“The idea is to think about ethics in the wild, rather than as a merely abstract concept in the classroom,” Singer says. “If students apply the ideas to a specific business case, it makes it easier for them to apply the thinking to issues they may face in the workplace.”

Singer’s course and teaching approach is emblematic of the Quinlan School’s dedication to both experiential learning and creating a new path forward for businesses that combine purpose and profit. It also builds on the research Singer did for an upcoming book about businesses’ ethical obligations to democracy.

Legacy of Ethics

The Quinlan School’s commitment to business ethics dates back to the 1960s, when Father Raymond Baumhart, S.J., who later became Loyola University Chicago’s longest-running president, taught a course on the topic—helping spark an entire field of study.

Business ethics combined Baumhart’s interests in moral theology and business. He regularly hosted Chicago business leaders to speak with his class about ethical issues they had faced. His passion embedded a commitment to business ethics in the school’s DNA.

Preparing for Power

Today, business ethics is a required course for both undergraduate and graduate students at the Quinlan School – but it goes even further, embedding ethics at the very heart of the curriculum.

“I imagine that at many other business schools, a person who teaches business ethics feels a little like an outcast who is just there for box checking. That’s not how I feel at Loyola,” Singer says. “Business ethics is a central part of the business education here.”

While Singer teaches a course dedicated specifically to business ethics, lessons in ethics are embedded in other Quinlan classes. For example, students taking data analytics learn about the ethical use of data; students taking finance learn about ethics in finance.

According to Michael Behnam, the dean of the Quinlan School of Business, “Having ethics woven throughout our curriculum speaks to the fundamental values of this school and the University. At Quinlan, we are empowering tomorrow's difference makers with the tools to do business in a way that supports people and communities and is ethical.”

For Singer, business ethics goes beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reports. It’s about using power carefully and responsibly. He encourages students to think of holding a leadership position in a business as occupying a type of social office, a perch of power.

“You’re not entitled to use that position of power for your own personal ends,” he says. “It's less about a businessperson's personal beliefs or commitments, and more about the broader obligations that derive from society's shared commitment to democracy and justice.”

His goal isn’t necessarily to tell companies and employees how to navigate every potential crisis, but rather to give them a framework for working through those challenges when they arise—and to set up governance structures and workplace cultures that enable such reflection.

“What I see my work doing is helping to clarify why certain issues are problems that need to be thought about in more detail—and then providing a shared vocabulary and conceptual toolkit to help discuss those issues,” he says.

Imparting those critical thinking skills to businesses—and his students—is core to his mission.

Reimagining Business Education

The lessons taught at Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business are shaping the corporate world, as graduates persuade their coworkers to consider factors beyond profit or revenue—such as sustainability, community engagement, and equity and inclusion—when assessing a company’s success.

“Here, we’re looking at addressing the great challenges of our time with our business skills—but we see that in every sector," says Karen Weigert, director of Quinlan’s Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility, which houses the selective Baumhart Scholars MBA program for working professionals. “We build cohorts of people across for-profit, nonprofit, and government sectors who know each other and know what works, and then we support them in every way we can so their careers take off.”

Launched in 2019, the Baumhart Scholars MBA program is the first of its kind, taking a unique approach to teaching future business leaders.

"This is really about building a community,” Weigert says. “We support our scholars in the classroom and outside of the classroom. When you want to change the world, you’re not going to do it alone. So come do it with everybody here.”