Using the "Ethical Environment" Paradigm to Teach Business Ethics: The Case of the Maquiladoras

The "ethical environment of business" provides a constructive frame of reference for business ethics instruction. As illustrated by a suggested role play about foreign sweatshops, it provides a realistic, problem-solving context for the study of moral and ethical ideas. Once ethical behavior is viewed through this paradigm, students can better see how business policies are shaped by ethics and prepare themselves to react to their own ethical environment.