Ethics and morality are essential pillars of a functioning society. Yet in today's competitive business environment, individuals and organizations often face difficult decisions regarding ethical behavior versus profitability and success. Teaching ethics is crucial, but needs to extend beyond the classroom to shape values from a young age and influence corporate cultures. Achieving an ethical society requires commitment at all levels - individual, organizational, and societal.

The Challenges of Teaching Business Ethics-

As a Corporate ethics trainer, I have faced reluctance from employees and students to embrace ethical practices if they seem to threaten bottom lines. Some argue slyly "Isn't the purpose of business to make money?" This fixation on profits above all else has contributed to many recent corporate scandals - Wells Fargo's fraudulent account openings, Volkswagen's emissions deception, Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Yet ethical, values-driven leadership leads to sustained success. Companies with ethical cultures outperform competitors on financial metrics of profitability, productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, and employee commitment by significant margins (Ethics Resource Center 2013). Ethics provide checks and balances that identify misdeeds early before catastrophic reputational harm. Nevertheless, some business students cling to old perceptions that ethics are costly and reduce competitiveness.

These attitudes hold at the corporate level as well. By the time managers reach leadership roles, self-interest and confirmation bias can skew objectivity regarding ethical choices. Those climbing the corporate ladder may simply emulate questionable practices they observe around them. This perpetuates "tone at the top" cultures that promote profits first, ethics second.

Teaching Context for Ethical Decision-Making

When facing student objections to ethical practices, I teach contextual decision-making - considering all stakeholders and long-term consequences using ethical frameworks. Who does this decision impact? What are the risks and potential harms? Are there fairer, more transparent options? Probe deeper to uncover self-serving biases and rationalizations. Set metrics for ethical culture - accountability, diversity, inclusion, transparency, stakeholder well-being over share prices. Design incentive structures that reward integrity over short-term financials.

Pepper discussions with real case studies crossing industries - the Ford Pinto gas tank scandal, Nike’s sweatshops, Walmart bribing officials in Mexico, Apple and Google’s no-poaching scheme. Reference research on bankruptcies and lost market value from unethical cultures - Enron, Worldcom, Theranos. Show how threats from emerging technologies like deepfakes heighten needs for ethics today to maintain future trust.

This eyebrows-raised, minds-opened approach to teaching ethics aims to shape future decision-makers equipped to navigate increasing complexity of ethical issues arising from technologies, globalization, specialization, and changing workforce dynamics.

Start Early: Childhood Development of Morality

While business schools should integrate ethical reasoning deeply into every facet of curriculum, this may prove too little too late if students lack moral foundations from early childhood. As the psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg found, the capacity for ethical reasoning develops over time. Environment and experiences in childhood influence these abilities to internalize moral concepts of fairness, care, justice, and cooperation.

Schools play a formative role here through curriculum on ethics, civil rights, environmental awareness, and social justice. Lessons should encourage perspective-taking, compassion, seeing issues from multiple viewpoints and cultures. Interactive sessions can pose ethical dilemmas for students to reason through - stealing due to poverty, peer pressure to try drugs, spreading rumors - unpacking motivations and constructive responses. Schools might bring in speakers on moral courage, co-create classroom rules and codes of conduct, organize service projects, use role-playing to resolve conflicts.

The Collapse of Societal Moral Standards

Alarmingly, evidence shows youth perceptions of unethical conduct hardening for behaviors like lying, cheating, and spreading rumors. Plagiarism runs rampant on college applications and assignments. Disconcertingly, over 35% of high school students believe unethical means justify goals. This reflects societal moral relativity seeping earlier into childhood when value systems solidify.

Children mirror what they observe at home in family dynamics and media influences from celebrity scandals to political corruption. If questionable behaviors constantly go rewarded with money, fame, power, and success, ethics become afterthoughts. Lower income groups may view laws as nuisances stopping them from providing for families through theft, violence, or dealing drugs. Social media intensifies peer pressure for instant gratification and validation over considering long-term ethical consequences.

Reclaiming Ethics as Shared Public Value

Combating these trends starts with re-establishing shared positive values and expanding notions of ethical duty across society. Families play a large role through teaching children empathy, respect for rules, taking responsibility for mistakes rather than blaming others. However average parents struggle balancing work, digital distractions, stresses over bills or health to dedicate enough quality time for moral guidance.

Communities must step up with youth programs, mentoring, accessible mental health services. National service opportunities can provide identity grounding and purpose for young people while helping local areas. Companies should partner with schools on STEM education, vocational initiatives, addressing achievement gaps for lower income youth.

Civic and religious institutions may need revitalizing as community anchors for moral dialogue after years of declining membership and relevance. Cross-sector collaborations on social innovation present new spaces for establishing common ground on values.

Policy reforms around campaign finance, lobbying, and corruption can help restore institutional trust. Updated regulations on tech platforms using algorithms and micro-targeting to incentivize outrage and disinformation could reduce societal divisions as well. Architecting digital spaces for healthy discourse matters more as internet usage displaces traditional gathering places.

Usmankhan Pathan

Thank yo for the comprehensive contribution.

What you have described is similar to what several of business ethics scholars are facing.

This now begs the question 'How can we encourage the teaching of business ethics' - I mean by encouraging two things (1) encouraging the management (schools, universities, and colleges) to take on business ethics teaching and employ specialists to lead the change (2) encouraging the students to take this student even if this unit is given as an elective and not a core unit.

Thanks and regards

Stay safe and take care

Thank you for raising this important issue. Promoting business ethics education is crucial yet faces barriers in implementation and student motivation.

To encourage management institutions to prioritize ethics curricula and specialists, we must highlight strong ethical cultures' links to financial performance, brand reputation, legal/regulatory compliance and risk management. Offering research evidence and case studies on how ethics improves strategy and operations can compel adoption.

Regarding students, interactive teaching methods leveraging ethical dilemmas, debates and peer perspectives provide meaningful engagement. Tying course projects to real-world ethical issues also shows relevance. Framing ethics as clarifying one's values and leadership vision - not just theoretical concepts - inspires self-driven learning.

Additionally, guest talks by ethical business leaders, company visits demonstrating strong ethical programs in action, and networking events with corporate social responsibility groups all help students connect ethics to career pathways.

There are no easy fixes, but focus on the business case and student experience can drive greater adoption of business ethics education on both the institutional and individual levels. Please share any other recommendations to spur this much needed advance.