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Teaching
Business
Ethics Survey of
Educators
 As
part of an overarching effort to complete the report,
Shaping
Tomorrow’s Business Leaders: Principles and Practices for a
Model Business Ethics Program,
the
Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics surveyed
the membership of the
Society for Business Ethics (the Society), an
international organization of business ethics scholars,
regarding both the current state of business ethics
education and their aspirations for how business ethics
should be taught.
The survey, conducted
in the Summer
of 2006,
was e-mailed to 626 Society members. Of this total, 554
emails were successfully delivered and 71 usable responses
were received. This represents a 13 percent response rate.
Survey respondents were from 63 different academic
institutions, 12 of which are based outside the United
States. Responses from four business executives who are
Society members—each
from a different firm—are
also included in this sample.
The survey responses revealed several commonly
identified goals and objectives of a model business ethics
curriculum.
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Broadly Identified Goals and Objectives |
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To teach ethical theory and
frameworks for analysis
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To integrate ethics concepts into business
decision making and
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management practices
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To encourage personal reflection and values
clarification—on
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individual, organizational and societal
levels
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To teach students to recognize ethical
dilemmas in business,
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relevant to those they will likely face
(e.g., values conflicts vs. policy
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issues)
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To promote ethical leadership and the
creation of ethical work
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cultures
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Source: Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.
Respondents revealed a broad usage of many program
components with a slight majority having a required ethics
course (see chart below). A slightly smaller percentage
(43%) report having an elective ethics course and 41 percent
of all respondents report having ethics integrated into
non-ethics courses.
The survey
also revealed that business ethics educators are employing a
wide range of tools and methods in their course curricula,
with case studies being used by all program representatives
responding to the survey. Programs with
ethics integrated in non-ethics classes showed a greater use
of guest speakers, frameworks, textbooks and role play,
while programs without ethics integrated in non-ethics
classes showed a greater use of philosophical/ethical theory
readings (see chart below). Nearly a quarter of programs
using both
of these approaches are now employing ethics simulations in their
courses.
Survey respondents gave mixed reviews with regard to their
current programs' effectiveness at embedding ethics
into the decision making processes of their students.
Respondents whose programs integrate ethics into non-ethics
courses, however, rated their programs more highly for
effectiveness—76
percent said the effectiveness of their program was either
"excellent" or "good." Only 34 percent of respondents whose
programs
do not integrate ethics into non-ethics courses rated their
program as
either
"excellent" or "good."
A majority of
survey respondents reported that their ethics program had
grown during the past three to five years, with more than
two-thirds (71%) of programs that integrate ethics
into non-ethics courses reporting an increase. Roughly half
of all respondents reported an increase in the number of
ethics courses offered by their institutions during this
same period.
Most respondents also indicated improvement in the overall
state of
business ethics as well as progress in the attitudes
of business faculty from different disciplines (marketing,
finance, operations, accounting, etc.) toward the field of
business ethics.
(Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.)
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The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate
Ethics (www.corporate-ethics.org)
is an independent entity established in
partnership with Business Roundtable—an
association of chief executive officers of
leading corporations with a combined workforce
of more than 10 million employees and $4.5
trillion in annual revenues—and leading
academics from America’s best business schools.
The Institute, which is housed at the University
of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business
Administration, brings together leaders from
business and academia to fulfill its mission to
renew and enhance the link between ethical
behavior and business practice through executive
education programs, practitioner-focused
research and outreach.
Thank you for your interest in the Business
Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.
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