The Institute for Business and Professional Ethics is a business ethicsresearch 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.
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;
Alleviating Poverty through Profitable Partnerships: Globalization, Markets & Economic Well-Being. Patricia Werhane, Scott P. Kelley, Laura P. Hartman, and Dennis J. Moberg..
Business Ethics and Continental Philosophy, Mollie Painter-Morland and René ten Bos.
Business Ethics as Practice: Ethics as the Everyday Business of Business, Mollie Painter-Morland
Effective & Ethical Practices in Global Corporations, edited by Laura P Hartman and Patricia Werhane
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.
Journal The Business and Professional Ethics Journal is a peer-reviewedacademic 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:
The year 2010 represented the 350th anniversary of the deaths of DePaul University’s patron, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac, 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.
