Teaching business ethics to Nigerian senior managers: Meeting the 'How' expectations

Abstract

One task of ethics education is to enhance the ethical reasoning capabilities of future business leaders so that they may act rightly at ethical decision 'crossroads' (Jones, 2005, MacLagan, 2003). To achieve this, both educator and students should have a meeting of minds as to the meaning and relevance of business ethics. Simultaneously, guidance regarding the practical details of 'how' to act in specific situations may be an important component of ethics education in emerging economies where intentions are easily frustrated by an overwhelming consciousness of operating in a corrupt environment. A group of Nigerian senior managers was challenged to generate a strategy to institute an ethical culture in an organization with a history of corruption. They did this through a simulation activity based on a fictitious company. In the process, they experienced the fulfilment of an important part of their expectations from the business ethics sessions they were attending.