Although Daniels College of Business presented students with a new curriculum that offered a course on ethics and leadership taught in the British Virgin Islands during the winter interterm and the school is praised worldwide for its emphasis on ethics, some students don’t find value in such courses.
Four randomly selected MBA students questioned the worth of receiving a degree with an emphasis on ethics when the present business environment requires a specialty with a more competitive edge. They said that they feel a curriculum of ethics is not necessarily useful and that ethics cannot be taught because if a person isn’t ethical to begin with, he or she is not going to change as the result a class or series of classes. These students said that the issue is sensitive, however, and that they did not wish to have their names used.
“I think that what they are trying to do over [at DCB] is going to effect very little,” said one student. “It is one of those focuses that is important and good, but if a person isn’t already ethical, they’re not going to change now.”
“It is kind of false advertising for DCB to say that they instill ethics or that a student will graduate from DU as a more ethical person,” the student added.
“You can’t teach ethics,” said another student. “The best they can do is to try and make you aware of ethical decisions, but you’re either going to be ethical or not from your childhood.”
Ethics in contemporary business is a complex set of issues said Buie Seawell of DCB’s Department of Ethics and Legal Studies. Ethics courses are designed to help students better understand how to exercise their values, he said.
There are students, however, that feel courses in ethics and leadership are useful. Steve Garland, who took the course taught in the Virgin Islands, said that he was not sure whether or not ethics could be taught.
“What I do think is that by having the opportunity to focus on the topic, I have a better understanding of the underlying philosophies,” he said. “Having this knowledge provides me with a comprehensive framework for decision making when faced with difficult and ambiguous decisions that need to be made in my personal life.”
Last fall, professors from the Department of Ethics and Legal Studies presented the new curriculum and the course that took students sailing in the British Virgin Islands. Students who took the class spent a week operating sailboats off the shore of the islands, learning team and leadership values according to The Daniels Business Journal. The class emphasized intensive training in the ethics of team and leadership skill development because the students were required to learn to work with each other and in close proximity to one another. Each member of the team was essential to the sailing process. This is the reason for using sailboats, according to Seawell, the instructor of the class.
“Business students are the most competitive people that I have ever worked with,” said Seawell. “Sailing provides a platform for acting out that competitive drive while learning to work together. Listening and respect are the basic skills business leaders need.”
The course also used traditional classroom presentations and discussions focused on learning value based leadership.
Other classes in the curriculum include topics such as the impact of globalization on businesses, the role of business leaders in building integrity, responsibilities to investors and corporate stakeholders and e-commerce law.
The efforts by DCB emphasize ethics became nationally recognized this fall when The Wall Street Journal listed DCB as 44th in its list of top 100 business schools in the world. Among such factors as its top-notch career placement center and experienced faculty, The Wall Street Journal was particularly impressed with the school’s “personal ethics and integrity, teamwork abilities, awareness of corporate citizenship issues and communication and interpersonal skills.”
Beginning in 2003, faculty and administrators in DCB began a comprehensive review and overhaul of a curriculum that allows students to complement their degree with the new emphasis on ethics. The revision of the curriculum was not, however, a reflection of the Journal’s review, according to Seawell.
“The department [of Ethical and Legal Studies] has been working towards this for over a decade,” he said. “How our school has responded to [the program] is part of that ranking.”
Rather, the curriculum came as a response to student request, said Seawell.
“[The curriculum] is a conversation between students most concerned with business ethics and law,” he said. “Recent crises of corporate leadership have led to a tremendous amount of student interest.”
Seawell said that he hopes the emphasis will eventually extend to undergraduates and alumni and that it will be the heart of the business school.
“Making money isn’t adequate as a goal for life,” he said.
