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(Submitted as a Practice Paper)
Teaching Ethics with an Integrated Online Curriculum
Christine Lynn, Ph.D.Professor
Director of Isbell Hospitality Ethics
School of Hotel and Restaurant ManagementNorthern Arizona University
P.O. Box 5638Flagstaff, Arizona 86011-5638
(928) 523-2133(928) 523-1711 fax
January, 2010Revised: April, 2010
Author Bio: Christine Lynn is a Professor and Director of Isbell Hospitality Ethics at the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at Northern Arizona University. Her expertise is in curriculum design and ethics.
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Teaching Ethics with an Integrated Online Curriculum
Abstract
This paper reviews the hospitality literature on teaching ethics and describes a
hospitality ethics curriculum with all of the files freely available online so that any
hospitality program can construct and populate a professionally designed complete
hospitality ethics web course or online integrated ethics program.
Key Words: hospitality ethics, ethics instruction,
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Ethics are the rules of conduct people decide to live by. They are moral rules,
though not necessarily laws. Business ethics are the moral rules adhered to by
organizations to make trust possible in business transactions. The purpose of this paper
is to review the hospitality literature on teaching ethics and to describe a curriculum to
address this need. All of the curriculum files are freely available online (see Author’s
Note at end) so that any hospitality program can construct and populate a professionally
designed hospitality ethics web course or an integrated online ethics program, or use
the curriculum in a live classroom setting.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Thirty-six articles were written on teaching ethics in the hospitality literature
between 1990 and 2008, averaging between 1 and 2 articles per year, except in 2004
when four articles appeared and in 2005 when seven articles appeared.
The Need to Teach Ethics
Developing an awareness and sensitivity to personal integrity should be
one of the goals of all hospitality programs (Martin, 1998). A strong ethical foundation
may be more necessary for decision making in a people oriented industry such as
hospitality. To be able to make good decisions in the future, students need to develop
ethical awareness and understand ethical decision-making. They must be able to
analyze ethical issues and apply the results (Khan & McCleary, 1996). Students can be
familiarized with situations that are likely to occur and given the analysis tools to be able
to understand and deal with the ramifications (Upchurch, 1998).
It has been suggested that students’ and managers’ personal codes of ethics
may have been less than carefully considered and developed, while hospitality
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educators may not have the philosophical background to effectively teach ethics
(Whitney, 1989). If, however, students are to obtain the cognitive skills and integrative
abilities necessary for management, they will have to be able to recognize moral
distinctions (Hegarty, 1990), and it is up to hospitality educators to prepare students to
be successful (Whitney, 1989). A clear understanding of business ethics is essential for
students’ professional development (Christy & Coleman, 1991).
Hospitality graduates who are attuned to their own values and those values
match the values of their organizations, will be more comfortable discussing values and
ethics with their own employees and more able to model appropriate ethical behavior at
the work place. They will be better able to communicate organizations’ ethical
expectations to achieve desired ethical outcomes (Stevens & Brownwell, 2000).
The literature states repeatedly that ethics must be taught in university hospitality
programs. “It is imperative for hospitality programs to offer ethics education and training
for their hospitality students” (Yeh, Moreo, Ryan, & Perry, 2005). The results of
numerous surveys emphasize this need to teach ethics (Jaszay, 2001, 2003, 2005;
Lynn, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010.
Hotel executives, hotel human resource specialists, and alumni ranked ethics to
be the most important content area to be taught in hospitality programs. One hundred
fifty-nine students in a hospitality program strongly agreed that ethics should be taught
in hospitality programs, and that it would positively affect their careers (Lundberg,
1994). Hospitality educators prepare students for careers in management and must
address ethical and legal issues (March & Schmidgall, 1999).
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Another study surveyed 242 I-CHRIE educators as to their perceptions of
business ethics in hospitality curricula and in the hospitality industry, and also to find if
demographics influenced their perceptions about business ethics. The educators
agreed that ethical business practices are important, that ethics should be included in
hospitality curricula, and that ethics education is good for students. While all of the
surveyed educators agreed that ethics instruction is important, female educators were
more concerned, as were educators in two-year college programs. Educators in
graduate degree granting programs were the least concerned (Lin, Martin, &
Cobanoglu, 2002). Age, experience, and gender were found to affect the level of moral
development, with female students ahead of male students, and experienced managers
ahead of all students (Freedman & Bartholomew, 1991).
