Abstract
Reflective learning practice embedded across the business curriculum is a powerful way to equip students with intentionally formed moral habits of the mind and heart. This article explores why and how to apply reflective learning to the teaching of business ethics. To act with integrity in complicated work organizations, students need skills and practices that recognize emotional, intuitive, and social moral influences. Actively engaging in reflections designed to deepen self-awareness primes students to turn deliberately to the purpose they want to bring to their organizational lives. Moreover, by critically and openly reflecting with others, they better understand how to manage the cultural and social complexities needed to act with moral courage. Suggestions for using reflective learning practice to support moral action are offered, and I outline examples of how to add both personal and collective ethical reflection to a management course. The challenges and implications of creating a moral reflective learning practice are discussed.
Keywords
Business students face chaos, uncertainty, and constant change. They are stressed by pressures to compete and conflicting messages about what it means to be successful. We teach our business students about ethics as a way to guide them as they act in their work lives. Teaching ethical concepts, theories, and rational decision making, though, is not enough. To be authentic, to lead with integrity, our students need skills and practice, developed throughout multiple business courses, that teach them not only to think but also to act morally within the complicated world of work.
Through moral critical reflection, students develop a process that recognizes rather than ignores complicated challenges, equips them with mental models, and develops their understanding of the individual and social factors that shape their moral self. Students learn about themselves, their actions, their impact, and their social situation (Cunliffe, 2004). By actively and openly engaging in reflections designed to intensify self-awareness, business students will better prepare to draw on fundamental moral values and act with moral courage in their organizational lives (Gentile, 2011). Social consensus can affect moral judgments (Lumina, Reynolds, & Turan, 2015). With critical moral reflection, students consider multiple social perspectives, critique unexamined beliefs, and better understand the cultural factors that implicitly influence their moral choices (S. J. Reynolds, 2008).
Acting with integrity is enhanced by awareness, attentiveness, and skillful performance. Reflective learning practice gives students a place to be (V. Ramsey & Fitzgibbons, 2005), to act in a way that reflects their values and purpose. Through rigorous preparation in critical questioning and open social feedback, business students identify cognitive biases, shape intuitive and emotional habits, and learn skills in managing the personal, interpersonal, organizational, and social factors that may unconsciously inform behavior.
I begin by considering current behavior ethics research with an emphasis on moral intuition, moral awareness, ethical leadership, and moral courage. I then suggest that reflective learning practice is a valuable method for teaching students how to act morally. Reflective processes and methods from the management education literature illustrate how reflective learning practices can develop awareness of both individual and social factors of moral behavior. While moral reflective learning practice is applicable to any business course, creative ideas on how to add ethical reflection to a management course are provided. I conclude with a description of the challenges of developing a moral reflective learning practice and implications for the broader business curriculum.
Individual and Social Influences on Ethical Behavior
Traditionally, research on ethical decision making has emphasized the importance of the individual’s internal rational processes in determining whether an individual will make moral choices and act ethically. Two prominent examples, Rest’s (1986) four stages of ethical decision making (moral awareness, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral behavior) and Kohlberg’s (1984) theory of cognitive moral development, are foundational aspects of the ethical decision-making literature. More recent research on behavioral ethics, however, recognizes that a reliance on moral reasoning and cognitive development leaves out other formidable influences. Drawing from psychological research, individual differences, intuition, and emotional processes have been studied (Haidt & Bjorklund, 2008; Treviño, Weaver, & Reynolds, 2006; Weaver, Reynolds, & Brown, 2014). There is a growing understanding that ethical behavior is moderated not only by individual factors but also is powerfully shaped by social interactions and contextual cues (S. J. Reynolds, Dang, Yam, & Leavitt, 2014; Weaver et al., 2014).
To elaborate on what has been recently discovered about emotional, intuitive, and social moral dynamics, I highlight findings from the ethical behavior literature that seem particularly relevant: moral intuition, moral attentiveness, ethical leadership, and moral courage. Moral intuition focuses mainly on the individual, moral attentiveness examines the interaction between individual cognition and social factors, and ethical leadership explores many facets of both individual and social dynamics. Moral courage recognizes the hazards, risks, and constraints of being moral in a complicated work environment. All four research streams provide interesting implications for developing moral identity. They also emphasize the need for moral preparation that extends beyond the cognitive use of rational decision-making frameworks (Gu & Neesham, 2014; Sekerka, Bagozzi, & Charnigo, 2009).
