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Business ethics in the curriculum: assessing the evidence from U.K. subject review

Business ethics in the curriculum: assessing the evidence from U.K. subject review
Business ethics in the curriculum: assessing the evidence from U.K. subject review
The growth of UK business ethics education has been charted at the course or ‘micro’ level by Mahoney (1990) and Cummins (1999) using postal questionnaires. These surveys, normally restricted to elite providers, have not revealed the relative importance of business ethics in the business school curriculum. In the 2000-2001 subject review of business and management programmes conducted by the UK Quality Assurance Agency for higher education (QAA), 164 business and management programmes were required to summarise their aims and objectives. Examination of this data using QSR-N6 software shows that only 14 made explicit reference to ethics. Church Colleges of Higher Education were disproportionately represented, indicating the importance of institutional context to curriculum development. An analysis of espoused aims in relation to business ethics suggests that cognition in business ethics is largely conceived as part of a broad contextual comprehension of the business environment rather than an understanding of theoretical constructs. The expression of aims in business ethics is more frequently characterised by affective or attitudinal verbs/nouns with a close link to the promotion of value positions, such as multiculturalism and environmentalism. It is concluded that business ethics occupies a more marginal position within the curriculum than previous studies have suggested.
aims and objectives, business curriculum, quality assurance agency
0167-4544
339-347
Macfarlane, Bruce
4ed505fc-6417-4528-ab38-067e096ced22
Ottewill, Roger
6aff3585-9ea4-4ae2-a3c0-101c10333a20
Macfarlane, Bruce
4ed505fc-6417-4528-ab38-067e096ced22
Ottewill, Roger
6aff3585-9ea4-4ae2-a3c0-101c10333a20

Macfarlane, Bruce and Ottewill, Roger (2004) Business ethics in the curriculum: assessing the evidence from U.K. subject review. Journal of Business Ethics, 54 (4), 339-347. (doi:10.1007/s10551-004-1823-z).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The growth of UK business ethics education has been charted at the course or ‘micro’ level by Mahoney (1990) and Cummins (1999) using postal questionnaires. These surveys, normally restricted to elite providers, have not revealed the relative importance of business ethics in the business school curriculum. In the 2000-2001 subject review of business and management programmes conducted by the UK Quality Assurance Agency for higher education (QAA), 164 business and management programmes were required to summarise their aims and objectives. Examination of this data using QSR-N6 software shows that only 14 made explicit reference to ethics. Church Colleges of Higher Education were disproportionately represented, indicating the importance of institutional context to curriculum development. An analysis of espoused aims in relation to business ethics suggests that cognition in business ethics is largely conceived as part of a broad contextual comprehension of the business environment rather than an understanding of theoretical constructs. The expression of aims in business ethics is more frequently characterised by affective or attitudinal verbs/nouns with a close link to the promotion of value positions, such as multiculturalism and environmentalism. It is concluded that business ethics occupies a more marginal position within the curriculum than previous studies have suggested.

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Published date: 2004
Keywords: aims and objectives, business curriculum, quality assurance agency

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 13995
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/13995
ISSN: 0167-4544
PURE UUID: 84d65c88-58d7-4c24-b637-5815b962fa03

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Date deposited: 22 Feb 2005
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:16

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Author: Bruce Macfarlane
Author: Roger Ottewill

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