Acting Ethically: Moral Reasoning and Business School Student Behavior Anthony F. Buono, Bentley University Donna Fletcher-Brown, Bentley University Robert Frederick, Bentley University Gregory J. Hall, Bentley University Jahangir Sultan, Bentley University Introduction Although society continues to place increased emphasis on ethics and corporate conduct, recent events have, once again, shaken faith in our business system. Over the past decade, a dis- turbing number of well-known, highly admired corporations have fallen into corporate infamy. Although it appears that dubious deal making, excessive risk taking, and questionable account- ing and financial practices lie at the heart of many of these problems, the abuses over the last several decades suggest that problems mn much deeper, raising concems about the basic orienta- tion of many of our business executives. While corporate cultures, subcultures, and related pres- sures can readily influence such misconduct (see Cialdini, Petrova and Goldstein, 2004; Green- berg, 2002), many of these ethical lapses were committed by graduates of our business schools (Kaplan and Kowitt, 2009). As a result, increased pressure is being placed on business schools to provide more ethics edu- cation. Business schools have been challenged to help students develop the skills and tools they need to identify ethical issues, analyze the im- plications for relevant stakeholders, and provide a foundation for ultimate business decision making. Indeed, a broad array of critics (e.g., Ferguson, et al, 2011; Ghoshal, 2005; Gordon, 2011 ; Miller, 2009) suggest that much of the underlying blame for recent scandals is based on a lack of ethical sensitivity among managers and on the amoral, shareholder supremacy underpin- nings of business education. As a result of such concems, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business Intemational (AACSB) has increased its emphasis on the inclusion of ethics in business curricula (AACSB, 2004), though it stopped short of mandating a required business ethics course. The UN Global Compact's Prin- ciples for Responsible Management Education initiative has called for a basic rethinking of the approach taken in business schools, challenging faculty to emphasize more fully the creation of sustainable value for a broad range of stakehold- ers. Other professional associations - from the Aspen Institute and the European Foundation for Management Development to Net Impact - are also championing the change, pushing for busi- nesspeople and students to use their talents to create a more socially inclusive and environmen- tally sustainable world. While calls for program reassessments and curricular change in business schools have become prominent (see, for example, Buono, Carteron and Gitsham, 2012; Muff, 2012; Thomas and Comuel, 2012), Pfeffer (2003) has questioned the extent to which unethical busi- ness behavior is a result of the type of theories and models typically taught in business schools. Instead, he proposed that those seeking busi- ness degrees may already have personal moral philosophies that are consistent with immoral or amoral business behavior. A recent study by Neubaum et al (2009), however, suggests this may not be the case. Based on Forsyth's (1992) questionnaire measuring personal moral philoso- phies, Neubaum and colleagues did not find any significant difference between those of incoming business and non-business students. Moreover, 18 SAM Advanced Management Journal — Summer 2012