Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T20:41:43.015Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Course In Business Ethics: Why Don't The Philosophers Give Business Students What They Need?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

George L. Pamental
George L. Pamental*
Affiliation:
Rhode Island College, Bentley College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ethical theory in business ethics texts lacks sufficient specificity to be used as a tool of analysis. The result is that business faculty do not see the course in business ethics as helpful to their students, and the students do not see the course as helpful in their careers.

A further difficulty is the inclusion of material which is not seen by business faculty, as appropriate or germane to the practice of decision-making. Issues such as the legitimacy of the corporation, or capitalism versus Marxism, are of little interest or help to the person in business.

Finally, the text cases are too often of a policy nature, and do not deal with issues faced by a majority of those in business. The result is the lack of engaging the moral imagination of the students.

Unless the course is redesigned so that it is seen by business faculty as more relevant, it will continue to be required by only a small number of business programs.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , October 1991 , pp. 385 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brummer, James: 1985, “Business Ethics: Micro and Macro” Journal of Business Ethics 4, pp. 81–91.Google Scholar
Cavanagh, Gerald F. and McGovern, Arthur F.: 1988, Ethical Dilemmas in the Modern Corporation Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Richard, DeGeorge T.: 1990, Business Ethics, 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Derry, Robbin and Green, Ronald M.: 1989, “Ethical Theory in Business Ethics: A Critical Assessment,” Journal of Business Ethics 8, pp. 521–533.Google Scholar
Furman, Frida Kerner: 1990, “Teaching Business Ethics: Questioning the Assumptions, Seeking New Directions,” Journal of Business Ethics, 9, pp. 31–38.Google Scholar
Richard, George J.: 1987 “Teaching Business Ethics: Is There a Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality?” Journal of Business Ethics 6, pp. 513–518.Google Scholar
The Hastings Center: 1980. The Teaching of Ethics in Higher Education, Hastings-on-Hudson: The Hastings Center.Google Scholar
Michael, Hoffman W.: 1984, “Ethics in Business Education: Working Toward a Meaningful Reciprocity,” Journal of Business Ethics 3, pp. 259–268.Google Scholar
Michael, Hoffman W. and Moore, Jennifer Mills: 1990, Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Hosmer, LaRue Tone: 1988, “Adding Ethics to the Business Curriculum,” Business Horizons 31, pp. 9–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
John, Matthews B.; Goodpaster, Kenneth E.; and Nash, Laura L.: 1985, Policies and Persons: A Casebook in Business Ethics, New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Laura, Nash L.: 1981, “Ethics Without the Sermon,” Harvard Business Review 59, pp. 78–90.Google Scholar
George, Pamental L.: 1988a, “A Different Look at Texts,” Journal of Business Ethics 1, pp. 531–536.Google Scholar
George, Pamental L.: 1988b, Ethics in the Business Curriculum: A Preliminary Survey of Undergraduate Business Programs Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Charles, Powers W. and Vogel, David: 1980, Ethics in the Education of Business Managers, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY: The Hastings Center.Google Scholar
Manuel, Velasquez G.: 1988, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases, 2nd ed., Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar