MgtS 4461 – Business and Society

Lesson plan: Monday, January 24, 2008

An Introduction to Business Ethics

Goals of today’s lesson:

In today’s class, we will begin our exploration of ethics in business. We will strive to develop a consensus definition of what it means to be “ethical,” both in personal and business situations. We will see that business ethics is more than just a “fad,” although unfortunately, it also seems to be a recurring theme in the business world.[1] We will consider whether or not business ethics can really be “taught,” and what it means to study business ethics.

· Students will develop an expanded understanding about what business ethics is.

· Students will have a chance to see what their personal values are, and how those values drive their choices.

· Students will begin to understand whether individual or situational characteristics drives unethical behavior, and in light of that, they will begin to assess the role of a business ethics class in “teaching” ethics.

Question 1: Developing a definition of “ethics”

1a. Meet in your small groups. Come up with a combined definition of “ethics” and “business ethics.” What were the commonalities and differences from your individual definitions? What were the sources of your beliefs? Did they tend to arise from similar or different sources? Did those similarities and differences affect your definitions, and if so, how?

1b. Again, in your groups, compare your answers about the extent to which business people should be ethical. What were the similarities and differences across your answers? In your group, decide the extent to which business people should be ethical.

1c. You will need to assign a “scribe” for this assignment. Choose someone who has good penmanship. The scribe should write down your answers. Also, make sure you write down all your names, so I can give you credit for completing this task.

Question 2: Assessing your own values

2a. Think about the example at the start of the chapter (page 3). If you saw someone cheating on an exam here in LSBE, what would you do, & why? If “it depends” (you will often find in this course that “it depends”), then what does “it” depend on? What are the factors that will modify your answer?[2]

2b. Is it “ethical” or “unethical” to cheat on exams? Why or why not?

2c. In any event, what constitutes “cheating” on an exam?

2d. At some schools, student athletes have been assigned “tutors” who will “help” them with their homework. At some of these schools, these tutors have actually written student papers for them. In other schools, grades of student athletes have been changed to keep them academically qualified. To what extent are these activities unethical? Why? Who gets hurt? (Think as broadly as you can.)

Question 3: Thinking about ethics as individually or situationally driven

3. Think about the people who have been caught up in ethical scandals over the past few years. (The problems at Enron, WorldCom, Waste Management, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, amongst others should spring to mind rapidly, as do some of the recent fraud charges associated with the sub-prime mortgage “mess.”) Were the ethical problems you identified caused by “bad apples” or “bad barrels?” Or were they caused by both? Why does it matter? How would your beliefs about causes affect your job as a manager?

Question 4: Thinking about the role of a business ethics class

4. In what sense can business ethics be taught? What elements can be taught? Which elements cannot? Why? If ethics cannot be taught, why are you here? What do you hope to learn from this class?

Question 5: Thinking about the differences between law and ethics

5. When you are facing a situation where what is legal differs from what you believe to be “ethical,” how do you decide what to do? What sort of decision rules could you come up with as a general guide?

Conclusions:

• People’s ethical choices may be a function of both their individual characteristics and the situation in which they find themselves. Given that, one important function of the class is to increase students’ awareness of “ethically-charged situations.” (Ones where choices bear important ethical outcomes.)
• Moral awareness is required before moral judgment can be exercised and an ethical decision arrived at.
• People will be confronted by situations where their own personal sense of ethics differs from the law. This will cause potentially difficult decisions. In situations of conflict, you will need to be very clear in understanding the consequences of each possible choice you make.

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[1] When I first started teaching this course, it was just at the time that Enron imploded. A wave of corporate accounting scandals was rolling across Corporate America. Now, the “scandal du jour” is the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

[2] If you really have been in this situation, what did you do? Why? If you could do it over again, would you do it any differently? Why or why not?