LAUSR

For management educators who specialize in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, or environmental sustainability issues, 2016 and 2017 have truly been, to borrow a line from Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities, “the best of times and the worst of times.” Unfortunately, the never-ending litany of ethics lapses in corporations—from Volkswagen developing illegal software to manipulate emissions data to United Airlines suffering a global public backlash when it forcibly removed a passenger from his flight—leads to an ongoing sense that it has been the worst of times. But, ironically, for management scholars and educators who are trying to understand—and teach— why business leaders and employees continue to behave in unethical ways, it may be the best of times. Recent developments in the field of behavioral ethics, defined as “a field that seeks to understand how people actually behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas” (Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, 2011, p. 4), opens up the possibilities of teaching and studying ethics in new ways. Behavioral ethics research suggests that people are prone to predictable ethical lapses due to psychosocial and organizational influences, power differentials, and cultural practices (e.g., clan and in-group favoritism). For those who teach business ethics, a behavioral ethics perspective presents new challenges, including the need to develop students’ moral awareness, and their ability to recognize and effectively respond to both personal and organizational ethical dilemmas.