking the courses, yet this improvement appears to be short-lived. The generalizability of these findings is limited due to the lack of extensive empirical research and the inconsistencies in research design, empirical measures, and statistical analysis across studies. Thus, recommendations are presented and discussed for improving the generalizability and sophistication of future research efforts in this area.James Weber is currently an Assistant Professor of Management at Marquette University. His research publications have focused upon values, moral reasoning, and ethical behavior on both the individual and organizational levels.