An Exploratory Study: Are AACSB Accredited Schools of Business Teaching Ethics Based on the Ethics Education Task Force Recommendations?

Abstract

Business leaders  have tried to use one set of ethics for their professional responsibilities, another for their personal activities and still another for their family responsibilities. This circle of circumstantial ethics has gotten many leaders into trouble. Ethics is ethics! Given today's ethical challenges, business ethics is the study of how personal moral norms apply to the activities and goals of the business. For the purposes of this paper, business ethics is defined as the study of how individuals, at all levels of a business, try to make decisions and live their lives according to a standard of right or wrong behavior. Business ethics is not a separate moral standard, but the study of how the busines environment poses its own unique challenges for the moral person who acts as an agent of the business. This paper examines the standards established for business ethics education in AACSB accredited undergraduate prorgams, the ethical challenges in today's society, and a review of the AACSB accredited business school courses to determine if they are addressing the AACSB standards and the ethical challenges in today's business world.