When most MBA students study business ethics it’s through readings and abstract conceptualizations. Trevor Diffley, a student at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, has an opportunity to explore business ethics by looking at a much more concrete example: the Holocaust.
Diffley was chosen by FASPE , the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, to join a unique international program that explores the history of the Holocaust. The program invites graduate students across the fields of business, journalism, law, medicine and religion to engage in an intensive study of contemporary ethics in their discipline. Another goal of the program is to encourage a dialogue between the American and European fellows. This year, the program is composed of eight Americans, four Germans and Four Austrians.
The Emory Business news site explains the program in greater detail:
“FASPE examines what role professionals in business, journalism, law, medicine, and the clergy played in Nazi Germany and underscores that the moral codes governing these essential professions can break down or be distorted with devastating consequences. “By educating students about the causes of the Holocaust and the power of their chosen professions, FASPE seeks to instill a sense of professional responsibility for the ethical and moral choices that the Fellows will make in their careers and in their professional relationships,” said C. David Goldman, founder of FASPE.”