Of course the problem with this question is that it implies that the study of business ethics may be of little real value unless it provides a competitive advantage to the schools that teach it. But can conceiving of ethics in this way ever hope to capture its true value? I should say that sometimes doing the right thing has no evident payoff. Indeed, that's when doing it is all the more important.
Here we run up against the irony of business school curricula, which is to be subservient to the private sector's perceived material interests. But academia is ultimately there to lead with its independent vision of truth and wisdom. For those pursuits are to be valuable in themselves. If not, we lose our essential mission. Consequently, there would no longer be any justification for us to enjoy the academic freedom tenure is meant to preserve.
Of course that's not to say such market research would be of no value. It should also remind us of this deep irony at the heart of the discipline.
My guess is that at this point, graduate emphases on business ethics unfortunately provide little market advantage, which is why we still see so few of them.
Best,
Julian
Dr. Julian Friedland
Instructor
Curriculum Emphasis on Social Responsibility (CESR)
Leeds School of Business
University of Colorado at Boulder
419 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
_______________________________________________________________________
To send a message to the list, send your email to
SIM@aomlists.pace.edu
_______________________________________________________________________
Visit the SIM Division website at:
http://sim.aomonline.org
_______________________________________________________________________
If you wish to unsubscribe from this list or change your delivery
options, you can do so online at:
http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=sim&A=1