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Living (not learning) ethics

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Abstract

Much has been written recently about both the urgency and efficacy of teaching business ethics. The results of our survey of AACSB member schools confirm prior reports of similar surveys: The teaching of business ethics is indiscriminate, unorganized, and undisciplined in most North American schools of business. If universities are to be taken seriously in their efforts to create more ethical awareness and better moral decision-making skills among their graduates, they must provide a rigorous and well-developed system in which students can “live ethics” instead of merely learn ethics. A system must be devised to allow students to discover and refine their own values rather than simply learning ethical theories from an intellectual point of view.

After reviewing the literature on business ethics in undergraduate curricula, we make a series of recommendations to deliver experiential ethical education for business students. The recommendations include student and faculty written codes of ethics, emphasis on ethical theory within the existing required legal environment course, applied ethics in the functional area capstones using alternative learning, a discussion of employee (and employer) rights and responsibilities during the curriculum capstone course, and a public service requirement for graduation. These recommendations may be implemented without substantive additional cost or programming requirements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Illinois State University, 61761, Normal, IL, U.S.A.

    Joseph Solberg, Kelly C. Strong & Charles McGuire Jr.

Authors
  1. Joseph Solberg
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  2. Kelly C. Strong
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  3. Charles McGuire Jr.
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Additional information

Joseph Solberg is an Assistant Professor of Business Law at Illinois State University. His teaching and research interests are centered on the legal and ethical environments of business and the pedagogy of business ethics. He is a member of the American and Midwest Academies and Legal Studies in Business.

Kelly Strong is an Assistant Professor of Management at Illinois State University. His teaching and research interests include business ethics, business and society, and strategic issues management. He has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics and other scholarly outlets in the areas of ethics education, business and society, and ethical decision making.

Charles McGuire, Jr. is Professor of Business Law and Chair of the Finance, Insurance and Law Department at Illinois State University. His interests are in the areas of business law and the legal environment of business as well as government regulation. He has published text-books and supplements on the legal environment of business in addition to scholarly works in the American Business Law Journal, among others.

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Solberg, J., Strong, K.C. & McGuire, C. Living (not learning) ethics. J Bus Ethics 14, 71–81 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00873738

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