Teaching law, ethics, and social responsibility in a school of business: a value-driven approach to leadership and sustainability

Abstract

Human beings are not perfect decision-makers and therefore need formal and informal development opportunities. History has shown that very intelligent professionals in the technical, as well as philosophical fields, have made huge mistakes that have been very costly, i. e. the Chernobyl disaster. Doctors have operated on the wrong leg of patients and consequently, the patients have lost their good leg. Engineers have designed buildings and bridges that have collapsed because of their mistakes or oversights. In the past, philosophers and scientists have stated abstracts theories, which have been proven wrong. For example, whoever said that the earth is flat probably did not go very high; yet this was an accepted statement, which proved to be wrong. Therefore, it is very possible that as human beings even the most intelligent of us could make mistakes. For some, this may need to be a paradigm shift while for others this is already an accepted belief. Consequently, as human beings, we need training and education for making more effective and ethical decisions. The study of doing what is right can be approached from a philosophical perspective in ethics courses. This paper provides practical suggestions for creating and teaching a stand-alone ethics course along with the values of legality, morality, social responsibility, and sustainability for future professionals, managers, and leaders in business and society. The paper explains ethical egoism, relativism, utilitarianism, and Kantian ethics. This research methodology is rooted in "best practices" as well as fifty years of personal teaching experiences of the authors. As such, all the content and suggestions have been applied, practised, and perfected over several decades. As such, the suggestions and recommendations are best practices that can be integrated into existing curriculums by faculty members who are asked to teach ethics and other philosophical classes. Faculty who are teaching ethics courses can benefit from the suggestions provided by the authors, particularly by reflecting on the twenty-three specific "teaching tips" included throughout the article.