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Business Ethics and South Park: A Pedagogical Exploration into Using Popular Media to Relate to Contemporary Undergraduate Student Experiences
Thomas Clark
Professor of Management, Xavier University, USA
Julie Stewart
Visiting Assistant Professor, Miami University, USA
Marilyn Clark
Instructor, Xavier University, USA
Volume 12: 2019, pp. 83-96; ABSTRACT
The lives of most undergraduates are far removed from the executives of Fortune 500 companies featured in business textbooks, many of which describe organizational actions with little relationship to student experiences and aspirations. Our challenge is to bridge that gap. To do so, we ask students to view two episodes of South Park as a springboard for a group exercise in a blended format. Its goal is to explore the role of integrity in business, with a focus on the ethics of lying. Students share their answers in small groups and with the class. These discussions lead to fruitful understandings of many dimensions of ethics, power, and trust, with specific references to contemporary issues of organizational ethics. This exercise helps faculty relate to students on a playing field with which they are familiar and encourages student discussion of key business ethics issues, stimulating thought that is later connected to case studies concerning the dynamics of power, credibility, and the ethics of lying.
