Teaching Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics at Economic Programs

The pandemic is seen as an opportunity to further advance in business ethics. Prof. Freeman called academics to contribute to developing more ethical business models. Businesses have been revising their missions towards more ethical business models as the pandemic has changed attitudes to life. Society expects that companies will serve human beings rather than solely maximization of profit to their stakeholders. This research is motivated by analyzing the importance of teaching business ethics. This research has looked into the directions of business education in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. The article intends to highlight the potential of CSR education in overcoming the pandemic crisis and increasing the wellbeing of society. This desk research underlines the standpoint of universities whether they should teach business ethics or CSR at the business faculties, and analyzes the educational programs of the business faculties to find out their attitude towards teaching of CSR/ethics.

Teaching business ethics in a digital world

Purpose While teaching of business ethics has been increasing in business schools worldwide, universities still face increasing pressure to do more to proactively defend and help avoid unethical business practices and scandals calling for more responsible education. This study aims to examine teaching business ethics in light of recent technological advances (i.e. teaching via the use of digital devices) and well-established pedagogical practices. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a 2 × 2 experimental design examining the effect of active (vs passive) and presence (vs absence) of digital devices in student learning of 192 US students. Findings The findings suggest that the active learning scenario, the usage of laptops and phones helped students get higher results in the test compared to active learning with no digital devices or passive learning with digital devices. Originality/value Active learning practices such as group discussions and peer assessment or the flipped classroom approach make a difference for business ethics teaching where students need to develop inquiry and interest for the subject and engage in ethical dilemmas and real-life examples. Further, students in the active learning scenario performed better in knowledge tests when they were asked to use their digital devices.

Spiritual Practice and Management Education Pedagogy: Exploring the Philosophical Foundations of Three Spiritual Traditions

Can the philosophical foundations of spiritual practices inform management education pedagogy and in the long-run support emotional development and more ethical and responsible business practice? In this article, we introduce the essential aspects of three different spiritual traditions—Daoist inner work, Buddhist mindful reflexivity, and Quaker discernment—and lay out some foundations between these essential aspects and management education pedagogy. We offer examples of utilizing these concepts in teaching business ethics in order to offer a foundational discussion for future elaboration. Our experiences also illuminate that instructor preparation is a key ingredient if the kinds of teaching we advance are to gain traction and contribute to the repeated calls for pedagogical innovations that challenge dominant paradigms. We offer some concluding remarks, pathways for future research and indicate a list of resources that can support potential instructors.

Is e-learning a panacea for the current challenges of business ethics teaching?

The scope of the paper is to investigate whether e-learning is a good alternative to achieve business ethics teaching goals in the challenging context of disembedded economies. To achieve this goal, I used various interdisciplinary methods and approaches, content analysis of the relevant literature, and a case study. Firstly, I focus on the current challenges of business ethics teaching. Then, based on my experience of teaching business ethics in various forms, I distinguish the methods applied within them and evaluate them, taking as criteria the cognitive, applicative, and reflective goals of teaching business ethics. Models and theories of educational psychology provide a framework to distinguish some elements that are responsible for the learning success of the student in terms of the defined teaching goal. Empirical results show that although e-learning scored best when it comes to achieving three differentiated goals of business ethics teaching, it is followed closely by seminars. This leads to the conclusion that perhaps a hybrid form, containing e-learning and seminars, would be the optimal way to achieve the goals.

Using Open Mind to Foster Intellectual Humility in Teaching Business Ethics

In this study, Open Mind – an interactive learning platform – was introduced as a pedagogical tool in developing students’ intellectual humility using a sample of 35 upper level undergraduate business students enrolled in a business ethics course in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.. Students completed the 5-step Open Mind learning assignment as a measure of intellectual humility during the first four weeks of class. Class lectures were concurrently given while students completed the Open Mind exercise. Students were subsequently required to debate a controversial topic during the remaining 11 weeks of the class. Various grading rubrics as well as skill assessment matrix are provided to assist faculty in adopting this learning platform in their classrooms. Initial evidence showed that Open Mind was efficacious in fostering student intellectual humility. Implications for teaching business ethics using Open Mind to cultivate intellectual humility are discussed.

Attitudes Do Not and Cannot Change Overnight!

The study investigated the difference of attitudes towards business ethics between students who have studied a business ethics course (n=88) and those who have not (n=94) at the University of Malawi in Malawi. It was hypothesised that students who had undergone the course would have more positive attitudes towards business ethics than those who had not. We employed the Attitudes towards Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) and used t-test to measure the difference. The results were surprising as most items (23/30) showed no significant difference in attitudes towards business ethics by students who had undergone the course from those who had not. Out of the seven that showed significant difference, five of the items showed more positive attitude towards business ethics by those students who had undergone the course than those students who had not. This shows that there is something positive as regards the methods of teaching business ethics at the University, but requires leveraging. The paper concludes by recommending three leveraging points that the University of Malawi can adopt in teaching a business ethics course.