As
part of an ongoing commitment to prepare students for life's
inevitable ethical challenges, Loyola Marymount University
has, since 1985, conducted an annual program devoted to
business ethics. Under the leadership of Dean John Wholihan,
the College of Business Administration has brought together
executives, ethicists, attorneys, public officials, and
other experts to explore the ethical issues related to a
particular industry or aspect of business. "Business Ethics
Week" focused on such diverse and critical topics as ethics
and television, women in the workplace, and the situation
facing both business and government after the Los Angeles
riots. This yearly series of lectures and panels educated
students about the necessity, difficulty, costs, and rewards
of conducting business ethically.
Business
Ethics Fortnight
In the fall of 1995, "Business Ethics Week" came under the direction
of LMU's new Center for Business Ethics and grew into "Business
Ethics Fortnight." This two week educational program aims to
build on the success of "Business Ethics Week" in a way that
engages students as active learners and increases the amount
of direct contact they have with men and women in business.
Supervised by Thomas I. White, the Center's Director and the
first permanent holder of the university's Hilton Chair of Business
Ethics, "Business Ethics Fortnight" ran from March 18 to April
1, 1996.
In its inaugural year, this unique program consisted of four
elements:
.
a student team case competition;
.
a combined athletic competition and fund raising event;
.
a combined academic/athletic competition;
.
a concluding panel discussion.
I.
Student Team Case Competition
The
centerpiece of Business Ethics Fortnight was a student team
case competition for LMU students. Students were invited
to assemble teams of three to six members and compete for
cash prizes. Their task was to research an ethical issue
connected with an actual business, come to a recommendation,
and prepare a 20 to 30 minute presentation in which they
imagined that they were addressing the senior management
of that company. Virtually all of the cases were contributed
by Southern California businesses. Companies were given
the option of offering problems that they were either currently
facing or had successfully handled in the past. (If the
latter, students were not given the company's solution.)
The theme chosen for the 1996 competition was business, ethics
and the environment. Virtually every environmental problem poses
risks to human health or involves a conflict between fundamental
rights of different groups. Accordingly, students should have
a relatively easy time uncovering the ethical implications of
these issues when businesses face them. In addition, because
environmental issues are a particularly pressing aspect of living
and doing business in the Los Angeles basin, it was hoped that
this would increase interest in the competition among students
and companies.
Each team's job was to educate its audience about the problem
they researched and then to argue for their solution. Presentations
were judged by a combination of business people and faculty
on how thorough, realistic, and convincing they were. The task
of each team was demanding: presentations had to cover everything
from relevant legal and ethical to financial and scientific
matters. Solutions had to pass muster on all four counts. In
order to help students with the task, written guidelines were
distributed and two workshops were offered: one on research
skills and strategies, taught by Anthony Amodeo of the LMU Library
Reference Department, and another on presentation skills, conducted
by Mark Busch of Northrop Grumman.
The competition was designed to help students develop specific,
practical skills.
.
Students learned how to do research about multi-faceted, real-life
dilemmas in businesses and to reconcile a variety of often
conflicting demands-financial, ethical, and environmental.
.
Students learned about team-building, group dynamics, and
the advantages and challenges of working on a team.
.
They learned how to put together an effective presentation.
.
And they practiced these skills in a low-risk environment,
that is, one in which their job, reputation, a promotion,
or raise was not riding on the outcome.
Response
from students, faculty, and area businesses was very gratifying:
141 students put together 31 teams and worked on 22 cases connected
with 13 companies. (Most teams came from 5 sections of 2 courses
that required students to participate: Business as an Institution
in Society and Christian Ethics in the Marketplace.) Each team
made a presentation in a preliminary round of the competition,
and 8 teams then advanced to the finals. Presentations were judged
by 60 volunteers from area businesses (including 21 members of
LMU's MBA program) and 23 faculty from a variety of disciplines
(management, finance, CIS, marketing, business law, accounting,
theological studies, philosophy, and mathematics).
First place and the $1,000 Emmons Prize were won by a team that
worked on noise pollution at the Los Angeles airport. Two teams
tied for second place, each winning $500: a team that discussed
the use of polystyrene by Marriott's campus food service, and
a team that studied a major automobile manufacturer's dilemma
about how best to use a piece of land it had acquired.
II.
LMU Run for the Bay
As
a way to increase the visibility of "Business Ethics Fortnight"
both on and off campus, to
