To effectively teach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to enhance corporate social responsibility, we need to understand the predictors of business student predispositions towards the SDGs. We examine whether location, authoritarianism, religiosity, and individualism influence university business student SDG preferences. Results (n=262) indicate authoritarian and religious business students emphasize SDGs with an orientation towards the health and economic well-being of their local communities. The results also indicate the most significant factor in predicting SDG preference was university location. Southeastern U.S. students were more supportive of people/prosperity-oriented SDGs, indicating greater concern with the social safety net and basic human needs, whereas Hawaiian students were more supportive of planet-oriented SDGs indicating greater concern for environmental issues. Implications for teaching SDGs to university business students are discussed.

The context of education under scrutiny in this paper is the post-experience practitioner sector, concerning students of ethics in Business Administration at both Masters and Doctoral levels. Responsible leadership is examined as a core theme in business ethics research and education. The paper proposes that responsible leaders require a virtuous mind-set, underpinned by Aristotelian thinking. Responsible leadership and romanticised models of leadership are interwoven in a critique of the technical-rational predominance in leadership and ethics research. The development of reflective practice is tracked from Argyris and Schon’s reflection on and in action to reflexivity. The paper considers the essence of Aristotle’s virtue ethics in proposing an integrative framework of skill and behaviour acquisition in organisational ethical decision-making. Reflective leadership and reflexivity are examined in relation to practitioner learning and the concept of a reflexive practicum explored to provide a praxis dimension to ethics education practice.

Business ethics education is most effective when students take an active approach and must respond to various demands and feedback. In this paper we describe a classroom exercise in which students are tasked with delivering an ethics briefing to “executive teams” (role played by other students or even by real executives). Through a combination of individual analysis and group work, students become immersed in real-world ethics problem-solving, in which there are no easy solutions. Students must defend their ethical recommendations as well as challenge those from other groups. The exercise concerns an existing controversial business called Seeking Arrangement. Survey results from graduate students who have participated in the exercise reveal that it is effective in producing better ethics problem solving, as well as greater confidence in addressing ethical issues.

Ethical behaviors are taught in business classrooms using multiple methods, among which case studies are a standard method. However, when introduced at the undergraduate level, until students have developed a strong foundation in moral philosophy, a prescriptive case analysis template may help them build constructive mental models towards that foundation. The paper thus proposes a case analysis method template based on critical components identified in the Ethics literature that lead to ethical decision-making that can be used as a tool by teachers in Ethics in Business classrooms. The critical components entail the development of moral awareness by training the students to develop ethical values through practice. Students learn how to identify an ethical dilemma, analyze various stakeholder characteristics, explore ethical principles, and make moral judgments before recommending moral actions in each context. A sample case analysis is also provided for classroom use. The implications and value to educators, students, and managers are discussed.

In this research we employ an inter-disciplinary project that uses active learning theory to help bridge the gap between a university’s extensive liberal arts core and its business program. We believe this project will improve and enrich classroom discussions of the more complex and nuanced issues found in the application of business principles. To redress the fact that many undergraduate students do not have extensive work experience to draw on when discussing the application of business ethics principles, we present a project that uses a classic novel, Hard Times, to improve students’ abilities to contextualize and apply common business ethics frameworks. The project focuses on active learning and non-linear thinking, and aims to immerse the student in a fictional environment that models the complexity of, without being identical to, a real world business setting.

Initiatives to encourage more women in STEM-related industries have had mixed results. Adding more women to longstanding male-dominated STEM occupations has highlighted issues in workplace culture that are hostile to women. In this case, the CEO of an engineers' professional association, NSE, is accused of making a sexually suggestive remark to two female engineers at the annual convention. One of the women, Claire, lodged a complaint with the board. After reviewing the investigation report, the board voted to ask the CEO to quietly apologize to both women. Claire, in the meantime, posted a negative review of the NSE's handling of her complaint which is getting considerable media attention. The purpose of this case is for students to examine the competing interests NSE faces in promoting the safety of female members, protecting its reputation for advancing the profession and women in engineering and supporting an otherwise “brilliant CEO”.

