THE TEACHING OF BUSINESS ETHICS AND SOCIAL VALUES
IN THE S. D. A COLLEGE BUSINESS CURRICULUM-A CONCEPTUAL MODEL
PRESENTED TO THE INSTITUTE FOR
CHRISTIAN COLLEGE TEACHING
UNION COLLEGE
JUNE, 1988
by
LEON L. HIGGS, Ph.D
BUSINESS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
OAKWOOD COLLEGE
HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA 35896
009 - 88 Institute for
Christian Teaching
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904, USA
THE
TEACHING OF BUSINESS ETHICS AND SOCIAL VALUES IN THE
S.D.A
COLLEGE BUSINESS CURRICULUM--A CONCEPTUAL MODEL
The field of education is in a constant flux since educators for the most part try to mirror the various attitudes and perceptions that are most dominant in our dynamic society at a given period in time. For example, in the areas of Business Education, there was a time when the International Environment of Business was never mentioned except in specific courses or programs dealing with International education. Today, most schools of business and professional associations such as the AACSB--American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business--encourage business professors to include some elements of the International Environment in all business courses.
Business ethics or the Legal and social Environment of business is another area that was not emphasized five to ten years ago in business programs. However, in 1988, all business schools in the United States that are accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, teach at least one course in Business Ethics--sometimes called the Legal and Social environment of business. These schools are also encouraged to cover ethical issues in all courses taught.
Because it is very difficult to secure accreditation from the AACSB, many small business schools and programs follow the guidelines of the AACSB without seeking its official approval.
As a result, many of the smaller business schools are also offering courses in business ethics. These small private schools in most cases are owned and operated by religious organizations.
Given the current ethical and moral dilemmas facing the business community, it is essential that courses in business ethics be taught in all business programs. However, the approach of teaching the course in the Christian College should be different from that used in public or secular institutions if the objective is to produce moral business leaders. In fact, the overall philosophy as presented in the commercial secular teaching materials for Business Ethics is not acceptable. In this paper, some observations about our business environment along with some of the literature dealing with the need for the teaching of ethics will be discussed, followed by a review of the teaching of business ethics in secular universities. The paper will be concluded with a conceptual model for teaching business ethics in the Christian Institution.
In today's economic environment, words such as money, success, fraud, price gouging and pollution are common. Hardly a month goes by without the popular media headlining stories such as:
Rockwell International Corporation has been indicted by federal grand jury for defrauding the Air force; Hertz corporation has overcharged consumers and insurers $13 million for repair to damaged rental cars;
Ocean Spray Cranberry Inc. has been indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for pollution in Middleboro, Massachussetts (Byrne, 57);
Ivan Boesky pleads guilty to trading stock on inside information, in part on tips from convicted inside-trader Levine. Boesky goes on to cooperate with the SEC and allegedly tapes conversations with other business associate;
T. Boon Pickens, Irwin "The Liquidator", Jacob Carl Icahn, and their fellow mavericks launch numerous takeover bids for firms they believe are mismanaged and undervalued. The results are a wave of corporate structurings. The language of mergers and acquisitions becomes "white knights", "greenmail", "shark repellent", and "poison pills.";
General Motors, IBM, Honeywell, Exxon, and other major firms decide to divest their operations in South Africa. After a decade long attempt to abide by the Sullivan Principles, executives admit that doing business in South Africa no longer makes sense. Meanwhile, a senior executive from Mobile Corporation resigns from the board of the Duke University Business School because of Duke's decision to divest stock in companies such as Mobile that still operate in South Africa;
Johns Manville files for bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid liabilities stemming from the asbestos controversy. Executives claim that court protection is the only way to save the company. A.H. Robins follows a similar strategy after a long controversy surrounding the Dalkon Shield (Freeman & Gilbert, 2).
