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Ethics
Today Online =======================================================
**************************************************************************** ** From the President's Desk: What Obligation to Teach Ethics? What obligations do colleges and universities have to teach ethics? More than 2000 years ago, Socrates was unjustly accused of a capital crime: corrupting the youth. His accusers gave him two options -- stop teaching or drink hemlock. Because he considered educating the young more important than obeying the state, he chose the latter. For Socrates, this was an ethical choice. Until the 20th century, it was necessary to include ethics in one's studies in order to be considered "educated." In the last eighty years, unfortunately, philosophers, in the name of analytical precision, turned the already difficult study of ethics into something so arcane that it was unreachable for the majority of students. Burdened with symbolic logic and esoteric redefinitions, ethics, and their applicability to the real world, became almost impossible to understand. It should not come as a surprise, then, to find today that many business schools are not especially receptive to teaching, much less requiring, ethics in their curricula. Most of the administrative studies -- business, public, non-profit - have resisted requiring separate courses in ethics as part of their programs. Ironically, it appears that individuals in business and public administration are among those most vulnerable to ethical problems. Yet, in the last two decades, various professional areas of study have undergone a renaissance in the teaching of applied ethics. There has also been a great deal of important work in administrative ethics, most of it insightful and accessible. This work focuses not only on CEOs, but also on the reality of mid-level managers and supervisors on the shop floor. Excellent texts, case studies and exercises are also available to make ethics real in the classroom setting. Many faculty members argue that it is not necessary to require a separate course on ethics, because each course treats ethics in some way. This argument has several failings. First, if ethics is taught in each course, in reality, it is never taught. Second, this view assumes that one does not need any technical or analytical expertise in order to teach ethics - a view akin to telling a marketing professor that we need not teach marketing because all courses include some "marketing". Finally, the ethical meltdown in so many large companies over the last two years suggests that we are not teaching ethics very well. It is not too much to ask that business schools choose to include ethics as a required course in the curriculum, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. These courses should be pragmatic and taught by instructors with the appropriate technical expertise. Any less, and schools of business administration might justifiably be accused of that for which Socrates was unjustly convicted: corrupting the youth. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** ERC Fellows Urge Business Schools to Teach Ethics In May 2003, the ERC Fellows issued a statement regarding teaching ethics in business schools. That statement begins: The Ethics Resource Center (ERC) Fellows wish to express their strong view that business ethics must be made an essential part of the curriculum of schools of business. The business scandals of the past two years have not only brought significant harm, both directly and indirectly to millions of people, but have also made abundantly clear the importance of ethical behavior in business. Failure to recognize this fact has greatly harmed the reputation of American business, both at home and abroad. And though few would ever say that business in the fashion that brought down Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Andersen is acceptable, for far too long a wide-ranging neglect of business ethics has been condoned in schools of business. Unfortunately, there can be no doubt that the recent scandals and a disregard for ethics are connected. American business draws many of its leaders, managers and employees from the undergraduate and graduate students of schools of business. If these individuals do not sufficiently appreciate the broad range of ethical behavior expected of them as business managers and leaders, American business and society, as a whole, will suffer the consequences. Business schools have a responsibility to acquaint their students with the ethical challenges they will face in the business world. Beyond that, business schools must provide tools to their students to help them meet these challenges both legally and in a manner that reflects the highest standards of ethical business practices. A solid ethical foundation must be the basis upon which one's business career is built. Read the rest
of this statement at: Read more about
the ERC Fellows Program at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** Learning Ethics In Business Schools: A Collection of Articles and Resources The business ethics scandals of the past few years have generated a plethora of articles and research about the status of ethics education in business schools. Opinions vary widely over whether and how ethics should be studied at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The following is a selection of resources collected by ERC Programs Manager Jerry Brown and other ERC staff members: Articles: - "M.B.A.
Students Learn About Conflicts of Interest": Five MBA students
lost a total of $650,000 in a fast-food restaurant start-up operation.
Four of the five claim the founder and CEO - who was also their
professor -- had duped them into investing. - "Beyond Fast
Bucks at B-School": As a result of the turmoil created by the
Enron scandal, MBA students come to campus with a much more serious
mindset regarding conduct and ethics. Some in the MBA Class of 2004
even envision a licensing requirement for MBAs similar to the bar
exam necessary to practice law. - "Jailed Executives
Teach Ethics to M.B.A. Candidates": Pepperdine University in
Malibu, California, sends business students to prison to learn ethics.
