Undergraduate Business Ethics Pedagogy: Writing Constructed Narratives

Michael S. Poulton

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Undergraduate Business Ethics Pedagogy: Writing Constructed Narratives

Michael S. Poulton

Dickinson College, United States

Volume 6: 2009, pp. 93-102: ABSTRACT

Business ethics materials are, by and large, case studies based on corporate policy issues or corporate malfeasance. Yet, many ethical situations are of a very personal nature and require personal responsibility. For undergraduate students who have not had any real exposure to a corporate environment or who do not have enough business savvy to realize what is unethical, the present article explores the use of “constructed narrative cases” to provide students with course materials that may increase their understanding of the personal nature of ethical decision making. The discussion focuses on the use of the short story as a model for developing such cases for classroom use.