Asia is bursting with entrepreneurial energy – and bribery, backdoor deals and corporate skulduggery, if the news headlines are to be believed.

    For example, China's food safety chief was recently executed for taking payoffs, while the Communist party leader in Shanghai has been jailed for stealing pension funds. The idea that powerful people can cut legal corners is widespread.

    “Reciprocity is a source of great cultural strength in many Asian societies. It binds us together and is a great comfort,” said Piman Limpaphayom, who runs the MBA programme at Sasin Business School in Bangkok. 

    “But where do you draw the line between brotherhood and corruption, between respect and fealty? We tend to make this line very fuzzy, turning a strength into a weakness.” 

    So how is ethical behaviour to be taught in Asian business schools? Alejo Sison, professor of business ethics in the philosophy department of the University of Navarra, Spain, has written widely on corruption in Asia, especially in his native Philippines. He argues that there are culturally appropriate ways of driving tricky ethical lessons home. 

    For example, professors might ask students if they would want their own family to suffer like other families might as a result of immoral or illegal actions. “As educators we simply try to provide [students] with tools or a moral compass to navigate through life's moral mazes,” he says.

    Yet Howard Harries, who teaches corporate ethics in Adelaide, Singapore and Hong Kong, says research shows that, when taught, people can become better at ethical decisions. “Narrative is important. Ethics is learnt through stories,” he says. 

    Case studies are clearly useful in showing how dishonest tycoons can come undone, or revealing how tricky dilemmas – whether, say, to fire loyal but inefficient employees – can be finessed.

Yet, if a lecturer is honest, the students will have to be told that in a messy, unfair world they will have to look within themselves to make difficult ethical decisions, says Lee Kaun-han, the former dean of business at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“You can teach them how to approach difficult situations until you are blue in the face, but in the end they will need the strength of character to do what is right.”

Business education, he says, is not all about money and efficiency. “You might be surprised to hear the students respond very well to the idea of personal integrity for its own sake. This ultimately is what being a good businessman is really about,” says Prof Lee.

如果新闻标题可信的话，那么，亚洲正迸发着创业活力——还有行贿受贿、秘密交易和公司诈骗。

例如，中国药监局局长最近因收受贿赂被处以死刑，而上海市委书记因盗用社保基金锒铛入狱。人们普遍认为，有权有势的人能钻法律的空子。

曼谷萨新工商管理研究生院(Sasin Business School)MBA课程负责人皮曼•林巴帕荣(Piman Limpaphayom)表示：“在许多亚洲社会，互惠互利都是巨大文化优势的一个源泉。它把我们绑在了一起，是一种巨大的安慰。”

“但是，你该怎么划分交情与腐败、敬重与愚忠呢？我们往往把界线划得很模糊，把优势变成了劣势。”

那么，亚洲商学院是如何教授伦理行为的呢？西班牙纳瓦拉大学(University of Navarra)哲学系商业伦理教授阿莱霍•西松(Alejo Sison)写过大量关于亚洲腐败的文章，尤其是在他的祖国菲律宾。他提出，有一些文化上比较恰当的方式可以解决棘手的伦理问题。

例如，教授可以问问学生，他们是否愿意自己的家人像其它家庭那样，承受不道德或非法行为造成的后果。他表示：“作为教育者，我们只是努力提供给学生一些工具或是一个道德罗盘，为他们穿越生命中的道德迷宫导航。”

在阿德莱德、新加坡和香港讲授公司伦理课程的霍华德•哈里斯(Howard Harries)表示，研究显示，接受过相关教育后，人们会更善于做出伦理决策。他指出：“叙述很重要。伦理知识是通过故事获得的。”

在展示不诚信的企业界大亨如何会自取灭亡，或揭示棘手的难题（比如说，是否该解雇忠诚但无效率的员工）怎样能巧妙解决时，个案研究显然很有用。

然而，曾担任香港中文大学(Chinese University of Hong Kong)商学院院长的Lee Kaun-han指出，如果讲课的人诚实，就必须告诉学生，在一个混乱不公的世界，他们只能凭良心进行艰难的伦理决策。

“你可以教他们如何处理困境，一直教到脸色发青。但最终，他们要采取正确的行动，还是需要人格的力量。”

Lee Kaun-han表示，商业教育教的并不全是金钱和效率。他说：“听到学生对为人正直这种观点反响热烈，你可能会觉得惊讶。但这点正是当一个好商人真正需要的素质。”