Business ethics broadly defined: Ethics involves right or wrong actions taken by corporations. In practice, ethics covers such areas as business law (especially the new Sarbanes-Oxley law), public policy (new SEC guidelines), organizational ethics (e.g., corporate governance), environmentalism (sustainable business practices), and corporate social responsibility (obligations to community and stakeholders). Given this context, ethics courses are often labeled "business and society" or "social issues in management."

The problem of denial: Business schools have historically delivered education tainted by the myth of neoclassical theory that economic decisions are "value free." This myth, conveyed in curriculum that is narrowly vocational and overly specialized, has denied ethics its rightful place in business education.

The trend of downsizing of ethics coursework: The language of accreditation used to point schools in the direction of requiring a stand-alone course in ethics. But in the early 1990s the accrediting agency, AACSB, approved more flexible mission-driven standards that allowed ethics to be "flexified" or scattered across curriculum. The downsizing of ethics courses that ensued became a trend that has continued even in the wake of the corporate scandals. To defend this alarming trend, a false dichotomy has been created. The issue has been framed as a choice between (1) a stand-alone ethics course or (2) integration of ethics across curriculum. In reality there is no dichotomy. A whole cloth approach to ethics involves both endeavors.

The challenge of reversing the trend: Top university administrators need to apply budgetary pressure to reverse this trend. Students could not learn finance, human resources or marketing principles if merely tacked onto other courses. The same holds for ethics. Efforts to integrate ethics across curriculum are laudable if anchored to some kind of foundational course. A holistic approach to business ethics education is a simple formula.

• A required foundational ethics course is necessary.
• Efforts to integrate ethics across curriculum should be a goal.
• Other initiatives, such as hosting guest speakers, offering service learning projects, and establishing endowed chairs in ethics, are highly desirable.

This standard supports cross-fertilization of ideas across disciplines, especially since a core body of ethics material is preserved for reference. Otherwise, schools end up trying to "recreate the wheel" in ethics.

Opportunities for leadership: According to recent studies, a few of the nation's business schools are exerting leadership and requiring ethics coursework as a condition for integration. In light of AACSB weak standards and the history of denial in business schools, these cutting-edge schools are a main source of leadership in ethics education and deserve to be supported by the corporate sector and publicly recognized.