TEACHING BUSINESS ETHICS DURING AN ECONOMIC CRISIS

Abstract

In 2003 a conference took place at Adam Mickiewicz University, organised by the Polish chapter of EBEN and the Institute of Cultural Studies of AMU and dedicated to the “post-Enron trauma” in business ethics teaching and research. We still discussed the issue even after the conference and finally the proceedings were published in 2005 under the title “Post-Enron business ethics”.1 All authors were convinced that business ethicists witnessed a kind of a turning point: such a shock should have a healing long term effect. Once we had witnessed the consequences of an unethical and, in most cases, simply criminal behaviour – nothing of that would be allowed in the future. Managers would learn the lesson as well as governments, public opinion and the whole range of other stakeholders. For business ethicists it was an opportunity to analyse corporate governance problems, to ask whether similar breach of all basic rules would be possible in Europe and to use this case as a basis of class discussions at universities and elsewhere.2 At that time (and today) “Enron” of course was a symbol of the whole series of bankruptcies caused by questionable business behaviour that shook the American economy. Many prominent figures of American business and politics deplored about the erosion ethical standards and about greed as a driving force of many American companies. Among them are Henry Paulson, Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan who are not – as noted by Laczniak and Murphy – “left-wing crackpots, socialist university professors, or third-world antiglobalists seeking to derail capitalism. They are among the most respected captains of the American economic system, and they are shocked, saddened, and growingly disturbed about the practices and veracity of the business and financial system.”