ALSBers,

I am interested in how many credits MBA programs around the nation 
devote to ethics, and how often ethics (in a *substantial, explicit* 
way) is combined with law, or another topic, in the same course.  Do 
any of you have MBA programs where ethics is a separate course in the 
program?  If ethics is a separate course, how many credits is 
assigned to it, and who teaches it?  is it the business law faculty, 
or bus. law faculty plus non-bus.law faculty, or only non-bus. law 
faculty, or ...?  Do the philosophy department's faculty have any 
role to play in teaching ethics in your MBA program?

In our new MBA program, each of our courses is 2 credits, and meets 
at night.  The classes meet for 8 weeks, for 3.25 hours (minus a 
5-minute break) per week (about 25.3 hours total).  Law and ethics 
are combined into one required course (called Legal and Ethical 
Environment of Business.).  There has arisen a disagreement among the 
MBA faculty as to how much time should be devoted to law and how much 
to ethics in this course.   We are not currently assessing legal 
skills, abilities or knowledge in our current MBA program assessment 
scheme.  Some MBA faculty have said AACSB does not require that law 
be assessed in an MBA program.

I am concerned that law is getting a smaller role than it should have 
in our MBA program and that that role may shrink even further.

In addition to the questions above, I am wondering what role exactly 
does AACSB think business law education should play in an MBA 
program?  is it true that AACSB is more concerned about teaching MBA 
students ethics than teaching them legal principles, skills of legal 
analysis, etc.?

One of my colleagues, an extremely bright and reasonable person who 
has published articles with legal aspects, said (if I understood 
correctly) that if managers act ethically, they will automatically be 
acting legally.  Therefore, teaching business students law was less 
important than teaching them ethics (or at least I *think* this 
professor was suggesting that conclusion).  What do you all think 
about those propositions?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Dan Levin
-- 
Daniel A. Levin, JD, MBA
Associate Professor of Business Law
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Dept. of Accounting & Business Law
Morris Hall 150
Mankato, MN 56001
507.389.1827
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