Business Ethics touches every aspect of business and the world of work for which Bentley students are being prepared. Recognizing this, since 1991, HCBE has been helping faculty across the academic spectrum integrate business ethics into their classes. The multi-day Business Ethics Teaching Workshop brings together approximately 20 different professors each year, drawn from various academic disciplines, to learn about and share innovative teaching methods and class discussion tools. Since 2004, with support from State Street Foundation, and in memory of Timothy B. Harbert, Chairman and CEO of State Street Global Advisors and Trustee and Alumnus of Bentley College, the Business Ethics Teaching Workshop has been open to professors from universities all over the world.
2025 Teaching Workshop
We are excited to welcome applications for the 2025 edition of the Global Business Ethics Teaching Workshop. It will be held on the Bentley University campus from June 1st – 3rd and is sponsored in part by the Institute for Humane Studies.
The Workshop is designed to provide instructors of business ethics (and related courses such as CSR, sustainability, and corporate citizenship) the knowledge and tools they need to be more effective in the classroom. The Workshop is open to first-time instructors as well as to those with more experience looking for ways to improve. We welcome applications from scholars based in any country.
Workshop participants will receive reimbursement for their reasonable travel expenses up to $1000. To apply, please fill out this application and email it, along with your CV, to Gail Sands. Applications are due February 21st, 2025. We aim to make decisions by early March. We regret that we typically have more applications than we have available seats (and funding).
Jeff Moriarty and Jill Brown, both of Bentley University, co-host and teach in the Workshop. It will also feature several guest lectures. Guests for this year will be announced in the spring. Check out agendas from prior Workshops to see who has come in the past.
Agendas from Previous Years
2024 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
2022 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
2021 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
2020 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
2019 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
2018 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
2017 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
2016 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
2015 Workshop Agenda (PDF)
HISTORY
As a way of influencing curriculum development in ethics, in 1988 Bentley’s Center for Business Ethics began working with the academic chairs of the Accounting, Law and Computer Information Systems Departments, providing them with assistance in integrating ethics into their departmental courses. The subsequent work with these departments — and its success in elevating the visibility of ethics in their curricula and stimulating faculty research in this area — prompted CBE to transform this initiative into a formal workshop. The first session was offered in May 1991, and it continues today.
Initially referred to as the Business Ethics “Gadfly” Workshop, the intent has remained the same since its inception — to encourage faculty to address ethical issues and questions of corporate responsibility in courses across the curriculum. The Gadfly reference dates back to Socrates, who described himself as a “gadfly,” a stinging insect whose purpose was to harass and “sting” the citizens of Athens out of their ignorance and intellectual complacency. By “seeding” each academic department with such gadflies, the goal was to develop a core group of faculty who would prod and influence their colleagues to incorporate informed discussions of ethical issues and corporate responsibility in their classes.
Guest speakers have included representatives from the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association, Fortune 500 Ethics Officers, and Boston-area business people who are responsible for ethics and corporate social responsibility initiatives. Over the years, corporate sponsors of the program have included the GE Foundation, Guardsmark, Liberty Mutual, Monsanto, Sears, Texas Instruments, Verizon, and, most recently, the State Street Foundation.
In 2004, the Business Ethics Teaching Workshop went global. Through the generous support of the State Street Foundation, visiting scholars from other colleges and universities around the world have joined Bentley faculty in this exciting endeavor.