Moral Intuition
Recent research in cognitive psychology suggests that human judgment, a main component of ethical behavior, primarily is driven by intuition rather than by reason (Kahneman, 2011). Historically, the business ethics literature heavily relied on moral reasoning, offering rational decision-making models (e.g., stakeholder theory) as a way to make ethical decisions. Haidt (2001) proposes, however, that moral intuition might be an even more worthwhile research endeavor. He argues that moral judgment is likely a sudden and effortless intuitive event with reasoning occurring after the decision. Moral intuition is defined as “strong, stable, immediate moral beliefs” (Sinnott-Armstrong, Young, & Cushman, 2010, p. 246). Moral intuition is automatic and nondeliberative, “without any conscious awareness of having gone through steps of weighing evidence, crafting evaluative arguments, or inferring a conclusion” (Haidt & Bjorklund, 2008, p. 188).
An expanding body of work has generated interest in understanding the way that unconscious thought may affect ethical behavior (Weaver et al., 2014). Sinnott-Armstrong et al. (2010) argue if viewed as a mental shortcut or heuristic, moral intuition can be corrected through more deliberative reflection. Moral intuition may be adaptable and, therefore, can be influenced or taught. Research by Leavitt, Zhu, and Aquino (2016) adds further support for the idea, finding that by priming subjects’ moral identity through a simple word completion task, moral intuition was reshaped.
Moral Attentiveness
Increasingly, evidence emphasizes the important role that social cognition plays in ethical decision making and behavior (S. J. Reynolds, 2008; Zhu, Treviño, & Zheng, 2016). Building on social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2001), researchers have gained insights about how social interaction combines with individual differences to affect ethical behavior. Ethical behavior happens in a social context. How that context prompts individual perceptions and behavior provides interesting clues about why individuals may act ethically or unethically. Self-regulating ethical mechanisms can be internalized as personal values and also can be socially influenced by perceived consequences (Bandura, 2001).
Research in moral attentiveness describes individual differences that interact with social factors to guide ethical action. Linking social cognitive theory with ethical decision making, S. J. Reynolds (2008) proposes the concept of moral attentiveness as a way to understand why some individuals are more inclined to perceive morality in daily experience. Moral attentiveness is defined as “the extent to which one chronically perceives and considers morality and moral elements in his or her experiences” (S. J. Reynolds, 2008, p. 1028).
Individuals who are higher in moral attentiveness are more likely to perceive everyday issues as having a moral aspect and to recognize moral issues as they occur. Their moral awareness is influenced by their level of moral attentiveness and less by the event itself. Those who are more morally attentive are more reflective about moral matters and likely to consider the morality in any social context. Positively related to moral awareness and moral behavior (S. J. Reynolds, 2008), moral attentiveness proposes that ethical choice and behavior is cognitively accessible, deliberate, and reflective (Dane & Sonenshein, 2015; Zhu et al., 2016). Followers’ moral attentiveness, for example, has been shown to moderate their response to unethical leaders (van Gils, Van Quaquebeke, van Knippenberg, van Dijke, & De Cremer, 2015).
Ethical Leadership
One particular situational factor, leadership, has been researched for its impact on ethics. Leaders strongly guide moral behavior (Jennings, Mitchell, & Hannah, 2015) and researchers have begun to examine the construct of ethical leadership from an empirical perspective (Brown & Treviño, 2006; Treviño, Brown, & Hartman, 2003). Ethical leaders are seen as honest, caring, fair, and principled. They communicate about ethics, set and model ethical standards, and reward ethical conduct. When they create an ethical culture based on shared leadership values, ethical leaders positively affect follower behavior (Brown & Mitchell, 2010; Schraubroeck et al., 2012). In a recent review of current theoretical trends in leadership theory and research across 10 top-tier academic publications in the field of organizational behavior, Dinh et al. (2014) noted the emergence of ethical leadership theory, illustrating it as an influential and developing leadership research arena.
Other leadership theories also have an ethical component. Transformational leaders, for example, align their own and their followers’ value systems, providing an idealized influence (Burns, 1978). Thus, transformational leaders may legitimize moral values (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999). Research on authentic leadership examines self-awareness and moral perspective. Authentic leaders are open and exhibit consistent values (Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008). In their work with spiritual leadership, Fry, Latham, Clinebell, and Krahnke (2016) encourage leaders to demonstrate a values-based approach (i.e., integrity, honesty, humility) and build an organization culture where members feel appreciated.
Moral Courage
Recognizing that ethical scandals can occur despite individual resolve, ethics training, or espoused company values, researchers have pondered why individuals fail to act on their values in a work setting. Research in moral courage is one way to explain the disconnect between moral reasoning and moral action by emphasizing the organizational realities that make moral behavior difficult (Comer & Vega, 2011). Having moral courage involves risks of the unknown and consequences both positive and negative. Peterson and Seligman (2004) define courage as willing to act regardless of internal conflict or external opposition. Characterizing courage as an emotional strength, Peterson and Seligman (2004) outline four qualities: bravery (valor), persistence (perseverance, industriousness), integrity (authenticity, honesty), and vitality (zest, enthusiasm, vigor, energy).
