Teaching Business Ethics with Cases: The Effect of Personal
Experience
Susanna Cahn and Victor Glass
Susanna Cahn
Associate Professor of Management/ Mgt. Science
Lubin School of Business
Pace University
861 Bedford Road
Pleasantville, NY 10570
USA
Tel: (914) 773-3517
(201) 385-4570
ecahn@pace.edu
Fax: (914) 773-3920
(country code 001)
Victor Glass
Director of Demand Forecasting and Rate Development
National Exchange Carrier Association
Whippany, NJ
vglass@neca.org
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Teaching Business Ethics with Cases: The Effect of Personal
Experience
Abstract
As a final project for a business and society course, students presented analyses of
ethical dilemmas in business settings; each dilemma was different, chosen either from the
student’s personal business experience or from a recent business news event. Students
identified multiple decision criteria (financial, ethical, etc.) relevant to the dilemma and
then recommended a decision, reflecting a prioritizing of the multiple decision criteria.
The goal of this research was to learn whether personal experience led to different
decision priorities. Analyses from 121 students taken from six semesters of the course
were sorted by choice of topic, as well as by which decision criterion was given top
priority. Results showed significant differences (Chi-square value of 38.50562,
significance level of 5.45963E-10) between the personal examples and the news
examples. Students typically put ethical concerns first when analyzing news events.
However, when it came to personal events, more self-serving concerns often took
priority. These disparate results suggest that even when knowledge is gained from study
of theory and cases, it may not be applied to dilemmas that arise in students’ own
experience.
Keywords: teaching business ethics, ethical dilemmas, decision criteria, cases, personal
experience, self-serving bias
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Teaching Business Ethics with Cases: The Effect of Personal
Experience
INTRODUCTION
Tension between ethical priorities and financial priorities typifies many ethical
dilemmas in business decision making. Ethical business practices may lead to long term
financial success by boosting a company’s reputation as honest and fair dealing. But it
can also happen that short term financial gains may follow from practices that are morally
questionable. This is especially likely when customers do not make repeat purchases, and
the unethical actions are legal. Not surprisingly, research shows that some business
organizations treat ethics as a contributor to long-term financial success, while others
treat ethics as potentially conflicting with profit-making objectives (Lii, 2001). It is the
latter perspective that is most likely to lead to ethical dilemmas for business decision
makers.
A goal of business ethics training is to help prepare students, who will become
business decision makers, to resolve such ethical dilemmas. Part of this process is
awareness of dilemmas as having multiple decision criteria. In this context, a decision
opportunity is considered a dilemma if some decision criteria favor choice A while other
decision criteria favor choice B. Classes in business ethics should help students recognize
which decision criteria lead to preference for a given decision alternative. This paper
examines the extent to which teaching business ethics helps students resolve such
dilemmas.
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The question of how to effectively teach business ethics is not fully resolved
(Piper, et al., 1993). Abdolmohammadi and Reeves (2000) conducted a pre and post study
of business students’ ethical reasoning, both for a business ethics course and over their
four years in business school. Low to moderate gains were reported over the course, while
effect was high for the four-year education. Wilhelm (2008) used the Defining Issues Test
(Rest, 1999) to evaluate how well a variety of teaching methods and materials increased
students’ moral reasoning. He concluded that time intensive case-based instruction using
an ethical decision-making framework had the most impact.
An interesting illustration is the research by Martin (1982). It examines how the
teaching of ethics affects the ethical judgment of students. No significant impact was
found for university courses, although a Catholic education did have some impact.
Sanyal (2000) champions the value to learning of having students personally
involved. In a report of the Office of Research of the U.S. Department of Education,
Maramark and Maline (1993) assert that regardless of the method used to incorporate
ethics into the classroom, the ethical experience must be related to the students’ personal
life. That advice is reflected in the course assignment under study here.
Personal involvement in a decision heightens the possible influence of biases,
even decisions with ethical dilemmas (Prentice, 2004). Overconfidence, over optimism,
and, particularly, self-serving bias can affect subjective views about the ethics of a
decision alternative. He cites Bazerman’s (2002) observation that traditional ways of
teaching business ethics will not have an impact on the self-serving bias. Subjective
judgments of fairness can also be influenced by the self-serving bias (Jolls, et al. 1998).
The present research lends credence to those claims.
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Yet, in studies of business ethics teaching, there is an implicit assumption that
what students learn in class will later be applied to their own careers and decisions in the
companies they work for. Arguably, it is how students act after a course is completed that
is a meaningful assessment of the value of that course of study. In this study, students’
end-of-semester analyses of their own experience with business ethical dilemmas provide
a glimpse into such after-the-course behavior.
The style of analysis used here is similar to that used by Hosmer (2000). It uses a
standardized format for case analysis that integrates ethical principles and classic business
decision criteria with a mechanism for choosing alternatives.
METHOD
This paper assesses the end-of-semester work of students in a business and society
