The Ethics Project: Teaching Business Ethics Through Student-Created Entrepreneurial Action

Jason Brennan

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The Ethics Project: Teaching Business Ethics Through Student-Created Entrepreneurial Action

Jason Brennan

McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, USA

Volume 15: 2018 pp. 285-302: ABSTRACT

This paper describes the “Ethics Project”, a semester-long entrepreneurial activity in which students must make real-life decisions and then reflect upon their decisions. The Ethics Project asks students to think of something good to do, something that adds value to the world, and then do it. Along the way, they must navigate problems of opportunity cost or feasibility versus desirability, must anticipate and overcome strategic and ethical obstacles, and must ensure they add value, taking into account their costs. Rather than role-playing through case studies, students live through real-life case studies which result from their own choices. When properly administered, the Ethics Project trains students to be principled leaders who integrate ethical principles into strategic decision-making, and who can discover and overcome their own moral limitations.