Professor to speak on issue of business schools failing to require ethics courses

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Source: Diane Swanson, 785-537-4248, swanson@k-state.edu
http://www.mediarelations.k-state.edu/WEB/News/MediaGuide/dswansonbio.htm
News release prepared by: Amber Haag, 785-532-6415

Monday, May 2, 2005

PROFESSOR TO SPEAK ON ISSUE OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS FAILING TO REQUIRE ETHICS COURSES

MANHATTAN -- Diane Swanson, associate professor of management and the von Waaden business administration professor at Kansas State University, will speak on the role of ethics in business schools at the Fourth Annual Green Mountain Summit on Investor Responsibility May 23 in Stowe, Vt.

Swanson is the founding chair of the Business Ethics Education Initiative, an effort that enjoys local and national support for championing the need for ethics in business school curricula.

In her speech, Swanson plans to discuss the results of a study conducted by two members of her ethics initiative advisory board as part of a special task force to audit coverage of ethics in business schools.

The study, conducted by professors Tammy MacLean of Suffolk University and Barrie Litzky of Penn State Great Valley, found that only half of the top 50 master's in business administration degree programs as ranked by Business Week in 2004 have a required course specifically devoted to the study of business ethics. Out of the top 10 master's in business administration degree programs, only four require a stand-alone ethics course.

"What this means is that half of the top 50 schools are leaving sound ethics coverage up for grabs," Swanson said. "It's easy to list ethics in course descriptions, but in reality it is difficult if not impossible to assess ethics covered this way. In most instances, it means that ethics is left in the hands of faculty not fully trained in the area. As a result, ethics gets delivered piecemeal and superficially, or perhaps not at all. After all, many business professors got their doctoral training in programs that did not include ethics and some are even hostile to ethics.

"Only a stand-alone ethics course represents the certainty of robust coverage," Swanson said. "A freestanding ethics course serves as the best foundation for attempts to integrate ethics across other courses. It provides a bedrock foundation for applying ethics to functional areas in business."

Swanson said the main problem with ethics coverage in business schools is that the accrediting agency, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, allows ethics to be scattered across the curriculum.

"And so the accrediting agency allows the absence of a stand-alone ethics course to send a signal to students and faculty that ethics doesn't really matter," Swanson said. "By approving lax accrediting standards, AACSB sends the signal that exposing students to bits and pieces of ethics delivered by faculty untrained in the area is OK. But this approach doesn't add up to much. It's the easy way out and amounts to a checklist mentality instead of a true educational experience."

Swanson said K-State has required a stand-alone ethics course in the business school since 1967.

"At K-State, we don't leave business ethics to chance," Swanson said. "We have a longstanding tradition of requiring an ethics course both in the undergraduate and MBA degree programs. We also offer a graduate elective called Professional Ethics. In these courses we expose students to ethical issues in a business and society context, providing real world examples of ethical dilemmas and practical solutions for managers and public policy makers.

"At K-State, we realize that it is important that students enter the business world equipped with conceptual maps for recognizing ethical dilemmas and ways to deal with them," Swanson said. "Many if not most business schools continue to be complicit in corporate neglect of social responsibilities. At K-State, we are doing our part to educate students in this vital area."