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When Being Good Is Not Enough: Towards Contextual Education of Business Leadership Ethics

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When Being Good Is Not Enough: Towards Contextual Education of Business Leadership Ethics A. Hermannsdottir, O. Stangej, K. KristinssonEducation of Business Ethics WHEN BEING GOOD IS NOT ENOUGH: TOWARDS CONTEXTUAL EDUCATION OF BUSINESS LEADERSHIP ETHICS Audur Hermannsdottir* Olga Stangej** Kari Kristinsson*** Received: 30. 6. 2018 Original scientific paper Accepted: 12. 10. 2018 UDC 37:174 DOI https://doi.org/10.30924/mjcmi/2018.23.2.1 Abstract. In light of continuing leadership differences between business and non-business scandals, ethics education has become a recu- students, and the effects of education. The re- rrent topic in public discourse. However, ad- sults of the study indicate that education of the vancement of educational models, formats, and future business leaders calls for a contextualized content rest with a number of questions that re- approach to business ethical dilemmas. The study main unanswered and subject to mixed research yields implications for secondary and tertiary le- results. In this study, we contribute to the discour- vels of education. se on ethics education and its fundamental questi- ons on the role of education in shaping attitudes Keywords: business ethics, education, ethics towards business ethics. Through a survey of 619 education, ethical leadership students in Iceland, we examine the attitudinal 1. INTRODUCTION suggested that the lack of ethics in business education is a significant problem (Ameen Scandals and corruptions in large cor- et al., 1996). This problem calls for a con- porations over the last decades have con- stant focus of colleges and universities as tributed to the increased emphasis on the they educate the executives of the future ethics of today’s business (Kum-Lung & (Henle, 2006; Comegys, 2010). Admittedly, Teck-Chai, 2010; Phau & Kea, 2007; Smyth colleges and universities partly share the re- & Davis, 2004). Managers and employ- sponsibility for the lack of ethical develop- ees are increasingly finding themselves in ment of leaders behind the corporate scan- ethical dilemmas in their jobs as the busi- dals (Cavanagh, 2009). While most students ness environment becomes more complex believe that cheating is ethically wrong, (Rajasekar & Simpson, 2014). Some have almost half of them think that it is socially * Audur Hermannsdottir, Adjunct Lecturer, University of Iceland, Iceland, e-mail: [email protected], phone: +354 525 5413, Saemundargata v. Gimli, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland ** Olga Stangej, Vilnius University Business School, Lithuania, e-mail: [email protected], phone: +370 680 91219 *** Kari Kristinsson, Associate Professor, University of Iceland, Iceland, e-mail: [email protected], phone: +354 525 4199 1 Journal of Contemporary Management Issues acceptable as demonstrated by Smyth and student learning and develop ethical lead- Davis (2004) and Grimes (2004). Students ers becomes an increasingly important con- who exercise cheating in college are more cern for researchers and policymakers. The likely to engage in other unethical behav- term school, in this case, applies to institu- iour in other contexts, such as the work- tions across secondary and tertiary levels of place (Beck & Ajzen, 1991; Sims, 1993). education. Thus, as framed by Giacalone (2004), the early-stage ethical behavior implies the fu- The purpose of this paper is to further ture costs for the whole society: “Cheating our understanding of the relationship be- is not a problem – until little cheaters grow tween education and attitude towards busi- up to become dishonest executives and lose ness ethics by addressing two key funda- our money” (p. 415). mental questions that remain open in the re- search on education and ethical leadership: Given that the intrinsic values of a What is the role of education in attitudes personality, linked with ethics, form the towards ethics? Are there potentially inher- personal identity that may be resistant to ent differences in attitudes towards ethics change (Caldwell, 2009), ethical and moral associated with business and non-business development of professional leaders should oriented professional education? indeed be traced in more early personality In this vein, our paper focuses on the in- development stages within the school edu- sights from tertiary, profession-oriented ed- cation. It has been agreed that school leader- ucation that may signal how the secondary- ship shapes learning through both structural level education practices should be shaped. and sociocultural processes (Robinson et al., As such, our paper builds on the empirical 2008; Southworth, 2002). The significance study within the domain of university-level of the role played by principals and teach- education to contribute to the models of ers in these sociocultural