(758) HOW EFFECTIVE IS BUSINESS ETHICS EDUCATION IN BUSINESS SCHOOLS?

摘要

Due to the increase of worldwide ethical scandals of multi-national organizations, the general publicstarted losing trust in businesses, their leadership and governance. In order for business to regainsuch trust, they need to make sure their business people are practicing higher ethical standards intheir dealings. The authors believe that the best start would be at the grassroots i.e. the younggeneration and their educational system that could be utilized as a good tool for providing theadequate training for undergraduates before they are launched in the real business world. Moreover,research shows that ineffective decision making in ethical situations occurs because of misperceptionsregarding others' ethical standards. Jennings (2004) and Rossouw (2002) recommend ethical trainingand education to address specific ethical behavior in businesses. On the other hand, Bennis andO'Toole (2005) call for an integrative curriculum approach where the entire curriculum is infused withmultidisciplinary, practical and ethical questions and analyses reflecting the complex challengesbusiness leaders face. It has been suggested by Wynd and Mager (1989) that the goal of ethicaleducation is to make students aware of the ethical and social dimensions of business decision.This research paper investigates the general guidelines for teaching ethics within the contemporaryethical problems confronting businesses that may impact on their performance and competitiveadvantage in this globalised environment. Those guidelines are related to the role of business schoolsin teaching ethics. A discussion of the goals of teaching business ethics, approaches to teachingbusiness ethics (i.e. the two level framework approach and the team teaching approach) and theexisting teaching strategies (e.g. collaborative learning groups, case study method, outsourcingexternal guest lecturers, role playing, debate strategy, survey strategy and group projects) of businessethics within business schools and their benefits is presented. This is further complemented with theauthors' reflections from their practical classroom teaching experiences utilizing various teachingstrategies and their effectiveness. Finally the research provides recommendations to assist inincreasing the value, effectiveness and significance of teaching business ethics courses.