Teaching business ethics

Business ethics is a burgeoning field of study and practice with vibrant academic and practitioner communities. Due to a combination of pioneering leaders in business and academe, many resources are currently being expended to understand and manage ethics in business. ¹ Unfortunately, however, we would argue that the actions of the unscrupulous in business have probably had a greater effect on the growth of the field than have its leaders. Every time there is a major scandal or controversy in business, or set of scandals or controversies (some of the “high” points include the mid 80s, early 90s, and the crisis of 2008), calls are made for reform, including further regulations (e.g., 1991 US Sentencing Guidelines, and Sarbanes-Oxley (2002)) and greater emphasis on ethics in companies and in business schools. Consequently, academic ethics organizations, and corporate ethics and compliance associations, are healthy and strong, allowing academic and business specialists to find conferences on the subject virtually every month of the year.