Are University Professors Qualified to Teach Ethics?

In recent years, the field of ethics has grown rapidly in Canadian universities. New positions have been created and research centres devoted to studying ethics has been established. Philosophers and theologians have led the way in medical ethics, environmental ethics, legal ethics, and business ethics. At our own university, Saint Mary’s, the study of ethics takes various forms. The philosophy department offers a course in business ethics, while the accounting department addresses ethical issues in topics such as fraud, negligence, the GAAP, and tax.

Professors in our business schools talk about the importance of teaching business ethics and call for ethics courses relevant to today’s business world. Many business professors now believe that only people who know business should teach business ethics. In their opinion, general discussions and abstract pronouncements on business by philosophers and theologians do not meet the needs of business students. They argue that the ethical dilemmas found in actual business situations are complex. People need comprehensive business knowledge to understand and resolve them. In short, “how can you teach business ethics if you don’t know anything about business”?

Are our business professors qualified to teach business ethics? To address this question, consider first how self-regulated professional groups (e.g., lawyers, doctors, accountants, engineers) deal with professional ethics. Formal codes of conduct play a central role in these professions. These codes require members to perform with high professional competence, honesty, and integrity, and they spell out unacceptable behaviour. Evidently, defining a formal code of conduct and demanding that members observe it is a crucial ethical issue for these professional groups.

By contrast, a formal code of conduct does not guide the behaviour of university professors. In fact, we do not even share an informal code of ethics. Given the complex interactions and relationships among university professors, and the growing concern with ethics in Canadian universities, this state of affairs is surprising.

What guides the behaviour of university professors? A vague notion of what is or isn’t legal may help a professor decide whether to take home stationery supplies, make personal phone calls at work, or use work time for paid consulting. These ethical questions don’t seem difficult, but other ethical questions may be much harder to answer. For example, many administrators use student evaluations to renew, promote, or tenure faculty, data that may be an unreliable measure of teaching ability. Might this tempt professors to influence the results of student evaluations? What happens when a professor must vote on tenure for a colleague who previously voted against the decision maker?

Academics who teach ethics to students must understand ethics themselves. They must notice, and effectively deal with, the complex ethical issues in their university environment. Part of this challenge is in understanding the factors that influence and shape their own judgments and decisions. Otherwise, academics become like corporate executives who preach ethics to employees while abusing the perquisites associated with their positions. For ethical behaviours to become a meaningful part of the educational process, they must be lived by the professors who convey them.

Richard (Dick) Chesley and Bruce Anderson
Saint Mary’s University
d.chesley@stmarys.ca