Like these Instances, other stories such as government officials indicted for selling illegal arms to Iran and the Contras; Beechnut Baby Food officials sent to prison for selling sugar water for pure apple juice and Pentagon contractors under investigation for buying secrets to contracts up for bid are causing the American people to question the ethics of American business. As a result of the growing public attention focused on the ethics of business decisions and conduct, many managers now talk about social responsibility, ethical ideology and moral decision making (Giacalone and Payne, 22).
Because of the outcry from the public and some business and government leaders, "Business schools are scrambling to add ethical courses" (Byrne, 57) to their curriculum. As a matter of fact, Professor Jan Narverson of the University of Waterloo states:
courses in business ethics should be included in all university business programs, giving students an opportunity to reflect on the how and whys of their intended career long before they ever set foot in the corporate world (Narverson, 65).
On the other hand, professor Richard T. DeGeorge from the University of Kansas states that many business professors and professionals feel that ethics should be integrated into all business courses (DeGeorge, 507).
Although many people and groups including the AACSB advocate the teaching of Business Ethics, some critics feel that the teaching of ethics courses to business majors is useless, since no concrete evidence exists to show that these courses do change behavior. Of course one may argue that no teacher could measure immediately if behavior is changed as a result of any given course. The most we can tell in the short run is that attitudes might have been changed. Another argument against the value of teaching a business ethics course is that philosophers who typically teach the courses know so little about business that they should not teach the courses, and that, on the other hand, management professors are frequently not competent enough to teach ethics nor are they interested in doing so" (DeGeorge, 507). From a practical management standpoint, Cadbury feels that "eliminating ethical considerations from business decisions would simplify the management task." He believes that Milton Freidman has encouraged this kind of thinking by arguing that the interaction between business and society should be left to the political process when Freidman said that "few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundation of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their shareholders as possible" (Cadbury, 4).
In a survey that was done by a Chicago based executive search firm, it was noted that "one-quarter of those surveyed believed that ethical behavior doesn't pay, that it'll impede success; 56% believe that people they know would bend the rules to get ahead." (Modic, 33).
The result from this survey is not surprising since there are constant reports in the news media about corrupt business leaders. Lately, corrupt practice reports have even included ministers of the Gospel.
While the critics may give very plausible reasons as why ethics courses, or even the concept of ethics in business is a waste of time, the writer strongly believes that courses in business ethics should be taught, as well as ethical concepts should be integrated into all business courses There is no reason why the same degree of attitude and behavioral changes that are expected in other courses should not be expected in a business ethics course.
BUSINESS ETHICS IN THE SECULAR UNIVERSITY
The main weakness of business ethics as taught in the secular university is the kind of emphasis that is placed on the course. In most instances students are taught that they should be ethical because being ethical makes good business sense. Even the literature on business ethics puts forth a pragmatic philosophy. In an article in CA Magazine, Professor Narverson stated that "unethical behavior alienates clients and loses business" (Norverson, 65). In the Winter issue of Business and Society Review The Business Round Table Committee declared:
there is a deep conviction that a good reputation for fair and honest business is a prime corporate asset that all employees should nurture with the greatest care…….. Ethical programs are not mounted primarily to improve the reputation of business. Instead, many executives believe that a culture in which ethical concerns permeates the whole organization is necessary to the self-interest of the company. This is required, they feel, if the company is to be able to maintain profitability and develop the necessary competitiveness for effective performance (The Business Round Table 33,36).
Other critics have also commented on the need to be ethical. According to Roy Moore, a professor of Finance at Illinois Institute of Technology, "insensitivity to ethical appearances can wound a company economically" (Moore, 11).
Genfau (35) stated, "Good ethics is good business." He further stated "unless we concern ourselves as much with ethical behavior as we do with knowledge and technology, we stand to jeopardize the bottom line.... Unchecked, such behavior threatens to eat away the core of our credibility, creating in the public mind a hostility so volatile and legislation so stifling that markets shrink and government finds itself directing business practices (Genfau, 35). The Business Round Table, a research group, in discussing the concept of ethical training stated that "there is a deep conviction that a good reputation for fair and honest business is a prime corporate asset that all employees should nurture with the greatest care" (Business Round Table, 33).
