Implications for Teaching Business Ethics
In this concluding chapter, an overview is given of the core components that should be addressed in business ethics education, in order to both deal with the fundamental problems that characterise our times, as well as to promote the future viability of b
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Implications for Teaching Business Ethics
Abstract In this concluding chapter, an overview is given of the core components that should be addressed in business ethics education, in order to both deal with the fundamental problems that characterise our times, as well as to promote the future viability of business ethics. The analysis of these core components is based on the complexity and Derridean insights presented in the foregoing chapters, and the aim of the analysis is to unpack teaching strategies that can equip students with the sense-making tools and tools of analysis needed to reflect upon the normative dimensions of complex business challenges. Since these challenges are context-dependent, the analysis does not provide examples of specific pedagogical interventions, because these interventions must be forged within specific environments. The suggestions made in this chapter therefore stand prior to any particular teaching guide or curriculum.
Introduction In the first chapter of this study, it was argued that the goal of business ethics should be to provide students and practitioners with sense-making tools and tools of analysis that can aid in ethical decision-making in the workplace, and the first part of the study concluded with the insight that our analytic tools should be supplemented with other tools to help us to better account for, and deal with, the complexities that define our contexts. A number of alternative tools have already been introduced in this study; but, at this juncture, we turn specifically to knowledge, which can be defined as a powerful theoretical tool, in order to further investigate the type of considerations that should inform a business ethics education. Before proceeding with the analysis, it is worthwhile to take note of Lissack and Letiche’s (2002) analogy between physical tools and knowledge. Firstly, both tools and knowledge can only be understood through use, and using them modifies the user’s perspective on the world. Secondly, learning how to use tools and knowledge involves a great deal more than can be captured in explicit rules. And, M. Woermann, On the (Im)Possibility of Business Ethics, Issues in Business Ethics 37, 159 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5131-6_7, # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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7 Implications for Teaching Business Ethics
thirdly, the occasions and conditions for use emerge from, and are framed within, a specific context. What this analogy implies is that, in order for our knowledge and ideas to be useful, they need to be put to use. As previously argued, from a complexity viewpoint, there is no radical distinction between ivory tower ethics and boardroom ethics, which means that our theories have the power to transform our practices, but our practices can also modify and shape our ideas. Many business ethicists feel that complex conceptions of ethics (which are critical, provisional, and transgressive in nature) won’t find footing in the ‘real world’, since such theories cannot provide ready solutions to the problems experienced by
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