Behaving ethically requires much more than simply knowing the right choice. Values are fundamental, and living values requires practical knowledge, preparation, and practice (Gentile, 2011). Acting with moral courage depends on the interaction of the individual, ethical issue, and the situation. Individuals need to recognize their and others’ values, identify the ethical issues they experience, understand their choices, and skillfully navigate organization dynamics. It is a complex interaction that moderates individual desires with organization constraints. In a work setting, moral courage requires not just moral knowledge and motivation but also skills in applying professional ethical standards in the face of risk and difficulty (Sekerka et al., 2009).
Highlighting Individual and Social Influences When Teaching Ethics
How can students translate what they know about moral behavior into acting or leading ethically? Research reveals that constructs such as moral intuition, moral attentiveness, ethical leadership, and moral courage show promise for delineating the main individual and social factors that motivate moral action. This has crucial implications for the teaching of business ethics.
As the literature reviewed above illustrates, behaving ethically is a nuanced process occurring in an intricate social context. Social persuasions abound. Leaders in particular affect their follower’s ethical behavior (Jennings et al., 2015). Social groups may exert pressure to confirm to group-centric values (Schminke, Wells, Peyrefitte, & Sebora, 2002). By instructing our students to become aware of individual and social dynamics, and by giving them practice in developing their moral identity through self-awareness and a deeper understanding of the risks and rewards of being ethical in social settings, we may better prepare our students to act with moral courage (Gentile, 2011; Sekerka et al., 2009).
Individuals differ in their moral attentiveness or ability to even be aware that they are engaging in moral issues. Moreover, multiple cues need to be processed simultaneously, and this processing may be, for the most part, intuitive with compelling emotional qualities. Moral intuition tells us that we need to pay more attention to the assumptions and beliefs that shape ethical behavior, both in ourselves and in our organization culture. As educators, our goal becomes coaching students to uncover and examine their unconscious heuristics. Students may even be able to restructure their moral identity, to reflectively reframe and overcome cognitive biases (Sinnott-Armstrong et al., 2010; Sutcliffe, Vogus, & Dane, 2016), and, consequently, to make their moral identity more salient and accessible. Research in moral attentiveness suggests that by fostering our students’ ability to perceive moral issues and to reflect on what is going on in the situation, they may be able to take that moral awareness to messy business situations where the issue is rarely identified as an ethical one (Weaver et al., 2014).
All of this implies that a reliance on purely rational decision-making models to teach business ethics may be inadequate (Haidt & Bjorklund, 2008; Treviño et al., 2006). A gap can occur between knowing what is the right ethical choice and doing what is ethical (Comer & Vega, 2011). Yet the focus of behavior ethics teaching often tends to be primarily on rational, individual decision making (Baker, 2014; O’Leary & Pangemanan, 2007; Sims & Brinkmann, 2003). In a study of business faculty, Dean and Beggs (2006) discovered that many faculty do not believe they can influence their students’ ethical behavior. Interestingly, faculty seemed to identify values-driven pedagogy as the best way to develop ethical behavior, yet in actual practice, they tended to rely on compliance-driven approaches.
In a review of ethics education articles and textbooks, Baker (2014) found that with its focus on moral reasoning, law, and professional standards, business ethics education tends to neglect the impact of social forces on ethical behavior. She outlines a number of excellent ways to add a social component to ethical decision making, including case studies, films, experiential exercises, role plays, and role modeling. While Baker (2014) provides good examples of teaching the social context of ethics, business ethics pedagogy needs more approaches that encourage students to think and act as their moral self.
Reflective Learning Practice
One learning strategy that merits more attention from business ethics educators is reflective learning practice. A reflective learning practice is an effective way to increase moral attentiveness, to understand cognitive processes and be more perceptive to everyday moral experiences. Reflective learning practice, when done socially, more intentionally deepens individual cognitive processes, shaping moral intuition through purposeful examination (Weaver et al., 2014). Collective reflection, moreover, is a way to explicitly discuss and understand social cues and moral constraints, and, ultimately change moral intuition through deliberative reason (Leavitt et al., 2016; Sinnott-Armstrong et al., 2010).
Ethical expertise is strengthened by reflection (Yanow & Tsoukas, 2009). Reflective practice can lead to mindful ethical behavior (Jordan, Messner, & Becker, 2009), where intuitive judgments come from a rich and vivid spiritual connection. Self-reflection can build awareness of emotions, bringing emotions into the essence of being a moral self (Jennings et al., 2015). Reflective leaders more likely are aware of their reliance on intuition and can examine their cognitive biases (Raelin, 2002), and, therefore, develop an intuitive reflex that is grounded in a clear value system (Cunliffe, 2004; Mintzberg, 2004; V. Ramsey & Fitzgibbons, 2005).
