BOND UNI UNVEILS ETHICS COURSE
IN the wake of damning findings by the Royal Commission into banking, finance and superannuation, Bond University has introduced a course to teach ethics to potential corporate fat cats.
Executives and directors from across Australia are expected to enrol in the Masters of Enterprise Governance, which focuses on ethical responsibilities in law and business and will be unique to Bond.
Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law Professor Nick James said regulation and punishment of unscrupulous operators was not enough and the greed-is-good culture of big businesses must change.
Prof James said education was the key to building a new generation of bosses who accept that just because they can do something, doesn’t mean they should.
“A lot of people are thinking about whether we should be sending company directors to jail but talk is trending now to what we can do to stop this from happening in the first place,” he said.
“A lot is said in terms of enforcement and penalties, but it’s really about a cultural change and re-education of corporate leaders.
“It’s a long game, and that’s where education can come in and we can start to see lasting change.”
The Masters is a predominantly online course made up of eight subjects over 16 months, with a twoday workshop onsite.
“We will go back to basics and tech the corporate leaders and officers and board members some of the fundamentals of law before we zoom into very specific issues like the laws relating to making complex contracts,” Prof James said.
The course would also cover recently emerging ethical challenges like data management, and privacy protection.
“This stuff isn’t going to go anywhere because the whole culture of greed and the want to make shareholders wealthy is so entrenched that it will take a long time to change,” Prof James said.
He said education could be a circuit breaker to prevent the cycle where people are outraged when bad behaviour is outed, but ultimately nothing changes and it happens again.
“If you follow this stuff long enough, you see it over and over,” he said.
“If you want true change in culture, you’ve got to take a different angle.”