Martha Stewart. Enron. Tyco.
These well-known scandals sparked awareness of business ethics worldwide.
At, Ohio University, the College of Business is making strides to improve its business ethics curriculum in response to those cases.
Every student in the college is required to take a philosophy ethics course. However, one course taught out of business context is not enough, said Glenn Corlett, Dean of the College of Business.
Every business school that I know of had some type of course that was either offered within the business school that dealt with ethics
or it was dealt with in the Arts and Sciences school. Conventional wisdom was 'We've done our job ' Corlett said. The breakdown in corporate ethics within the last couple of years has revealed that that is just not enough.
The college is now using a three-pronged approach to ethics, including requiring a basic ethics course, imbedding an ethical aspect to every course that is taught and hosting experienced guest speakers who can explain the importance of ethical practices in business, Corlett said.
This past fall, the college hosted the Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Lecture Series
in which corporate leaders came to campus to speak to students about issues relevant to the topic of ethics in business. There have been five speakers so far.
Faculty members have been encouraged to include at least one ethics-based discussion in the syllabus of every business course. Professors and administrators are considering adjusting the curriculum.
We haven't added any new courses yet
but that's something we're looking into
said John Day, associate dean of academic affairs in the College of Business.
David Kirch, professor of accountancy, created a course titled Greed after being named a university professor for this year. The course deals with what drives individuals to make ethically questionable decisions and teaches students how to efficiently save and spend money.
We study things like Enron and what was the effect on the people. Not what did those thieves do
but what was the effect on everyone else
Kirch said. We talk about Art Modell
moving the Browns away from Cleveland
and for what -another million dollars? What's he need with another million dollars
and yet he sold his soul.
Although the class was designed for non-business majors, business majors have composed more than half of the class, Kirch said.
Every time the public starts screaming
