http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27184 Annales Etics in Economic Life, vol. 21 No.6 Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:41:06 GMT 2026-04-08T16:41:06Z https://dspace.uni.lodz.pl:443/bitstream/id/71fd6bd1-e8d8-4b0e-a2a8-82983825465a/ http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27184 http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27317 From responsibility for oneself to shared responsibility Zielińska, Lidia The article presents various links between business and ethics. The idea of responsibility, used to describe legal, economic and ethical aspects, forms the main, unifying thread. The author employs it to analyze three spheres of human activity. The first sphere, the subjective one, concerns self-responsibility, when individuals are striving to satisfy their own needs and to achieve happiness. The second, the encounter with the Other, embraces two meanings: responsibility for and towards the Other. The third sphere, the social one, extends the idea of responsibility onto the historical community we belong to. The concept of co-responsibility is not confined to our life span, but it embraces the future generations as well. The author pinpoints an important element in creating the foundations of a given community, i.e., regulations that form its basis, especially the principle of justice, encompassing the distribution of goods. Many contemporary authors underline this ethical, political and economic aspect (Rawls, communitarians, Ricoeur, Habermas). The main thesis the author would like to substantiate is as follows: in business activities, the ethical conduct of an individual is not sufficient. It needs to be broadened to encompass other perspectives since contemporary societies are based on the multidimensional idea of co-responsibility. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27317 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27315 Higher education as a stage in competence development Jarecki, Wojciech Higher education should enable students to raise their qualifications, and particularly acquire new knowledge, develop their interests, or learn to think critically. As for economics students, tertiary education should provide them with an opportunity to find and follow their career path. Having this in mind, the author of the present paper discusses factors contributing to economics students’ involvement in raising their qualifications. The main aim is to state why they have become less involved in doing so and particularly in acquiring new knowledge. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27315 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27316 Issues concerning relations between business and society in teaching Business History in the United States and Poland Jastrząb, Mariusz Based on empirical material in the form of case studies prepared at Harvard Business School and Kozminski University, the article analyses the content of teaching materials in the field of business history. The Harvard case studies served as a model for the Polish ones. In contrast to the United States, at Kozminski University and in other Polish business schools, business history is not taught as a separate subject. The article puts forward the thesis that history education could provide an opportunity for future managers to broaden their knowledge of the social environment in which they will operate and to shape attitudes of responsibility for the social consequences of decisions made. However, this opportunity remains largely untapped in both the United States and Poland. American teaching materials are still influenced by the Chandlerian paradigm, and therefore they focus on the evolution of structures and changes in the strategy of large multinational corporations. These materials present students with role models of successful entrepreneurs and companies. Their social environment is presented in a sketchy manner, and questions about the motivations of human actions or hierarchies of values are rarely asked. The teaching materials also shy away from questions about the social consequences of managerial decisions. This is so, despite the fact that scientific publications are moving away from concentrating solely on the centre of global capitalism, the history of the largest corporations, and the treatment of the social environment as a variable on which the entrepreneur or company have no influence. Business history as a scientific discipline in Poland is still at an early stage of development. However, one can notice a gap between research and teaching similar to the one that exists in the USA: there are works critically analysing the period of transformation and showing the peripheral character of Polish capitalism as well as the social consequences of this peripheral nature that are completely ignored in teaching. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27316 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27314 The impact of economic studies on students’ morality level Klimczak, Bożena Since the beginning of the 1980s, a study has been conducted among students of economics in the United States regarding their propensity for cooperation, philanthropy and keeping promises. Regardless of the methods used, the research results have shown lower readiness for cooperation among students of economics in comparison to students of other disciplines. Moreover, the results are even worse after completing a microeconomics course. Based on these findings, two hypotheses have been formulated: the auto-selection hypothesis and the indoctrination hypothesis. The aim of the paper is to formulate implications regarding the indoctrination hypothesis. A massive attendance at economic studies in Poland is an argument against the auto-selection hypothesis. However, unless the research is completed, this hypothesis cannot be rejected. The indoctrination hypothesis is more attractive due to the special cognitive and moral condition of post-communist society which economic studies lecturers are members of and due to the economic situation of higher education institutions. These circumstances which accompany the studying of economics in Poland favour, firstly, the introduction of highly specialised curricula which do not prepare students for understanding economic activity as a means for good life. Secondly, economic knowledge is interpreted by lecturers as a set of instructions to manipulate market players. Thirdly, lecturers’ attitudes and activities reflecting the principle that what is not legally prohibited is allowed are “awarded” with a higher financial status. These implications will be made probable by the analysis of the curricula and content of lectures in economic schools. Attention will be mostly focused on microeconomics; the main “defendant” accused of indoctrination in the American studies. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/27314 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z