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Meta-learning about business ethics: Building honorable business school communities

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Abstract

We propose extending business ethics education beyond the formal curriculum to the “hidden curriculum” where messages about ethics and values are implicitly sent and received. In this meta-learning approach, students learn by becoming active participants in an “honorable” business school community where real ethical issues are openly discussed and acted upon. When combined with formal ethics instruction, this meta-learning approach provides a framework for a proposed comprehensive program of business ethics education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management and Organization, Smeal College of Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University, 16802, University Park, PN, USA

    Linda Klebe Trevino & Donald McCabe

  2. Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University, 07102, Newark, NJ, USA

    Linda Klebe Trevino & Donald McCabe

Authors
  1. Linda Klebe Trevino
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  2. Donald McCabe
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Additional information

Linda Klebe Trevino is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Mary Jean and Frank B. Smeal College of Business Administration, The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on the management of ethical-unethical behavior in organizations and justice in disciplinary situations.

Donald L. McCabe is Associate Professor of Management at the Graduate School of Management, Rutgers — the State University of New Jersey. His research focuses on decision making and interpretive processes under conditions of uncertainty, and the management of ethical behavior in organizations.

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Trevino, L.K., McCabe, D. Meta-learning about business ethics: Building honorable business school communities. J Bus Ethics 13, 405–416 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00881449

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