Skip to main content
Log in

Using Ibsen in Business Ethics

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s death, during 2006 quite a number of cultural events were launched (cf. http://www.ibsen.net/). The article suggests celebrating Ibsen as a potentially useful resource for business ethics teaching. Departing from a short presentation of Ibsen’s plays An enemy of the people and A doll’s house the main focus of this paper is on two selected scenes from the␣latter piece – both as raw material for developing scenarios for moral maturity assessment (one of them is strikingly similar to and different from Heinz’ dilemma), and for teaching business students moral reflection and imagination. As an open end of the article a few wider questions are asked about the use of literature in addition to or instead of ethics when it comes to triggering moral reflection and imagination.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexander S. M. and K. Sullivan: 1996 Teaching ‹In Tandem’: Combining Sociology with Theater to Create an Interdisciplinary Classroom. Teaching Sociology, 24, 372–377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andersen M. M.: 1995 Ibsenhåndboken. (Gyldendal, Oslo)

    Google Scholar 

  • Barter, Ch. and E. Renold: 1999, The use of Vignettes in Qualitative Research, http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU25.html

  • Bergman R.: 2002 Why be Moral? A Conceptual Model from Developmental Psychology. Human Development, 45, 104–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brinkmann J.: 2002 Moral Reflection Differences Among Norwegian Business Students. A Presentation and Discussion of Findings. Teaching Business Ethics, 6, 83–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brinkmann J.: 2005 Understanding Insurance Customer Dishonesty: Outline of a Situational Approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 61, 183–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brinkmann J. and P. Lentz: 2006 Understanding Insurance Customer Dishonesty: Outline of a Moral-Sociological Approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 66, 177–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brinkmann J. and R. Sims: 2001 Stakeholder-Sensitive Business Ethics Teaching. Teaching Business Ethics, 5, 171–193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caputo G. A.: 2000 The “Voice of Justice” vs. the “Voice of Care” in the Assignment of Criminal Sanctions. Current Psychology, 19, 70–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carr D.: 2003 Rival Conceptions of Practice in Education and Teaching. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 37, 253–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ciulla, J. B.: 1991, ‹Business Ethics as Moral Imagination’, in R. E. Freeman (ed.), Business Ethics, the State of the Art (Oxford University Press, New York), pp. 212–220

  • Ciulla, J. B.: 1998, ‹Imagination, Fantasy, Wishful Thinking and Truth’, Business Ethics Quarterly (Special issue #1), 99–107

  • Commons M. L., J. F. Galaz-Fontes and S. J. Morse: 2006 Leadership, Cross-Cultural Contact, Socio-Economic Status, and Formal Operational Reasoning. Journal of Moral Education, 35, 247–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crane A. and D. Matten: 2007 Business Ethics. (Oxford University Press, Oxford)

    Google Scholar 

  • Eide, T.: 2003, ‹Ibsen’s Ethical Method’, Paper, 10th International Ibsen Conference, New York. http://www.ibsensociety.liu.edu/conferencepapers/ethical.pdf

  • Fromm E.: 1947 Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics. (Rinehart, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs J. C., K. S. Basinger and D. Fuller: 1992 Moral Maturity: Measuring the Development of Sociomoral Reflection. (Erlbaum, Mahwah)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gustafson A.: 2000 Making Sense of Postmodern Business Ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10, 645–658

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halliday J.: 2002 Researching Values in Education. British Educational Research Journal, 28, 49–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson J. L., R. Insley, J. Motwani and I. Zbib: 1993 Writing Performance and Moral Reasoning in Business Education? Journal of Business Ethics, 12, 397–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy E. J. and L. Lawton: 1996 The Effects of Social and Moral Integration on Ethical Standards: A Comparison of American and Ukrainian Business Students. Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 901–911

