Article
Educating Ethical Leaders for the Information Society: Adopting Babies from Business
Advances in Librarianship
(2015)
Abstract
The boundaries between the for-profit sector and traditional nonprofit library focused information professions are blurring. As these information professions grow, more of their future leaders will be graduates from business management programs as opposed to library and information programs. There is a general perception that for-profit employers demand leaders who are analytical and achievement oriented. As a result, business schools have been criticized for focusing their curricula on transaction-based economics with less focus on preparing leaders to do what is right. So, how do we better prepare business graduates to face ethical dilemmas as they move forward to build and support information organizations of the future? This chapter reports the results of a study which explored the viewpoints of American thought leaders about ethics in the context of business programs. A total of 32 subjects from the corporate and higher education settings were interviewed. Results of the study revealed five major themes related to how educators can better prepare our next generation of leaders. Those themes were: (1) insights related to the student; (2) insights pertaining to the goal of business ethics education and curricula; (3) specific cases and experiences to include in ethics course(s); (4) explicit student learning outcomes; and (5) the specific role, skill, and ability of professors teaching ethics courses. While this chapter deals primarily with the academic scope of ethics, the study also explored personal views about ethics by the interviewees. Understanding how foundational ethical beliefs and awareness develop then informs the broader discussion of ethics.
Keywords
- business ethics,
- ethics,
- leadership preparation,
- organizational culture,
- information culture
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 1, 2015
DOI
10.1108/S0065-283020150000039010
Citation Information
Maureen L. Mackenzie. "Educating Ethical Leaders for the Information Society: Adopting Babies from Business" Advances in Librarianship Vol. 39 (2015) p. 47 - 79 ISSN: 0065-2830 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/maureen-mackenzie/8/