A different look at texts

✍ Scribed by George L. Pamental

• Book ID: 104748108
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 471 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-4544
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00382600

✦ Synopsis

The course in business ethics is required by an increasing number of business programs. Accordingly, it seems appropriate to evaluate the text materials used from the perspective of the business student.

Relative to early criticisms, recent texts represent considerable improvements in their use of case materials and in the manner by which they involve the student in decisionmaking situations. However, there are two distortions present in all of the texts examined. First, they concentrate too heavily on cases of a policy, or general management, nature. The result is an inadequate coverage of the functional areas of the firm in which graduates begin their employment. Second, they concentrate too heavily on manufacturing firms, and thus do not introduce students to the ethical problems found where they are most likely to work, in service firms.

It is to be hoped that these imbalances can be easily corrected, thus providing students with a more realistic picture of where in the firm, and in which types of firms, ethical issues are likely to arise.