Source: Diane Swanson, 785-532-4352, swanson@k-state.edu
http://www.mediarelations.k-state.edu/WEB/News/MediaGuide/dswansonbio.htm
News release prepared by: Amber Haag, 785-532-6415

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

K-STATE PROFESSOR HONORED AT NATIONAL BUSINESS ETHICS CONFERENCE

MANHATTAN -- Diane Swanson had no idea what she was in for at the recent 2004 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International Teaching Business Ethics Conference in Boulder, Colo.

At this conference designed to bring business ethics experts together to help develop and implement effective ethics education programs, Swanson received the Outstanding Business Ethics Educator Award.

Swanson serves at Kansas State University as associate professor of management and as the von Waaden business administration professor. She is also chair and founder of the Business Ethics Education Initiative, an effort championing the need for ethics in business school curricula.

Swanson said the award came as quite a surprise.

"The conference sponsors are apparently real good about keeping a secret," Swanson said. "I was so shocked that I hardly heard what they were saying when presenting me with the award.

"I've never been the recipient of so many good wishes in one place," she said. "Everyone was shaking my hand and congratulating me. It was very nice."

Swanson said she thinks the award may have something to do with a recent campaign she conducted with William Frederick, one of the country's leaders in ethics in business and society and her mentor. The campaign was aimed at making a stand-alone ethics course a requirement for business school education, an issue she is very active in promoting.

"We've lived through an earthquake of corporate scandals, so why not rethink how we teach business and what we want out of CEOs, managers and employees," Swanson said. "It should not just be business as usual."

Swanson said many schools have a flawed business education. She said only one-third of business schools require a stand-alone course in business ethics as a condition of graduation, and yet that should be one of the key components of holistic ethics education, along with integration of ethics across the curriculum and in extracurricular activities, such as lecture series.

K-State has required a stand-alone ethics course in the business college since 1967. In fact, the association features K-State's business program prominently on its ethics resource center Web site.

Swanson recently published a "Call to Action" with Ian Mitroff from the University of Southern California in The Academy of Management News. She said this piece asks educators to take a hard look at the curriculum in business schools.

During the conference, Swanson was the first speaker on the panel discussing the role of ethics in business curricula. She also led a roundtable discussion concerning approaches to teaching business ethics.

Swanson is on sabbatical for the fall and spring semesters. One of her projects during this time will be researching the role of values in executive decision-making with her partner, Marc Orlitzky, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

She said they've already interviewed and compiled the results of surveys from 200 practicing executives to tap their orientation toward ethics and values. Swanson said that although their results are preliminary, she has reason to think that executive managers gain a narrower perspective on business' role in society with more schooling.

"It seems the more business courses they take, the more myopic they become," Swanson said. "I think this is because management education promotes narrow self-interest over community stewardship."

Swanson holds a doctorate with distinction from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania for business administration in strategy, environment and organization. She received her master's in economics from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, with honors, in 1982, and her bachelor's in business from Avila College in 1980.

The conference, which ran July 21-23, was sponsored by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, the University of Colorado, Colorado State University and the University of Wyoming. Corporate sponsors included The Wall Street Journal, Deloitte & Touche, The Writer Family, The Houghton Mifflin Company, New Belgium Brewing and Coors.

---

Kansas State University is a comprehensive, research, land-grant institution first serving students and the people of Kansas, and also the nation and the world.