Barry Schwartz suggests that we should not teach ethics courses because that puts ethical lessons into a box and divorces them from the practical context in which ethical problems arise.
Reduced to a curriculum, ethics becomes a trivial discipline. This is wonderfully illustrated by an item reported in Reuters: Cartel tells smugglers to live “clean” life. “Rafael Cedeno, a leader of “The Family” cartel based in the western state of Michoacan, told police after he was arrested at the weekend he had trained several thousand cartel members with courses in ethics and personal improvement.”
Do we really believe that teaching ethics at business schools will stem the kind of greed that has plunged the world into recession? Maybe it’s time we got serious about ethics. As Schwartz suggests, let’s teach ethics by celebrating moral exemplars instead. These don’t have to be famous historical figures. There are plenty of people we all encounter in our everyday lives who conduct themselves with integrity. We need them, and they need our acknowledgment.