Can you stand another headline about an ethics breach from inside a major corporation or politician’s office? It’s good to take note that not everybody is doing it wrong. In fact, many people are doing it really, really right.

According to the 2007 National Business Ethics Survey, one in four companies not only has a well–implemented ethics and compliance program in place, but employees are rewarded for ethical behavior and feel prepared to handle situations that could lead to misconduct.

In San Antonio, that number could be even higher judged by our corporate culture and family values. But there’s more to this story than just what is going on in the business landscape. The question must be asked: What are we doing to prepare our next generation of business leaders to continue the march towards a more ethical workplace and community?

Enter the Ecumenical Center for Religion and Health’s Ethics in Business Initiative. A collaborative effort between the Ecumenical Center and The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Business, the Ethics in Business Initiative is an effort to get students out from behind their desks and into the community where they can interact face to face with ethical business leaders and learn from the experience.

Beginning in May of each year, a process opens for the community to nominate ethical individuals, nonprofits and businesses to receive an ethics award. (You can nominate someone yourself online at www.ethicsinbusinesssa.org.)

Each nominee must agree to be part of the educational process, as they will end up spending some 20 plus hours meeting with students. The nominations then go to a select group of business students at UTSA who spend an entire semester conducting a 360–degree ethical audit of these nominees. The students look at leadership, values and corporate responsibility. At the end of the semester, their reports are handed over to an independent selection committee to determine five ethics award recipients.

The sold–out 2008 Ethics in Business awards celebration was held April 8 at Pearl Stable. The recipients this year included Alpha Building Corporation, Metropolitan Contracting Company, R.L. Worth & Associates, Roy Maas’  Youth Alternatives and Richard Wayne, M.D.

“In the process of researching for the 2008 San Antonio Ethicsin Business Award, we learned more than we could ever have imagined,” wrote one group of students working on the 2008 project. Allison Kay Hrncir agrees. “This was my first encounter of social responsibility and how a company should act as an ethical entity. We really had a sense of what it was really like to work in a good business environment,” she said. “It’s not just about making profits, but making life better for individuals.”

“Our work is not about indoctrinating students into any one way of thinking,” says Dr. Vic Heller, EIB team leader at the UTSA College of Business. “But rather, we want to show our students that you can intentionally choose to work ethically and still be successful.” Heller’s team is filled out by UTSA faculty members Linda Vaello, CPA, and Ray Teske, JD.

In this leadership by example project, students have the opportunity to think critically about ethics, corporate responsibility and human relations; see what tools real, live company employees use when working to resolve issues; and interface with successful leaders who have shown the moral courage to act correctly.

“By engaging the business community in an evaluation process, we can help the students focus on practical – rather than theoretical– approaches to managing in an intentionally ethical way,” says Paul Parks, D.Min., executive director for the Ecumenical Center. “As a result, we end up with double impact. Both the students and the nominees that undertake this extensive process end up benefiting. And, at the end of the day, that eventually makes for healthier families and communities.”

Perhaps UTSA student Jennifer Snyder says it best: “The Ethics in Business project gave life to the meaning of business ethics.”

“It is really our goal to not only celebrate what is right in our community,” adds Parks, “but also to prepare the next generation to create very different legacy from the Enron’s and Worldcom’s of our generation.”