processes has been ethical leadership education at high schools. demonstrated previously. While it has also Following this line, we delineate our study been noted that principals play a crucial role from the discourse on whether virtues and in setting and preserving the school culture ethical behavior can be taught (e.g., Hansen, through values (Saphier & King, 1985), an 1993; Ryan & Bisson, 2011). even more immediate influence has been at- tributed to teachers. Firstly, teacher beliefs In the following section, we review and expectations affect students’ learning the existing literature on the relationship (Jussim, & Harber, 2005). Secondly, teach- between education and attitude towards ers act as moral agents or anchors (Buzzelli business ethics and develop our hypoth- & Johnston, 2002; Simkin & McLeod, eses. Next, we present the methodology 2010), and the moral dimensions are in- and discussion of the findings derived from herently linked with the professional mis- a survey that involved 619 students at the sion and practice of the teacher (Goodlad University of Iceland. Our results suggest et al., 1990; Carr, 2000; Richardson & that the differences in attitudes towards Fenstermacher, 2001; Hansen, 2001; business ethics are not predetermined by Campbell, 2003; Goodman & Lesnick, the professional orientation of the students 2004). Hence, in the light of business school (business and non-business). However, the limitations in effectively conveying business attitudes are affected by the ethics education ethics education (Evans & Weiss, 2008), en- and specific study subjects. Our research hancing the school capacity to transform the contributes to the body of literature that 2 Management, Vol. 23, 2018, No.2, pp. 1-13 A. Hermannsdottir, O. Stangej, K. Kristinsson: EDUCATION OF BUSINESS ETHICS moves on from the question if ethics can be or consequences of an act can be based on taught to the issues of how and why ethics either self-interest (egoism) or concern for education should be integrated in the sec- the social good (utilitarianism) (Miesing ondary and tertiary level school curricula. & Preble, 1985). The five main underly- ing philosophies emergent in the extant lit- erature are Legalism, Ethical Relativism, 2. KEY PHILOSOPHIES IN Social Darwinism, Machiavellianism, and Moral Objectivism, which are all measured BUSINESS ETHICS by the ATBEQ scale. Ethics represents the framework for an individual’s conduct linked with moral prin- While ethics is often considered inter- ciples (Miesing & Preble, 1985). Business changeably with morals, ethics extends be- ethics involves both morals (right and yond the code that drives decisions, actions, wrong) and ethics (good and bad) (Bageac and behaviour of an individual and involves et al., 2011) and it deals with values that cognitive and reflective processes when the shape decisions (Rajasekar &Simpson, moral principles are applied in a given situ- 2014). An attitude toward business ethics is ation (Wines, 2008). Thus, the education of “the subjective assessment by a given indi- an ethical leader includes a repository of vidual with respect to sets of premises that resources (Kum-Lung & Teck-Chai, 2010) make up various business philosophies” that enable the individual to engage in con- (Preble & Reichel, 1988: 942). The theory sideration of the appropriateness of actions, of reasoned actions by Fishbein and Ajzen decisions, and behaviour. (1975) suggests the existence of a link be- tween attitudes and behaviors. Hence, the attitude towards business ethics of an in- 3. THE SCOPE OF EDUCATION dividual can contribute to the prediction AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR of ethical or unethical behavior. Attitudes towards business ethics have served as the A large body of discussion on ethical basis for empirical studies on business eth- and unethical leadership is associated with ics over the years where certain groups of the education of business students, high- individuals are normally found to attach lighted by the fact that many of the leaders to some of the philosophies underlying the involved in some of the most significant concept of business ethics (Kum-Lung & business scandals over the last decades had Teck-Chai, 2010). ATBEQ scale has been received some form of higher education widely adopted as a measure of the attitudes (Kum-Lung & Teck-Chai, 2010; Cavanagh, and philosophies (e.g., Moor & Randloff, 2009). Despite that, future leadership to be 1996; Phatshwane et al., 2014; Phau & Kea, undertaken by college students is associ- 2007; Preble & Reicheld, 1988; Sims, 2006; ated with “virtually all areas of society, Small, 1992). including education, medicine, law, poli- tics, and business” (McCabe et al., 2012: Every person holds a philosophy that 9), business schools and students are nega- implicitly or explicitly determines specific tively distinguished among other fields. decisions (Miesing
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