Real-World Ethics

Ethics education in Jana Schrenkler’s classroom is far from an abstract exercise focused on shopworn case studies or workplace dilemmas with clear-cut solutions. Schrenkler, an assistant professor of business at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona, knows business students tend to think “that will never be me” when presented with cases of ethical misdeeds or white-collar crime, so she takes something of a scared-straight approach to drive her points home.

Schrenkler corresponds with businesspeople who’ve been incarcerated for legal transgressions and brings their lessons into her classes. One correspondent is the former owner of a Kansas City remodeling company involved in more than 200 fraudulent mortgage loans. Others have been convicted of crimes ranging from falsifying documents to conspiracy to accounting fraud.

Schrenkler asks inmates to respond to questions like, “Do you feel you had a good understanding of your personal core values as a businessperson?” and “Do you think it’s possible to have an aggressive business culture that also is highly ethical?” Prior to the exercise, many of her students believed these executives were likely raised in unstable families with questionable moral character. That impression changed after receiving responses.

“Many of the executives said they were raised with strong moral values, but at some point it became easy for them to take that first step, whether it was falsifying a document or signing off on a loan they knew someone couldn’t afford,” Schrenkler says. As one inmate wrote to her class, “It can be easy to move that line ever so slightly daily until you don’t realize how far off course you have wandered.”

Schrenkler’s teaching point: Even seemingly strong moral fiber can be tested by pressure to meet performance goals or by work cultures that encourage—or choose to conveniently overlook—unethical behavior.

“My goal with the project is to help students realize the likelihood of at some point being put into situations where they’ll have to choose between personal gain and ethical responsibility, just like these incarcerated executives had to,” she says.

Living in the Gray

Schrenkler’s approach reflects a push in MBA programs toward more practical and personal ethics instruction and on a curriculum that teaches future leaders how to make sound ethical decisions in complicated or ambiguous situations.

“My belief is business grads aren’t always coming out of school with the kind of training that teaches them how to live in the gray areas of the corporate world,” Schrenkler says.