A study compared 735 hospitality students’ responses to ethical dilemmas from a
1993 Damitio and Schmidgall study, with students’ responses to the same ethical
dilemmas in 1994. The study also asked respondents to indicate whether the manager’s
behavior in the dilemmas was ethical or not ethical. The results indicated that while
students try to do the right thing, half of the time, they do not know what the right thing
is. The study did find female students to be more ethical, but also suggested that ethics
must be more consistently taught in hospitality programs (Lynn, Howey, & Combrink,
2007).
What Should be Taught
Survey results of 520 Hong Kong hospitality students ranked 39 ethical issues in
terms of their perceived importance which were then reduced into a set of underlying
factors such as company and employee fraud, employees’ integrity, social conscience,
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environmental protection, employees’ privacy and rights, consumer protection and
employees’ personal advantage. The study’s authors encourage educators to use the
results of this study to understand students’ ethical orientation to be able to plan
curricula that are of more interest and address students’ weaknesses (Yeung & Pine,
2003).
Forty-five general managers, who responded to a survey ranking 12 ethical
principles in terms of importance and violation frequency, indicated that ethical
dilemmas are everyday occurrences in their hotels (Vallen & Casado, 2000).
Most educators agree that it is more effective to incorporate a thoroughly planned
ethics component using a case study into each required course than to teach a
separate ethics course (Enghagen, 1991; Yeh, et al., 2005; Jaszay, 2001). Values are
best communicated through coaching and modeling (Stevens & Brownwell, 2000), so
perhaps a four-year hospitality program with integrated ethics instruction utilizing case
studies and taught by faculty whose values are consistent with the ethics curriculum,
could be positively influential.
Professional educators continue to be criticized by the proponents of liberal arts
education for not teaching values, ethics, concepts and cultural issues. Professional
education programs do not necessarily have stand alone courses in philosophical topics
but instead, the philosophical topics are incorporated throughout the curriculum.
Communication and critical thinking are required skills in both professional and liberal
education. To be successful in today’s business environment ethical principles must be
understood and adhered to. This criticism, according to B. L. Cole (2005) is based on a
misunderstanding rather than a reality.
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The results, however, of a Yeh, Moreo, Ryan, and Perry study “imply that many
hospitality programs have not incorporated and implemented ethics education into their
curricula, although, faculty members tend to think that they have” (Yeh, et al., 2005). A
survey of I-CHRIE members showed that ethics education was not a focus in hospitality
programs, that while everyone agreed ethics should and can be taught, consistent
ethics education programs simply have not been incorporated into university hospitality
curricula (Yeh, R., Martin, L.J., Moreo, P. J., Ryan, B., & Perry, K.M., 2005). The
authors of the study recommend that ethics instruction, utilizing case studies, be
integrated across hospitality curricula.
Most hospitality educators have a subject matter specialty. All educators,
however, are responsible for teaching writing, oral communication, ethics and values
(Lieux & Winquist, 1991). While some hospitality educators are less than qualified to
critique writing and/or teach ethics, it has been suggested that combining writing and
ethics throughout the curriculum may be more effective than just assuming that
exposure to ethically literate faculty will result in ethically literate students (Lieux &
Winquist, 1991).
Three-hundred-ninety-five (395) college students from Europe, Asia, Africa, and
the Americas were surveyed to determine the effect culture has on their ethical decision
making. It was found that there were cultural differences between the students that
affected ethical decision making. However, classroom interaction between students of
different cultures over long periods of time can bring their ethical decision making into
alignment with the ethical principles of the educating institution (Brymer, R. A., March,
L., Palmer, M., & Schmidgall, R. S., 2005). Faculty influence on students, both in and
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outside of class, is profound. Instruction in ethics must carefully guide students to look
at their cultural beliefs and attitudes in terms of developing a framework of ethical
orientation (Brymer, R. A., March, L., Palmer, M., & Schmidgall, R. S., 2005)
Teaching Strategies
College students may be guided into higher stages of moral reasoning through
class discussions and “real-life” case studies (Martin, 1998; Vallen & Casado, 2000;
Enghagen, 1991). Critical thinking skills may be developed by listening to students and
challenging and coaching them rather than by telling them what and how to think
(Costello, 1994).
Research has shown that students tend to think in terms of outcomes of
behaviors rather than behaviors themselves (Khan & McCleary, 1996). It has been
suggested that teleological systems might have more application in the hospitality
industry because managers can be taught to compare outcomes to the various
stakeholders (customers, employees, the company, etc.) for each possible decision and
select the decision that has the best outcomes (Khan & McCleary, 1996).