From examining the various views put forth, one may observe that the business ethics teacher in the secular universities is approaching the course from a teleological point of view.
In other words, businesses should adopt an ethical and social posture because it is the expedient rather than the right thing to do. This approach is in keeping with the views of such philosophers as John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham and Frederick Nietzsche, who believed that considering consequences is essential to determining whether a behavior is ethical or unethical. In all fairness to the academic community, it should be noted that many businessmen see the loss of profits as an incentive to promote ethical and moral behavior in their companies.
The content of the Business Ethics course may vary slightly from school to school. For example, Modic suggested one approach using the following four levels:
1. A "societal" level at which questions are asked as the basic arrangements of
institutions in our society, such as Apartheid in South Africa;
2. "Stakeholder" level that concerns itself with questions about how a company ought to deal with those external groups affected by its decisions, such as customers, stockholders, the community and the likes;
3. An "internal policy" level where questions are asked about the nature of the relationship between the company and its employees. What rights do employees have? Is there a right to due process? To free speech?
4. A "personal" level which considers how we should treat each other inside the corporation. Should we share information even if it means losing face? Should we be honest with each other? (Modic, 33).
On the other hand, Fred Luthans, a Management Organization Behavior scholar from the University of Nebraska, and one of the past Presidents of the Academy of Management, has divided his material into the following sections:
1. Foundations for the Social Role of Business, which considers topics such as business and society - a strategic perspective, historical foundations, the political and economical foundation, and the ethical foundation;
2. The Role of Government in Business, which considers topics such as government and public policy, the impact of government on the social role of business; Antitrust: Government and the power of business;
3. The Social issues facing modern business, which covers topics such as equal opportunity in employment, employee rights and justice systems the quality of work life, consumerism issues: challenges and responses, ecological issues: challenges and responses;
4. The Challenges Facing Business, which covers topics such as broad responsibilities for business, business in the international arena, and individual social activities;
5. Managing and Controlling the Social Performance of Business, which covers topics such as corporate social policy planning and strategy, and measuring and reporting corporate social performance (Luthans etl).
Although the areas of emphasis suggested by both Luthans and Modic are up-to-date, this material could be more effective in impacting the moral decision making process of managers if it were possible to integrate a Christian philosophy into the course.
CONCEPTUAL MODEL
If it were possible to integrate Christian Principles into Business Ethics courses being taught in public universities, business would not be facing some of its current ethical and moral dilemmas, since employees would be making decisions based on a deontological approach to ethics. This approach to ethics has a religious or moral framework as exemplified in the works of such philosophers as William Paley, Immanuel Kant, and George Edward Moore (Luthans, 96). Paley believed that "ethical and moral behavior follows the will of God and that unethical behavior contradicts the will of God" (Luthans, 96). Kent argued that morality was universally binding on all rational minds, and that it was not dependent on conditions, and that it was valid for all persons and all times and all cases (Luthans, 97). Moore felt that ethical conduct was self-evident, meaning that it was evident or true on its own merits (Luthans, 97). In order to integrate moral and Christian Principles into the business ethics course, one may wish to follow the conceptual model below. An examination of the model reveals that one arrow represents the secular materials used in teaching business ethics. The second arrow represents the view of Christian authors and writers.
Both arrows touch the circle, which represents the student personal business ethics philosophy or changed behavior, which comes about after being exposed to both the secular and Christian views. The model also represents the three segments into which the course is divided.
In the first segment dealing with the secular view, the material covered by secular teachers would still be taught; however, the emphasis would be changed. For example, students would be challenged to wrestle with questions such, what does this say to the Christian business leader? And how should I respond to this issue? In order to make this section as meaningful as possible, relevant cases along with text materials should be used so as to assist the students with integrating Christian principles and values into the course. Qualities, which mark the Christian professional, and ethical situations and right responses to these situations, should be discussed. The students should also be encouraged to consider how the issues being discussed relate to their long term character development.