Spring 2007 Issue - NIU College of Business - Northern Illinois ...

The Business of Aristotleby Michelle De JeanCraig Smallish/Photodisc Green/Getty ImagesAristotle defined moral principles in terms of the ethicsof leadership; many cite his work NicomacheanEthics as evidence of this. Had Aristotle been a businessleader, he would have fostered an environment for growthand provided opportunity for all members to realize theirpotential for the good of the whole. What could be bothmore ethical and more business-oriented? From an ethicsstandpoint, promoting the common good translates intobenefits to society . . . a concept many also believe to bethe central tenant of free-market capitalism.“Ethics has always been included in business curricula,”said Denise Schoenbachler, dean of the NIU Collegeof Business. “Three years ago, the college’s Board ofExecutive Advisors took it a step further. Working withthe college’s Strategic Planning Council, the executiveschallenged the college to reframe the approach to ethics inthe classroom … from a discussion of ethics in the abstractto treating ethics as a business fundamental.”In response, the NIU College of Business formed an EthicsTask Force to do just that. Co-created in 2004 by thecollege’s Strategic Planning Council and its CurriculumCommittee, the Ethics Task Force initiative is a crossfunctionaleffort reporting to the college’s CurriculumCommittee. Task Force members include faculty from eachof the college’s business disciplines and staff. Input andfeedback are provided by business executives, many ofwhom serve on the college’s Board of Executive Advisorsor are themselves compliance experts. The creation ofthe college’s Ethics Task Force parallels related efforts bythe Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business(AACSB), which mandates that “ethical understanding andreasoning abilities” be included in business curricula. Howsuch topics are incorporated into the curriculum is up toindividual schools.“We made a deliberate choice to approach ethics from apragmatic standpoint,” said Terry Bishop, managementprofessor and Ethics Task Force member. “You can builda stand-alone class in ethics and make it required for allstudents, but such a class focuses on philosophy and not onpractical day-to-day applications. The approach we opted forintegrates ethics across the curriculum. This places ethics inthe context of each business discipline. Students then seeethics in a very pragmatic framework, with tools they can usebefore and after graduation.”One of those tools is a 30-page handbook, Building EthicalLeaders Using an Integrated Ethics Framework (BELIEF).The handbook was written by NIU Task Force members TerryBishop, management professor, Bill Cummings, accountancyprofessor, and Pam Smith, KPMG accountancy professor.The accompanying bank of test questions was written by theco-authors and the full Task Force membership.“The purpose of the BELIEF handbook is to help studentsunderstand why ethics are important, increase theirawareness of ethical situations, and provide a frameworkfrom which to evaluate the situation so they can make adecision or take an action,” said Pam Smith. “BELIEF hasthe philosophy of ethics as its foundational core, with a focuson how ethics manifest themselves in business, irrespectiveof the business field. In this way, the BELIEF handbookprovides a consistent framework and a common vocabularywith which to talk of ethics. The learning outcome we want toachieve as a college is to create increased awareness in allbusiness students of the importance of ethics.”Ethics Task Force MembersJohn Banko, Finance*Terry Bishop, ManagementBill Cummings, AccountancyCarol DeMoranville, Marketing**Kim Judson, Marketing***Brian Mackie, OM&ISJoan Petros, UBUS Cross-Functional TeamDenise Schoenbachler, Dean***Pam Smith, AccountancyWilliam Tallon, Interim Dean**Jay Wagle, Marketing**Sally Wakefield, Assistant to the Dean for AssessmentDan Wunsch, Interim Associate Dean****2004-06 **2004-05 ***2005-06 | NIU College of Business www.cob.niu.eduWhere the Classroom Meets the Business World