Management education in Ethics in Values

Managerial ethics is a set of principles and rules dictated by upper management that
define what is right and what is wrong in an organization. It is the guideline that helps
direct a lower manager's decisions in the scope of his or her job when a conflict of
values is presented.
Value education is the process by which people give values to others. It can be an
activity that can take place in any organisation during which people are assisted by
others, who may be older, in a position of authority or are more experienced, to make
explicit those values underlying their own behaviour, to assess the effectiveness of
these values and associated behaviour for their own and others' long term well-being
and to reflect on and acquire other values and behaviour which they recognise as
being more effective for long term well-being of self and others. There is a difference
between literacy and education.

Values education can take place at home, as well as in schools, colleges,

universities, jails and voluntary youth organisations. There are two main approaches
to values education, some see it as inculcating or transmitting a set of values which
often come from societal or religious rules or cultural ethics while others see it as a
type of Socratic dialogue[2] where people are gradually brought to their own
realisation of what is good behaviours for themselves and their community
Management education as well as management is deeply troubled, but neither can
be changed without changing the other. This extract from Henry Mintzbergs book,
Managers and not MBAs, was written at a time when the current economic crisis had
only just started to set off (2003) and the world was far away from revealing the big
scandals and failures of global banks that peaked in 2008. Following these failures,
the contemporary business and management education landscape is now at a
crucial crossroads.
Ethics, responsibility and sustainability (ERS) are essentially about understanding
and acting to link society, the economy, education and the environment. The current
economic crisis has deeply challenged many societies on all continents, and

management education institutions have been widely criticised for failing to educate
responsible managers that are able to respond adequately to the needs and
interests of all stakeholders and society at large. This criticism hits business schools
after nearly half a century of strong developments, prosperity and success
worldwide..
Examples
Dan is the production manager for a printing company. Taco Junction, one of their
best customers, placed an order for 5,000 menus, to be delivered on the first of the
month. Dan just found out that the order will be delayed by one week because
someone on his team ordered the wrong paper.

Dan has a conflict. Should he call Taco Junction and explain what really happened,
or should he lie and shift the blame to the paper supplier, claiming they sent the
wrong paper? Dan surely doesn't want to lose Taco Junction as a customer, and
they're not going to be happy about the delay.

Luckily for Dan, his company has a clearly defined set of managerial ethics that
covers situations like this. Their policy is simple: don't lie - period! Even if they lose
the customer, it is preferable to losing their values.