Motivate Me and the World May Change
Reflections on the Value of the Case Study Competition
Wayne Tanna, J.D., L.L.M.
Chaminade University
An adaptation of an ancient Chinese proverb tells of what many educators do and try to
do their entire careers: “lecture ME and I will forget (yet still manage to articulate with great
detail bad reviews on ratemyprofessor.com), teach ME and I may remember (at least until I take
the exam), involve ME and I will learn.” Then if you can motivate ME, the world may change.
And yes, it’s really still all about them.
Concerning ethics, we definitely seem to be facing a world in need of change. The news
headlines today all too often announce another ethical lapse in the world of business. It gets to
the point where most people out there would say that business ethics is an oxymoron and that the
path to success is most often traveled by those who are all too willing to cheat to get what they
want. Sadly for many of us who teach business, our dirty little secret is that all too often we
recognize the names of these Wall Street criminals as graduates of the programs we have
attended and sometimes even the students we have taught. What could have motivated the ethical
lapses of such highly educated and well to do business executives? Perhaps it was merely a lack
of involvement resulting in motivations based mainly upon self-interest.
Over the past couple of years business students at Chaminade have participated and
succeeded in the IACBE’s case study competition. The students working in teams have
developed and presented cases that address issues of business ethics, old and new. The topics
selected address today’s hot issues like the use and regulation of GMOs or Genetically Modified
Organisms. Other student teams have grappled with the age old dilemma of economic progress
versus cultural preservation in the context of the need for affordable housing balanced by respect
for culture and the environment. The students who have reached the finals have also navigated
other deep moral and ethical issues such as the changing and challenging business environments
of legal marijuana sales, and the debate between employers and employees in regard to
conditions and personal choices for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
For these students the IACBE ethics case study competition is more than an academic
exercise. The students actually become engaged and involved in real ethical dilemmas that
confront business and society. Compared to textbook cases that are mere course requirements,
the cases study competition facilitates an approach that more directly engages students in the
ethical dimensions of business. I asked our past student team members to answer a short survey.
The questions addressed two basic areas, those being the students’ perception of the real
problems and practices of business and the students’ practices and actions in their academic
careers to date. One group of questions asked them to assess the pressures and responses of real
world business leaders; their answers matched those on national surveys on the practice of
business. Basically, the students recognized the ethical challenges related to the personal
motivations that result in the typical responses we see highlighted in the media. The other group
of questions addressed the students’ willingness to win, by any means or practices, in regard to
getting good grades in college. Here unlike in many national studies where students self-reported
cheating behaviors, the case study team members expressed much less willingness to engage in
unethical behaviors, even when they had a lot to lose from an academic/grade perspective (e.g.
losing Summa Cum Laude honors as a result of getting a grade less than an “A”).
The student team members have become our graduates and our program’s alumni and
while it has only been a few weeks since they have left our classrooms, they have demonstrated a
closer connection to our program than any graduates in the past. An example of this occurred a
few days after the 2014 IACBE case study competition participants graduated. Our school was
presented with a last minute invitation to participate in a business plan competition sponsored by
the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) for all Hawaii universities. Perhaps these individuals
just like to compete. Still on just four days’ notice team members of the 2014 IACBE ethics case
study competition finalized and then presented a business plan on behalf of a nonprofit. The
presentation won second place and a $1000 for the team. The YPO intended the prize money to
be given to the team members. Of course by the time of check presentation, our alumni team had
already decided to donate the money to the nonprofit organization that they worked with.
So, does this mean anything? The business faculty at Chaminade would say it does, we’d
say these students are already doing the right thing. While experts continue to doubt that ethics
can be taught, we have seen the results of involved and engaged activities, like IACBE’s case
study competition. It seems that participation helped to create the motivation that resulted in a
willingness to do the right thing, and it seems that the IACBE case study competition played a
part in forging the positive outcomes demonstrated by these students.
2014 Third Place, IACBE Ethics Competition
Members of Chaminade’s 25014 IACBE case study competition team at Young Presidents
Organization business plan competition (second place prize money of $1000 donated to charity)
2013 First Place, IACBE Ethics Competition