Reflection “denotes a practice of inquiry that is concerned with past, current or future phenomena, such as decisions, actions, processes and events. Reflection means engaging in comparison, considering alternatives, seeing things from various perspectives, and drawing inferences” (Jordan et al., 2009, p. 466). By questioning decisions and behaviors, reflective routines can transform moral intuition (Korthagen, 2005), giving leaders a chance to reason through past actions, to gain perspective on what happened, why it happened, and how well moral principles were followed.
While reflection-on-action provides perspective and guides future choices, reflection-in-action may influence behavior before or as it occurs. Schon (1987) proposes the idea of the reflective practitioner, a person who reflects in the moment. Reflection can focus awareness and attention (Yanow & Tsoukas, 2009). Research by Weick and Sutcliffe (2006; Sutcliffe et al., 2016) on mindful methods of individuals in routine crisis situations (i.e., firefighters and operating room personnel) suggests reflective procedures that affect behavior as it occurs. Mindfulness stabilizes attention, focuses information processing, enhances awareness, and, ultimately, leads to maturity of thought and action. Moral mindfulness, as cultivated by reflective practice, may support ethical action.
In an educational setting, we can create space for students to reflect in private as well as collectively (Hedberg, 2009). There is some evidence that the learning outcomes of each method differ. Daudelin (1996) found that private reflection, done alone or with tutors, resulted in more personal or self-insights, while peer group or social reflection was more likely to result in interpersonal and cultural insights. Both results are applicable to the learning of business ethics as they parallel the individual and social factors that influence ethical action.
Private or Individual Learning Reflection
In private reflection, the focus is on personal insights (Daudelin, 1996). While social and contextual factors guide moral action, individual differences remain important as well. Private reflection is less threatening to students in a learning situation, allowing for deeper exploration of fears and concerns (Hannah, Avolio, & May, 2011). Emotions, a central part of the moral self (Jennings et al., 2015), for example, may be more likely to be disclosed and examined through private reflection. Likewise, insights about motivation and actions may be discovered in a more deliberatively introspective process of individual reflection.
Through private reflective learning, students understand what the course learning means to them. Central questions are the following: What am I learning about myself as a moral leader as I learn this subject? What is the impact of my learning on my own moral work behavior?
Reflective moral attentiveness can be relevant to the learning cycle (Dane & Sonenshein, 2015) and private reflective learning develops moral attentiveness in a number of ways. Through guided questions, students reflect on their values and how those values are displayed in their choices and actions (Hannah et al., 2011). Inquiry can center on authenticity, living the values that are most meaningful to the student. Students can think about what kind of person they want to be as they develop their moral self.
Through personal reflection, students can be more aware of their own ethical behavior, to more clearly understand their feelings and see their defenses (Gentile, 2011; Roglio & Light, 2009). Students can look for the subtle influence of cognitive biases (Raelin, 2002) or how their emotions affect their behavior (Jennings et al., 2015). They can gain skills in being aware of how feelings of confusion or vulnerability may be essential signals that they face a moral issue (Sekerka et al., 2009). With reflection, insights about how emotions and habits influence actions can be gained and used to inform future behavior (Hedberg, 2009).
Critical reflective learning adds a broader as well as deeper understanding of why we act the way we do (Hong et al., 2016) and connects learning to cultural and societal dynamics. Critical reflection investigates underlying assumptions and beliefs by challenging the often implicit social and political forces that shape behavior (Brookfield, 1995).
Cunliffe (2004) clarifies the significance of critical examination in the business classroom. Her article provides specific examples of how to apply critical reflection, including journaling where students question their assumptions and inform the development of their own practical theories. Journaling is an excellent method for guiding students to “become critical thinkers and moral practitioners” (Cunliffe, 2004, p. 408). Cunliffe uses the following questions to prompt deeper thinking in a journal assignment:
Identify personal insights, issues, moments of critical questioning, and revelation/connection with ideas, moments, and comments (by you, other course members, me) that struck you and offered the potential for reflective insight or significant learning.
Describe why these are important to you. What affect did they have and/or what dilemmas, questions, or possibilities did they raise? Have these resulted in order or chaos for you?
So what are you going to do now? What issues, questions, and dilemmas are you going to explore further? Why and how? How will this influence who you are and how you relate to others? What relational nets can you construct/connect with to continue this process of reflective and critical learning? (Cunliffe, 2004, p. 424).