Several ethical decision making models have been proposed for teaching ethical
decision making. Exercises designed to promote student reflection on their own
behaviors in everyday situations are available to enhance ethical awareness
(Enghagen, 1993). Scenarios of ethical dilemmas facing many managers can be
developed for students to practice defining and analyzing problems in terms of
consequences, outcomes, and also their own personal outlooks (Upchurch, 1998).
Six case studies were offered as “real-life” examples of instructional materials
that could be integrated into hospitality programs to focus students’ attention on the 12
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ethical principles which should perhaps serve as the basis of our students’ ethical
education (Vallen & Casado, 2000).
Three-hundred-twenty-six hospitality seniors over a four-year period completed
questionnaires to get at their opinions of ethics in the hospitality industry. The results
from the questionnaires completed each semester were used to stimulate discussion in
an ethics unit in a course they were taking on hospitality issues. The author’s use of
student-generated data made for lively, personal class discussions because the
questionnaires asked students about their own work experiences and their own ethical
beliefs. The focus of the instruction was on ethical decision-making and the
consequences of various decisions. The author believes his approach encourages
student self-reflection, critical thinking and analysis, and an increased quality of
decision-making (George, 2008).
Another article provided a pedagogical model, a sample lesson plan, and a
philosophical justification for using the utility theory of John Stuart Mill as the most
practical and useful way of teaching ethics to hospitality students (Jaszay, 2002).
Culinary students also need to be taught ethics in order to be able to do the right thing
when faced with on-the-job situations where unethical actions may be the norm (La
Lopa, J. & Ghiselli, R., 2005). La Lopa and Ghiselli (2005) included a lesson plan with
ethical scenarios for teaching culinary students.
There are numerous methodologies available for ethical analysis. It is more
difficult, however, to teach students to actually use the methodologies to make ethical
decisions (Enghagen, 1991). Instruction designed to encourage ethical behavior may
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only be evaluated by studying former students’ behaviors over time. Attitudinal surveys
will not be adequate for this purpose (Enghagen, 1991).
HOSPITALITY ETHICS CURRICULUM
The literature strongly supports teaching ethics and utilizing an integrated case
study approach across hospitality curricula. Hospitality educators, however, may lack
the time and/or ethics expertise to take on the task of developing consistent ethics
instruction.
A complete hospitality ethics curriculum (Jaszay, 2006) has been designed and
is available on-line (www2.nau.edu/~clj5/ethics/) without charge to any program that
wishes to use it. It is in a format that can be downloaded, modified, saved, and/or put
into a preferred web class platform. It can be utilized on-line or live. The curriculum is
being utilized at the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at Northern Arizona
University as required supplemental on-line instruction corresponding to each of the
core courses. An ethics course did not have to be added to the curriculum, and none of
the faculty has to teach it. The only administrative cost is for a graduate student grader.
Description of the Curriculum
The Curriculum is organized into 14 lessons that can be delivered/completed
within two to six hours depending on the length of time available for the particular
lesson. Each lesson includes the objective of the lesson, lectures, activities, and a quiz.
Instructors can use each lesson as is or modify them to suit their particular teaching
styles and the needs of their students.
The accompanying textbook has 15 chapters that correspond to the lessons in
the Curriculum (Ethics and Housekeeping, Ethics and Foodservice, Ethics and
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Marketing, etc.) and focuses on the “Ethical Principles for Hospitality Managers
(honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, loyalty, fairness, concern and respect for others,
commitment to excellence, leadership, reputation and morale, and accountability).
These are rules that have been determined through years of practice in the hospitality
industry that, if adhered to in the decision-making process, should result in the best
possible consequences for all parties involved.
Hospitality students can be taught these rules, but they might not necessarily
believe that adhering to the principles is necessary or even possible. In this program,
however, students are required to make hypothetical managerial decisions for the
fictitious Freshwater Oasis Inn. They are guided into comparing consequences for each
possible decision with regard to stakeholders (manager, employees, company,
customers, etc.), and then into selecting decisions that lead to the most favorable
outcomes. A pattern ultimately becomes apparent, and students are likely to adopt an
automatic acceptance and application of the rules.
The on-going Freshwater Oasis Inn case study is designed to be entertaining
and quite realistic. Students will get to know the fictional characters, be interested in the
situations they confront in their day-to-day duties at FOI, and care about the outcomes.
By the end of the Curriculum, students will have analyzed over 50 ethical dilemmas in
each department within the case study hotel - - ethical dilemmas they may have already
encountered in their own jobs. They will be well acquainted with the Ethical Principles
for Hospitality Managers, understanding how the principles apply in a multitude of
situations. Overall, the goal is to make students adept at ethical analysis through
“hands-on” exercises.
