TEACHING ENRONOMICS

New York Post ^ | July 2 2002 | STEPHEN H. BALCH

[bradactor]

But the details undermine any grounds for optimism.

Specifically, 73 percent respond that the view of ethics most often transmitted was the politically correct "what is right and wrong depends on differences in individual values and cultural diversity," compared to a mere 25 percent who indicate "the copybook choice" that "there are clear and uniform standards of right and wrong by which everyone should be judged."

[irv]

In the business classes I took, teachers were reluctant to teach about ethics at all, especially if they had strong views of their own. This tells me they've been stung by the "everything is relative" crowd.

As for the politically correct diversity and environmental concerns, I've seen those openly promoted in business and accounting textbooks. Usually the business oriented teachers tend to downplay them.

OTOH, Those who teach things like English and Sociology - which are generally required for almost any major, including business - push that stuff very hard.

[norraad]

But then there's another sort of inner circle university to attend after "former" schooling & the working world begins;

The hushed "..well, they're doing it & getting ahead of us & getting away with it, so we might as well try it too"

post post grad economics 101

[LouD]

I've taken some interesting classes in business ethics, including a truly great course from Nobel laureate economist and historian Robert Fogel.

However, when it comes right down to it, it is not the job of a B-school faculty to teach you what your momma should have taught you before you were old enough to drool over sorority girls.

Are there some complex ethical issues, that present dilemmas to business people. Probably, on occasion. Were Enron or WorldCom among them? Not by a long shot.

I didn't need a class in B-school to teach me that setting up a Potemkin Village energy trading operation for the benefit of visiting securities analysts and the business press is wrong. Nor did I need a class to teach me that screwing the stockholders by enriching myself, when I'm supposed to be working for them, is wrong.

Call me idealistic, perhaps - But blaming this on anything but the avarice of people who should have known better is just plain BS.

[TheMole]

You make a very good point. Unfortunately, the scary fact remains that many college graduates today think that it truly is more important to be politically correct than to be honest. They really think that affirmative action hiring is more important than telling the truth, that recycling paper and glass is better than keeping your commitments. It's alarming.

[Cacique]

btt