For Business Ethics

TLDR: Jones, Parker, and ten Bos as mentioned in this paper argue that such efforts are based on mistaken beliefs about business and ethics, and they argue that the corporate crashes and ethical failures of the past two decades have confirmed the suspicions of those who opposed ceding valuable curriculum space to ethics.

Abstract: th pu disp E ics has always had a somewhat uneasy place in business education. Is its rpose to inform and enlighten; to impart a moral turn to technical skills; to el vice and inculcate virtue? The history of business ethics provides few answers to these questions. Early opponents claimed that ethics was not teachable or should have been learned elsewhere and earlier. Since the 1980s, the subject has gained an increasing, if sometimes grudging, acceptance but its rationale has remained hazy. One hope was that ethics courses would lessen the incidence of corporate failure and reduce public pressures for stronger regulation and tougher policing of business. Unfortunately, the corporate crashes and ethical failures of the past two decades—Enron, HIH, WorldCom, Tyco, OneTel—have disappointed such hopes and confirmed the suspicions of those who opposed ceding valuable curriculum space to ethics. For Business Ethics by Jones, Parker and ten Bos, is one kind of response to these disappointments. While conventional business ethics continues to try to rein in aberrant business practices, this book argues that such efforts are based on mistaken beliefs about business and ethics. The authors declare their hand on the first page: