SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2019 – UWI TODAY
15
RESEARCH
Ethics are “moral principles that govern behaviour”,
says
the
Oxford Dictionary
. It’s a weighty subject matter, some
might even say outdated in this age of loud personalities
and low character.
“It’s not something I would have ordinarily gravitated
to,” says 23-year-old Zakiyah Rocke, an Applied Psychology
student going into her second year at UWI St Augustine.
Then, last year she attended the seminar course “Caribbean
Ethics and Professional Practice”. The teacher was Professor
Surendra Arjoon.
“To me it was a breath of fresh air, not only because of
his personality but his approach to teaching,” Zakiyah said.
“It wasn’t the traditional classroom setting where you come
prepared to take notes and you feel anxious to contribute.
You come, you learn, you share. Professor Arjoon is open
to learning our different perspectives.”
That “approach to teaching” is no accident. Arjoon,
a Professor of Business and Professional Ethics in the
Department of Management Studies at the St Augustine
Campus, has worked for years with colleagues to develop
and refine a truly innovative approach to teaching and
learning ethics. The key to that approach is humility.
“Although it is not considered the most important
virtue, from both a theoretical and practical perspective,
without humility, one cannot acquire and practice the other
virtues,” he says.
“In other words, humility ‘serves’ and can be considered
the ‘light-switch’ for the other virtues. One cannot acquire
and practice compassion, forgiveness, effective leadership
or even faith without this foundational virtue of humility.”
And these virtues matter enormously when learning
ethics and applying them to our lives.
This “humility-embedded” approach received
international recognition earlier this year in the
International
Journal of Ethics Education
. Professor Arjoon and
his colleague Dr Meena Rambocus (Lecturer in the
Management Studies Department) wrote an article that was
published in the journal entitled “Exploring the relationship
between humility and the virtues: toward improving the
effectiveness of ethics education”.
“There have been several recent innovations on
improving the effectiveness of ethics education in business
schools, most of these efforts lack measurable learning
outcomes,” the researchers said. “As such, it is challenging
to assess the effectiveness of such teaching and learning
interventions and whether they are achieving their desired
outcomes.”
In the early 2000s, US-based energy company Enron
was exposed in a massive scandal that even today is pointed
to as the case-study for ethical failure in business. However,
even as institutions developed scholarship and training in
ethics following the scandal, since then there have been
numerous examples of unethical practices in the corporate
world and beyond.
“In a 2014
Bloomberg
report, author and educator
Deborrah Himsel noted that business schools have made
efforts to teach students to carry out ethical lessons from
theirMBAprogramme into theworkingworld and to behave
ethically as professionals, however, such programmes often
fail to contribute to an ethical business climate because
the teachings of the classroom are no match for the harsh
realities of the global workplace,” Professor Arjoon states.
The feedback from Professor Arjoon’s students about
his approach has been very positive.
“Many educators are afraid to love and care and as a
consequence, cannot bring themselves to the same level
as their students. Professor Arjoon is an amazing teacher
because he genuinely cares and loves and mostly because
he still sees himself as a student,” says Patrice Augustine.
LESSONS INHUMILITY
UWI researchers’ profound approach to the teaching of ethics receives international recognition
B Y J O E L H E N R Y
“Professor Arjoon has been an inspiration with his
teaching on ethics and his outlook on life,” says Shenelle
Rambhajan. “He emphasised the importance of being ethical
and understanding of individuals; not judging them but
looking at the situation holistically.”
Most pointedly, Shenelle says, he is “respected not only
for his academic achievements but for his humility.”
“There is certainly no disagreement about the role and
importance of humility, which has now been emerging as a
critical research topic for effective leadership and building
an effective organisational culture,” the Professor says.
He gives the definition of humility as the ability to
realistically assess and operate within one’s own limitations
and strengths (physical, moral and psychological).
Achieving it however, is easier said than done.
“Unlike the other moral virtues, humility is distinctly
difficult to acquire. To develop humility requires the
continuous practice of acquiring self-knowledge, sincerity,
openness to new ideas and feedback,” Professor Arjoon
says, pointing to actions like “putting the needs of others
first, appreciating the strengths and contributions of others,
admittingmistakes and correcting one’s behaviour, avoiding
speaking unnecessarily about oneself, not judging others,
not seeking to be the centre of attention or not thinking
yourself better than others.”
Inmodern life these are rare attributes indeed. At the top
of our social hierarchies they are rarer still. When asked about
the modern condition of moral and ethical decline, Professor
Arjoon pointed to his students, who have embraced his
teachings with an incredible level of enthusiasm:
“Students from various departments and disciplines
(mathematics, physics, life sciences, sociology,
communications, psychology, law, environmental studies,
and economics) throughout the University participate in
this oversubscribed Professional Ethics course.”
Taalia Hassanali, a final year law student says, “This has
been the most enlightening, mind and life changing course I
have ever taken during my degree. It allowed me to engage in
deep self-reflection and learn about my moral strengths and
weaknesses in order to become a more morally-competent
person. I have not only become a more responsible and
forgiving person, but most notably, the course has taught me
the importance of embracing the only true purpose in life, that
is, to love. Only by living a life filled with love – loving who I
am and loving others despite how they have treated me – can
I be internally free and at peace with myself and be fulfilled.”
If young people like this are one day making decisions
for our society, maybe we can look forward to an ethical
tomorrow.
Professor Surendra Arjoon.
PHOTO: ATIBA CUDJOE
International
Journal
of Ethics
Education
