The small little corner of business ethics and the ethical dissonance of business schools

Abstract

Abstract Despite the heralding of the business ethics module as a turning point to reinvigorate ethical awareness among business graduates, the hope for any optimistic outcome quickly fades as the capitalistic ecosystem in business schools drowns the effectiveness of disseminating business ethics. This paper shares the plight of teaching business ethics in a capitalistic ecosystem. The ‘small little corner’ of the business ethics module, often considered to be an ‘add-on’ and accessory in management courses, does not have the firepower to generate sustainable ethical awareness among students. We argue that business schools and industrialists have formed an impenetrable hermetic capitalistic wilderness, rendering teaching business ethics as a singular module a waste of gas. We describe the traits of capitalistic ecosystems and show how it tacitly defeats the teaching of business ethics and disrupts the ability of business schools to achieve education reform. This paper concludes that unless business schools take more serious actions to combat this desolation, teaching business ethics will remain an "icing on the cake,” a comfort module at best. Unless and until business schools trigger a paradigm shift, they will inevitably encounter an ethical dissonance and distracted from achieving real education reform.

Keywords

• Teaching business ethics
• Small little corner
• Ethical dissonance