Started as Customer: Confessions of a Business Ethics Teacher (a Response

Business ethics faculty face a difficult challenge. As stories of corporate corruption continue to grow, the social pressure for universities— and business ethics teachers especially—to “teach students ethics” can be overwhelming, at times. For those who think this pressure is warranted, as I do, it is all the more important to consider how a single course or series of courses can have an impact. The case study, Started as Crew, wisely begins by identifying achievable learning objectives for business ethics instruction, citing the AACSB’s Ethics Education Task Force Report. In short, the Task Force argues that business schools must encourage student learning in three critical ways: by developing a deep understanding of the challenges surrounding corporate responsibility, by providing students with tools for recognizing and responding to ethical issues, and by engaging students at an individual level through analysis of positive and negative examples of business conduct.1 Without such clear learning objectives, ethics education may well be integrated throughout the curriculum, but it is unlikely to have its intended effect, namely, to challenge students to make “decisions of integrity” once they leave the academy for “the real world.” Ethics education in business schools must train moral habits of mind and the three aims of the AACSB constitute an essential starting point. In light of these learning objectives, the McDonald’s case is very effective.