Teaching a Brand of Ethics Specific to Entrepreneurship

Lisa Getzler-Linn, Lehigh University;
June Ferrill, Rice University

Entrepreneurs’ startups may account for the majority of future new businesses, meaning that many of our students will become business leaders. Given heightened ethical expectations and public scrutiny, our students need to study ethics, and the research indicates that entrepreneurial ethics deserves its own brand. This workshop gives participants the rationale, curriculum, and experience to teach a seven-hour mini-course. The workshop will provide a presentation of research and rationale for teaching entrepreneurial ethics, an introduction of Seven Layers Framework™ and suggested curriculum, and hands-on practice of role-plays and other exercises. Participants will be presented with the Seven Layers of Integrity™ decision-making model which they can teach to students through the suggested role-plays and exercises. This model begins with more concrete areas (i.e., law and contracts), proceeds through industry environments, and ends with more defused areas such as personal values.

>>Read the peer-reviewed paper here (PDF)