Indiana State University: ISU Newsroom

ISU Professor Develops, Pilot-Tests Course on Business Ethics

January 3 2006

Max Douglas, professor of management in Indiana State University's College of Business, has developed and piloted a proposed undergraduate course entitled "Corporate Citizenship: An Emerging Philosophy of Leadership." The pedagogical research was underwritten by a grant from Networks Financial Institute at ISU.

The course - in essence, a sign of the times - focuses on four primary themes: the responsibility of business in society, ethical decision making, ethical leadership and corporate governance.

"The tide of rising scandals in the corporate world has created a heightened awareness within the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) about the urgency to better educate our undergraduate and graduate students regarding the many dimensions of ethical leadership," Douglas explained.

As one sign of the AACSB's commitment to this issue, it has hosted back-to-back workshops on "Teaching Business Ethics." Douglas attended one of the workshops in the summer of 2005 and will attend another this summer. He also will present a paper sharing his course rationale, content and teaching methods at meetings of the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences next month (February) in Las Vegas.

Some of the primary objectives of the Corporate Citizenship course were to:

Create awareness and understanding of the ethical decision-making process within the context of business;
Analyze various corporate strategies for supporting and cultivating ethical behavior;
Understand how different leadership styles and cultural paradigms can influence the ethical behavior of employees;
Assess the role of corporate governance relative to a company's relationship with multiple stakeholders;
Examine and understand the challenges of identifying, mapping and managing stakeholder relationships;
Study the history and benefits of strategic philanthropy vis-à¶is corporate citizenship; and
Complete a Corporate Citizenship Assessment Project of a Fortune 500 company and present the results to class colleagues.

Douglas, who has been a member of ISU's faculty since 1968, earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Ball State University and his doctorate from Indiana University. He has taught on a variety of topics, including organizational behavior, small business management and entrepreneurship, leadership and organizational change, and business ethics. In addition, his research has focused on eustress, teaching and learning styles, and ethics in the workplace, among other areas.

For more information about the course, contact Douglas at (812) 237-2104 or at mfdgls@isugw.indstate.edu

Contact: Max Douglas, professor of management, Indiana State University College of Business, (812) 237-2104 or at mfdgls@isugw.indstate.edu

Writer: Maria Greninger, associate director, Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, (812) 237-4357 or m-greninger@indstate.edu

Story Highlights

Max Douglas, professor of management in Indiana State University's College of Business, has developed and piloted a proposed undergraduate course entitled