Including ethics in banking and finance programs: teaching “we shouldn’t win at any cost”

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify whether ethics is incorporated into the curriculum in postgraduate banking and finance programmes. There is growing concern that moral failure preceded the global financial crisis with waves of ethical scandals overwhelming the global banking industry highlighting a lack of integrity. Consequently, banking and financial institutions have received much criticism for focusing on higher financial returns that bring personal rewards with significant costs to the majority of society. Design/methodology/approach – The population for this study is Australian universities offering banking and finance postgraduate programs. The data for this study were collected from information available on university websites. The study uses content analysis to examine course content in 897 courses offered within banking and finance programmes. Findings – Findings reveal that 809 (90 per cent) out of 897 courses do not incorporate ethics into banking and finance programmes. Most of the 88 courses incorporating ethics as include the course as “core”, with a relatively small number offering ethics as an “elective”. Only a few courses were offered as stand-alone ethics courses. It appears from the information available that little focus is given to assessment of ethics. Originality/value – This is the first study to explore whether ethics is featured in postgraduate banking and finance programmes.

Impacts of Code of Ethics on Financial Performance in the Italian Listed Companies of Bank Sector

“…The impact of CSR on firm performance is increasingly important in the international banking services industry, regardless of a positive or negative effect. Neverthless, the complexity of financial commitments and transactions such as innovative products, long chains of intermediation, additional information and so on, can make "ethical behaviour" a highly ambiguous concept to apply (Oates and Dias, 2016). For this reason, in the Italian banking services industry many formal mechanisms and numerous instruments of control and supervising of the conduct of the players are applied by the main financial regulators, as: The Bank of Italy (Banca d'Italia) -the central bank that has the function of banking regulation and supervision; the Italian Securities and Exchange Commission (Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa -CONSOB); The Antitrust Authority; the Comitato Interministeriale per il Credito ed il Risparmio (CICR); and The Commissione di vigilanza sui fondi pensione (Covip).…”

To shift a paradigm or not: worldviews at play in responsible management education literature

“…But there are authors in the dataset who feel that the disparate view was (or still is) the dominant worldview of business schools as a whole (e.g. Oates and Dias, 2016). From this, we conclude that RME is conceived of as a movement away from this view.…”

“…, 2014; Hart et al. , 2015; Lee and Schaltegger, 2014; Leveson and Joiner, 2014; Oates and Dias, 2016; Persons, 2012; Rands, 2009; Thomas et al. , 2013).…”

“…8% of authors in the dataset call on business schools to highlight the business case for sustainability (e.g. Barber et al, 2014;Hart et al, 2015;Lee and Schaltegger, 2014;Leveson and Joiner, 2014;Oates and Dias, 2016;Persons, 2012;Rands, 2009;Thomas et al, 2013). For example, Persons (2012) described an assignment where students discussed how firms engaging in sustainability activities increased their financial success.…”

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