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohlberg, L.: 1963, `The Development of Children's Orientations Toward a Moral Order', Vita Humana 6, 11–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Leck R.: 2005 Enemy of the People: Simmel, Ibsen, and the Civic Legacy of Nietzschean Sociology. The European Legacy, 10, 133–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy J.: 2001 Respectability and Its Discontents: Reflections on Teaching in American Universities Today. Theatre Topics, 11, 31–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lysonski S. and W. Gaidis: 1991 A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Ethics of Business Students. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, 141–150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maclagan P. and R. Snell: 1992 Some Implications for Management Development of Research into Managers’ Moral Dilemmas. British Journal of Management, 3, 157–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdams T. and R. Koppensteiner: 1992 The Manager Seeking Virtue: Lessons from Literature. Journal of Business Ethics, 11, 627–634

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCabe D. L., J. M. Dukerich and J. E. Dutton: 1991 Context, Values and Moral Dilemmas: Comparing the Choices of Business and Law School Students. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, 951–960

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morris S. A. and R. A. McDonald: 1995 The Role of Moral Intensity in Moral Judgments: An Empirical Investigation. Journal of Business Ethics, 14, 715–726

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Randall D. M. and A. M. Gibson: 1990 Methodology in Business Ethics Research: A Review and Critical Assessment. Journal of Business Ethics, 9, 457–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rau S. E. and J. Weber: 2003 Can the Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma Game be used as a Tool to Enhance Moral Reasoning? Teaching Business Ethics, 7, 395–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robb G.: 2002 White-Collar Crime in Modern England: Financial Fraud and Business Morality, 1845–1929. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson D. C.: 1993 Empiricism in Business Ethics: Suggested Research Directions. Journal of Business Ethics, 12, 585–599

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rorty R.: 2006 Is Philosophy Relevant to Applied Ethics? Business Ethics Quarterly, 16, 369–380

    Google Scholar 

  • Shade, P.: 2004, ‹Kindness and the Good Society: Connections of the Heart', Review, The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 18, 351–354

  • Shepard J. M., M. G. Goldsby and V. W. Gerde: 1997 Teaching Business Ethics Through Literature. Teaching Business Ethics, 1, 33–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singer, P. and R. Singer (eds.): 2005, The Moral of the Story (Blackwell, Oxford)

  • Smith A. and V. Rogers: 2000 Ethics-Related Responses to Specific Situation Vignettes: Evidence of Gender-Based Differences and Occupational Socialization. Journal of Business Ethics, 28, 73–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vidaver-Cohen, D.: 1998, ‹Moral Imagination in Organizational Problem-Solving: An Institutional Perspective’, Business Ethics Quarterly (Special issue #1), 123–148

  • Weisberg M. and J. Duffin: 1995 Evoking the Moral Imagination: Using Stories to Teach Ethics and Professionalism to Nursing, Medical, and Law Students. Journal of Medical Humanities, 16, 247–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wendorf C. A., S. Alexander and I. J. Firestone: 2002 Social Justice and Moral Reasoning: An Empirical Integration of Two Paradigms in Psychological Research. Social Justice Research, 15, 19–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werhane, P. H.: 1998, ‹Moral Imagination and the Search for Ethical Decision Making in Management’, Business Ethics Quarterly (Special issue #1), 75–98

  • Werhane P. H.: 1999 Moral Imagination and Management Decision-Making. (Oxford University Press, New York)

    Google Scholar 

  • Woollard R. F.: 2006 ‹Caring for a Common Future: Medical Schools’ Social Accountability. Medical Education, 40, 301–313

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

Thanks to my daughter Katrin Lenander for inspiring discussions about this paper, as a matter of fact both for the idea to write such a article in the first place and for the suggestion to take a look at Richard Rorty’s reasoning.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johannes Brinkmann.

Additional information

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 13th Annual Conference Promoting Business Ethics, Niagara Falls NY, October 2006. Cf. also a somewhat different Norwegian version of this paper where the same Ibsen scenes share attention with scenes from Brecht’s moral school operas The One Who Says Yes and The One Who Says No (forthcoming).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brinkmann, J. Using Ibsen in Business Ethics. J Bus Ethics 84 (Suppl 1), 11–24 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9688-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9688-1

Keywords

Navigation