Former bankers, managers and entrepreneurs who ran afoul of federal
law teach the course based on their real-life experiences. - "Wharton Aims
for a Wider Target": The Wharton School of Business is taking
a closer look at MBA grad school applicants as well as the ethics
curriculum they undergo. One segment of this interview with Wharton's
Director of Admissions and Associate Director of Admissions discusses
steps the school has taken to identify and weed out applications
containing fabrications, exaggerations and outright lies. - "MBAs
Need More Than Ethics 101": MBA students need more than Ethics
101 according to a 2002, Business Week poll. Sixty-four percent
of 2,700 respondents indicated ethics needed to be a required, stand-alone
course for MBA students. - "Business
Ethics After Enron": Author Judith Samuelson, founding executive
director of the Ford Foundation-funded Aspen Institute's Initiative
for Social Innovation through Business, states the Aspen Institute's
perspective on what business school deans should do to raise the
ethical standards of business school graduates. - "It's a Heckuva
Time to Be Dropping Business Ethics Courses": MBA programs
are downsizing ethics requirements at precisely the wrong time.
A slow erosion of business ethics teaching has been going on in
MBA programs throughout the 1990s--and according to this author's
survey, it seems to be getting worse. - "Where Can
Execs Learn Ethics?": Given the ethical lapses at a number
of corporations, it would seem logical for business schools to focus
on teaching future business leaders to do the right thing. While
most B-schools loudly condemn such ethical breakdowns and professors
say they have devoted class discussions to Enron, academics say
it will take three years or longer before strong ethics components
are added -- if they are added -- to the B-school culture. - "When It Comes
to Ethics, B-Schools Get an F": Amitai Etzioni, who taught
ethics at Harvard and now teaches at George Washington University,
says business schools must face the fact that they have failed to
produce honest brokers and gives examples based on personal experience
and observation. - "Business
Schools Look at Responsible Business Practice": At the invitation
of HRH the Prince of Wales, President of the non-profit Business
in the Community, deans from the top UK business schools met with
HR Directors of some of the UK's largest companies to discuss how
responsible business practice is integrated into the training provided
by business schools. - "Execs Rate
Study Of Ethics A Must For CEO Success, But Just Not Their Own":
The University of Michigan's Executive Education Program recently
surveyed 200 top executives and found 98 percent believe ethics
study to be a critical or very important field of study for CEO
success. But when the study participants were asked to list the
top three fields that were critical to their own personal success,
business ethics "fell off the radar screen." - "The Ethics
of Business Schools": Corporate Scandals Put Spotlight On Relationships
Between Professors And Companies: Among the questions raised about
ethics in business schools are those concerning the propriety of
relationships between and among companies, business schools and
professors -- from million dollar corporate contributions to the
current or former employment of a professor who is writing a case
study for the school. Katherine S. Mangan's article in The Chronicle
of Higher Education (September 20, 2002) discusses situations where
schools or professors have some financial interest in a company
and how it is perceived by academia. In addition, she writes about
the effect of the corporate scandals on business school classes
and case studies. In one real life example, she relates how the
University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
had to revise its Enron case study between semesters -- adding revelations
and events that chronicled the company's collapse to a previous
upbeat account of a company on the rise. Surveys and Research: - "Global MBA
Survey 2003 - Incorporation of Ethics in Curriculum": The Graduate
Management Admissions Council conducted a survey of 4,123 students
from 96 universities in 110 countries in 2003. Among the many topics
were questions about the ways in which their schools incorporate
ethics in their graduate business curriculum. Only 9 percent of
respondents felt ethics is incorporated extremely effectively. Thirty
percent said ethics is incorporated very effectively; 41 percent
felt it is incorporated somewhat effectively; and 20 percent said
it is not very or not at all effectively incorporated. Graduates
rated the effectiveness of the incorporation of ethics the highest
when the school integrated case studies in most courses and/or referred
to ethics in most courses. According to the survey, how graduates
rate the effectiveness of the incorporation is influenced by other
variables as well, such as years of work experience, gender, nationality,
etc., which may affect their perceptions of how much discussion
of ethics is needed for it to be effective. The survey also analyzed
the data by program type and location of school. - "A Question of Ethics": "Studies show that integrity and honesty are the highest-rated competencies that employers seek in entry-level workers," writes author Patti Krapesh in the Spring 2003 issue of Indiana State University Magazine. She interviews ISU assistant professor William J. Wilhelm, who studied a variety of different businesses to determine which skills organizations value most when seeking entry level employees. The challenge, according to Wilhelm, is that "honesty and integrity are probably the most ethereal and nebulous, and, therefore, the most difficult to teach." However, Wilhelm says, "We need to educate our students in ethical reasoning concepts." He advocates an interdisciplinary approach to teaching ethics. "If it's taught across the curriculum and there were to be a university wide focus on it, students will learn it and will enhance their levels of moral reasoning. If moral reasoning is improved, the odds are that behaviour is going to be improved too." The remainder of the five-page article discusses moral reasoning in some detail, as well as how students and faculty perceive ethics instruction at the university. The article includes the Ethics Resource Center as one of four online resources for more information. This article
