(1987) and Pratt and McLaughlin (1989) also noted that institutions of higher education are now viewed as a major
vehicle for promoting positive change in ethical standards and behavior. In fact, a generation ago, MacKenzie
(1949) already mentioned that providing individuals with a basic sense of moral values is a major purpose of higher
education.
This is supported by Mathiasen (1998) who reported that, both faculty and staff in one of his surveys, agree that
the higher education should engage proactively in student moral development. His findings suggested that this
could be accomplished through class discussion, critical analysis of theories and case studies, reflective thinking,
and community service activities. More importantly, faculty and staff should serve as models for this type of
behavior. Vallen and Casado (2000) pinpointed that some educators have repeatedly supported the integration of
ethics in curriculum by offering courses in ethics and require students to take those courses. It is believed that acting
ethically requires certain intellectual skills that develop with both maturity and formal education. If ethical
principles have been internalized during college, they will be readily carried into the workplace. The college years
are almost certainly the best opportunity that educators could instill ethics in students.
Business leaders have also expressed concerns of creating awareness of ethical principles. Examples include the
annual conferences on applied ethics and the two institutions dedicated to the advancement of ethics in the
hospitality industry namely the International Institute for Quality and Service in Ethics and Tourism (IIQUEST) and
the Marion Isbell Endowment for Hospitality Ethics Center. Both are non-profit organizations dedicated to the
promotion of ethics in hospitality and tourism (Vallen and Casado, 2000). Apart from educators and industry
practitioners, a study by Shannon and Berl (1997) with 273 business students of 8 universities in US indicated that
students believe quite strongly that the discussion of ethics and ethical issues is worthwhile and important. Many
feel a course in business ethics should be required and they would take such a course, if offered, even if it was not
required
Despite the increasing importance of ethics education, there are also indications that the integration of ethics into
a curriculum has its difficulties and barriers. One of the major difficulties cited is the inability of the teaching staff
to teach ethics. It is noted by Oddo (1997) that some business faculty feel uneasy about discussing ethical theories
in the business classroom because they are not trained ethicists. Although there are some colleges that support the
need for ethical education, but in their minds, their teachers are not competent to teach ethics. As they claimed, few
teachers in the schools have ever had a course in ethics. If we demand that teachers know mathematics or biology
before teaching those subjects, how can we maintain a consistent demand for professional quality among our teacher
when we ask them to attend to ethical concerns with no professional training in that area?
Enghagen (1991) also reported that for hospitality programs that do not include ethics in the curriculum
expressed that the most common reasons for the exclusion of ethics in the curriculum were that the curriculum is too
full, and there is a lack of interested and qualified professors. Of the 18 hospitality programs which do not include
ethics in the curriculum, 11 stated as their reasons that it was too full, and 4 each cited the lack of interested and
qualified professors. Similarly, of the 8 business schools in this category, 6 cited the curriculum being too full as the
rationale for excluding ethics, while 5 pointed to the lack of qualified professors and 4 indicated that their professors
lacked the interest in teaching in this area.
Starratt (1994) explains that schools simply do not have the times to give and are already falling behind in their
primary job of teaching basic skills in language and science and therefore should let alone developing critical
thinking skills for lifelong learning. They protested that if they are not getting the job done in academics, how could
they afford to divert time and resources away from academics to attend to ethics? In another survey of ethics
conducted by Mintz (1990) with management accounting courses, it is found that only slightly more than half of the
respondents integrated ethics into their courses. For those who did not teach ethics cited curriculum constraints,
lack of subject materials, and lack of ability as the primary reasons for not integrating ethics into their courses.
Lack of teaching materials is also found to be one of the major constraints. Gunz and McCutcheon (1998) stated
that when reviewing the commitment of accounting academics to teaching accounting ethics, it is noted that one of
the fundamental difficulties is that the existing knowledge about incidences of ethical dilemmas in accounting
practices is limited. Most material is either theoretical or anecdotal and only very few are of real-world cases. They
also reported that the diminishing human resources and the continuing pressures to incorporate new technical
material are also significant constraints cited by the schools.