Isenberg Ethics Competition

The Event

You are invited to participate in the fifth annual Isenberg Ethics Competition, to be held on Saturday, November 7, 2020 (schedule). This competition allows students to participate in the case competition experience. 

This year, we will have three divisions: an Undergraduate Open Division, an Undergraduate Competitive Division, and a Graduate Competitive Division. Teams in the Open Division may consist of 2-4 students and are open to all UMass Amherst and Five College Students. Teams in the Competitive Divisions (both undergraduate and graduate) are only open to Isenberg students and must be of teams of two participants.

Winners of the Undergraduate Open Division will be recognized at the closing ceremony. Winners of the Undergraduate Competitive Division will become members of the Isenberg Ethics Team and will be eligible to compete for Isenberg in external competitions. For academic year 2020-2021, we will be competing in the Eller College of Management Collegiate Ethics Case Competition (October 2020), the Ethics Bowl (December 2020), the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (I.C.B.C.)* , the Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition (February 2021), and in the International Business Ethics Case Competition (IBECC).**  Students who participate as competitors must be available to participate in at least one of the external competitions and make a commitment to compete in one or more of these competitions.

Winners of the Graduate Competitive Division of this internal ethics case competition will be automatically considered to compete in the International Business Ethics Case Competition (IBECC).** 

The event will take place online via Zoom.

How to Apply

To apply for the Open Division of the competition, competitors should form teams of between two and four students (students can be from Isenberg, UMass Amherst, or the Five Colleges).

To apply for the Competitive Divisions (both undergraduate and graduate) of the competition, competitors should form a two-student team (both students should be in Isenberg, but the competition is open to any combination of majors within Isenberg.) Individual applications are welcome!  We will try to match you up with a team-mate for the competition but will allow individual competitors if necessary.  Preference for the Undergraduate Competitive Division will be given to Juniors and Seniors within Isenberg. 

For both the Open and the Competitive Divisions, teams should submit resumes for all team members, along with a statement of interest from the team, to Jennifer Merton at jfmerton@isenberg.umass.edu.  Once your application materials have been received, you will get a confirmation e-mail. If you are chosen to compete, then you will receive your ethics case problem, along with your scheduled case competition time, one week prior to the competition.  

The application deadline is noon on Friday, October 30, 2020. 

This is a great opportunity to work on your analytical and presentation skills while also having a great time!  You are all encouraged to apply!

Aren't ready to compete?

If you aren’t ready to compete, but want to learn more about ethics and cheer on your classmates, then you are welcome to attend as an observer.  Come for keynote speaker and panel event, join us for the workshops, and watch teams compete with their ethics presentations!  Register here to be an observer.

Keynote Speaker

Keynote Topic: Executive Pay and Ethics – An Important Balancing Act
This year's keynote speaker is Irv Becker, Vice Chairman in Executive Pay & Governance at global organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry. Read more about Mr. Becker here.

Ethics Panel

Jennifer J. Kish-Gephart. Associate Professor of Management, University of Arkansas, and Feng Qiu, Assistant Professor, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, will be sharing developments in Business Ethics Scholarship in our Ethics Panel. They will be joined by Irv Becker, our keynote speaker.

Sponsors

The Isenberg Management Association is co-sponsoring the event with the Management Department and the Isenberg School of Management.

*The Preliminary Round for I.C.B.C. runs from October 6-23, 2020. A two-student team will be given a case with supporting documents (10-20 pages of materials) and must prepare a report with their ethical analysis and recommendations (5 pages of text and 5 pages of exhibits). Once the team receives the case, then no outside help is permitted, although general questions can be answered. Preparation prior to October 9 will, therefore, be necessary. If the team is among the top five competitors in the preliminary round, then the team will advance to the Final Weekend at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, which will be held on January 2021 (more information to follow). During the Final Weekend, teams are given five hours to prepare a 15-minute power point presentation with the team's recommendation, which is followed by 5 minutes of questions from the panel of judges. Keep in mind that winners from the 2020 Isenberg Ethics Competition will be competing in I.C.B.C. in Fall 2021.

**IBECC will be held somewhere in April of 2021 (and will probably be held virtually). For this competition, the team gets to identify a business problem with an ethical component from the "real world". The team then prepares a 25-minute power point presentation outlining the business, legal, and ethical considerations raised by the problem, as well as the team's recommendation. This is followed by 10 minutes of questions by the panel of judges. In addition to the primary presentation, two members of the team must present a 10-minute presentation without power point which focuses on the ethical concerns of the business problem. Lastly, one member of the team must present a 90-second pitch about the centrality of ethics to the problem. Preparation for IBECC begins at the start of the Spring 2021 semester.