Teaching Ethics to International Business Students Impact, response and directions.doc

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1、Teaching Ethics to International Business Students: Impact, response and directionsByHanoku BathulaDepartment of International BusinessAIS St HelensAuckland 1140, New Zealand&Sanjaya S. GaurAUT School of Business and Law Auckland University of TechnologyAuckland 1142, New ZealandWorking Paper No. 23

2、December 2011_AbstractIn the last decade, many global businesses were found to be involved in financial scandals and other unethical practices. In the current competitive global environment, too much emphasis is placed on maximising shareholder value, sometimes to the exclusion of other stakeholders

3、 interests. Scholars and oversight bodies are concerned about lack of sensitivity and/or deliberate ignorance of ethical issues in global business operations. Consequently, the curriculum for international business education is being refocused on the age old theme of ethics in order to prepare busin

4、ess students for the future role as global managers by imparting necessary knowledge and imparting sensitivity to ethical issues. The paper examined the impact of an undergraduate business ethics paper of an international business programme. Using a survey method, the study examined how much student

5、s learn in different areas of business and social ethics and their intention of knowledge usage in their future managerial positions. Findings indicate that students gained understanding of significantly in all areas of examined: knowledge of business ethics, application of business ethics, and infl

6、uence of ethics on personal matters. Surprisingly, some students indicate preference for unethical decisions in order to exploit business opportunities. This is typical of behaviour of managers involved in fraudulent activities. The implications of these results are discussed in the light of extant

7、literature and contemporary business and social practices. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations that would be of interest to business, higher education institutions and policy makers. _Key words: globalisation, scandals, business ethics, international students, teaching. INTRODUCTIONBus

8、inesses offer a number of benefits in the form of new products and services, creating jobs, contributing to the exchequer and developing skills. The changing landscape of business through increased competition, globalisation, and sophistication of consumer demand meant that firms have to be dynamic

9、and responsive to stakeholders demand (Bartlet, et al., 2008). Unfortunately, there is undue emphasis on maximising shareholder value and ignoring the interests of other stakeholders. Through unbridled pursuit of profits and shareholder value, top manager of many founds were found to be involved in

10、many business scandals. Globally, renowned companies such as American Insurance Group (AIG), Enron, Lehman Brothers Parmalat, Satyam Computer Services, Tyco and WorldCom have been linked unethical behaviour. In some cases, investigators found the managers to be involved in outright criminal and frau

11、dulent activities. For example, the top managers of Enron and WorldCom were convicted for fraud. Unethical and socially irresponsible behaviour of managers affects organisational performance adversely and stakeholders of the firm.In response to these scandals, policy makers in different parts of the

12、 world have taken different measures from enacting new laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 to providing normative guiding principles such as OECD governance principles. Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires CEOs to certify that the financial statements prepared by the organisations were true and accurate. So

13、me corporations have evolved an internal code of conduct to guide the actions of their managers about what is “the right thing” to do. Managers and employees are expected to use these codes when confronted by ethical dilemmas. However, critiques question whether laws, principles and codes are suffic

14、ient to prevent such scandals which are linked to unethical behaviour that is inherently linked to human personality. One could cynically argue that the effect of these new laws and regulations would be as much as homicide laws would have on the number of murders in a country. In fact, some of the f

15、irms mentioned above were involved in corporate frauds and scandals after the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. If legal rules and regulations cannot prevent scandals, what can help in such situations? One suggestion is to educate and train the managers to be ethically sensitive and create a

16、new mental approach that is firmly rooted in ethical principles and guidelines. Many professional bodies such as CPA and other financial professional bodies have incorporated an ethics component into their curriculum. Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) suggested that teach

17、ing of ethics be given a high priority (Phillips, 2003). Scholars such as Sims and Felton (2006) believe that teaching business ethics are worth the education efforts as they affect student thinking and subsequently their actions in the workplace. Taking this line of view, the authors believe that t

18、eaching business ethics early in their career as part of a degree programme would greatly improve the sensitivity of future managers towards ethics and prepare them to make appropriate decisions in the face of business uncertainty and ethical ambiguity. In this context, the paper examines the impact

19、 of a business ethics course on a group of international undergraduate students of business degree from an Auckland based tertiary institute. The rest of the paper is presented in four sections. Next section reviews the literature and then undertakes description of the business ethics course conside

20、red in this study. Then methodology and findings are discussed. The paper is finally concluded along with a set of recommendations. ETHICS AND MORAL DEVELOPMENTEthics is a major issue for businesses (Porter & Kramer, 2002; Trevino & Brown, 2005; Ghillyer, 2010). In the immediate aftermath of Enron,

21、an opinion poll found that 61 percent of adults believe that most of most people on Wall Street would break law if they could make a lot of money and get away with it (Taylor, 2002). Since then things have worsened as more scandals unfolded in different countries. These included some big firms such

22、as Lehman Brothers, AIG, Mehdoff, to name a few. Managers of these firms were either intensely insensitive or deliberately unresponsive to the ethical expectations when faced with business related ethical dilemmas in different areas such as finance, environmental and social spheres. In view of the a

23、bove unsavoury developments, there has been a renewed emphasis on the need for teaching business ethics (Molyneaux, 2004; Krehmeyer, 2007; Freeman, Stewart & Moriarty, 2009). Scholars (e.g., Geary and Sims, 1994) have suggested that instructions of ethics can improve students awareness of ethical is

24、sues. In particular teaching students in the specific functional areas of a business organisation will help in understanding the importance of ethics in those specific areas. It is here that the issue of ethical and moral development of an individual becomes important as managers have to make decisi