Others have developed innovative ways to guide students’ private reflection. “A Tale of Two Stories” is an exercise in having students reflect on their personal experience with a values conflict (Gentile, 2011). In answering a series of questions about a time when they acted on their values and a time when they failed to do so, students gain insights into the contextual and individual factors that shape their moral motivation. They can learn they have a choice; they do not need to simply do what they are told or expected to do. And they can build understanding of how to be prepared to face future values conflicts.
Eriksen (2009) presents a three-part assignment that explores self-awareness by having students identify their values and beliefs through audio recordings. He also has students reflect on what it would look like to be successful when acting according to their values and beliefs. Gray (2007) describes a number of tools and processes to guide private learning reflection practices, including storytelling and critical incident reflection. Meditating, walking, and sitting in nature (Pielstick, 2005) are spiritual practices that may connect students with their personal thoughts and feelings about their learning.
Collective or Social Learning Reflection
A number of management educators propose that the social process of collectively sharing meaning and understanding of experiences is crucial to developing a reflective practice (Meyers, 1991; Mezirow, 1990; Raelin, 2002; M. Reynolds, 1999). Social reflection, where students candidly discuss thoughts and feelings with others, is a method for students to better understand their own and others’ values, assumptions, and moral actions. Dialogue makes mental models visible and explores diverse ways to think and act (Roglio & Light, 2009). “Often, only through the support of and feedback from others in an open dialogue can we become receptive to alternate ways of reasoning and behaving” (Raelin, 2002, p. 67).
With the growing understanding of the social and cultural impact on moral behavior, reflecting through social interaction seems particularly fundamental to business ethics learning (Hannah et al., 2011; Jennings et al., 2015; Roglio & Light, 2009). Proposing that social learning develops moral complexity, Hannah et al. (2011) recommend group discussions of moral dilemmas to share multiple perspectives. Through social reflective learning and feedback, students develop their ethical expertise (Dane & Sonenshein, 2015) and learn from practice in moral courage (Gentile, 2011).
There are a number of methods where students learn in action with others. Raelin (2002) presents a framework for how to conduct a learning dialogue. In Raelin’s (2002) process, individuals start from a sense of being by observing experiences without judgment, and use personal (e.g., speaking and disclosing) as well as social (e.g., testing and probing) reflective skills. Other versions of reflective dialogue include having students informally question themselves and others (Cunliffe, 2004) and understand others’ unique experiences and feelings (Eriksen, 2009). C. Ramsey (2005) describes a narrative learning cycle where students communally create a shared story about their learning. With reflexive conversations about critical incidents, done in pairs, students gain broader perspective and social understanding, and can challenge critical assumptions such as profit being the only business purpose (Gray, 2007).
Roglio and Light (2009) reviewed the impact of reflective learning methods across an MBA program and found that through reflecting on teamwork students identified defensive routines blocking their open questioning of beliefs. By sharing experiences, collective reflection inspired students to critically reflect on their thoughts and actions. Mackay and Tymon (2016) offer examples of continual process and premise reflections. Students examine their learning process and how well they are achieving outcomes (process reflection) through questionnaires and a midcourse review in student focus groups. Underlying beliefs and values (premise reflection) can be explored through reflective essays and the development of a skills portfolio throughout their learning.
The classroom itself is a social interaction, and provides an excellent forum for reflecting on how organization culture and social cues often can unconsciously determine behavior. Doing this reflection as a class allows for students to understand the power that perception, expectations, and beliefs have on the moral action they themselves experience. Vince (2002) recommends a number of ways to use the classroom organization as a series of reflective learning practices. He proposes organizational role analysis to explore how emotional, relational, and political experiences affect their role performance. Communities of practice allow students to reflect in informal political groups, while group relations conferences are a form of social dialogue about the affect authority, leadership, and transformation have on individuals and groups.
Examples of Adding Ethical Reflective Learning Practice to a Management Course
This section offers specific ideas for how to bring ethical reflection more openly to students in a management or organization behavior course. I have found that rather than use new or stand-alone reflective techniques, moral identity and moral courage can intensify simply by adding to the tools and processes I already use as part of course learning. Thus, the individual and collective reflection examples I describe here are supplemental, ways to enhance a discussion or assignment already planned.
In general, I find Eisenbeiss’s (2012) work on ethical leadership a comprehensive way to frame ethical questions in a management course. Eisenbeiss (2012) integrates Western and Eastern moral philosophy and ethical principles to identify four central orientations to ethical leadership: humane, justice, responsibility and sustainability, and moderation. Table 1 provides Eisenbeiss’s definitions of the four orientations. I supplement her framework with a number of questions about ethical leadership that could be asked during a class discussion or added to a course assignment (see Table 1). Rarely would I have the time to address all four orientations for every class activity, but I do plan where to focus and try to address all four throughout the course. The framework grounds my teaching in influential and lasting moral perspectives, and it reminds my students that their and others’ behavior matters. As I discuss below, the four orientations are a way to structure what can be added to a management course to enhance moral reflection.
