Independent University, Bangladesh

Assignment

Behavioral Ethics in Practice: Integrating Service Learning Into a Graduate

Business Ethics Course.

Submitted to
Dr. Md. Anowar HossainBhuiyan
School of Business (SB)
Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)

MBA 515, Sec: 01

Legal & Ethical Issues in Business

Submission Date: 25th March, 2021

Introduction:
Business ethics is vital for success in the modern world, and so is a fundamental requirement for
any business school program. This article shows us that how service learning can be a
meaningful component of a four-credit, one-quarter graduate business ethics course by blending
both normative/prescriptive and behavioral/descriptive ethics. Normative ethics is the study of
ethical action whereas descriptive ethics is the study of people’s views about moral beliefs.

Problem Statements:
In this article, authors attempt to bridge the gap between prescriptive and behavioral ethics by
means of incorporating a service learning experience in a graduate business ethics course.

Service learning ethics is teaching and learning approach that aspires to integrate student service
in community or school settings with academic coursework in order to meet educational and
community goals. Service learning participation has been shown to be positively related to
graduate students it will increased their self-understanding tendency; will give priority to social
justice issues, will increase their belief that they are connected to the community.

Objectives:
The main objective of this paper is to show how service learning can be an important part of a
graduate business ethics course. The specific objectives of this article were-

 To distill key learning outcomes from the service-learning project as recorded by

students.
 To get reflection activity in which students characterize topics, such as their own role in
solving ethical problems, or their role in ethical decision making, where evaluation
criteria could include incorporation of examples or writing quality.
 To develop a caring attitude toward others by extending student learning outside of the
classroom and into the community.
Methodology:
In this article researchers’ uses sample of 215 students and their 7 courses from 2008 to 2016 for
assessing the service-learning experience.

Authors collect primary data from the students; related course teachers. Researchers’ uses
qualitative methods as they use implement idea, observe activities of students, evaluate and
received reflection paper from students for gaining a deep understanding of program
participants’ experiences. Students write reflection paper, discussed about the organization and
the activity that connected with the themes of the course. Teaching team developed a rubric for
determining proficiency for the service-learning assignment as not proficient, proficient or very
proficient; and marked based on students performance and reflection paper.

As secondary data, researchers’ described many definitions and strategies from other authors in
classroom, like service learning definition from Campus Compact, Barber’s (1992) notion of
citizenship duty, Ferman & Hill’s community outreach; Aristotle’s virtue ethics etc.

Findings:
Here authors use two separate assessments: ethical decision making and impact of the service-
learning project. The results indicate that 198 or 92.1% of students were proficient or very
proficient in reflecting on their service-learning experience and connected with course themes,
except Summer 2015 assessment. As Summer semester is shorter and the teaching team assign
the social capital readings without a class period to students. Unfortunately, the assessment
reduced student knowledge related to social capital. So teaching team give emphasized on social
capital in the following summer that enhanced assessment scores back to 92%. This is an
indication of the efficacy of the use of service learning in teaching both behavioral and
prescriptive ethics.

Recommendation:
 For future investigate, I would recommend to evaluate the affect of the service-learning
project by utilizing an exploratory plan or conducting pretests and posttests.
 Should increase facilities and enable the cooperation between different faculties and
departments
 Should assess the impact of the Service-learning project in teaching behavioral ethics.