Nervous energy abounded for a group of final year students (many of the Business students) as they prepared for their final class involving engaging in a robust debate in front of Staff, fellow students, and invited guests on a thorny business dilemma. This was an assessed task that contributed to the students’ final grades.
The students in the unit Professional Ethics had spent the semester exploring a range of ethical issues and decision-making models. Each week in class they confronted difficult situations facing leaders and had to work their way through potential courses of action. Over time they came to realise that often leaders face decisions that involve no clear right answer, but a decision still has to be made. A number of tools were looked at that can help leaders with such dilemmas.
The debate, based on a case study the students had worked through, involved a manager facing a difficult decision. Teams were assigned to argue for or against a course of action, and both teams argued their cases vigorously and with well researched and informed arguments.
At the end of the debate the audience expressed their view on which team “won”, and on the quality of the presentations by all the students. While not every student was looking forward to the debate, they all appreciated the experience it gave them in presenting to groups and developing argument and counter-arguments in professional settings, which is a key part of the Avondale Business School philosophy of preparing graduates to be ready for their professional journey. Congratulations to all the students.