Teaching Empathy and Ethical Decision Making in Business Schools

Abstract

Researchers in behavioral ethics seek to understand how individuals respond to the ethical dilemmas in their lives. In any given situation, multiple social and psychological variables interact to influence ethical decision making. The purpose of this article is to explore how one such variable, empathy, affects the ethical decision-making process and to identify specific instructional strategies that both increase empathy and challenge students to consider the role that empathy plays in their own decisions. Two learning activities are described. The first requires students to recommend median salaries for several positions in a fictitious company and then use those salaries to create two family budgets, one for an entry-level position and another for the CEO. The second activity measures students’ empathic concern and encourages students to consider the relationship between empathic concern and decision making in business. Increased awareness of self and others prompts a more deliberate, thoughtful decision-making process when assessing ethical situations.