The Cass MBA Perspective: Ethics

At Cass, like many other business schools, we have been re-examining our approach to ethics and the role we play in promoting responsible business practice. Since the financial crisis, these issues have rightly taken on a renewed importance in the City and among students who are increasingly concerned about how corporations affect local communities, the lives of their workers and the wider environments they operate in.

In response to this changing mood, Cass appointed Professor Paul Palmer to lead an Ethics Sustainability and Engagement initiative with a brief to review the way we teach ethics and how it is reflected in the content of our curriculum. Since his appointment in 2010, Cass has designed an ethics awareness programme, rolling out a series of workshops on ethics for both professional and academic staff. 

This ambitious and far-reaching review is designed to ensure ethical issues are reflected in the curriculum of our graduate and postgraduate courses. The staff workshops, which will be completed by 2012, involve asking what, if any, are the ethical issues relating to each of our teaching fields and how can we ensure they are represented sufficiently in the course content. Our aim is not to teach ethics – but to equip students with the skills they need to make critical judgements. This means looking at decisions not only in the context of what is most efficient or profitable in the short-term, but also what is right for the long-term.

Companies want talented people but they also want people with good ethics. By ensuring this critical subject is embedded in everything we teach, we aim to develop successful and responsible business leaders who understand their obligations to employers, customers and shareholders, as well as society at large.

Richard Gillingwater

Dean of Cass Business School