is not available online but information about the magazine can be
found at: The research
article by William J. Wilhelm "Beyond Rhetoric: Research About
Skills Employers Want" is available at: Websites: The Center for
Academic Integrity: This site attempts to "identify, affirm,
and promote the values of academic integrity among students, faculty,
teachers and administrators." The public part of the site contains
general information about the Center and its activities, and several
helpful resources, including samples of honor codes from dozens
of colleges and universities, a PDF copy of the brochure "The
Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity" and a bibliography
of more than 700 entries on academic integrity. The members-only
segment of the site contains specific information on CAI projects,
research, and a list-serv for members to exchange ideas and information.
CAI also sells an Academic Integrity Assessment Guide, which was
developed with funding support from the John Templeton Foundation,
which also provides support for the ERC's MAXIMize the Moment subscription
character education program. The Ethics Resource
Center has added a section on business schools to its online resource
database. Links to the resources above, as well as new ones written
on the topic, will be stored at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** ERC Fellows Chairman Potts Invited to Join Ethics Education Task Force The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) recently launched a new ethics education initiative, creating an Ethics Education Task Force (EETF). The committee is comprised of at least eight members chosen on the basis of their expertise and commitment to ethics education with representation from different sectors: education, corporate, and not-for-profit. ERC Fellows Chairman Stephen Potts accepted an invitation to serve on the committee for a one-year term. Dean Susan Phillips of The George Washington University will chair the committee. According to the AACSB, the task force is charged with identifying potential enhancements for business education and accreditation review of ethics education. At the end of its term, the task force will deliver a resource document that provides guidance on the design, delivery and evaluation of business ethics education and that addresses the following aspects of such education:
The AACSB says that their intent is not to mandate a single approach for the implementation of business ethics education, but to specify goals and core topic areas and to showcase multiple approaches. The document should "foster creative, thoughtful, and different curriculum/course designs that enable goals to be achieved and core topics to be addressed in ways that fit the cultures and environments of individual schools." The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is a not-for-profit corporation of educational institutions, corporations and other organizations devoted to the promotion and improvement of higher education in business administration and management. Read more about
the AACSB at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** Academic Integrity and the Graduate Record Exam Last fall, New Jersey-based Educational Testing Services (ETS), the company that generates the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) as well as other secondary and post-secondary entrance exams, made two startling announcements -- that it planned to suspend its computer administered GRE General Test in China and other parts of Asia and that it was canceling the administration of its GRE Computer Science Subject test in China and India. Both announcements followed reports from graduate admission departments and the media that incidents of cheating on these tests were widespread throughout China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and India. The GRE involves more than 400,000 students each year, 41,000 of which are from China, making any substantiated accusation of cheating -- and the actions taken to combat it -- issues of concern to the world of academic integrity. Read the rest
of this article by ERC Development Coordinator Allison Pendell-Jones
at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** Book Review: Moral Leadership: Ethics and the College Presidency Unethical or controversial business activities often make headlines only to be decried as "expected" because, after all, corporate leadership is more concerned with profits than with people. There is also no surprise when government officials are called on the carpet for unethical acts. Recent events have even rubbed the veneer off the surface of charities and some of our religious institutions. So, does that mean that universities are immune from ethical dilemmas? No, they certainly aren't, according to author Paul J. Olscamp, president emeritus of Bowling Green State University and distinguished services professor at Western Washington University. In Moral Leadership: Ethics and the College Presidency, Professor Olscamp weaves a delightful guide to moral leadership in higher education that points out the pitfalls awaiting an unwary president of a public university. Should a president of a university with a medical school sit on the board of a tobacco company? How does a president satisfy the multiple constituencies he or she serves without compromising principles or starting a war? Read the rest
