The Need for Ethics

It is really hard to identify when ethics –or the lack thereof –became a social issue of the magnitude that it seems to be now.  When I received my MBA from Tulane in 1978, a course in ethics was required for everyone in the last semester of the two year program.  It was considered the capstone course of the MBA program and our professor utilized the case study format.  Later, when I passed the CPA exam, I had to take an ethics exam in order to obtain my license in the state of Maryland.  In the early years of my career, I remember the Ivan Boesky scandal on Wall Street in the 1980’s.  Boesky took down Mike Milken of Drexel Burnham and a few others.  Of course, most recently, we have seen the fallout from Enron, Bernard Madoff, and others.  But ethical lapses are not limited to businessmen.  Almost all of us can name a few politicians who strayed from the norm like Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, Governor Rod Blagojevich, President Richard Nixon, etc.  We can also name a few government employees who earned notoriety by selling their country’s secrets including Aldrich Ames and Jonathan Pollard.   Baseball fans might think about gamblers like Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose or steroid users like Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, and Manny Ramirez.

I don’t know if the omnipresent nature of the media has drawn more attention to ethical lapses of our political, corporate, governmental, and sports figures or if the frequency has, as I suspect, increased.  However, a recent article in the New York Times spurred me to write this piece.  Written by Leslie Wayne, the article mentions that nearly 20 percent of this year’s graduating MBA class at the Harvard Business School have signed a voluntary student oath that pledges to “serve the greater good” and to “act responsibly and ethically.”  MBA programs have not stopped teaching ethics.  In fact, Harvard, Wharton, and Columbia have several ethics classes and Wharton and Columbia have ethics centers.  I think it is good that these students created this pledge.   However, ethics is not just business ethics.  Ethics is ethics.   Good ethics is good for business.  Good ethics should be good for all of our leaders and followers, no matter what their chosen field.

Subjects of Interest

EdTech

Higher Education

Independent Schools

K-12

Student Persistence

Workforce