Institute for Business and Professional Ethics

The Institute for Business and Professional Ethics (IBPE) is a business ethics research and development center within the College of Commerce at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1985 in a joint effort between DePaul University's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and College of Commerce to create a forum for ethical deliberation in professional decision-making processes. The Institute is one of 45 specialized centers and institutes at DePaul that support student learning with an institutional commitment to community service and social justice. The IBPE publishes case studies, books, and journal articles in business ethics, and hosts a series of annual business workshops and conferences. It is also the editorial home of the Business and Professional Ethics Journal.

The logo for the Institute

Mission

The IBPE facilitates ethical deliberation by developing models for ethical decision-making in business practices and stirring the moral conscience of professional arbiters in the international economic structure, particularly focusing on:

  • Students: Teaching students ethical practices and inspiring engagement in social justice initiatives;
  • Business: Advancing ethical practices in established business organizations; and

Leadership

The Institute is managed by an external board of directors composed of ethics and compliance officers from a wide range of Chicago businesses, including small consulting firms and major corporations.

The operations staff includes:

  • Patricia Werhane, Managing Director
  • Laura Hartman, Research Director
  • Mollie Painter-Morland, Associate Director
  • Summer Brown, Executive Director
  • Nathan Shepard, Assistant Researcher

Notable publications (selection)

Textbooks

  • Alleviating Poverty through Profitable Partnerships: Globalization, Markets & Economic Well-Being. Patricia Werhane, Scott P. Kelley, Laura P. Hartman, and Dennis J. Moberg. (Routledge, 2010).
  • Business Ethics and Continental Philosophy, Mollie Painter-Morland and René ten Bos. (forthcoming, Cambridge, 2011)
  • Business Ethics as Practice: Ethics as the Everyday Business of Business, Mollie Painter-Morland (Cambridge, 2008)
  • Effective & Ethical Practices in Global Corporations, edited by Laura P Hartman and Patricia Werhane (Routledge, 2009)
  • Leadership, Gender and Organization, Mollie Painter-Morland and Patricia Werhane. Springer, 2010.
  • Rising Above Sweatshops: Innovative Management Approaches to Global Labor Challenges, Laura P Hartman, Denis Arnold, and Richard Wokutch (Praeger, 2003).

Journal

The Business and Professional Ethics Journal is a peer-reviewed academic journal that features articles on current ethical issues in business and professional life. The Institute assumed editorial responsibility for journal in 2010.

Society of Business Ethics

The IBPE maintains close relations with the Society for Business Ethics, a non-profit association that promotes the advancement and understanding of ethics in business. Members of the IBPE team have worked for many years in cooperation with members of the Society for Business Ethics to promote open and thoughtful discussion of the most difficult moral, legal, empirical, and philosophical issues of business ethics.

International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference

The International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference is an annual event hosted by the IBPE and DePaul University. The focus of the conference concerns current ethics quandaries through the lens of Vincentian values. The 2010 conference encouraged panels, presentations and case studies that focus on global issues related to the following:

Major topic questions included:

  • What models should companies and managers develop for corporate governance in an increasingly global economy?
  • How can companies market to the vast majority of the world that is in abject poverty?
  • Can they address the issues of poverty and disease in less developed countries while continuing to be fiscally responsible?
  • What is the role of entrepreneurs in these new markets?

Haiti Initiative and Zafen.org

The year 2010 represented the 350th anniversary of the deaths of DePaul University’s patron, St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) and St. Louise de Marillac (1591–1660), and provided an opportunity to celebrate their historical, spiritual and charitable legacy. As part of its worldwide celebration, the Institute supported the University, in conjunction with Fonkoze, the International Vincentian Family and Haitian Hometown Association Resource Group organizations, to found Zafen.org —an online microfinance program to assist Haitian entrepreneurs and to facilitate sustainable economic development in Haiti. Zafen.org was launched in April 2010.

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