Before launching a book-writing effort, we also needed to be convinced that we could
actually teach our readers something. Despite growing interest in ethics and ethics training,
dissenters from both the business and academic communities have raised questions
about whether ethics can or should be taught. Felix Rohatyn, a noted New York investment
banker, said that ethics can’t be taught past the age of 10. Lester Thurow, former
dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management,
echoed this view when he stated that business schools can do little if students haven’t
already learned ethics from their families, clergy, previous schools, or employers.23
In the wake of the insider trading scandals of the 1980s, Thurow and a chief operating
officer of a large Wall Street investment firm claimed on a television news program
that educational institutions or business organizations could have done little
about the unethical individuals who participated in insider trading. These people just
hadn’t been raised with the proper values.
If they’re correct, ethics education is a waste of time and money. “Bad apples”
are just tainted people who can’t be trained or rehabilitated. Therefore, resources
should be devoted to identifying and discarding bad apples, not educating them. We
disagree, and the evidence is on our side
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