course. Course content was dominated by business ethics and issues involving multiple
stakeholders. Ethics is defined in the course as including consideration of principles of
right and wrong, consequences to others, and justice. Throughout the course there were
discussions and written analyses of assigned cases. At the conclusion of the course, each
student selected, analyzed, and presented a final analysis of an ethical dilemma in a
business setting. Each student analyzed a different dilemma chosen either from a
personal work experience or from a recent business news event. Their analyses identified
multiple decision criteria (financial, ethical, etc.) relevant to the business's dilemma and
recommended a decision. The student’s recommendation reflected a prioritizing of the
multiple decision criteria. The brief, standardized format for that analysis is in Appendix
A.
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This research examines the students’ prioritized decision criteria for patterns.
Students' analyses were sorted according to the choice of topic, either a dilemma chosen
from a personal business experience or from a recent business news event. Students'
analyses were also sorted according to which decision criterion each of them gave top
priority. Data were collected for 121 students from six semesters of the same course
between 1995 and 2006. Chi-square tests were used to compare the observed proportion
with the expectation that in the absence of any relationship 50% of the analyses would
prioritize financial concerns and 50% of the analyses would prioritize ethical concerns.
RESULTS
The data are presented in Table I along with Chi-square statistics. Results showed
significant differences (Chi-square value of 38.50562, significance level of 5.45963E-10)
between the personal examples and the news examples. Analyzing news events students
put ethical concerns ahead of financial concerns in most of the situations. However,
when it came to personal events, financial concerns more often took priority.
{Table 1 near here}
CONCLUSION
When analyzing business-ethics dilemmas in news events where they were not
personally involved, more students gave first priority to ethical criteria. This is what
would be expected in a course where there is an emphasis on the analysis of ethical issues
in a business setting. However, when analyzing the same types of events, except where
they or someone they know personally is involved, most students gave first priority to
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financial criteria. The implication is that student success in a case-based business ethics
course will not necessarily lead to increased incorporation of ethics in their business
decision making. It substantiates the literature on self-serving bias and reaffirms the
common law idea that a person who has a personal interest in an outcome will likely be
prejudiced on his or her own behalf. This finding casts doubt on the impact that skills
learned analyzing cases in class will carry over to applications in the business world
where the financial risks are real and personal.
REFERENCES
Abdolmohammadi, M. J. & Reeves, M. F. (2000), “Effects of Education and Intervention
on Business Students’ Ethical Cognition: A Cross Sectional and Longitudinal
Study”, Teaching Business Ethics, 4 (3), pp. 269-284.
Bazerman, M., Loewenstein, G., & Moore, D. (2002), “Why Good Accountants Do Bad
Audits”, Harvard Business Review, 80 (November), 97-102.
Hosmer, L. T. (2000), “Standard Format for the Case Analysis of Moral Problems”,
Teaching Business Ethics, 4 (2, May): pp. 169-180.
Jolls, C., Sunstein, C., & Thaler, R. (1998), “A Behavioral Approach to Law and
Economics”, Stanford Law Review, 50, 1471-1550.
Lii, P. (2001), “The Impact of Personal Gains on Cognitive Dissonance for Business
Ethics Judgments”, Teaching Business Ethics, 5 (1, February): pp. 21-33.
Maramark, S., & Maline, M. B. (1993), “Academic Dishonesty and College Students”,
Washington, D. C.: U. S. Department of Education, Office of Research.
Martin, T. R. (1982), “Do Courses in Ethics Improve the Ethical Judgment of Students?”
Business and Society, Winter/Spring, 17-26.
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Piper, T. R., Gentile, M. C., & Parks, S. D. (1993), Can Ethics Be Taught? Perspectives,
Challenges, and Approaches at Harvard Business School. Boston, Massachusetts:
Harvard Business School.
Prentice, R. (2004), “Teaching Ethics, Heuristics, and Biases”, Journal of Business Ethics
Education, 1 (1), 55-72.
Rest, J., Narvaez, D., Bebeau, M. J., & Thoma, S. J. (1999), Postconventional Moral
Thinking: A Neo-Kohlbergian Approach. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Richmond, S. B. (1964), Statistical Analysis (2nd ed.). New York: The Ronald Press
Company.
Sanyal, R. N. (2000), “An Experiential Approach to Teaching Ethics in International
Business”, Teaching Business Ethics, 4 (2): pp. 137-149.
Wilhelm, W. J. (2008), “Integrating Instruction in Ethical Reasoning into Undergraduate
Business Courses”, Journal of Business Ethics Education, 5, pp. 5-34.
{APPENDIX here}
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Table I: Number of Students Giving Highest Priority to Ethics or Financial Criterion
personal
news
Ethics
Financial
Chi2
12
73
20
16
38.50562
significance level
5.45963E-10
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APPENDIX
Assignment:
An analysis of a current business issue relevant to this course. It may be drawn
from library research, interviews, or personal experience. Topics are due on __________.
Written essays are due on or before __________. Presentations of essay topics will be
scheduled during the last few classes.
Topic should be relevant to business and society, and involve multiple decision
criteria, which may potentially conflict.
Format:

Describe facts of your topic.

Discuss relevant decision criteria and their relative importance.

State your preferred solution and support it with reasons (from book, class, your
own thinking) and/or parallel examples.

References
Topics should be approved by _____________.
Approximately 2-5 pages, written essays are due on or before the final date. Oral
presentation will be scheduled.
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