A Framework and Questions to Guide Reflections on Ethical Leadership.
Based on Eisenbeiss (2012).
Private or Individual Reflection Examples
Journaling is a common technique for guiding student private reflection and often is used to gain self-awareness. Much has been written on how to do this well (Cunliffe, 2004; Gray, 2007; Pavlovich, Collins, & Jones, 2009). A different assignment that allows students to gain insights and personalize their learning is a short, low-stakes reflection paper. The purpose of the paper is to reflect on what was learned during a class module or small set of class sessions. One example that I use in an MBA class has two learning objectives: (a) to analyze and synthesize (using Bloom’s [1956] learning taxonomy) your course learning from the portion of the course we just finished and (b) to identify relevant ways to apply course learning in your work. The assignment requires students to discover key learning themes that are personal and meaningful to their work lives. In its basic form, it is a general reflection on learning. By adding an ethical component and key questions, though, it also gives students a chance to reflect on their moral attentiveness or ethical leadership. Additional questions could ask students to identify the challenges the course sessions bring to living their values or leading authentically. Obviously, the specific questions to use depend on the topics covered in the course. The intent is to heighten self-awareness about moral values and assumptions that guide how learning is framed or how a work situation is perceived. Table 1 provides constructive questions to consider.
A common assignment I use in a management or organization behavior course is to have my students interview a high-level leader, someone they or others consider to be a great leader. The general purpose of the assignment is to have them connect and learn from experienced others. In addition to questions about leadership challenges or what it takes to be a good leader, I ask students to talk with a leader about a situation where the leader’s personal values or convictions were in conflict. Questions could center on what it means to act with integrity as a leader. Students write a paper about the interview, noting themes and drawing personal implications. One implication they are asked to address, based on their interview, is what moral challenges they may face in their leadership lives and how reflection may be a useful tool.
Collective or Social Reflection Examples
Reflective questions often are a way to guide student learning in a management or organization behavior course. Including a few questions about ethical leadership or moral attentiveness will model ethical reflection as a way to better understand topics such as perception, motivation, conflict, team dynamics, communication, and influence. Power dynamics and assumptions, for example, can be openly explored and tested (Freire, 1985).
One notable example of when reflective questions enhance learning is during a case study or experiential activity debriefing. Debriefing is a guided discussion where learners discover what they learned through collective sharing of observations and insights (Kolb, Rubin, & Osland, 1991). An interesting moral dialogue can occur when the instructor intentionally asks about the ethical implications of the case or activity. The focus can be on collectively discussing what happened and sharing personal moral awareness and perspectives. Table 1 offers examples of reflective questions about ethical leadership and personal moral insights.
Debriefing often occurs after an activity or case discussion. As Schon (1987) noted, though, reflection may be beneficial during action. A reflective pause, or taking time to collect thoughts and reframe the situation, has been found to be an important skill for acting with professional moral courage (Sekerka et al., 2009). One interesting way to conduct moral reflection during an activity or case is to do a “start/stop” approach (Bruni-Bossio & Willness, 2016). If a key learning moment that has strong ethical implications happens, the instructor can interrupt the activity and ask for a quick discussion on what is happening and why it might be a defining moment. Similarly, the instructor can pause and collect reflection at any time during a class session. Hedberg (2009) describes a reflective activity where students are asked to do a brief freewriting exercise where they first privately write for 2 minutes about what is going on with their learning in the moment and then collectively relate thoughts and impressions in a class dialogue. A writing and discussion topic, for instance, might be: What moral challenges are happening in this moment of our class? What values do you want to bring to our discussion? In just a few minutes, students can reflect on how attentive they are to moral issues or where they intuitively saw ethical leadership occur.
Challenges in Developing a Reflective Learning Practice
Teaching with a moral reflective learning practice is an active and demanding endeavor. Basic facilitator skills are necessary. Individual and collective reflection require mutual respect and trust, and a lot of patience with trial and error. For the learning to be meaningful and impactful, the best perceived learning climate models an openness to student experiences and goals, respect for others’ views, and a focus on supporting moral action (Weinberger, Patry, & Weyringer, 2016).
Instructors need to believe in the process and create a safe place for student experimentation and risk taking. Basic assumptions about authority in the classroom may be confronted, creating ambiguity for both instructor and students. It is important, then, to be clear with students about what you are doing and why.
