Abstract
Based on our experience in teaching ethics, we have developed, tested, and presented in this article a program of instruction that rests on four pillars: popular feature films, a six-stage ethical decision-making process, the principles necessary to address ethical situations, and the classroom instructor. Taken separately, there is nothing new or unique in these pillars. Taken together, however, and to our knowledge, these four pillars, including the requirement that each student is expected to prepare a written abstract of the film prior to the classroom discussion of that film in which the student is expected to demonstrate a practical application of ethical principles to actual and concrete moral situations, constitute a new, unique, and tested way to teach ethics to undergraduate students of management and economics.
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Notes
This question is at the heart of the current heated conflict in the United States regarding the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring private employer health insurance benefits plans to provide free preventive health services to women employees.
Philosophy and Religion in Film: A List (no date) identifies “about 200 noteworthy films that deal with philosophical and religious themes,” including short lists of films under these headings: ethics, journalistic ethics, business ethics, and environmental ethics. None of the films enumerated below, which we employed successfully with our students, are to be found on that list.
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Acknowledgments
We are most grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful suggestions. Nevertheless, we alone are responsible for any errors.
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Appendix
Appendix
Sample abstract of the feature film MISTER ROBERTS.
The critical ethical issue raised in this film may be stated as follows. For the first-line supervisor, which duty is the more important: duty to one’s self, duty to one’s subordinates, or duty to one’s superiors (including, here, one’s country)? A more instructive statement of the issue might be How is the first-line supervisor to balance the rightful demands of his subordinates and his superiors with his own personal needs?
The proper ethical balancing of the three duties of the first-line supervisor is a matter of prudential judgment. Even so, we are able draw some relevant conclusions which move us in the direction of a clearer understanding of the responsibilities of the first-line supervisor.
First, Mr. Roberts does not have an obligation in justice to seek a transfer to a combat ship and thereby expose himself to a greater risk of losing his own life. He can fulfill his duty to his country by remaining in his role as cargo officer. In other words, he is not required to completely subordinate himself to his country’s demands. Even so, he may freely choose to seek combat duty and even risk his life in that role. Here, however, it is not justice that operates so much as love (of country, of shipmates).
Second, it follows that he does not have to completely subordinate himself to his superiors or to his subordinates. His own needs, in other words, do not have to be set aside completely to accommodate his superiors or his subordinates. Thus, it is not the demands of justice that prompt him to trade his own prospects for a transfer for his subordinates’ liberty. Rather it is an authentic love for his men, freely given and freely expressed. Given the command structure of the military and the fact that the balancing of duties is being done in wartime, Mr. Roberts is not free to leave and seek relief from the demands of an overbearing, ambitious, and manipulative superior by simply resigning. Furthermore, he is not free to initiate a slowdown to protest the captain’s orders since down the line someone’s life may depend on the supplies that his ship provides.
Third, Mr. Roberts might have met his duty to his subordinates and to himself much more effectively by preparing Ensign Pulver as his replacement. Then he could have argued to the captain that he was no longer indispensable as cargo officer and that his request for transfer legitimately could not be held up. All of this could have been accomplished without Mr. Roberts failing in his duty to his superiors. To be precise, Mr. Roberts has not met his obligation in contributive justice to his subordinates to provide for their leadership after his departure. This duty should have been more apparent to him given the great respect and affection he receives from his subordinates.
LESSON: perhaps the most demanding task of the first-line supervisor is the balancing of competing demands from above, from below, and from self, especially when a clear central value (such as the value of human life) is not at risk. This is what we mean by “prudential judgment.” When this balancing of duties bears overly much on the first-line supervisor, escape through resignation is an appropriate and ethical decision.
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O’Boyle, E.J., Sandonà, L. Teaching Business Ethics Through Popular Feature Films: An Experiential Approach. J Bus Ethics 121, 329–340 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1724-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1724-0