Developing Ethical Leadership: An Analysis of Business Ethics Education in National Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States

This study was designed to survey and compare current undergraduate business ethics curricular strategies and preferences among national liberal arts colleges in the United States. There are 180 national liberal arts colleges as classified by the U.S. News and World Report Rankings with a significant percentage of these liberal arts colleges offering economics and/or business administration majors. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the survey responses of business school administrators (and/or professors) who work with undergraduate business education in national liberal arts colleges regarding undergraduate business ethics education. The three research questions address curriculum approaches for undergraduate business ethics education currently in use in the national liberal arts colleges, preferences regarding specific instructional approaches to undergraduate business ethics education and preferences for the measurement of learning outcomes in business ethics education. The study utilized an online survey and resulted in a 30.55% response rate (55 responses). Results of the study indicate differences in terms of the curricular strategies (standalone business ethics courses, ethics integration throughout the curriculum, or a combination) currently being used in the national liberal arts colleges, but also that there are very similar preferences for instructional methods (case study, lecture, online, face-to-face), business ethics faculty and the measurement of learning outcomes in teaching business ethics at the undergraduate level