Center Strives To Keep Barbarians From The Gate by Skip Derra To some people, business and ethics are about as compatible as water and oil. They simply do not mix. But Brad Shrader, associate professor of management and co-director of the Murray G. Bacon Center for Ethics in Business, says business and ethics are deeply intertwined, especially in today's fast-paced corporate climate. "Ethical business issues are everywhere," Shrader said. Like Orange County, California, where speculative investments have the county on the brink of bankruptcy, or Great Britain, where similar risky investments recently brought down Baring PLC bank, or on Main Street, USA, where firms are struggling with issues of worker privacy and a company's right to know. "At some point in business and society, ethics take on weight in decision making," Shrader said. And ethical behavior has become even more important as a result of a fundamental shift in business practices. "Organizations are less hierarchical, less organized and less formal than in the past," Shrader said. "Responsibilities of workers are broadening. Employees work in teams. Companies rely heavily on suppliers. Without trust, these organizations will fail." The fledgling Bacon Center, co-directed by Shrader and philosophy professor Tony Smith, began two years ago with a $250,000 pledge from Iowa businessman Murray Bacon. The center was established to help Iowa State students learn about thorny ethical issues in business today and to support research in business ethics. Center activities include a fellowship program, speakers and conferences. In the first Bacon-sponsored research project, Shrader and graduate student Holly Brower are attempting to assess the moral climate of the boards of directors of 12 Iowa organizations. The organizations are split evenly between for-profits and not-for-profits. "There's this fascination with members of a board, ever since the days of Lee Iacocca and Barbarians at the Gate," Shrader said. The book examines executive greed and the battle for control of RJR Nabisco. "These powerful and influential people sit at the apex of their respective companies and, in many ways, what they do permeates through their companies. But we don't know a whole lot about them." To learn more, Shrader and Brower made personal presentations to the boards explaining their research. They then left two questionnaires intended to create dilemmas that will reveal how the corporate leaders make moral decisions. One such dilemma involves a man named Heinz, whose wife is dying of a disease. A physician has a drug that will help Heinz's wife. But the physician wants much more money for the drug than Heinz can afford. The physician refuses to lower the price. "We simply ask what are the important factors," Shrader said. "Some will identify only one issue, stealing the drug. Others will bring in more issues like the cost of the drug, the greed of the physician, compassion for Heinz. We want to understand the context and process from which moral decisions are made because moral decisions are not made in a vacuum." Shrader sees a surge of interest in ethics in business. He said it's the responsibility of U.S. business colleges to incorporate more ethics into business courses for a variety of reasons. "A lot of MBA programs are being challenged for their relevance because they turn out number crunchers," he said. "What is needed are more interpersonal skills, more ethical skills. We need to turn out students who love and respect individuals. "And the students get charged up over business ethics." Shrader added. "They ask for more of it because it's all around them. There no longer is a duality of business and ethics; they are embedded in each other." _____ contact: Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917 updated: 03-24-95