Ethics Education of Business Leaders

Emotional Intelligence, Virtues, and Contemplative Learning

By:
Tom E. Culham, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

A volume in the series: Transforming Education for the Future. Editor(s): Jing Lin, University of Maryland. Rebecca L. Oxford, University of Maryland. Vachel W. Miller, Appalachian State University. Amanda Jane Fiore, State Department.

Published 2013

Events on Wall Street and Main Street reveal that some business leaders make dramatically unethical self-serving decisions that ignore the public interest. How can business schools educate future business leaders to make ethical decisions? Unfortunately, most business schools fail in teaching ethical decision-making. They erroneously assume that such decision-making is primarily conscious and reason-based, reflecting the western cultural orientation toward science and logic.

In this book, Thomas Culham cites neurological findings showing that unconscious processes and emotions play a much more significant role than reason in making ethical decisions. Culham urges business schools to teach a modified form of emotional intelligence, linked with research-supported contemplative practices from the great meditative traditions. This book details the author's ethics curriculum and explains its successful application at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. This fascinating, interdisciplinary, and highly practical curriculum integrates philosophy (virtue ethics), Daoist thinking, psychology, and neuroscience. This curriculum intends to transform the way business schools teach decision making. Such an effort might just transform the way we do business.

CONTENTS
Abstract. Acknowledgments. 1. Background, Context, Overview, and Guiding Philosophy. 2. Emotional Intelligence Meets Virtue Ethics: Implications for Educators. 3. Emotional Intelligence as a Component of Business Ethics Pedagogy. 4. Nourishing Life, the Daoist Concept of Virtue. 5. Cultivation of Virtue (dé) According to the Neiye. 6. Cultivation of Virtuous Leaders According to the Huainanzi. 7. Is There a Place for Contemplation and Inner Work in Business Ethics Education? 8. Incorporating the Inner Work of EI and Contemplation in Ethics Education. Glossary. About the Author.