25、ons on ethical dilemmas based on their level of moral development. Lawrence Kohlberg (1981, 1984) developed a framework of moral reasoning that has six distinct stages that are classified into three levels of moral development. Reinstein, Moehrle, and Reynolds-Moehrle (2006) have further elaborated

26、the each stage as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Framework of moral reasoningLevelStageSocial OrientationPreconventional1Obedience and PunishmentAvoid breaking rules backed by punishment; avoidance of punishment2Individualism, instrumentalism, and exchangeFollow rules if they are in own interest; to s

27、erve ones immediate interestConventional1“Good boy/nice girl”Living up to what is expected by people; need to be a good person in the eyes of others2Law and orderFulfilling agreed-to duties and obligations; to keep the social institutions goingPost-conventional1Social contractUpholding non-relative

28、obligations first; obligation to law before social contract2Principled conscienceFollow self-chosen ethical principles; belief in ideal as a rational person.Source: Kohlberg (1981, 1984) and Reinstein, Moehrle, and Reynolds-Moehrle (2006)This hierarchical model assumes progress of individuals throug

29、h different stages of moral development from level 1 (lowest) to level 6 (highest) of moral development. In the last stage, the individual is fully aware of the ethical issues and ethical reasoning forms the basis of decision making and action. Ideally top managers are expected to maintain the highe

30、st level moral development. Unfortunately the recent episodes do not indicate such high level of behaviour on the part of many business leaders. BUSINESS ETHICS EDUCATIONIn general business courses have placed primary emphasis on the goal of shareholder maximisation. Successful managers are those th

31、at bring about increase in shareholder value, reduce cost, increase revenue even if it means short-shifting other stakeholder of the organisation such as employees, customers, community and environment. This approach is no longer considered tenable as there is renewed emphasis on stakeholder model a

32、nd ethical behaviour of managers. Since Enron episode, many universities (e.g., Harvard University) have started offering ethics programmes to practicing managers. But offering ethics education to them may be sometimes too late as they have already made many without adequate guidance from moral and

33、ethical perspective. So, the universities have not started including ethics paper as part of their graduate programmes. This is consistent with the view that the best way to sensitise potential managers towards ethics and moral development is to catch em young, and teach them ethics as part of their

34、 business education. Studies were conducted about teaching business ethics (Simmons, Shafer & Snell, 2009; Cox, Friedman & Edwards, 2009, Frank, Ofobike, Gradisher, 2010). These studies provide support to the notion that students attitudes towards ethics can be influenced by teaching interventions.

35、However, there is no unanimity among existing business schools and faculties regarding the content and pedagogy of business ethics course (Sims and Felton, 2006).The study examines the effect of business ethics course on students of an international business programme. The main objective of the cour

36、se is to impart knowledge about ethics as applicable in an operational setting. Among the topics covered are: ethical theories, ethical dilemmas in different functional areas, and other issues such as privacy, globalization and evaluation of ethical behaviour. It seeks to sensitise future managers o

37、n ethical issues and help them deal with ethical dilemmas. Some of the topics covered as follows: Definition of business ethics Organisational ethics Corporate governance Role of government Blowing the whistle Ethics, technology and privacy Ethics and globalisationThese topics are expected to give a

38、 broad view of areas to students about where ethical dilemmas are likely to arise and how they could use their ethical and moral judgement to make appropriate managerial decisions. Research Questions Following the assumptions that teaching business ethics as part of graduate studies will sensitise s

39、tudents about ethics, we posit that the students who complete this course in business ethics will learn the importance of ethics and be prepared for future managerial roles involving ethical dilemmas. Specifically, the study seeks to examine the following research questions:(i) What is the impact of

40、 business ethics paper on business degree students?(ii) Having studied what is the response of students on ethical issues?(iii) Are students likely to behave ethically in their future managerial roles?RESEARCH METHODOLOGYTo assess the impact of this course on students, data is collected through a mu

41、ltiple-time questionnaire. We developed a draft questionnaire using the literature on business ethics and then integrated it with the specific learning outcomes of the course. We showed the instrument to experienced academic colleagues and some potential respondents and finalized after their feedbac

42、k was received. The questionnaire has three major sections: a) knowledge gained in broad ethical aspects, b) understanding of application of ethics in functional areas of business, and c) impact on personal views on ethical dilemmas. In each of these areas, we asked the respondents to indicate their

43、 knowledge or attitude before and after they undertook the business ethics course. The items were measured on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 very low to 5 very high. The questionnaire also provides students an opportunity to comment on a few open ended questions. The data was collected in

44、Semester 1 2010 from students of Business Ethics of final year degree programme of an Auckland based tertiary institution. The majority of the students are from overseas and belong to diverse cultures. We administered the questionnaire to students on the last day of their semester but before the fin

45、al course assessments results were released. This was deliberately done to avoid any bias or influence that the course results may have on the students view on their self assessment. In all, a total of 51 usable responses were collected and processed. The sample size is relatively young with 95 perc

46、ent of the population in the age group of 20-29 years, and the remaining is also under 35 years of age. It consisted of 70 male students and 30 female students and 70 percent of the respondents had either current or prior work experience, which shows that they understand or can appreciate role of et

47、hical dilemmas in operational situations. The data was analysed using SPSS and ranked as per the mean scores. Further, difference between before and after scores was also calculated to show the improvements or gains during the course period and ranked accordingly. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe study sou

48、ght to examine the impact of studying business ethics course on the participant-students. Data was collected in three different areas: a) knowledge in business ethics, b) application of business ethics and c) influence on personal ethics. A preliminary search of results reveal that learning occurred in all three areas examined, though at varying levels. These detailed results on these three aspects are presented below:Knowledge in business ethicsIn this course, students have lear