Fast delivery to customers required Amazon fulfillment center employees to meet high daily productivity quotas. In some of the centers, robots and people worked together. The efficiency of the robots and the company’s productivity standards, made it challenging for workers to avoid injury. Candace accepted a position in a center utilizing robots and was injured on the job, just like hundreds of others. Her injuries and lack of workplace accommodations prevented her from meeting productivity quotas and consequently jeopardized her job. She wondered if customers understood the human cost incurred to achieve such fast delivery and if it was ethical to subject employees to such work environments. Students are asked to analyze the situation from various ethical perspectives and offer their opinions to Candace. During their analysis they will learn about ethics, ethical standards, stakeholders, and corporate social responsibility.

This case describes the background of the whistleblower complaint, filed by Daniel Schlicksup, questioning the propriety of Caterpillar Inc.’s “Swiss tax strategy”. The Swiss tax strategy was recommended by its independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and designed to transfer to a Swiss entity the profits earned on its sales of “purchased finished replacement parts” to foreign marketers. This strategy enabled Caterpillar to shift $8 billion in replacement parts sales to Switzerland and to avoid or defer paying U.S. taxes on that income. Daniel Schlicksup, a member of Caterpillar’s tax staff, filed an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower complaint against Caterpillar and provided the IRS extensive documentation that served as the foundation for the IRS’s claim Caterpillar owed $2 billion in back taxes and penalties, potentially entitling Schlicksup to a huge whistleblower award ranging from $300 to $600 million. Careful review of this case facilitates student discussion, and enhances student understanding, of the wisdom and morality of Schlicksup’s whistleblowing activities.

Beginning in 2002, Wells Fargo began opening fraudulent accounts for unsuspecting customers. Stakeholders at every level either participated in, ignored, or tolerated the bank’s behavior that defrauded consumers on a massive scale. These unethical and well-documented schemes spanned more than a decade. Using public sources, this case recounts the events and ethical lapses that unfolded over the multiyear investigation of the Wells Fargo fraudulent accounts scandal and illuminates the general systemic failures of corporate culture and governance, public regulation, and market responses to promote ethical business practices. This case provides the opportunity to consider what means for fostering ethical conduct might exist if a corporation can be big enough and rich enough that civil, criminal, regulatory, and market forces cannot deter unethical corporate practices, and if the market does not punish the corporation for a culture that promotes fraud.

From modest beginnings, the conglomerate Odebrecht became one of the most relevant actors of development for Brazil and Latin America. By 2010, the conglomerate was elected the best family business in the world. Annual revenues rose from US$ 24 billion in 2008 to US$ 41.8 billion in 2014. However, by 2015 Odebrecht was in a very different situation, embroiled in a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal. To illegally secure more than 100 projects, Odebrecht had paid approximately US$ 788 million in bribes across 12 countries. Corruption was not new in Latin America, but so many powerful people facing jail time in the region certainly was. In 2016, Odebrecht agreed to pay a record breaking fine of US$ 2.6 billion for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act. This case describes Odebrecht’s corruption scandal, touching on possible causes, the company’s handling of the criminal allegations, and probable defenses to protect against future setbacks.

This true account provides a summary of a firm and its CEO caught up in the housing market frenzy that occurred in the mid to late 2000s. Although confronted with a number of economic, strategic management, human resource, ethical, and legal challenges, the owners make decisions that cause the firm to grow at an exponential rate. The case documents the eventual results of many of those decisions. Readers are challenged to identify ethics issues involved and the business decisions that precipitated those ethical issues. Some issues include working with business partners who have different ethical stances from your own, whistle blowing for illegal actions, the impact of problem employees on ethical and legal issues, and being transparent and honest when informing the board of directors about business conditions. Teaching notes include lessons learned by the CEO. Ways to avoid similar mistakes in the future are provided.

When hiring for an open position, the branch manager of Intermountain Trust Bancorp was challenged with an ethical dilemma he was not anticipating. An internal applicant challenged the hiring manager's ethical values by insisting that their friendship and other external employment factors be taken into consideration in the hiring decision. This is a classic case of a candidate using undue influence1 to manipulate a colleague and gain employment. In what started as a routine decision, the manager was faced with an unforeseen ethical quagmire. This case describes a real situation that had local impact on the stakeholders of a regional bank, and provides a true example of the types of difficult situations that can affect candidate selection in hiring decisions.

