The Efficacy Of Business Ethics Courses When Coupled With A Personal Belief System

Abstract

Business educators are being challenged on an increasing basis to reassess the ethical awareness of their students and the effectiveness of their ethics education.  In this paper we test a traditional approach to ethics exposure in business law classes, which is the primary venue for teaching ethics in many business curriculums.  We find that ethics exposure in the traditional business law course using popular textbooks does not influence the ethical sensitivity of students.  We also document that ethical sensitivity of students breaks down at several levels.  Business students have different personal standards as compared to acceptable corporate standards of ethics.