10.06.2008 - 03:56pm ET

(CSRwire) NEW YORK,NY. - October 6, 2008 - The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education, a part of the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program, has just made available online the highly acclaimed and widely used Giving Voice to Values (GVV) Curriculum Initiative (http://aspencbe.org/teaching/gvv/index.html). A varied collection of GVV teaching materials—including Teaching Modules and Cases—can now be accessed through CasePlace.org.

GVV is an innovative research and curriculum development project, launched by The Aspen Institute Business and Society Program and Yale School of Management. Drawing on both the actual experiences of business practitioners as well as cutting edge social science and management research, Giving Voice to Values fills a long-standing and critical gap in business education by expanding the definition of what it means to teach business ethics. Rather than a focus on ethical analysis, this new curriculum focuses on ethical implementation and asks the question: "What if I were going to act on my values? What would I say and do? How could I be most effective?"

Mary C. Gentile, Ph.D, Director of the GVV program, says that the curriculum "...holds the promise to transform the foundational assumptions upon which the teaching of business ethics is based, and importantly, to equip future business leaders to know not only what is right — but how to make it happen."

Dozens of faculty at business schools, including Yale, Notre Dame, MIT, Columbia, Stanford and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, have tested and re-tested elements of the pilot curriculum. GVV has been used in over four dozen sites globally, and the number continues to grow.

The curriculum can be also adapted for use with student peer mentoring programs, Orientation programs, integration across the core curriculum, in-house leadership development and/or customized curriculum development initiatives. Faculty development support is available.

"Giving Voice to Values is exactly what we need to help our students take action. Most ethics courses focus on hypothetical decision-making and determining what is the right thing to do. We know that 'knowing' does not lead to 'doing.' This initiative empowers students to speak through their actions," said Carolyn Woo, Dean of the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame.


The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education (Aspen CBE) seeks to create business leaders for the 21st century who are equipped with the vision and knowledge necessary to integrate corporate profitability with social value. To that end, it offers programs that provide business educators with the resources they need to incorporate issues of social and environmental stewardship into their teaching, research and curriculum development.

As part of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program (Aspen BSP), Aspen CBE maintains close ties with over 100 MBA programs in 23 countries. Its websites draw over 75,000 visits monthly and its events and networks attract over 1,000 participants each year.

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