Promoting Ethics in Business Education

Kanika Virmani, 13P146

Ankit Goel, 13P124

Aviral Bansal, 13P135

Avishek Dasgupta, 13P136

Sandeep Chatterjee, 13P165

Shashank Shukla, 13P166

Group 4

Contents

Objective

Introduction

Problems

Relevance for Businesses

Giving Voice to Values Initiative

National Business Ethics Survey

XLRI, Jamshedpur

S.P.Jain Institute of Management Research, Mumbai

Recommendations

Objective

Identify problems in the current academic curriculum

and teaching methodologies

Quote relevant findings and surveys to support the

issue at hand

Study evolving Innovative pedagogical tools in use

Identify methodologies being adopted at other b-

schools

Make Recommendations to inculcate ethics & values

in business education

Introduction

Prescribing a compulsory course on ethics to all students

is alone not sufficient

Educating managers for integrity has eluded us in the past

In a globalized world witnessing rapid advances, ethics on

part of all professionals are very important

Education as a vehicle can inculcate ethical dimensions

among students and business education is no exception to

this

Planning and execution of education has to be such that

by following best practices the students imbibe ethics in

their day-to-day activities

Problems(1/2)

Relegation of ethical issues to a small fraction of the faculty or to those perceived as having low status vitiates the power of the educational experience

Few Business teachers have had any formal training, even a workshop in ethics or how to teach ethics

Students often select business major with underlying idea that they need to learn how to win against competitors

Being ethical is treated as a cost that can often be reduced to enhance the bottom-line

No emphasis on teaching the relationship between business and society

Problems(2/2)

Ethical values are internalized but not integrated as part of day-to-day behavior

Pushing an ethical theory leads to a failure to realize the importance of what a person thinks about ethics

Ethical analysis is presented in an introductory way in current curriculum

Deep investigation into the theories is lacking Students don’t have a grasp on theories taught

“The language of ethics is the language of harms and benefits, and rights and rules. It is a language that each of us knows how to use but because of the myth that business and ethics are unrelated, its application in actual business decisions is lagging behind”

- R.Edward Freeman & Daniel Gilbert Jr., Corporate Strategy and Search for Ethics (1988)

Relevance for Businesses

It is essential for business and management education students to understand the symbiotic relationship between business and society

Employees (including managers) are better educated than they used to be, and so understand ethical issues better than they used to

Employers increasingly dependent on attracting high quality staff who, with more choice than they used to have, are less willing to work for morally ‘iffy’ businesses

Businesses are entering new and morally more debatable areas

 The media have become very good at exposing questionable behavior

Information is now so easy to get hold of Internet makes it easier again

Giving Voice to Values

An innovative, cross-disciplinary business curriculum

Action-oriented pedagogical approach for developing the skills, knowledge and commitment required to implement values-based leadership

Focuses on ethical implementation and asks the question: What would I say and do if I were going to act on my values?

Helps students identify the many ways to voice their values in the workplace

The issue isn’t distinguishing what is right or wrong, but knowing how to act on your values despite opposing pressure

It is free to educators

B-Schools Following GVV

Following B-Schools are the pilot sites for GVV i.e the courses are being conducted from these B-Schools

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Indian School of Business

S.P.Jain Institute of Management research

Narsee Monjee Institute of management studies

Goa Institute of Management

National Business EthicsSurvey (USA)

• The percentage of employees who witnessed misconduct at work fell to a new low of 45% in 2011 from 49% in 2009

• Those who reported the bad behaviour they saw reached a record high of 65% in 2011 from 63% in 2009

• However, retaliation against employee whistleblowers rose sharply to 22% in 2011 from just 12% in 2009

National Business EthicsSurvey (USA)

•One-third of employees (34%) say their managers do not display ethical behaviour, up from 24% in 2009• With employees more likely to look to supervisors when they report misconduct, this is a troubling downturn.

National Business EthicsSurvey (USA)

• Workplace misconduct has historically followed a similar trajectory to stock market performance which means during strong economic growth misconduct increases

• However, in 2011 even if there is economic growth, misconduct is decreasing

National Business EthicsSurvey (USA)

• U.S. employees reported an increase in pressure to compromise their company’s ethics standards or policies, or even break the law in 2011

• 13 percent of employees said they felt pressure to break the rules, the highest since 2000

XLRI

• Inspired by the Jesuit spirit of 'Magis', XLRI aims at being a management school with :

• A passion for academic excellence• Uncompromising human values• A sensitive social conscience• An abiding commitment to improving the quality

of life in organizations and society• Integrity

XLRI

B.Muthuraman, Chairman, Board of Governors, XLRI excerpts

There are more failures in life than successes; learn to deal with them

Purpose of business is to improve the quality of life of the society

SIGMA (Students Initiative Group for Managerial Assistance) aims at taking up and implementing socially relevant projects on campus

Social Entrepreneurship Trust was setup by XLRI in association with its alumni

aims to encourage and support entrepreneurship with a social cause

XLRI students look for social sector as a career option, moving away from high paying corporate jobs

SPJIMR

Through video-lectures, students are being taught management on the lines of the ideals of Indian philosophy

Gita Shibir helps them identify, appreciate and imbibe appropriate attitudes to stand up and face challenges of the corporate world

Students are taught through video lectures, followed by discussions on religious scriptures and their relevance with the current management thinking

The participants learn how the concept of dharma can be applied to our daily lives as well as the corporate world

 It is about the core concepts of spirituality which are applicable to humanity at large, irrespective of religion, caste, creed, language, country or any other differences. 

Recommendations

Setting up an accreditation society like AICTE for

technical education that prescribes specialized

curriculum

Accreditation reviewers should assist in working with b-

schools to assess and enhance their ethics programs

Failure in this area should be a significant concern to the school and a significant finding in the team’s report

Where a team finds successes best practices may be shared that can be used by other schools

Assist b-schools in understanding and achieving these

standards

Explicit mention of ethics in the mission statement

Recommendations

Incentivizing ethical behavior rather than sole focus on

curriculum and assignments

Fear of deadlines

Procedures for handling identified instances of academic

dishonesty

Inclusion of ethical behavior as an evaluated dimension of

internships

Requirement for concurrent employment in an organization

known for maintaining ethical standards

Implicit connections through the discussion of cultural,

religious, or other social references.

References

National Business Ethics Survey, 2011

Report of the Ethics Education Task Force to AACSB International Board of Directors

Management Education for Integrity : Ethically educating tomorrow’s business leaders – Charles Wankel

Ethics, Business and Society : Managing Responsibly – Ananda Das Gupta

Values Ethics and Business : challenges for education and management – Ananta.k.Giri

www.business-standard.com

www.economictimes.indiatimes.com

TTHANK YOU