You may have noticed that there has been a lot of criticism lately regarding the role of business education in the recent string of financial and corporate scandals (many of the CEOs and employees in the spotlight are alums of schools of business).  Many of the criticisms focus on the primacy of financial success and the shareholder model in traditional business education.  In other words, business schools have been criticized for teaching students to focus only on profit and performance to the general neglect of social and ecological systems.  As a result, many schools of business have taken steps to create a values driven business education and have engaged in various initiatives-- including, asking students to take oaths of responsibility and requiring business ethics courses such as ours. 

 

A significant point of debate in these events and the outcomes they have triggered arises from a lack of consensus regarding the formation and nature of ethics and values.  For your response posts, I'd like to hear your thoughts...How are our values formed? Who has the responsibility to instill ethics and moral values in individuals? Can a sense of ethics and morals be instilled at the college and/or professional level or is this too late in an individual's life?  Can ethical decision making be taught in schools or organizations?  Use the readings and videos from this week and real life examples to support your analysis.