Title: Ethical receptive capacity and teaching business ethics

Authors: Chanchai Tangpong; Michael D. Michalisin; Jin Li

Addresses: Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business, North Dakota State University, Department # 2420, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, North Dakota, 58108-6050, USA. ' College of Business, Penn State University, Worthington Scranton, Dunmore, Pennsylvania, 18512, USA. ' Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business, North Dakota State University, Department # 2420, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, North Dakota, 58108-6050, USA

Abstract: In this study, we proposed the ethical receptive capacity (ERC) perspective on teaching business ethics. The ERC perspective was developed on two premises: the separation of personal moral values and professional ethics, and the path dependent nature of professional ethics, such that individuals in the early stage of their profession have higher ERC (i.e., individuals' capacity to receive ethical contents) and thus are more receptive to new ethical contents prescribed to them. The experimental results in this study supported the ERC perspective, suggesting that business ethics education should be introduced to students as early as possible in their business programme.

Keywords: ethical receptive capacity; ERC; business ethics; ethics education; business education; teaching business ethics; business curricula; decision making; personal ethics; professional ethics; experimental design; employee layoff.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSS.2012.047993

International Journal of Society Systems Science, 2012 Vol.4 No.3, pp.278 - 296

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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