Baylor Hosts Business Ethics Forum

November 1, 2022

Students and stakeholders will gather to participate in the annual Dale P. Jones Business Ethics Forum from Nov. 1-11, hosted by Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business at the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation. 

The two-week long gathering seeks to prepare students for the ethical challenges they will face in the marketplace. Events include an Ethics Case Competition with Baylor undergraduate and graduate management student teams, guest speakers and a National MBA Case Competition in Ethical Leadership.

"We work strategically to bring in guest speakers who will engage students with thought-provoking content," Matt Quade, director of Christian Leadership and Ethics, said. "We have hundreds of students participating in case competitions that allow them to wrestle with a real-world ethical failure."

Hosted by the Christian Leadership and Ethics office, the Business Ethics Forum offers students the opportunity to build out their values and ethical framework in clearer ways and draw upon the experiences of others, Quade said.

"Management students will specifically face so many ethical dilemmas throughout their career," Quade said. "Being able to face such complex issues with resolve and integrity is difficult, but it does become easier with practice."

The Business Ethics Forum also challenges participants to forge connections with teammates and practice approaching difficult tasks with composure. Grace Basile, a senior Management and Marketing major and a member of an ethics case competition winning group, said she attributes her team's success to the Lord's sovereignty putting them together and their attitude going into the competition. Introduced through her MGT 3305 class project, her group bonded through time spent preparing their presentation and forged a friendship that they have maintained since the competition.

"We prayed all the time when we were preparing for it, and I think a big thing too was the perspective we had of 'If we win, that's awesome, but if we don't, it has no eternal significance,'" Basile said. "I think that that attitude set the bar for us to be able to work more effectively."

The forum is an excellent opportunity for the Business School to help build up the next generation of Christian business leaders, Sandeep Mazumder, the William E. Crenshaw Endowed Dean of the Hankamer School of Business, said.

"Baylor should be a leading voice when it comes to faith in business," Mazumder said. "The Business Ethics Forum is just one example of how we are living out that responsibility at the Hankamer School of Business."

For more information on HSB Christian Leadership and Ethics, visit https://hankamer.baylor.edu/ethics or email Matt Quade at Matt_Quade@baylor.edu.