CHAPTER 8: Assessing Business Ethics Coverage at Top U.S. Business Schools

The rash of corporate scandals over the past decade has sparked intense debate among business school faculty and administrators about whether their curricula ameliorates or abets the bad behavior of business school graduates (Etzioni, 2002; Jacobs, 2009; “Top Business,” 2002). Outside of scholarly circles, corporate and government institutions are weighing in on the discussion of whether or not more emphasis should be placed upon business ethics in business school curricula. Although there seems to be little disagreement that business schools need to elevate the role of ethics in their curricula, the question of just how to do this has ignited vigorous debate in academe (Swanson, 2004). The road maps of this discussion is the question of whether or not universities should require students to take a standalone, foundational business ethics course. Although most parties appear to agree that ethics should be integrated throughout business school curricula by embedding ethics-related material throughout all relevant courses, the discourse has crystallized into a debate over whether or not stand-alone ethics courses are also necessary components of effective business ethics education.