Using Ex Cons to Teach Business Ethics

The ethical issues in this case are that business schools and corporations were found to require more ethics training resources due to a number of large scandals were booming into the public eye. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 and the revision of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines created new rewards and repercussions to corporations providing more ethics training programs. The less ethics training offered by a corporation, the more severe the punishment would be or wrongdoing. Using ex-cons as a tool to teach ethics came to be a new growing profitable opportunity. Colleges started using this tool to attempt to teach students about business ethics. There are pros and cons to this opportunity and it is a controversial topic. There are advantages and disadvantages to choosing to hire an ex con to speak to college students on the subject of business ethics. One advantage to it would be that typically wisdom derives from experience. To truly understand something, one must experience it. Someone who has experienced violating business ethics first hand and paid the proper penalty is not likely to make the same mistake. Also they would be able to communicate the emotions experienced from the retribution. Another advantage for the ex con is that it’s probably one of the few second chances that they may ever get out of life again and who doesn’t deserve a second chance? A disadvantage of having an ex con speaking on ethics to college students is the simple model that it represents. It could also be damaging of the reputation of the college to some. It could also be offensive to some students and possibly change their opinion of that school. To learn of someone who put a lot of people in an awful situation and to see them in a role of success or as a speaker takes some of the failure factor away from the situation. People who do these kinds of things should not prosper. And this leads to the next point that colleges and universities should not pay felons to speak on this