of this book review by ERC Programs Manager Jerry Brown at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** Ask the Expert: Who Should Run a Company Hotline / Helpline? Our reader asks: "When using a hotline as a means for employees to anonymously report concerns, is it better for a company to outsource the service or provide it in-house? What are the benefits of each method?" After defining the terms, "hotline" and "helpline", ERC Principal Consultant Frank Navran discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Ultimately, he concludes, there is no right answer for all organizations. Each organization must consider the advantages and disadvantages and make a decision that takes into account its culture, needs and intentions. Read this discussion
of the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing an ethics hotline/helpline
or keeping it in house at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ethics Today Reader Survey: Let Us Know What You Think In lieu of our monthly opinion poll, we ask that readers take a short survey about Ethics Today Online. August 2003 will mark the last issue of our first year online, and we'd like to know what you think about the format, content and delivery. We appreciate the regular feedback we receive from readers, and hope that more of you will take this opportunity to express your opinions. Access the Ethics
Today readership survey at: Because we are not printing a new opinion poll for July, we are extending the length of our June poll for another month. That question is: During the past year, have you personally observed conduct that you thought violated the law or your organization's standards of ethical business conduct and, if so, did you report it? Take the June/July
poll at: See the results
of the poll at: Please note that responses to all of our polls and surveys are anonymous. We do not take any actions or make any attempt to match responses with the specific individuals. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** Webcast: The Enron Effect: Ethics in the Workplace On July 22, 2003, at noon EST, ERC President Stuart C. Gilman will deliver a web-based seminar on The Enron Effect: Ethics in the Workplace: How the Average American Worker Views Ethics in the Workplace. The complimentary seminar, part of a series of webcasts on business topics from leaders in today's leading companies, will be delivered via web conferencing from PlaceWare. All you need is a web browser and a phone; you will be asked to register in order to access this seminar. The site describes the seminar as follows: Given the corporate scandals that have grabbed headlines for the past couple of years, you would imagine American workers are jaundiced and disillusioned about conduct in the workplace. Nothing could be further from the truth. American workers are seeing significant improvements in ethical conduct and practices within their own organizations, according to findings from the Ethics Resource Center's 2003 National Business Ethics Survey. In this session you will learn about:
Read more about
and register for the free seminar at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** OECD Guidelines for Managing Conflict of Interest in the Public Service Conflicts of interest in both the public and private sectors have become a major matter of public concern worldwide. In June 2003, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Council approved the Guidelines for Managing Conflict of Interest in the Public Service in the form of a Council Recommendation. The Guidelines provide a unique policy instrument for reviewing existing policy measures as well as assisting future policy-design and implementation for governments. According to the OECD, even before its adoption, some countries had already started consultation to review their existing policy measures. In addition, to help managers put the policy into practice, a "practical toolkit" is being developed. The Guidelines
are available on the Internet at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** OGE Announces New International Pages The Office of Government Relations and Special Projects (OGRSP) at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) announces new international pages on the OGE website. The new pages contain:
OGE intends these new pages to serve as a valuable tool for foreign and domestic researchers and for individuals responsible for planning and coordinating anticorruption programs. Reach the international
pages on OGE's website by clicking on the "International"
link on OGE's main page, located at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** National Business Ethics Survey Receives Attention The National Business Ethics Survey 2003 continues to receive media coverage. - In "Wanted:
Whistle-Blower Managers", New York Times ethics columnist Jeffrey
L. Seglin says managers need to "step up, take responsibility
for how business is done in their companies and ... start managing."
In his June 22 column, Seglin says the ERC's survey showed that,
overall, almost two-thirds of workers who said they had witnessed
misconduct in the workplace said they had reported it to management.
But, he notes, only 43 percent of younger workers - those under
30 and with their companies less than three years - said they had
reported misconduct they had witnessed. Instead of blaming this
result on youth, Seglin says, managers must foster an ethical workplace
and let all workers know what behavior will not be tolerated, that
they will receive full support if they report misconduct, and that
those guilty of misconduct will not catapult their way to the top
but instead be held accountable for their actions. - The June 11
issue of The Detroit News published "Companies Find Ethics
Plans Do Make a Difference" by Raymond V. Gilmartin, chairman
and chief executive at Merck & Co, Inc. In the article, Mr.
