DON’T TEACH ETHICS TO BUSINESS STUDENTS! Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 21, 1994 155 DON’T TEACH ETHICS TO BUSINESS STUDENTS! Newell E. Chiesl, Indiana State University ABSTRACT This paper describes an alternative pedagogy when teaching ethics to business students. Allegedly, a non-direct method of teaching business ethics would be a superior method than using the more traditional direct approach. “Okay class, we are going to teach you business ethics today. Here is an exercise in business ethics, let’s see how you do.” Does this sound all too familiar? Students will predictably respond to such an exercise. When a professor announces. “Today, we will do a forest green exercise,” then what is the first color students will answer when asked, “What should be the color of the proposed new product?” Forrest greens, what a surprise! LITERATURE REVIEW It was a surprise to find the earliest written teaching of ethics. In the 1 200s, the Christian theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas published Summa Theologica describing his viewpoints on Christian ethics. (Aquinas, 1896) More recent and pertinent work on ethics can be found in the monographs Business Ethics & Common Sense, 1992 (McGee, 1992) and Ethics In the Education of Business Managers (Powers, 1980). Excellent studies have been reported in business ethics journals. Several works describe classroom games based on business ethics (Nelson, 1992). “Increasing Applied Business Ethics Courses in Business School Curricula,” (Sims, 1991) and “The Teaching of Business Ethics: A Survey of AACSB Member Schools (Schoenfeldt, 1991). ABSEL has published several works: “The Use of Simulation For Ethics In Education In Management,” (Ullmann, 1 992), “Ethical Dilemmas in Experiential Learning: Issues and Strategies,” (Maddox, 1991) and “Business Ethics, Experiential Exercises and Simulation Games” (Fritzsche, 1989). A relevant work on teaching business ethics is “Can Ethics be Taught? A Simulation Tests a Traditional Ethics Pedagogy.” The authors conclude that classroom lecturing has little effect in changing student attitudes when confronted with an ethical dilemma (Ricci, 1992). INTRODUCTION Business ethics should be unannounced in classroom exercises. The professor observes the results and then comments on the student~s ethical or non-ethical decision making. In essence, the professor asks students to solve one problem (i.e., an advertising budget allocation). In reality students decide to, or not to, allocate money for a dangerous Gyro-Toy product. This is the hidden dilemma confronting the student. Students are not aware that the real purpose of the exercise is to observe ethical behavior. The Charter Corporation The Advertising Budget Decision-Making Exercise An Abbreviated Version Students must determine the advertising budget appropriation for the hypothetical Charter Corporation. The company consists of five divisions: Dream-Lite cookies, International Farms Equipment, High-Tech MicroChips, Gyro-Toy, and Consumer Electronics. Because of recent adverse economic conditions, the CEO has decided that the total advertising allocated will not exceed $1 million for all five divisions. Each student, or team of students, determines the advertising budget for each division. A brief description of each division follows. Dream-Lite Cookies: The product contains no fat, cholesterol or artificial ingredients. The market trend for Dream-Lite Cookies has indicated phenomenal potential. The product manager projects sales in 1995 to be $2,000,000, when supported with $300,000 in advertising. International Farm Equipment: For 1 995, the product manager projects $7 million in sales with $1 million in advertising. High-Tech MicroChips: The total industry demand for MicroChips has been very sporadic during the last ten years. Several unpredictable sales increases and decreases have occurred. The product manager for High-Tech predicts $5 million in sales during 1995. The product manager requests $500,000 for the High-Tech advertising budget. Gyro-Toy: The high speed children’s Gyro-Toy will be taken off the market by January 1, 1 997 (in two years) due to safety reasons claimed by the government (eye injuries). The product manager projects $4 million in sales for 1995. The Gyro-Toy product manager requests $500,000 for advertising during 1 995. Consumer Electronics: During the last five years, increased competition by foreign manufacturers has caused difficulties for the U.S. consumer electronics industry. The consumer electronics product manager forecasts sales revenue of $2 million when $250,000 in advertising is spent for 1995. The student teams report their final advertising allocations on the blackboard. The professor moderates. Differences are noted and the professor requests the teams to orally defend their decisions. For example, team #5 would be asked their reasoning in allocating zero dollars for Micro- Chips, while team #1 would be requested to defend their spending $330,000 on Micro-Chips advertising. Students discuss the Gyro-Toy last. The professor asks students to support their decision. If one team allocates zero dollars to the Gyro-Toy, the professor asks why. If the team responds with “the toy is dangerous and little children have been getting injured,” the professor asks the other teams if they thought of the potential for injury, and should the corporation continue to manufacture and market such a product? Students are asked if they have any little brothers or sisters still at home and would they purchase such a dangerous product for them. THEN, this personalization usually takes hold and students sheepishly admit they might have been thinking too much about the bottom line for the corporation. Profitability was first in the student’s mind, not social responsibility. Exercise Variations Many game variations exist during the administering of this exercise. They include a one-player team, two persons jointly making the decisions, three persons, etc. An interesting variation consists of students role-playing the parts of the five division managers. Each manager provides a convincing argument for their division. An individual or committee, acting as the CEO, determines the final advertising budget allocation. Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 21, 1994 156 The author has administered this exercise five times in the last ten years. During each exercise, the author has observed spontaneous student enlightenment. Without exception, a genuine sense of learning (business ethics) was observed when this indirect pedagogy was used to teach ethics to business students. REFERENCES Aquinas. Thomas, Saint (1896) Summa Theologica New York Benzinger Brothers Fritzsche, David J. and Richard D. Rosenberg, (1989), “Business Ethics, Experiential Exercises and Simulation Games, - Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, 1 5, 46-59. Maddox, E. Nicholas and Terry R. Armstrong and Walter I Wheatley, (1991), “Ethical Dilemmas in Experiential Learning: Issues and Strategies.” Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, 17, 57-60 McGee, Robert W, (1992). Business Ethics and Common Sense, Westport, Connecticut, Quorum Books Nelson, Julianne, (1992). “The Market Ethic: Moral Dilemmas and Microeconomics,” Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 11, 317-320. Powers, Charles W., (1980), Ethics in the Education of Business Managers. New York, Hastings Center Ricci, Phillip and Peter M. Markulis, (1992). “Can Ethics Be Taught? A Simulation Tests a Traditional Ethics Pedagogy.” Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercises, 18 141-145. Schoenfeldt, Lyle F., Don M. McDonald, and Stuart A. Youngblood, (1991), “The Teaching of Business Ethics: A Survey of AACSB Member Schools,” Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 10, 237-241. Sims, Ronald R., and Serbrenia J. Sims, (1991), “Increasing Applied Business Ethics Courses in Business School Curricula,” Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 10, 211-219. Ullmann. Arish A., and Charles G. Brink, (1992), “Use of Simulation for Ethics Education in Management,” Development in Business Simulation and Experiential Exercises, 18. 169-172. Table of Contents Volume 21, 1994 ABSEL: The Way We Were and Need to Be The Intellectual Structure of ABSEL: A Bibliometeic Study of Author Cocitatons Over Time Activity-Driven Time in Computerized Gaming Simulations An Assessment Framework for Determing the Effectiveness of Total Enterprise Simulations Attributes of Learning Organizations: Simulating the Relationships Business Policy/Strategy Case Extension using Pro-Forma Planning: A Computer Based Model Complexity: Is it really that Simple? A Random-Strategy Criterion for Validity of Simulation Game Participation Enhancing a Computer Simulation with a Structured Reporting Environment Experiencing a Foreign Culture: A Cross-Cultural Simulation Group Cognitive Style and Computerphobia in Functional Business Simulations Human Issues in Technology Implementation Management Simulator Incorporating Advertising Strategy into Computer-Based Business Simulations: A Validation Study Increasing the Effectiveness of Performance Evaluation Through the Design and Development of Realistic Finance Algorithms The Packer-Feeder Game: A Commodity Market Simulator Relationships Between R&D and Profitability: An Exploratory Comparison of Two Business Simulations with Two Real-World, Technology Intensive Industries Simulation of the Predictive Value of Mammography Simulation Performance and Learning Revisited Strange Bedfellows: Competency Models and ACBSP Accreditation Standards Using a Business Simulation to Study the Determinants of Ethical Behavior What Simulation Users Think Players Should be Learning from the Simulations ADA and its Implications for Experiential Training Boss/ Subordinate Perceptions of Instrumental and Supportive Leadership Behaviors in Relation to Myers-Briggs Thinking Type Cluster Analyses of American Universities' Business Core Curricula Structures Utilized to Satisfy Fifteen Curriculum Areas Cooperative Learning or Learning to Cooperate Experiential Learning: Constraining Students with Time Budgets How Different Workplace Experiences Affect Different Worker Values Implications of the Trend Toward Relationship Marketing for Experiential Learning The Increasing Cultural Diversity of the American Workforce: Management's Challenge of the 21st Century Information and Uncertainty as Strange Bedfellows: A Model and Experiential Exercises Leadership as a Medium: It's Emergence and Effect on Performance in Small Leaderless Groups Speed, Depth, and Breadth: Assessing Learning in Learning Organizations Teaching Strategic Planning, Problem Solving, and Decision Making with Envisionary Experiential Exercises Validating an Instrument for Student Evaluation of Teachers: Some Noteworthy By-Products Don't Teach Ethics to Business Students Emotional Reactions Toward a Simulated Layoff: Before and After the Manipulation Enhancing Communication Using a Presentation Package Implementing Marketing Policies through a Business Management Simulation Integrating Action-Based Learning into Executive Development Programs On the validity of using the Microsegmentation Principle in Media Simulationsm Participatory Systems Analysis Some Relationships between Cultural, Organizational, and Educational Experience and Perceptions of Influence The Use of Decision Support Systems with a Marketing Simulation: The Future is Now Astute Business Policy: A Simulation of the Automobile Industry The Business Policy Game CEO II: A Gaming Simulation for Assessment Computer Paced Project Management Simulation Computerized Tutor Support Systems DEAL & GEO: Progressively Integrating Gaming Simulations for Entrepreneurship and International Business An Interactive Simulation Game for Competitive Decision-Making International Operations Simulation/Mark 2000 (INTOPIA) Multimedia Simulation Cuts Training Costs for Anderson Consulting Concepts of Total Quality Management: An Active Learning Exercise Cooperative Learning: The Extended Jigsaw Managing Diversity--Values and Attitudes: An Experiential Exercise in Awareness Navigating the Shoals of International Management Development Evaluating Student Performance in the Use of Computer Simulation Entrepreneurial Simulation Program