Contemporary Foundations for Business Ethics Education

  • Francis J. Schweigert
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Advances in Business Ethics Research book series (ABER, volume 6)

Abstract

Business ethics education was founded on conflicting assumptions regarding the role of business in society. On one hand, business was presumed to play a positive role morally and socially in generating societal wealth and distributing that wealth broadly, with particular reward to individuals according to the merit of their own good work in a situation of fair opportunity. On the other hand, business was seen to have a negative effect morally and socially by encouraging narrow self-interest and allowing wealthy industrialists too large a role in bending government to their will and benefit. These conflicting philosophical and social foundations of business ethics education paralleled conflicting traditions and assumptions in Western moral philosophy regarding the moral value of self-interested economic activity, whether it tended toward ultimate social benefit or contradicted the traditions of socially beneficial virtues and individual impartiality in doing the right and good in accord with duty. In this chapter, I propose a reorientation of business ethics education to align with self-interest rightly understood in a competitive free market economy. This proposal rests on historical and philosophical evidence that the moral obligations of business are grounded in self-interest with a social purpose.

Keywords

Educational foundations Moral education Character education Values clarification Cognitive-developmental approach 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. AACSB International. 2004. Ethics Education in Business Schools. Report of the Ethics Education Task Force to AACSB International’s Board of Directors. Available at http://www.aacsb.edu/~/media/AACSB/Publications/research-reports/ethics-education.ashx.
  2. Aristotle. 1962. Nicomachean ethics. Trans. M. Ostwald. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. (Original work published c. 330 BCE).Google Scholar
  3. Aspen Institute Center for Business Education. 2012. Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2011–2012. Available at: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/docs/pubs/BGP%202011-2012%20Global%20Report-small.pdf.
  4. Baer, D. 2009, November 13. By the numbers, business schools barely care about right and wrong. The Chronicle of Higher Education 56(12): A27.Google Scholar
  5. Bayles, M.D. 1981. Professional ethics. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company.Google Scholar
  6. Beinhocker, E.D. 2006. The origin of wealth: Evolution, complexity, and the radical remaking of economics. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
  7. Boatright, J.R. 1994. Fiduciary duties and the shareholder-management relation: Or, what’s so special about shareholders? Business Ethics Quarterly 4(4): 393–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Brandeis, L.D. 1912. Business—A profession. Address delivered at Brown University Commencement and published in System, October 1912. Available at http://www.law.louisville.edu/library/collections/brandeis/node/203.
  9. Brown, M.T. 2010. Civilizing the economy: A new economics of provision. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Buchholz, R.A. 2009. Rethinking capitalism: Community and responsibility in business. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  11. Christensen, L.J., E. Peirce, L.P. Hartman, W.M. Hoffman, and J. Carrier. 2007. Ethics, CSR, and sustainability education in the financial times top 50 global business schools: Baseline data and future research directions. Journal of Business Ethics 73(4): 347–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Coase, R.H. 1937. The nature of the firm. Economica 4(16): 386–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Comer, D.R., and G. Vega. 2011. The personal ethical threshold. In Moral courage in organizations: Doing the right thing at work, ed. D.R. Comer and G. Vega, 25–44. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
  14. Dewey, J. 1963. Experience and education. New York: Macmillan. (Original work published 1938).Google Scholar
  15. Dewey, J. 2008. Human nature and conduct. New York: Barnes & Noble. (Original work published 1922).Google Scholar
  16. Durkheim, E. 1973. Moral education: A study in the theory & application of the sociology of education. Trans. E.K. Wilson and H. Schnurer. New York: The Free Press. (Original work published 1925).Google Scholar
  17. Erikson, E.H. 1959. Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
