Management Education and the Teaching of Ethics: Pedagogy, Practice and the Challenge of a New Initiative

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of teaching of ethics in management education with specific reference to the debate on this and pedagogic interventions in India and the United States. It describes, among others, the initiative taken at Harvard Business School to teach ethics to MBA students as well as the effort made by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta to teach ethics and human values to the students. It is argued that all these pedagogic initiatives can help us to be more reflective about the predicament of ethics in our practice of management in particular and life in general. In conclusion, it is argued that the universe of discourse of ethics must be broadened whereby ethical orientation does not refer to one's minimalist concern of being legally correct but to pursuing actively the well-being of others, especially of those who do not matter much to the managers of systems.