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Less obvious behavioral areas that have a direct influence on the ability to be
ethical are also addressed. Topics such as civility, courtesy, problem-solving, diversity,
communication, stress management, delegation, time management, and humility are
addressed because, to be ethical requires possession of life skills and people skills
necessary to provide the foundation for making ethical decisions and life choices.
Managers cannot manage others successfully if they cannot manage themselves, nor
does it do much good to make proper decisions if they are unable to get anyone to go
along with them.
How managers behave in their personal and professional lives are connected. If
they cheat or lie at home, they are more likely to behave similarly at work. To be ethical
requires more than just following a set of ethical rules. It requires understanding other
individuals as well as themselves, and that managers also possess the social skills
necessary to ensure successful interaction with employees, colleagues, vendors, and
customers.
Administration of the Curriculum
The files of the Curriculum provided on the Isbell Hospitality Ethics web site were
downloaded into the Vista web class platform used for all web classes at Northern
Arizona University. Every student who enrolls in the Introductory Hospitality
Management course is automatically enrolled in the online Hospitality Ethics Program
on Vista. Unlike all of the other web courses offered, the online Hospitality Ethics
Program never closes; students are in the course for the duration of their time in the
Hotel and Restaurant Management major.
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Instruction is presented in each of the sections of the Introductory Hospitality
Management course on how to successfully do the Hospitality Ethics Program. New
students are shown in class how to go to Vista, open the Hospitality Ethics Program,
find the segments that correspond to the particular courses they are taking in the
semester, and then how to go through and complete the lectures, activities,
assignments, and quizzes. The instruction takes about 15 minutes.
Students are supposed to complete the specific ethics segments while they are
taking the corresponding core courses, but because the ethics program never closes,
they are also able to complete the segments during the breaks between semesters.
This is good for students who are pressed for time during the semester, but also makes
it possible for students to wait until they are ready to graduate and then run through the
entire program, which, of course, defeats the purpose of the integrated ethics program.
Faculty of the core courses are requested to remind their students each
semester that they are to complete the Hospitality Ethics Program’s segment that
corresponds to the course they are currently taking. Faculty may, but do not have to,
incorporate any of the ethics instruction into their courses. Some faculty members add
the students’ ethics online quiz and assignment grades to their own class grade books.
But, faculty involvement in the ethics program is completely voluntary. The
administration of a hospitality program could require faculty to incorporate the
corresponding online ethics segments into their live classes, which would increase the
value of the online supplementary ethics program.
Students are required to complete the entire online Hospitality Ethics Program
with at least a C average in order to graduate. They receive no credit for the program
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nor do they pay for it. They are awarded a certificate of completion of the Hospitality
Ethics Program upon graduation.
The School of Hotel Restaurant Management is currently in the first year of a
three year assessment cycle evaluating the effectiveness of the ethics curriculum. The
results will be utilized to improve the program.
CONCLUSION
The on-going integrated case study analysis instruction, backed with consistent
philosophy and pedagogy, is far more effective than the inconsistent and often times
unrelated ethics instruction that may or may not be presented in each course. It is
extremely powerful to have the same line, presented in the same way, over and over as
students go through the hospitality curriculum. Students are better able to grasp the
importance of and see the relationship of ethics in every area of their careers and lives.
Just as someone can be an excellent piano teacher without being a concert
pianist, faculty do not have to be philosophers to teach ethics. If they are good teachers
and have good instructional materials, they can be very effective ethics teachers. The
curriculum is based in Utilitarianism – that is, choosing the decision that results in the
least pain for the most people. Because this is a pragmatic approach, allowing students
to consider various decision options and selecting the decision option that has the
fewest negative consequences for themselves and others, faculty, also, do not have to
be saints to effectively teach ethics. The supplemental on-line approach allows the
School of Hotel and Restaurant Management to teach ethics without making any
changes to the current program or faculty teaching loads.
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Students obviously have to purchase the reasonably priced text book, but the
curriculum is free. Programs can simply drop a unit from the curriculum into each of
their core courses or require students to complete the on-line instruction corresponding
to the courses they are in, and instantly have a professionally designed, effective,
integrated ethics program. It is known and accepted that university hospitality programs
need to teach ethics. It is known that ethics are best taught through an integrated case
study approach. The instruction is now available, and there is no longer any reason for
not having an integrated ethics program in place in every hospitality program.
Hospitality educators influence their students who will go out and manage the
biggest industry in the world. If students are steeped in ethics, they can have a
profoundly positive effect on their future employees, which in turn can have a profoundly
positive effect on society. Through education, the world can be changed for the best.
