The Buck Stops here: Why Universities Must Reclaim Business Ethics Education

TLDR: The authors argue that top university officials must go beyond weak accrediting standards to insist that ethics courses be required in business school curriculum and argue that students will continue to get the message that practicing managers have little or no legal and ethical responsibilities to society.

Abstract: Given the groundswell of corporate misconduct, the need for better business ethics education seems obvious. Yet many business schools continue to sidestep this responsibility, a policy tacitly approved by their accrediting agency, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Some schools have even gone so far as to cut ethics courses in the wake of corporate scandals. In this essay I discuss some reasons for this failure of business school responsibility and argue that top university officials must go beyond weak accrediting standards to insist that ethics courses be required in business school curriculum. Otherwise, students will continue to get the message that practicing managers have little or no legal and ethical responsibilities to society.