Workshop to explore “ black hole” of ethics education

By Janice Lee

Are business school professors partly responsible for major corporate scandals such as Enron and Hollinger?

That’s the focus of a workshop on philosophy and business ethics hosted by the Department of Philosophy and the Faculty of Humanities on April 28.

“ This year, we’re focusing the workshop on philosophy and business ethics in response to a heated on-going scholarly debate—via the Academy of Management, the leading professional society for business school professors—regarding what responsibility they should bear for the dismal state of real-world business ethics,” says Dr. Gregory Daneke, U of C’s Chair in Business Ethics.

“The late London Business School professor, Sumantra Goshal, contends that business education is an ethical black hole, where students are, in a number of subtle ways, taught to be less socially responsible. ”

The workshop will engage leading experts in a discussion of the theory and practice of business ethics.

Participants have made major contributions to this particular debate: Dr. Edwin M. Hartman from Rutgers University draws upon Aristolean ethics to identify critical elements of “good character and well-being” for business students and the firms that employ them; NYU’s Dr. Christopher Michaelson, a philosopher who has worked in the corporate world in New York City, contends “the value of philosophy to business is more likely to be found in the ways in which it has defined the ‘good life’,” and challenges market measures of success; and Dr. Wayne Norman of the University of Montreal suggests that philosophers can bring their tools to bear in generating healthy skepticism about the claims firms make regarding their marketing of social responsibility.

The Calgary Workshop on Philosophy and Business Ethics will be held on Friday, April 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Social Sciences 1253. It is free and open to the public. RSVP to rdey@ucalgary.ca.