Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/58063
Research More Emphasis on Ethics Anecdotal evidence may suggest that busi- ness schools are placing a greater emphasis on ethics in their curricula, but a new study seems to confirm it. Researchers surveyed the deans and directors at 50 prominent business schools around the world about how their institutions taught business ethics, corporate social responsibil- ity (CSR), and sustainability. They found that attention on ethics has increased substantially at many of today's business schools. The study was conducted by Laura Hartman, a management professor and business ethics expert at DePaul University's Kellstadt the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College in Waltham, Massa- chusetts; and Jamie Carrier, research assistant at Bentley College. According to the study, busi- ness schools report a 500 percent increase in the number of stand- alone ethics courses in the past eight years. Twenty-five percent of these business schools now require that students take a separate course on ethics. In addition, 84 percent of busi- ness schools require that ethics, CSR, and/or sustainability be covered in their MBA curricula. A third of these schools require coverage of all three topics. Sixty-five percent have aca- demic centers related to these topics. The study spotlights some par- ticularly experiential and immersive approaches some schools are taking to teaching ethics. At Cornell Uni- versity in New York, for example, business student teams travel to Senegal and Costa Rica to assist the ecotourism business there. Students at IMD in Switzerland spend a week in Argentina meeting with busi- ness, civic, and government lead- ers to learn how business can help the country improve its economy and life for its citizens. And at the University of Maryland, business students are required to visit white collar criminals serving time at minimum security prisons to discuss the consequences of business ethics violations. "The growing emphasis on ethics Graduate School of Business in Chi- cago; Lisa Jones Christensen, assis- tant professor of entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School in Raleigh; Ellen Peirce, professor of legal studies and ethics at UNC; W. Michael Hoffman, director of 52 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2007 at leading business schools mirrors an extraordinary increase in the prominence of ethical challenges in the business environment," Hart- man says. "You simply cannot run a global business, or a leading busi- ness school, today unless you pay attention to these issues." The Leadership-Laughter Connection Educators take note: Soft skills such as communication, courage, ethics, and innovation may not be the only hallmarks of leadership to instill in business students. A good sense of humor also may be an essential part of what it takes to be a great leader. Humor has long been believed to have a positive effect on work- place environments, but few studies have measured the impact of humor empirically, says Robert Vecchio, a professor at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. A recent study, "The Influence of Leader Humor on Relationships Between Leader Behavior and Follower Outcomes," aims to quantify just how humor impacted employees' perceptions of their leaders. The study was con- ducted by Vecchio; Craig Pearce, a professor at Claremont Graduate University's Drucker School in Cali- fornia; and Joseph Justin, a graduate student at the Drucker School. Vecchio, Pearce, and Justin sampled 179 teacher-principal rela- tionships in public high schools in California. The researchers conduct-