Integrating Ethical Reasoning Instruction into Business Courses
A grant from the Lilly Endowment facilitated a series of research studies designed to identify classroom teaching practices and instructional resources that can be used by business instructors to positively affect levels of moral reasoning in undergraduate students enrolled in business foundational courses (such as accounting, business communication, finance, management, management information systems, marketing, etc.). The question addressed in this research was: Can content area instructors who have not had formal training in ethical theory teach ethical reasoning in foundational courses to undergraduate students without causing a disruption to the regular content normally covered in such courses? Further, can this approach to integrating ethical reasoning into foundational business courses actually increase levels of student moral development?
The research was conducted over five semesters in the College of Business at Indiana State University. The measurement of moral reasoning used in the research was the revised version of the Defining Issues Test, the DIT-2. The research resulted in the development of teaching practices and instructional materials that can, when properly sequenced and integrated into undergraduate foundational business courses, significantly increase levels of student moral reasoning as measured by the DIT-2.
The following links provide access to the teaching resources developed through this research: manuscripts, articles, and materials developed for use in the classroom. All interested instructors may utilize any of these resources in their courses as long as appropriate citation credit is provided. If a professor would be interested in utilizing the integrating these instructional materials into a course and would like to measure the results of the intervention through a pretest - posttest design, I would be interested in discussing such a collaboration.
Please direct any inquiries, questions, comments or suggestions regarding this research, any of the publications and supporting materials to Dr. William Wilhelm at wwilhelm@indstate.edu or by phone at 812 237-2076.
1. Intervention Protocol Guidelines: Presents a synthesis of how best to integrate the instructional materials on this page into a course.
2. Journal article summarizing the research: This article provides an in-depth discussion of each step in the developmental research process.
"Integrating Instruction in Ethical Reasoning into Undergraduate Business Courses," Journal of Business Ethics Education, 2008, vol. 5.
3. Ethical reasoning journal article developed for assigned reading for students:
"Ethical Reasoning for the Business Classroom: A Decision-Making Framework," Journal of Applied Research for Business Education, 2006, vol. 4, no. 2., pp. 1-6.
4. Ethical
reasoning article used by instructor in class discussion as sample case :
"Ethical Reasoning for the Business Classroom: A Decision-Making Framework
Sample Case," Journal of Applied Research for Business Education, 2006,
vol. 4, no. 3., pp. 1-6.
5. Ethical reasoning steps handout - used by students for case analyses:
"Ethical Decision-Making Steps"
6. PowerPoint lecture for presentation after students complete assigned reading (2 above). Instructors should view in Notes Page view:
"Decision Making in an Ethical Dilemma"
7. Ethics Quiz - assessment used after assigned reading and lecture (2 and 4, above) - please request by e-mail.
The following links provide access to preliminary studies conducted by the researcher. These studies served as a basis for designing the Promising Scholars research studies:
1. Journal article summarizing results from first study in accounting course:
"A Quasi-Experimental Study of Moral Reasoning of Undergraduate Business Students Using an Ethical Decision-Making Framework in a Basic Accounting Course,"
William J. Wilhelm and Alan B. Czyzewski, Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, 2006, vol. 48, no. 3.
2. Journal article reviewing ethics instruction in top-fifty U.S. business schools:
"A Review of the Top Fifty U.S. Business Schools' Approaches to Ethics Education," Journal of Business and Economic Perspectives, Spring/Summer 2005, vol. 31, no. 1., pp. 203 - 217.
3. Journal article describing descriptive moral reasoning study (using DIT-2) of university students at researcher's institution:
"Determinants of Moral Reasoning: Academic Factors, Gender, Richness-of-Life Experiences, and Religious Preferences," Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, Spring/Summer 2004, vol. 46,
no. 2., pp. 105-123.