News @ UOW
Opinions & Experts
Multimedia
Campus News & Events
Resources
 |
Dean of Commerce, Professor Shirley Leitch |
Ethics are back in business
We have come to this planet for a short visit. So this time should be used meaningfully. This means helping others wherever possible. If you cannot help others, do not create pain or suffering for others. Dalai Lama
As a 19 year old student I took a job in a factory. Shocked by the Dickensian practices that ruled this sweatshop, I quit after three days. The inhumane treatment of workers, mostly vulnerable migrants and students, included the use of acid that resulted in permanent scars on the workers faces. The experience had a huge impact on me and entrenched an appreciation of ethics and human rights as a necessity in good business.
Since then much has changed. Whether it was Enron, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, or Britain’s Stern Report, a global tipping point was reached sometime in 2006. It wasn’t just about climate change. It was about massive change in the relationship between business and society. It is no longer acceptable for business to just be about business.
The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has said, “… business schools can play a crucial role by ensuring that tomorrow’s business leaders understand what responsible business means and how it can have positive effects for both the company’s bottom line and the society in which it operates.”
Two years ago, UOW’s Faculty of Commerce embraced that challenge and re-imagined our purpose. It was clear the Faculty wanted to be a force for positive change and produce graduates who believed in genuine corporate social responsibility. To that end, our purpose is to “inspire socially innovative commerce”.
Socially innovative commerce is about ethics. It is humane, environmentally sustainable and underpinned by business innovation. True socially innovative commerce is also about creating wealth, well-being and producing strong societies.
The graduates of the next decade have the opportunity to lead organisations that exemplify ethical decision-making, expand ethical leadership and live up to business responsibility in society. Business schools need to equip students with the necessary skills in ethical decision-making to encourage positive social change.
It has been said that you cannot teach business ethics. I believe you can. And we are. It goes back to connecting the head with the heart.
Ethics is a highly subjective and reflective type of study. Dr Mario Fernando who teaches our ethics course says it is best described as an ‘unlearning process’ which involves intense discussion of confrontational issues such as corruption, euthanasia and violation of human rights. This type of emotional engagement gets students to re-examine their values and think in terms of individual behaviour versus collective benefit. It is about making implicit values explicit.
We are the only undergraduate commerce or business school in Australia focused on socially innovative commerce and already it appears to be awakening a positive force in students.
For example, a recent graduate from the Faculty was appointed to a position with a large multinational organisation and witnessed decision-making by her manager that breached ethical business behaviour. The graduate was new to the company and her manager had 12 years experience. After numerous sleepless nights this young graduate needed to make a choice, to be ethically mute or ethically assertive? She chose action and prepared to join the ranks of job seekers. To her surprise the manager was fired, she got to keep her job and two co-workers were reinstated.
As the Illawarra transforms from old economy to new economy, our graduates will be the ones to lead the business community by developing the moral courage to address unethical practices and create a socially innovative landscape.
The Faculty of Commerce is currently undertaking a major review of its undergraduate program. The review will expand on the work we are presently doing and ensure our graduate qualities (informed; innovative and flexible; socially responsible; connected; communicators) are embedded into every aspect of our teaching and research.
From my experience as a 19-year old to my role as Dean, I’m passionate about leading organisations that are a positive force in society. It goes back to shifting perspectives, from me to we, from get to give, and embracing positive ways to make a meaningful contribution.