Welcome to the Center for Business Ethics

The Center for Business Ethics (CBE) is one of the world’s leading research and educational institutes in the field of business ethics. It is also among the oldest, having been established in 1976, when the field was in its infancy.

CBE is guided by its mission to promote integrity and trust in business by encouraging the establishment of ethical cultures in businesses everywhere. The center staff pursues this through the application of expertise, research, education and a collaborative approach to the dissemination of best practices.

For over three decades, CBE has demonstrated unsurpassed leadership in advancing knowledge, stimulating public discourse and fostering an appreciation for the importance of business ethics among a global network of executives, ethics and compliance professionals, academics, researchers and students of business. 

Learn more about CBE and its work.

 

Patricia Werhane,
The Wicklander Chair of Business Ethics in the Department of Philosophy, and Managing Director of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University


"Globalization and its Challenges for Business Ethics in the 21st Century"


 

The Center for Business Ethics is honored to welcome Prof. Patricia Werhane as the Verizon Visiting Professor in Business Ethics. Dr. Werhane will deliver her keynote address, “Globalization and Its Challenges for Business Ethics in the 21st Century,” at 2:00 PM, Monday, February 6, 2012 at Bentley’s EDR, LaCava Campus Center, room 395. As the Visiting Professor, she will be based at the Center for Business Ethics, throughout the week of February 6 to 10 and will be giving individual presentations to various classes as well as a faculty-staff workshop luncheon on Thursday, February 9th in LaCava 325 at 12:30pm. Pat will take a hard and fresh look at the challenges facing corporations to respond to pressures to globalize while remaining true to a spirit of ethics and social responsibility. 

If you have any questions, please email mchiasson@bentley.edu

 

Special Announcements

 

Call for Papers!

Please note that the deadline for our call for papers has been extended by one month!
Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility
Call for Papers for JBR Special Issue
Extended Deadline: February 15, 2012

For more information, please click here

 

Special Event Sponsored by CBE's Partner PeaceTones
Please join us for a night of legendary music and entertainment

Friday December 16th, 7pm ~ 10pm

Berklee College of Music
David Friend Recital Hall
921 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

For more information and to reserve your seat, visit peacetones.org/jazz
Proceeds from this benefit go directly towards sustaining PeaceTones and its programs to economically empower musicians and their communities in the developing world.


In 2011, CBE has been advancing its work on many fronts. Here are a few highlights of work done this year and coming down the road.
 

Verizon Visiting Professor in Business Ethics

In February 2012 the Verizon Visiting Professor will be Dr. Patricia Werhane, the Wicklander Chair of Business Ethics in the Department of Philosophy, and Executive Director of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University. She will speak on "Globalization and its Challenges for Business Ethics in the 21st Century." For more information on the Verizon Lectureship, please click here.

Raytheon Lectureship in Business Ethics

On October 18th, our most recent Raytheon lecture was Mr. Gary Hirshberg, CEO of the Stonyfield Farms, the world’s largest maker of organic yogurt. The title of his speech was “Inventing a Win-Win-Win-Win-Win Future.” For more information on the Raytheon Lectureship, please click here.

Global Business Ethics Symposium and the Global Business Ethics Teaching Workshop

The Global Business Ethics Symposium and the Global Business Ethics Teaching Workshop were held in Marseilles, France during the week of May 23, 2011. The Symposium was unique in many respects: Its focus was on “Stakeholder Engagement” and it had an especially high turnout. In addition to the invaluable support given by the event’s sponsor, the State Street Foundation, it was also supported by Euromed Management, one of Europe’s finest business schools and UN PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education). Following the Symposium, was the Global Business Ethics Teaching Workshop, in which there were eighteen participants who came from the following countries: Australia, France, Germany, Ghana, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, Uganda, and the United States. For more information please click here. 

Managing Ethics in Organizations

In June, CBE held its annual Managing Ethics in Organizations (MEO) course in which an exceptionally distinguished cohort of faculty members demonstrated why many in the field consider MEO to be the gold standard in ethics practitioner education. This event is co-sponsored by the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association. For more information on this event, please click here.

Global Ethics Forum in Geneva, Switzerland

In late June and early July, CBE’s director of programs, Robert E. McNulty, PhD, participated in the Global Ethics Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, where he gave a talk on the place of business ethics in business education. The title of the talk was: “What has Changed in Business Schools Since 2008?” For more information please click here.

Business and Education for Peace

Continuing his work on “Business and Education for Peace,” Dr. McNulty visited Afghanistan where he met with educational leaders in the central government in Kabul as well as in the province of Bamiyan.  Dr. McNulty was exploring the possibility of building on the Pax Populi English Tutoring program in which Bentley University students and others serve as tutors to Afghan students via Skype.

Visiting Scholars 2011

CBE continues to build on its reputation as an international center for scholarship in business ethics research. Here is a list of visiting scholars for 2011.

  • Prof. Suzanne Zyngier, Executive Director, School of Management, Latrobe University, Victoria, Australia
  •  Inés Gil Guerrero, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV). Department of Business Organization IECO (Institute for Ethics and Communication in Organizations), Valencia, Spain
  • Nuria Villagra Garcia, School of Information Science, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, Spain
  • Marco Robles-Sepulveda; Doctoral candidate, ICADE Business School Faculty of Economics and Business Science, Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Madrid, Spain
  • Prof. Ignacio Ferrero, Associate Professor of Business Ethics, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
  • Dr. Manuel Guillén Parra, Profesor Titular de Organización de Empresas en la Universidad de Valencia, in Spain.

For a complete list of past visiting scholars, please click here.
 

In September, CBE Executive Director, W. Michael Hoffman, PhD addressed the Ethics Practitioners' Association of Canada (EPAC). The subject of his talk was: "How Effective is your Ethics Training Program?"
 

Recent Publications
http://cbe.bentleyweb.org/sites/cbe/files/images/whistleblowing.JPG
 
"A Business Ethics Theory of Whistleblowing: Responding to the $1 Trillion
Question"
By W. Michael Hoffman and Robert E. McNulty

In Whistleblowing: In Defense of Proper Action, Marek Arszulowicz and Wojciech W. Gasparski, editors. Transaction Publishers, 2011
 
CBE’s Business and Society Review
The Winter 2011 edition of CBE’s ethics journal has recently been published.
View the current table of contents.
For more information on the journal and subscription information, please click here.

"Rethinking the Concept of Sustainability"
By Alexis J. Bañon Gomis, Manuel Guillen Parra (CBE Visiting Scholar), W. Michael Hoffman (CBE Executive Director), Robert E. Mcnulty (CBE Director of Programs)
Business and Society Review
Summer 2011
(Vol. 116, No. 2, p.171-191)

"At Issue: Will rewards for whistleblowers encourage ethical behavior?
By W. Michael Hoffman (CBE Executive Director) and Matthew Gilley
CQ Researcher
May 2011
(Vol. 21, No. 18)

If you wish to report a broken link on the Center for Business Ethics' website, please submit a comment or feedback, correction or update, or a suggestion, by E-mailing our Webmaster, Laura Cordero, at cbeinfo@bentley.edu.

top of page