Academics
Ethics
Ethics at Our Very Core
As headlines blaze with CEO and CFO wrongdoings, most of the world is asking what has happened to ethics in business.
Here at the Johnson School, our commitment to teaching and modeling ethics has been deeply embedded from the outset. We could ask for no better example of an ethical business leader than the man who endowed our school: Samuel C. Johnson. Johnson led the growth and prosperity of the S. C. Johnson Company based on his commitment to a business ethic that deeply respects people, community, and the environment.
Ethics plays a large part in our faculty's research and teaching, ranging from earnings management, to the widening gap between rich and poor. (See, for example, Professor Robert Frank's books including the widely acclaimedThe Winner-Take-All Society andWhat Price the Moral High Ground?
We teach ethics throughout all of our core coursework, largely through abbreviated case studies that focus on business dilemmas embedding ethical and moral issues. We also offer a number of elective courses that focus on ethics in global citizenship, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, financial accounting, technologies, and, of course, leadership. Many of the Johnson School's premier speaking events, such as the Durland and Hatfield lectures and the Park Distinguished Speakers Series, emphasize the responsibilities and obligations of leadership.
But perhaps the most important way that we address ethics is through its daily manifestation in our own culture. We live by our stated values and articulate our expectations of students through our Honor Code. With rigor and candor, we continually challenge our students to deliver shareholder value in a tough economic environment, fraught with temptations and loopholes, with unwavering commitment to the highest ethical and moral standards.