  18. Evans, J.E., and L.E. Marcal. 2005. Educating for ethics: Business school deans’ perspectives. Business and Society Review 110(3): 233–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Evans, J.M., L.K. Treviño, and G.R. Weaver. 2006. Who’s in the ethics driver’s seat? Factors influencing ethics in the MBA curriculum. Academy of Management & Education 5(3): 278–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Fletcher, J. 1966. Situation ethics: The new morality. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.Google Scholar
  21. Fotaki, M., and A. Prasad. 2014. Social justice interrupted? Values, pedagogy, and purpose of business school academics. Management Learning 45(1): 103–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Frank, R.H. 2014, January 12. The vicious circle of income inequality. The New York Times, p. BU3.Google Scholar
  23. Friedland, J. 2009, November 13. Where business meets philosophy: The matter of ethics. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 56(12): pp. A26–A27.Google Scholar
  24. Friedman, M. 1962. Capitalism and freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
  25. Fusfeld, D.R. 2002. The age of the economist, 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
  26. Gioia, D.A. 2003. Teaching teachers to teach corporate governance differently. Journal of Management & Governance 7(3): 255–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Greenhouse, S. 2013, January 13. Productivity climbs, but wages stagnate. The New York Times , p. SR5.Google Scholar
  28. Gutek, G.L. 1972. A history of the western educational experience. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
  29. Hayek, F.E. 2007. The road to serfdom (Definitive ed., B. Caldwell, ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1944).Google Scholar
  30. Holland, K. 2009, March 15. Is it time to retrain b-schools? New York Times. Retrieved May 28, 2012 at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15school.html?pagewanted=all.
  31. Jones, T.M., and W. Felps. 2013a. Shareholder wealth maximization and social welfare: A utilitarian critique. Business Ethics Quarterly 23(2): 207–238. doi: 10.5840/beq201323215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Jones, T.M., and W. Felps. 2013b. Stakeholder happiness enhancement: A neo-utilitarian objective for the modern corporation. Business Ethics Quarterly 23(3): 349–379. doi: 10.5840/beq201323325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Kant, I. 1956. Groundwork of the metaphysic of morals. Trans. H.J. Paton. New York: Harper & Row. (Original work published 1785).Google Scholar
  34. Khurana, R. 2007. From higher aims to hired hands: The social transformation of American business schools and the unfulfilled promise of management as a profession. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  35. Kohlberg, L. 1969. Stage and sequence: The cognitive-developmental approach to socialization. In Handbook of socialization theory and research, ed. D. Goslin. New York: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
  36. Kohlberg, L. 1980. Stages of moral development as a basis for moral education. In Moral development, moral education, and Kohlberg, ed. B. Munsey, 1–98. Birmingham: Religious Education Press.Google Scholar
  37. Labaree, D.F. 1998, November. Educational researchers: Living with a lesser form of knowledge. Educational Researcher 27(8): 4–12.Google Scholar
  38. Lebacqz, K. 1986. Six theories of justice. Minneapolis: Augsburg.Google Scholar
  39. Lickona, T. 1991. Educating for character: How our schools can teach respect and responsibility. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
  40. Macpherson, C.B. 1962. The political theory of possessive individualism: Hobbes to locke. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  41. Mangan, K. 2006, June 23. Agents of fortunes. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(42): A14–A16.Google Scholar
  42. Mattick, P. 2011. Business as usual: The economic crisis and the failure of capitalism. London: Reaktion Books.Google Scholar
  43. MBA Oath. n.d. MBA oath: Responsible value creation. Available at http://mbaoath.org/.
  44. Mill, J.S. 1979. Utilitarianism. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company. (Original work published in 1861).Google Scholar
  45. Milliken, F.J., E.W. Morrison, and P.F. Hewlin. 2003. An exploratory study of employee silence: Issues that employees don’t communicate upward and why. Journal of Management Studies 40(6): 1453–1476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Mintzberg, H., R. Simons, and K. Basu. 2002, October 15. Beyond selfishness. Sloan Management Review. Retrieved November 17, 2013 at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/beyond-selfishness.
