Ethics, schmethics. So long as I get my bonus.

Article in the NY Times about business schools struggling with the concept of ethics courses. Belatedly, business schools have recognized the need for such courses, following the excesses of WorldCom, Enron, and the like. An informal survey last spring indicated that 35% of schools have a required ethics course, a percentage that's unchanged since 1988. Alternatives to a required ethics course include elective ethics courses or some sort of emphasis on ethics in all courses (although I'm not sure what the interrelation between ethics and macro-economics is). Or, of course, ignoring ethics altogether.

Law schools, on the other hand, have required ethics courses - required for graduation and required for membership in state bars. And the legal profession has codified rules of ethical behavior for attorneys and for judges, not that everyone who ought to understand them follows them.

I understand that business schools aren't going to be able to create ethical standards in people who don't already have them. By the time someone is 25 - the typical minimum age at a business school - his personal ethical positions are pretty much set. But a good ethics course can cause that student to re-examine those positions in light of business-related issues: do you pay bribes in a culture that expects it? how far do you push the envelope on, say, accounting standards or FTC regulations? how does (or should) your conduct differ when you're representing your company instead of yourself?

And one of the fascinating things I learned in the business ethics course I took at Fuqua was that some of my classmates freely expressed ethical standards that guaranteed that I would never do business with them. (And this in an elective ethics course. Why were they taking the course? To learn more about people they think they could take advantage of?) For these students - headed to trading floors on Wall Street - "ethical" meant "whatever you could get away with." Even if something were against the law, if they could do it, make a profit, and not get caught, that was okay by them.