Ethics Education: Using Inductive Reasoning To Develop Individual, Group, Organizational, and Global Perspectives

Abstract

Ethics education that prepares students to address ethical challenges at work is a multifaceted and long-term endeavor. In this article, the authors propose an inductive ethics pedagogy that begins the process of ethics education by grounding students in their own individual ethical principles. The approach centers on developing students' ethical self-knowledge in three ways: using an inductive method to aid students in learning ethics from a foundation of their own beliefs, distinguishing ethics from related concepts, and examining ethical conduct at four different levels of analysis—individual, group, organizational, and international perspectives. The authors define ethics and provide a model, new to the literature, that distinguishes ethics from related concepts, such as law, morality, or values. They include a discussion of ethical and cultural relativism and ethical absolutism relevant to the global context. This article is intended for the ethics educator in undergraduate and graduate business courses.

More than Lip Service: The Development and Implementation Plan of an Ethics Decision-Making Framework for an Integrated Undergraduate Business Curriculum

“…It is then intent that causes an individual's (rational) behavior. Ethics educators can contribute to each of these components by explaining and demonstrating the proper attitude toward ethical issues with ethics awareness education, and identifying the relevant social pressures and difficulties involved in behaving ethically given situations described in various cases studied (Moberg 2006;Taft and White 2007). Now the question that is begged is: If a student makes a behavioral choice in the hypothetical situation of a case study, can we imply actual behavior in a real work situation?…”

Preparing accounting students for ethical decision making: Developing individual codes of conduct based on personal values

“…Unfortunately, many accounting students will not have well-developed individual codes of conduct that they can refer to when they begin their professional careers, which means these students will likely fail to recognize and act on ethical issues in the workplace (Gentile, 2010;Sims & Felton, 2006). Asking accounting students to operationalize their values by writing individual codes of conduct means they will be better able to recognize ethical issues (Taft & White, 2007). Perhaps most importantly, if accounting students are fully cognizant of their values and their codes of conduct, they will be able to respond to situations requiring ethical judgment in an appropriate and timely manner (Trocchia, Swanson, & Orlitzky, 2007).…”

“…Scholars argue that many students' ethical knowledge is tacit, so a first step in ethics training is to help students discover their values (Brinkman & Sims, 2001;Gosenpud & Werner, 2009;Taft & White, 2007). This sentiment is reflected in the AACSB International's (2004, p. 13) call for instructors to help business students clarify their values and then provide them with assistance in dealing with situations where their values conflict, such as "when success and security clash with justice or honesty".…”

“…The increased public scrutiny of business education led to a significant increase in the amount of ethical instruction provided to accounting students in the past 30 years (Madison & Schmidt, 2006). Although there is still some debate regarding the efficacy of ethics training (e.g., Lund Dean & Beggs, 2006;Taft & White, 2007), recent evidence is encouraging. For example, studies by Lau (2010), Klimek and Wenell (2011), and Thomas (2012) found significant differences in the ethical reasoning abilities of undergraduate business students exposed to ethical training.…”

“…Many academics argue that solely lecturing on ethics is not the most effective instructional pedagogy (Blanthorne, Kovar, & Fisher, 2007;Gosenpud & Werner, 2009;Lund Dean & Beggs, 2006;McNair & Milan, 1993;Taft & White, 2007), instead asserting that role plays or instructional cases are more effective approaches (e.g., Falkenberg & Woiceshyn, 2008;Glass & Bonnici, 1997;James & Smith, 2007;LeClair & Ferrell, 2000).…”