The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) has gained significant popularity in recent years across borders due to the increased investigation and penalties under the law. The following case is a real-life case that highlights the main provisions of the FCPA. Using cases in teaching an auditing or ethics course is much needed to develop students’ professional judgment, critical and analytical thinking skills and communication skills. Presently, there are a few cases that address the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and its effect on financial reporting and auditor responsibilities about illegal acts. The Armor Holdings case is interesting and information is publicly available regarding the circumstances that describe the bribery act, lack of whistle-blower protection, the tone at the top, and the accounting treatment. In addition, the increase in actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the FCPA since 2010 heightens the relevance of this case and underscores the need for students to learn the skills necessary to ensure compliance with FCPA and related key regulations such as the Sarbanes Oxley and the Dodd Frank Act. Therefore, cases like this one provide a rich tool to navigate topics and enforce students’ learning of client’s illegal actions and their consequences. These skills are invaluable in practice.

Ethics education remains in high demand in business schools. Meta-analyses published in the last two decades show that ethics instruction with certain characteristics produce more desirable moral outcomes than other characteristics do. Acknowledging the vast accumulated knowledge on this topic, we believe that the existing evidence base could be overwhelming for ethics educators designing and delivering their courses. Thus, we review the research evidence on the effectiveness of ethics instruction and translate the findings into evidence-led best practices. Adopting the meta-science approach and using a model of training evaluation, we synthesized 8 meta-analyses and 3 quantitative reviews that examine the extent to which ethics instruction types, course duration, instructional techniques and activities, and instructor and student characteristics affect the effectiveness of ethics education. We conclude by making specific recommendations to ethics educators who are interested in designing and delivering evidence-based ethics courses.

This paper investigates the alignment of business school curriculums with the Sustainable Development Goals, utilising a case study of Griffith Business School, Australia. The study utilises an audit of keywords to map content and concepts associated with the goals, targets and indicators of SDGs. The audit results revealed that although there was already considerable uptake of key SDGs concepts throughout the undergraduate programs, in particular Goal 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions), there were some gaps. Feedback from teaching staff on the results was combined with existing literature and industry/government approaches to offer considerations for future curriculum development that seeks to better integrate SDGs and sustainability. This work contributes to ongoing discussions about sustainability curriculum development and links previous research with the emerging SDG agenda in business schools. The practical nature of this research lends to direct transfer of method to other business schools who are wishing to map and develop their curriculum in relation to the SDGs.

This study investigated accounting academics’ perceptions of teaching ethics to students. The evidence is grouped under six themes of teaching of ethics; environmental considerations; consequences for wrongdoing; impact of professional bodies in ethics curriculum; nature of students; and student learning. This study found that accounting academics’ teaching has a weak conceptualisation of the curriculum and that social learning is ignored. It is also unstructured and varies within the same subject, from subject to subject, and from institution to institution. Lastly, accounting academics’ teaching focuses on pass marks and awareness and understanding of ethics knowledge rather than improving students’ beliefs, values, and behaviour. This study suggests that positive changes to students’ beliefs, values, and behaviour can be realised by extending learning outcomes and teaching practices, evaluating student behaviour regularly, including real-life examples of consequences for wrongdoing, and adding environmental and social factors to academics’ teaching of ethics.

The requirement of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business to include business ethics in the curriculum has prompted business programs to teach ethics either integrated across the curriculum or in standalone classes. The question addressed here is how to engage students in thinking deeply and empathetically about ethical issues impacting corporate social responsibility (CSR). This research focused on using a thought experiment developed by John Rawls in which students examined CSR issues from the perspective of six stakeholder groups. A pre-test/post-test design measured the effectiveness of an instruction module on CSR coupled with an active exercise using Rawls’ veil of ignorance and original position. Results indicate that students placed greater responsibility on the stockholders and board of directors after taking this module. The implication of the Rawlsian technique to use stakeholder empathy is discussed as a tool for engaging business ethics students.

A one-day educational intervention with multiple activities was developed and operationalized with a sample of Chinese business students in Hong Kong, China. Its effectiveness in influencing students’ corporate social responsibility orientation (CSRO) was measured with a Chinese version of a forced choice scale using Economic, Legal, Ethical, and Discretionary (Philanthropy) dimensions by Carroll (1979, 1991). A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed significant differences in the Legal and Discretionary dimensions between the post-test Experimental (X) group (N=82) and Control (C) group (N=83); in the Legal, Ethical, and Discretionary dimensions within the pre-post X group. Such significant differences may be explained by the content of the activities, especially the service learning component. Overall, the intervention appeared effective in influencing students’ CSRO within a Chinese context. Since it was designed upon Western CSR literature, its applicability goes beyond the Chinese community.