The Banality of Good and Evil: Ethics Courses in Business Management Education

Abstract

This research explores how ethics is taught in various business management programs, how programs differ from place to place, and how differences are reflective of the larger cultural values pertaining to business practices. I apply Hannah Arendt’s theoretical framework as a heuristic device to examine interviews with business school faculty, students, and graduates from 13 different countries. Arendt’s analysis contends that most individuals are likely to become unthinking followers, carried away by the momentum of the ethical standards manifest in their immediate social surroundings, regardless of what those standards are. Arendt suggests that when individuals apply critical scrutiny, this process can be short-circuited. Her theory is supported by several sets of experiments and endorsed by the data gathered here about beliefs on how ethics and diversity should be taught in business schools.