Former AAI CEO among first group to be Master in Ethics (Corporate Responsibility) in Ireland
Five people graduated at the recent (13 November) degree-awarding day at DCU in this new programme. Students combined intensive study of ethics in business and ethical theories, ongoing essays on aspects of selected business topics and ethical issues culminating with writing a thesis on their selected subject.
From his background in Marketing and Advertising, Ed wrote his thesis on the banking crisis and the fall-out from it, and titled his thesis as "Exploring the Virtue Ethics theory as a guide to the governance of banks". In it he set out to propose "an approach to assess if a clearly focused ethical judgement framework might have assisted the banks in managing their banking practices".The Virtue Ethics theory is a theory presented by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle of whom Ed has declared himself a big fan (though with reservations on some of Aristotle's views!). Ed describes Aristotle's theory of Virtue as being a pragmatic approach that takes account of circumstances but that must be built into the way one thinks about issues. His conclusions are that the business and the banking industry would have benefited from a keener focus on using the Virtue Ethics theory as its model for business and banking practices.