Gilmartin noted while recent reports of inappropriate corporate
behavior properly delineated the practices of a few "bad apples,"
it also created an unbalanced impression of corporate America overall.
In fact, he said, the NBES provides positive indications that progress
is being made. "By and large," said Mr. Gilmartin, "Most
employees and managers want to do what's right. And many of our
nation's corporations and nonprofit organizations attach great importance
to building ethics-based cultures within their organizations."
He continued, "many organizations such as Merck make it clear
that no one should compromise their personal integrity in the mistaken
belief that somehow he or she is helping the organization be successful.
People are beginning to realize that ethics and integrity are actually
sources of competitive advantage because they inspire trust, not
only for the employees but also for customers." In conclusion,
he noted that ethical standards and practices are the "pillars
of successful employment and thus successful business." - The June 2003
Federal Ethics Report included a thorough report of the May 21 NBES
Press Conference. "Survey Finds Employee Perception of Ethics
Encouraging" digests the statements of ERC Chairman of the
Board Kenneth Frazier, ERC President Stuart C. Gilman and Senior
Researcher Joshua Joseph. Read more about
or order the National Business Ethics Survey 2003 at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** Publications and Media Coverage -- The Minnesota
Society of Certified Public Accountants (MNCPA) included excerpts
from the ERC's recently published "Creating a Workable Company
Code of Conduct" in its June/July 2003 publication "Footnote",
which is sent to 9500 MNCPA members. The article "Translating
Effective Ethics into Everyday Decisions" included excerpts
available on the ERC's website at: -- "What's With All the Cheating?", in the June 22 Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA), quotes Stuart Gilman in a story about the increased number of cheating incidents that have been reported across various segments of society. "There's very quickly becoming what I call a 'hole in the ozone of ethics'", he said. The article discusses the variety of reasons people cheat, including desperation, a sense that they don't need to follow the rules, intense pressure to be the best, and the ease with which they can do it. The article also considers that there may be more stories about cheating because there is less tolerance for it as a result of the business scandals of the past year. Stuart pointed out that the impact of the behavior today, when a scandal can bring down the likes of Arthur Andersen or Enron and result in thousands of people losing their jobs or their life investments, is much greater than the collapse of a company in the 1920's, when the average business employed about 40 people. -- In another
story on cheating published in the Jewish Exponent on May 27, ERC
Director of Programs Patricia Harned says that parents and teachers,
as well as the students, are responsible for the prevalence in cheating.
Schools that do not enforce their own policies, teachers who do
not monitor test effectively, and parents who fail to ensure their
children are doing the necessary work to prepare for tests contribute
to a student's opportunities to cheat. However, Pat said, in the
end, she blames the students for they are the ones trying to take
a shortcut. This article also includes excerpts from interviews
with students, teachers, and parents about their perceptions of
and experiences with cheating.
-- On National
Public Radio's May 21 Talk of the Nation show, Neal Conan discussed
how people are using technology to do less around the office, and
the ethics of shirking work. ERC President Stuart Gilman and Web
developer Don Pavlish appeared on the show, which was based on a
May 15 Wall Street Journal article on the same topic. Mr. Pavlish,
the creator of a website that provides ways to make it appear that
one is working, said people have so many pressures on them to work
late and come in on weekends that employers should consider web
surfing at work as just another type of break. ERC President Stuart
Gilman said Mr. Pavlish adequately developed some of the pressures
on employees and that he, Stuart, does not consider it "cheating"
for employees to handle some personal tasks online while at work.