Learning reflection is difficult work (Gray, 2007). It takes time to develop a collective experience where students want to reflect. It can feel awkward for students as well as the instructor, and students may resist reflection. Collectively sharing thoughts and ideas can be a vulnerable experience (Raelin, 2002). While an open learning environment where beliefs and assumptions are challenged can be liberating for some students (Freire, 1985), it also can result in frustration and struggle (Brookfield, 1995). Students may feel lost and confused.
Manroop and Harrison (2016) outline a number of recommendations for dealing with resistance to an ethical culture in work organizations that are applicable to the classroom. They advise informing participants in advance about what you are doing, explaining the new culture, collecting feedback, and placing value on respectful interactions. I start reflection with low-stakes experiences, giving students a chance to write first, for example, and then asking those who want to volunteer to speak. Eventually others want to participate when they see the benefits of a process grounded in mutual respect. It takes time and patience to model reflection and shape behavior. Again, I find that reminding myself and my students why we are doing this supports participation.
Grading can encourage participation in reflective learning, yet it also can be a source of concern. Expectations need to be clear and based on solid learning objectives. In particular, reflective journaling can be difficult to grade. Pavlovich et al. (2009) noted that grading journals may constrain creativity and honest exploration. Their research explores the merits of three different journaling purposes, formats, and ways of assessment and provides good models of how to grade journal assignments. When I ask students to journal, my purpose is to develop their ability to reflect, to let them experience the benefits of reflective learning practice. In an undergraduate course, for example, I found it best simply to add reflective journaling to the class participation grade, telling students I look for them to do it, to experiment, and to challenge their thinking. Grades give them an incentive to try reflection multiple times, and I collect their journals about specific questions on a regular basis. For this assignment, though, the priority is that they practice reflection, not how well they reflect.
When used to supplement other learning tools and processes, moral reflection can be graded the way those techniques already are graded. For example, I use Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy of learning objectives as a way to evaluate class discussions or writing assignments, encouraging students to use analysis and synthesis. When ethical questions are part of the discussion or assignment, I look for the same level of thinking.
Implications
As educators, we play an essential role in the development of ethical leaders. Research in ethical leadership indicates that ethical leaders are aware of their moral character and model ethical behavior through their actions and communication. Gentile (2011) encourages educators to shift the frame they use to teach ethics to include seeing their role as building students’ positive skills in voicing and acting on their values. The classroom is an open space to explore values, to understand the implications of decisions and behavior, to gain practice in balancing stakeholder concerns, and to learn how to navigate the moral hazards inherent in social situations.
Through reflective learning practice, students see general patterns, question mind-sets, and recognize social pressures on moral decision making and behavior. They openly challenge assumptions and beliefs about business activities. Reflection is cognitive action, a deliberate process designed to encourage agility, intentionality, and purpose. It is hard work. And yet it often is seen as a passive process. In our action-oriented business world, reflection may not be a priority but rather be viewed as a luxury and thus discounted. When given a choice, participants in a series of studies comparing reflection with skill repetition preferred to spend their time with more skill practice rather than reflective learning (Di Stefano, Gino, Pisano, & Staats, 2015). Interestingly, for those participants, though, reflection actually improved performance more than an equal amount of time spent in skill repetition. They did not prefer to reflect yet gained from it.
Students are unlikely to engage in reflective learning on their own. It becomes necessary, then, for our students to understand the benefits and learn the methods of planned and purposeful reflection. Business students need to be able to make informed judgments about the meaning, relevancy, and impact of their choices and actions (Bennis & O’Toole, 2005). Moreover, as ethical leaders, they need to know how to ask the right questions (Vaill, 1996).
The instructor’s role is vital to successful reflective learning application. Leaders can increase their followers’ ability to recognize moral issues (Butterfield, Treviño, & Weaver, 2000). Instructors, as leaders of the educational experience, can do the same. By actively coaching and guiding critical reflection both privately and collectively, instructors play an important role in developing reflective learning practice.
Schon (1987) advises that the instructor’s role is less about teaching and more about familiarizing and directing students in their reflective insights. Instructors can raise ethical issues as part of the everyday learning experience. Perceiving the morality in the messiness of ordinary occurrences is central to being morally attentive. As an example, students working together in groups over the course of a semester is a common experience in many business courses. Schminke et al. (2002) found that students in groups tended to converge in their ethical viewpoints over time. The typical class group experience would be an excellent opportunity for instructors to periodically do a reflective check-in with students publicly discussing how their values may be affected by group roles, case discussions, presentations, or other interpersonal interactions.
Like followers, students are sensitive to leaders’ moral cues (van Gils et al., 2015). Students learn from instructor values modeled in class interactions by noting what questions instructors ask, the issues instructors see as worth taking time to address, and how instructors practice good ethical leadership such as being humane and just (Eisenbeiss, 2012). By creating and valuing space for student reflection on their moral attentiveness and ethical leadership, students learn that ethics is not something to be learned in one class but rather a routine and practice that extends to multiple class sessions and even beyond the classroom (Mackay & Tymon, 2016).