  47. Piaget, J. 1965. The moral judgment of the child. Trans. M. Gabain. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. (Original work published 1932).Google Scholar
  48. Piketty, T. 2014. Capital in the twenty-first century.Trans. A. Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 2013).Google Scholar
  49. Polanyi, K. 2001. The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Boston: Beacon Press. (Original work published 1944).Google Scholar
  50. Promislo, D., and R.A. Giacalone. 2013, January/February. Sick about unethical business. BizEd, XII(1): pp. 20–26.Google Scholar
  51. Quelch, J. 2005, December 2. A new agenda for business schools. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(15): B19.Google Scholar
  52. Rachels, J. 1993. The elements of moral philosophy, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.Google Scholar
  53. Rest, J.R. 1994. Background: Theory and research. In Moral development in the professions: Psychology and applied ethics, ed. J.R. Rest and D. Narváez, 1–26. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
  54. Rousseau, J-J. 1956. The Emile of Jean Jacques Rousseau: Selections (W. Boyd, Trans. & Ed.). New York: Teachers College Press. (Original work published 1762).Google Scholar
  55. Rutherford, M.A., L. Parks, D.E. Cavazos, and C.D. White. 2012. Business ethics as a required course: Investigating the factors impacting the decision to require ethics in the undergraduate business core curriculum. Academy of Management Learning & Education 11(2): 174–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  56. Ryan, K. 1996. Character education in the United States. Journal for a Just and Caring Education 2(1): 75–84.Google Scholar
  57. Schultz, W.J. 2001. The moral conditions of economic efficiency. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  58. Schweigert, F.J. 2014. The pragmatic pursuit of the good. In Democracy & education: Collected perspectives 2014, ed. V. Byczkiewicz. Los Angeles: Trébol Press.Google Scholar
  59. Schweigert, F.J. 2016. Social responsibility as a matter of justice: A proposal to expand business ethics education. In Understanding ethics and responsibilities in a globalizing world, ed. M.C. Coutinho de Arruda and B. Rok. Switzerland: Springer.Google Scholar
  60. Sen, A. 1999. Development as freedom. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
  61. Shiller, R.J. 2012. Finance and the good society. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  62. Solberg, J., K.C. Strong, and C. McGuire. 1995. Living (not learning) ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 14(1): 71–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  63. Stark, R. 2005. The victory of reason: How christianity led to freedom, capitalism, and western success. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
  64. Sternberg, R.J. 2009, April 24. A new model for teaching ethical behavior. The Chronicle Review 55: B14–B15Google Scholar
  65. Stiglitz, J.E. 2012. The price of inequality. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
  66. Stout, L. 2012. The shareholder value myth: How putting shareholders first harms investors, corporations, and the public. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.Google Scholar
  67. Tawney, R.H. 1920. The acquisitive society. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.Google Scholar
  68. Tawney, R.H. 1926. Religion and the rise of capitalism. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.Google Scholar
  69. Tawney, R.H. 1929. Equality. London: G. Allen.Google Scholar
  70. Tocqueville, A. 1990. Democracy in America, vol. II. Trans. H. Reeve; rev. Trans. F. Bowen; ed. P. Bradley. New York: Vintage Books. Copyright 1945 & 1972 by Alfred A. Knopf. (Original work published 1840)Google Scholar
  71. Toubiana, M. 2014. Business pedagogy for social justice? An exploratory investigation of business faculty perspectives of social justice in business education. Management Learning 45(1): 81–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  72. Ulrich, P. 2008. Integrative economic ethics: Foundations of a civilized market economy. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  73. Vygotsky, L. 1986. Thought and language. Trans. A. Kozulin. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (Original work published 1934).Google Scholar
  74. Zielinski, D. 2010, May. Real-world ethics. Twin Cities Business, pp. 63–65.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Francis J. Schweigert
    • 1
  1. 1.Metropolitan State UniversityMinneapolis and Saint PaulUSA

Personalised recommendations