International Journal of Social Science and Business (IJSSB)

Our paper focuses upon the negative consequences arising from the inadequate development of the ability to empathize within the university curriculum relating to applied ethics in business, professional and management studies. We argue this absence in the curriculum may lead later down the career path to the experience of high levels of emotional stress in managers and other professionals which can lead to break-down and withdrawal by individuals. (Patrick Maclagan and Robin Snell, 1992). This study suggested that managers‟ moral dilemmas arise most in their interpersonal relationships and their findings suggested that where the individual‟s capacity for empathy is well developed it may not be properly supported by the organization. Our paper argues there needs to be a greater emphasis on the development of the individual‟s emotional capacities underpinning their moral compass in the ethics curriculums of our business studies departments. This must be tempered by the individual‟s capacity for a rational and critical (including most importantly a self- critical) evaluation of the dimensions and consequences of any given ethical dilemma. The context of an underdeveloped capacity to empathize and the pressure to suppress one‟s own critical reasoning in response to an overriding organizational agenda has led to a general feeling that business ethics is more window dressing than reality. We are convinced that managers need a clearer guidance as to where the not their moral compass can find its‟ „ethical north‟.