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Can you teach ethics?

Yet in one of the trial’s surprises, prosecutors caught the defendants off-guard with revelations that Skilling and fellow executive Ken Lay had secretly invested in an Internet photography company that did most of its business with Enron.

Under cross-examination, lead prosecutor Sean Berkowitz asked Skilling, “This is a conflict of interest, according to the code of ethics?”
“It may be,” Skilling admitted.

The willingness of Skilling and Lay to violate their own code “definitely undermined the teaching of ethics,” said Maxwell. “People do what people see. The only way it can be integrated into a corporate culture is for it to be observed at the top.”

Schools include ethics instruction

Most business schools now include ethics instruction. Either as a full course or into other classes, according to Hartman, the DePaul business ethics professor.

The increase is driven by student and corporate demand, said Hartman. “When we graduate the next CEO of an energy conglomerate like Enron, tomorrow’s investor believes that we will not allow Ken Lay to graduate.”

Power to impact the world

So while she begins her classes with relatively easy , Hartman asks her students increasingly complicated ethical questions during the quarter, and then challenges their decisions.

They quickly learn- starting with the train dilemma –how even the seemingly simple act of saving lives can be.

While most students in Hartman’s train exercise choose to hit the button and divert the train –thus saving five people- she challenges their decision to actively take one life. And for those who choose not to and let events unfold as they would, she questions their decision to not get involved.

“It is exploring our power to impact the world around us,” she said. We are responsible for both our acts as well as our choices not to act.”

Vocabulary Focus

catch(somebody)off-guard(v-phr)---  to surprise someone by doing something which they are not expecting and are not ready for

conglomerate(n)---  a company that owns several smaller businesses whose products or services are usually very different

Specialized terms

Conflict of interest (n. phr)---  a situation in which someone’s private ，especially financial, interests are opposed to their responsibilities to other people

Corporate culture (n. phr)---  the shared values and philosophies that are the basis of a company’s professional atmosphere

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