Developing a reflective learning practice takes time and a zeal for discovery. Reflective learning requires repetitive effort (Hong et al., 2016). It does not happen with one assignment or one question, but that is a great way to start. I encourage instructors to understand the benefits of having students routinely engage in reflective learning, with multiple methods many times throughout a course. Reflection is cognition rooted in routines and facilitated by a variety of tools (Yanow & Tsoukas, 2009). Practice leads to personal mastery with students intuitively taking the time, even in small moments, to center themselves and reflect both in and on action. With practice and feedback, reflection becomes a habit or natural routine. Gu and Neesham (2014), for example, found that a weekly writing exercise where students reflected on lived experiences resulted in better moral judgment. Repetition resulted in an internalization of moral concepts and reinforced a moral identity.
In summarizing work on the moral self, Jennings et al. (2015) propose that ethical behavior, what they call the “doing” side of the moral self, “emerges when these moral beliefs evoke self-relevant cognitions, evaluations, emotions, and regulatory processes that motivate moral action” (Jennings et al., 2015, p. S105). When faced with an ethical issue, leaders who have a reflective practice are grounded in their moral compass. They may not always need an explicit and rational ethical decision-making model (Fry et al., 2016; S. J. Reynolds, 2008; Treviño et al., 2006; Weaver et al., 2014). They simply act with integrity because they are morally prepared through practice that develops their moral identity and courage (Gentile, 2011).
There are many moments in a business class to reflect on how and why the moral self is socially constructed (Jennings et al., 2015). A reflective learning practice can be supported across the business curriculum to examine the ethical component of decisions in any business discipline. A business ethics course is not the only course that can teach business ethics. Any and all business courses have an ethical element. Any business teacher can use reflection to deepen students’ learning about their moral self. To that end, I recommend that ethical reflective learning tools be used in every business course. Building a reflective practice relies on multiple cycles of acting, thinking, and social feedback. Each time it is used it develops a moral reflex and reinforces the moral intuition that produces business leaders who exhibit integrity in all aspects of their job.
Conclusions
The classroom can be a contemplative and energizing space for reflective learning and the reflective mind-set can enhance learning dynamics (Hedberg, 2009; Mintzberg, 2004). Reflection is not a substitute for, but a critical supplement to, other forms of learning. Students still need to know, apply, analyze, and synthesize business concepts and ideas. Ethical reflection adds to that learning by directing students to use their knowledge, skills, and understanding with moral attentiveness and moral courage. It can be an important component of any business course.
Current research indicates that ethical behavior is about more than rational thinking. It is a complicated interaction between individual and social factors. Four recent research streams offer interesting insights into how educators can positively influence students’ knowledge of moral choices and ability to skillfully act as ethical leaders. Moral intuition research illustrates that many moral choices are intuitive, done unconsciously without explicit awareness. Thus, it becomes critical to deliberately expose and modify the often unexamined assumptions and beliefs that inform moral intuition. The construct of moral attentiveness highlights the social cognitive aspects of moral behavior. Individuals who are morally attentive are more aware of the moral aspects of everyday events and more likely to pause to consider the moral implications of their decisions. Research on ethical leadership emphasizes the impact of grounding actions in values. Yet as the moral courage literature reveals, even good people can be derailed and fail to act on their values.
A regular practice of moral reflective learning is a powerful tool to build moral behavior. Individuals who perceive daily social situations with a moral frame, such as moral attentiveness, will be more mindful of the moral choices they can and want to make. Likewise, individuals who have a reflective moral practice based on multiple experiences, and informed by social classroom interactions, will better understand how they can and want to act with moral courage. Skilled in private and social moral reflection, and grounded in the moral realities of organizational dynamics, our students have the ability to navigate the complicated and ambiguous social interactions through which business is done, contributing to the likelihood that they will make moral choices. As reflective leaders, students will have the resilience and strength of purpose needed to deal courageously with ambiguous organization situations.
Continual reflective learning practice broadens perspective. Cunliffe (2004) notes that as a result of critical thinking, her students no longer are waiting to be the boss to create changes that matter to them. Instead, “[b]y understanding reality as relational and socially constructed and by developing their ability to question in a critically reflexive way, they realize they can influence situations” (Cunliffe, 2004, p. 423). This is a mind-set change I would like to see for all business students when it comes to moral action. Reflective learning practice embedded across the business curriculum is a robust way to equip students with intentionally formed habits of the mind and heart.
Footnotes
This article is part of the Special Issue “Behavioral Ethics”
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.