Ethics Education in Business: Theoretical Considerations

Although exhortations to improve and expand the teaching of ethics in business schools seem to grow more intense in the wake of major scandals, concern for the moral development of business students has been an issue of importance for several years. In 1979 Derek Bok, President of Harvard University, criticized the Harvard Business School for (among other things) its lack of emphasis on business ethics. More recently, the subject of teaching business ethics has received increased attention following revela-tions of insider trading, defense contract overcharges, illegal commodities market trading and bid-rigging. Concern about ethical decay among business managers is surely a legitimate reason to call for more and better business ethics courses; it is not the only reason, however. Mulligan (1987) argues that business ethics courses could provide a humanities-based counterbalance to a cur-riculum heavily weighted toward the scientific perspective. Hoffman sees business ethics as important because it is dedicated to the maturation of