Teaching Business Ethics Through Service Learning Metaprojects

Abstract

The urgent messages of good business include the importance of ethical management behaviors, focus on corporate citizenship, recognition of principled leadership, moral awareness, and participation in social change. This article describes the Service Learning Metaproject (a nested set of projects required of all students) and shows what students can accomplish to promote a better world. It addresses four measurable learning objectives: providing contact with divergent populations, making conscious moral decisions and committing to ethical action, deriving meaning from everyday activities, and developing adaptability and flexibility. It documents the achievement of these with undergraduate business students performing metaprojects that begin with service, lead to learning, and are followed by the development of a direct application. The conclusion is the implementation of that application. All the service learning projects this article describes required a Service Folio for student reflection on service experiences, relationships to readings, and concrete team project deliverables.