About Ethics and Values in Business Education - A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe our thoughts and reflections concerning some current ethical questions and values in business education. We will try to put our own perceptions of these themes into linguistic form, although we accept the idea that linguistic expression can reach only a part of the human experience (Lehtovaara 1992, 119, Perttula 1996, 11, also Polanyi 1967). In that sense, also this written paper is limited by language. Our study is based on the papers and the discussion at "The Fourth International Conference on Social Values in Education and Business" held in Oxford in the summer of 1997. Rather than present all the topics of the conference, we will focus on the themes which we found to be especially cogent and relevant to the field of business education.

We study the themes from the viewpoint of western business teachers and in that sense we are bound in our pre-understanding. Pre-understanding encompasses the conditions of our existence which create the limits and, at the same time, give opportunities to our understanding (Kusch 1985, 90, Lehtovaara 1992, 126). The starting point in this paper is interesting, because we, as writers, have different cultural backgrounds (Finland and the United States) and in that sense our pre-understanding is different. Despite this, we believe that our common experiences at the conference provided us with shared understandings and meanings. Writing this paper has also meant the development of these shared meanings (Aaltio-Marjosola 1992, 28 - 29, 32 - 33, also Berger & Luckman 1966). Therefore, we assume that this paper can be richer in description than it otherwise would be. Our purpose is not only to describe our thoughts and reflections but to create discussions surrounding the topics.