by Marianne M. Jennings

About the author: Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies in the business college at Arizona State University. She is also the director of the university’s Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.

One day in the mid-1980s, the dean of the business school where I teach called me in and declared that we should begin teaching ethics courses. Why? I asked. We had been sending students to the philosophy department for that.

“We’re losing majors,” the dean explained. “They come back from their ethics course believing capitalism is a tool of the devil, and they’re changing their major to liberal arts.” So we began a course in ethics, designed to guide business students through the importance of honesty and fairness...