“As a professor teaching in both the daytime and STEP programs, I noticed something after teaching Business Ethics in both programs.   Although all of our students seemed very ethical, our STEP students seemed to approach dealing with Ethics in a different way from our daytime students. I wasn’t sure if this was because our STEP students were a bit older, or because they came from different backgrounds, or maybe some other factor.  But something was different when discussing Business Ethics with our STEP students.

“I mentioned the difference to two of my colleagues, Dr. Jones and Dr. Emerson, and we decided to conduct a survey and gather some data.  We submitted a proposal for our research to an Ethics symposium that was to be held at Washington State University and were accepted.  Now all we had to do was gather the data and write a paper!

“We developed a survey and deployed it to about 80 students, a mix of traditional and STEP. The results were different than we thought.  We found that there was very little difference in the way traditional and STEP students approached Business Ethics, but that there were some significant differences in the way men and women approached them.  For instance, men and woman value money and business quite differently.
We were pleased to go to Washington State University last weekend to present our findings.  We had a great time on the road together, and had fun representing NNU to another institution.  We intend to redeploy our survey to a larger group of students in the future and see if the results come back any different. We hope to publish our findings in the future.”

Contributed by Karen Jones and Teri Whilden

The panel was posed ethics questions that covered a range of topics, focusing on the current disaster in Haiti. Panelists were asked if they thought it more ethical to build many weaker structures to meet immediate housing needs, or instead build fewer but more stable structures that would leave many people without adequate shelter this year. Additionally, the panelists were asked if in a depressed economy they would work for a company they found unethical but was the only position available. The students of Dr. Emerson’s Business Ethics Class provided the scenarios.

The audience was given an opportunity to interact with the panelists by using a cell phone poll. To participate, an audience member could text his or her chosen response to a phone number designated for that particular response. The results were immediately displayed by a video projector, and the use of audience feedback contributed to the overall effectiveness of the debate.

SIFE is preparing another Ethics Panel scheduled in Boise on April 19. Members of the Boise State University community will participate along with several Idaho business leaders.

Story contributed by Lauren Hartford

Panel members were Boise State University Athletic Director Gene Bleymaier, Council of Better Business Bureaus Senior Vice President of BBB Capacity Nora Carpenter, former Washington Group CEO Steve Hanks, and former Boise Cascade CEO George Harad.  Moderators of the event were Associate Dean of the NNU School of Business Bill Russell, and President of the Boise BBB Dale Dixon. SIFE collaborated on the presentation with the Boise Better Business Bureau, Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, Peppershock, and Idaho Department of Finance. Questions asked to the panelists were written by members of the SIFE team.

Local TV station KIVI reported the event at http://www.kivitv.com/global/story.asp?s=9156851 under the title “Local Business Leaders Talk Ethics.”  The video report may be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de6eW3mx-x4.

Comments from the panel include;

• Honesty is disarming and the right thing to do.  Telling the truth is difficult, but gets better afterward.  To withhold the truth just gets worse and worse.
• Ethics is the constant that does not change when circumstances do.
• Integrity will do more to drive people to your leadership than anything else.
• Business is not transactional, but relational.  It’s what happens over time.  The Golden Rule works because it is relational.
• When things are easy, ethics is not a challenge.  Ethics becomes harder when we lose things or pay a price. But even when paying a price, do what is right.  It’s the smart thing to do.

R.G. Vanderpool