Business Ethics

One by-product of the Industrial Revolution has been the compartmentalization of knowledge. Compartmentalization—the separation of ideas or processes into isolated categories1—has proven efficient in the manufacturing world, but it often leads to the acceptance of false ideas in the academic world. For example, universities have long attempted to train students to be ethical decision makers. Under a compartmentalized system of thought, students are taught ethical philosophies and theories, managerial strategies, and accountability procedures as if they were independent and somewhat unrelated elements in the business process. But anyone working in the “real world” knows that these elements of decision making are inseparable. A decision in one area will affect all the other areas in some way.