ORDER ARTICLE PERMISSIONS/REPRINTS/OFFPRINTS
To order permissions to include this article in textbooks, edited volumes, course booklets, online/digital course packs, etc., and/or to order multiple individual hard copies for classroom use, please contact the copyright owners, Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication. An inspection copy of the Teaching Note can be ordered by contacting the Publishing Editor at pneilson@neilsonjournals.com
Understanding the Ethical Considerations That Inform Student Environmental Remediation Decision-Making
Thomas Clark and Marcia Lensges
Xavier University, USA
Julie Stewart
Miami University, USA
Volume 13: 2020, pp. 81-102; ABSTRACT
As students often see issues in terms of right and wrong, we conduct an exercise that introduces them to ethical ambiguities that can affect decision-making, specifically concerning the reporting of potential environmental violations under conditions of negative profitability and high levels of uncertainty. Its learning objectives are to give students deeper insight into the realities of decision-making in an ambiguous environment and to help them understand the social pressures under which corporate actors operate. It offers students class time to reflect on the role of the uncertainty of predicting the consequences of competing proposals in a realistic forced choice simulation. Students participate actively in this exercise, commenting on their heightened awareness of the difficulties of decision-making when made aware of the negative consequences to different stakeholders. It also helps faculty understand the sense-making underlying the decisions for which the student groups advocated.