"The slacking off doesn't worry me as much as the deceit and
lying," he said. "It's the difference between an organization
allowing flexibility and an organization or culture that encourages
people to lie." He urged companies not only to account for
the realities of the new workplace but also to develop the management
skills needed to make the office a place of integrity. -- Many papers picked up an article on ethical leadership written by Harry Wessel for the Orlando Sentinel on May 21. In that article, he says the best way for employers to stave off unethical behavior at their companies is to lead by example. The story mentions a 1999 study by ERC Fellow Linda Trevino and quotes ERC Senior Researcher Joshua Joseph. Some of the publications that reprinted the article include:
You can read
the article on South Coast Today at: -- An article
on the growth in worker hot lines, originally published in USA Today
article, was reprinted in the Chicago Daily Southtown, Des Moines
Register, Tucson Citizen and Poughkeepsie Journal. -- The ERC/SHRM ethics study of HR professionals also received continuing coverage, including the following articles:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** News from the ERC -- The ERC was selected to present a five-hour workshop on Ethical Leadership to the professional staff and senior leadership of H.E.L.P./Project Samaritan in New York City on June 24. H.E.L.P./Project Samaritan is one of the leading outreach projects for substance abusers in New York City who are HIV positive or have AIDS. Frank Navran presented. -- ERC President Stuart C. Gilman chaired a panel on the Executive Branch Standards of Conduct at a May 2003 meeting of the Interagency Ethics Council. He reviewed the history of the standards, noting that the state of ethics before the Standards was "not pretty", that things are better today under the standards, and that any of his suggestions for change should not diminish how important it has been to have the standards in place. He discussed the benefits of values-based ethics systems, explaining that a program that emphasizes compliance over values often leads employees to question whether they are breaking a law instead of if they are exemplifying behavior expected of public servants. Other members of the panel included Randi DuFresne, the Designated Agency Ethics Official for the National Security Agency and Sid Smith, who served as Associate General Counsel at the Office of Government Ethics until his retirement 18 months ago. -- On June 19, ERC Associate Consultant Katie Sutliff presented an overview on business ethics to more than 100 students and facilitators from more than 70 participating countries at the Junior Achievement International (JAI) Annual Conference in Chicago. The conference included a full day devoted to learning about business and corporate culture, with a two and one half hour segment reserved for business ethics. Following the presentation, she served as a resource for the students when they broke into smaller groups and discussed a case study pulled from a twelve-module Global Business Ethics Curriculum developed by the ERC for JAI. The case study allowed students to apply ethical concepts to their lives, to discuss how those concepts relate to business ethics, and to learn and make use of an ethical decision-making model. Katie also served as a resource for the students that evening as they played the "Ethics Challenge" game developed by Lockheed Martin. Katie was pleased to find the students and facilitators to be very engaged and eager to discuss business ethics issues. She heard from several participants that they wished they had more time and she noted that some groups would not even take their allotted breaks because they wanted to continue working. --The National
FFA has incorporated the year long MAXIMize the Moment (MTM) subscription
into its character development program, marking the first time MTM,
which is utilized by schools and families around the world, has
been adopted for use by a national youth organization. In late May,
Katie trained 11 facilitators from the National FFA to work through
MTM scenarios and to lead discussions with students, in preparation
for the organization's six Washington Leadership Conferences held
during the summer months. Each facilitator was assigned an umbrella
group for the duration of each one-week-long conference, during
which they led discussions of three specially tailored MAXIMize
the Moment lessons. During the school year following the conference,
the team leaders will continue to have weekly online discussions
of the MAXIMize the Moment scenarios with their umbrella groups.
--The Turkish
Ethical Values Center (TEDMER) announced in June 2003 that its website
is operational. The site, which is available in both the Turkish
and English languages, contains information and news about the Center,
training schedules, articles and links. The Center was launched
in January 2003 by Turkish citizens, business leaders and non-governmental
organizations in partnership with the Ethics Resource Center. -- On June 16, ERC Senior Consultant Dr. Anita Baker presented a thorough program on "Maintaining Organizational Integrity: Building Public Trust" to 19 African visitors to the ERC who were associated with the Les Aspin Center. Her discussion included such topics as why organizational integrity and public trust are important, the relationship between business ethics and corporate social responsibility, the history of and trends in business ethics, components of effective ethics programs and a case study from the World Bank Group. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** Offering Our Thanks As a non-profit organization, the Ethics Resource Center depends on contributions from many generous donors. Without their dedication and trust, many of the programs and projects highlighted in this newsletter would not be possible. The ERC thanks the Merck Company Foundation for continued support of:
We invite you
to join our loyal contributors in lending your support. To find
out how to contribute or to donate online, go to: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Ethics Resource Center (ERC) is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization exempt from taxation under the Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All gifts are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
Copyright (c)
2003 Ethics Resource Center. All rights reserved. Please contact ethics@ethics.org for information about reproducing any of the information contained within this newsletter or on our web site. Back issues of Ethics Today are available online at: /today/et_archives.html The Ethics Resource
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