That is the responsibility of educators and leaders. The Hospitality Ethics Curriculum is
a tool that can help meet this responsibility.
The literature on teaching ethics says that ethics must be taught to hospitality
students. The literature specifies the content areas, the best teaching strategies, and
even provides some sample lesson plans (La Lopa & Ghiselli, 2005; Jaszay, 2002).
Researchers at Isbell Hospitality Ethics have read the literature and taken the steps to
go beyond just talking about the importance of teaching ethics. They are now actually
teaching ethics, and it is their mission to share the curriculum with all hospitality
programs.
REFERENCES
Brymer, R. A., March, L., Palmer, M., & Schmidgall, R. S. (2005). Cultural influences on
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ethical decisions of students enrolled in European hospitality programmes. Tourism & Hospitality Research. 5(4), 346-357.
Christy, C., & Colman, V. (1991). Last call: Explore the debate for the ‘90s” Industrial ethics. Night Club & Bar Magazine. 7(5), 22-25.
Cole, B. L. (2005). Theoretical analysis of “academic credibility and the hospitality curriculum”: The image problem. FIU Hospitality Review. 23(1), 1-6.
Costello, T., (1994). Making the tough choices: Do you persevere, compromise or ignore? Cooking For Profit. 5(23), 13.
Enghagen, L. K. (1990). Ethics in hospitality/tourism education: A survey. Hospitality Research Journal. 14(2), 113-118.
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Enghagen, L. K. (1993). Recognizing ethical issues or people who live in glass houses. Hospitality & Tourism Educator. 5(2), 69-71.
Freeman, A. M., & Bartholomew, P. S. (1990). Age/experience and gender as factors in ethical development of hospitality managers and students. Hospitality Research Journal. 14(2), 1-10.
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Jaszay, C. (2005). Review of hospitality ethics research in 2002 and 2003. Isbell Hospitality Ethics, www2.nau.edu/~clj5/ethics/.
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Jaszay, C. (2006). Hospitality Ethics Curriculum. Prentice Hall: New Jersey.
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Lieux, E. M. & Winquist, S. C. (1991). Instruction in writing combined with anintroduction to ethics in a professional discipline. Hospitality & Tourism Educator. 3(2), 34-35.
Lin, J. M., Martin, L., & Cobanoglu, C. (2002). Educators' perceptions of business ethics in hospitality. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 2(3/4), 47.
La Lopa, J. & Ghiselli, R. F. (2005). Back of the house ethics: Students must be taught not to give into the unethical behavior they may see or be asked to do during internships or in their careers. Chef Educator Today. Spring 2005, 25-27.
Lundberg, C. C. (1994). Topic paper: The views of future hospitality leaders on business ethics. Hospitality & Tourism Educator. 6(2), 11-13.
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Lynn, C., Howey, R., & Combrink, T. (2007). Students' responses to ethical dilemmas. FIU Hospitality Review, 25(2), 1-9.
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Martin, L. J. (1998). Integrating ethics into the hospitality curriculum. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education. 10(2), 22-25.
Stevens, B., & Brownwell, J. (2000). Communicating standards and influencing behavior. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 41(2), 39-43.
Upchurch, R. S. (1998). Ethics in the hospitality industry: An applied model. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 10(6), 227-233.
Vallen, G. & Casado, M. (2000). Ethical principles for the hospitality curriculum. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 41(2), 44-51/
Whitney, D. L. (1989). The ethical orientations of hotel managers and hospitality students: Implications for industry, education, and youthful careers. Hospitality Education & Research Journal. 13(3), 187-192.
Yeh, R., Martin, L., Moreo, P. J., Ryan, B., & Perry, K. M. (2005). Hospitality educators’ perceptions of ethics education and the implications for hospitality educators, practitioners, and students. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education. 17(2), 25-35.
Yeung, S. (2004). Hospitality ethics curriculum: An industry perspective. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 16(4), 253-262.
Yeung, S & Pine, R. (2003). Designing a hospitality ethics course content from the students' perspective. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 3(2), 19.
Authors Note: Isbell Hospitality Ethics was established in 1988 when Marion Isbell, the founder
of Ramada Inns, endowed The School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at Northern Arizona University, to create a hospitality ethics research center with a mission of encouraging applied research in hospitality ethics and addressing real-world ethical dilemmas in the hospitality industry.
A review of the hospitality ethics literature since 1990 is available on the Isbell Hospitality Ethics web site at www2.nau.edu/~clj5/ethics/. The complete Hospitality Ethics Curriculum is also available on the web site.
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