Business schools still lack ethics

The good news: In the wake of high-profile corporate ethics scandals such as those at Enron and Arthur Andersen, a majority of states are requiring an ethics course as a condition for certified public accountant license renewal. The bad news: The majority of business schools are not requiring such stand-alone ethics courses as a condition of graduation.

In fact, research by a team from Kansas State University's College of Business Administration, Manhattan, suggests that ethics courses in business schools have declined during the past two decades, while continuing education in accounting is showing the opposite trend, especially in the wake of the accounting and corporate scandals. "Presently, continuing education is outstripping university requirements for ethics courses in accounting degree programs," says Diane Swanson, associate professor of management.

Swanson and associate professor of accounting Dann Fisher agree that one reason accounting degree programs lag in ethics education is because innovative research and team teaching across accounting and management departments are scarce nationally. Since ethics courses primarily have been housed in the management department at most business schools, the result is that they are given short shrift in accounting programs.

"Most programs want to meet the accreditation standard for ethics with the least amount of effort and disruption," notes Fisher, whose chief concern is that the national discussion seems to be mired in a meaningless debate about whether a stand-alone course for integration across the curriculum is the best way to teach ethics.

"Despite the efforts of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy to require an ethics course as a condition of sitting for the certified public accountant exam, I don't see this debate being resolved soon, much to the detriment of the profession," Fisher laments. "The events of recent years leads us to question the status quo and to think that a different model is in order. We believe that an ethics course is necessary to create the fundamentals needed for ethics coverage integrated across the remainder of the curriculum and for continuing professional education courses to be effective."

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