What We Do

The IEL is dedicated to cutting-edge research on ethics in leadership and business. We research the ethical issues that matter to business and society and seek innovative ways to address them. Moreover, we apply our research to design and implement educational programs for business, government, and non-profits. The IEL also collaborates with partners from Rutgers and other universities and organizations.

• Publications: We do research in business ethics and leadership ethics. Here is a list of recent publications.
• Postdoctoral Associate: Through the generosity of Mark and Rosemary Carawan, we offer the  Mark and Rosemary Carawan Fellowship in Business Ethics.
• Doctoral Research: We provide financial support to doctoral students for summer research.
• Visiting Researchers: We host Fulbright Visiting Scholars and other self-paying domestic and international scholars, among them scholars from Australia, Turkey, and China.
• Fellows’ Events: We hold regular Fellows' Lunches, where faculty share their research, discuss best teaching practices, and host visitors from businesses and other organizations.

• Custom Programs: We design and implement custom courses on ethics and leadership for business, government, and non-profit organizations. IEL Fellows also participate in corporate programs. Some organizations we’ve worked with are PNB Paribas, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Prudential, and Sompo International.
• Rutgers Programs: We collaborate on programs at RBS, such as the CSR certificate program with Rutgers Executive Education and the Rutgers Institute on Social Innovation. The IEL teamed up with the Law School to create the Mini-MBA certificate program on Ethics and Compliance.
• Speakers: We sponsor speakers for events open to the university and community, such as Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, Wall Street Journalist Diana Henriques, and futurist and former presidential science advisor Dave Rejeski.

• In June 2024, the IEL partnered on a symposium with the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation at the  Säid School of Business. Twenty academics from Europe and the US convened to discuss how philosophy can inform discussions of trust and reputation in business. IEL Fellows Joanne Ciulla and Tobey Scharding presented, and Danielle Warren and Rob Hughes served as commentators. 
• Bi-Annual Conferences: Since most business schools only have a few tenure-track business ethics professors, we created a space for faculty to meet and talk shop. The IEL co-founded the Northeastern Alliance for Business Ethics (NABE) with Columbia’s Sandor C. Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics. The alliance brings together business ethics scholars and practitioners from the region to network and discuss their research and teaching. Attendees have come from schools such as NYU, Columbia, Baruch, Princeton, Fordham, Wharton, Harvard, and other regional schools.
• Academic Conferences: The IEL hosts national and international conferences like the Trans-Atlantic Business Ethics Conference (TABEC), which meets every two years in North America or Europe. When the IEL hosted this conference, participants from fourteen countries gave papers on the theme of leadership in troubling times.
• Virtual Conferences: The IEL works with other institutions on joint virtual conferences. For example, the IEL co-sponsored with St. Thomas University, NYU, the Darden School, Western Michigan, and The Wharton School for a conference on “Public Policy & People: What have we learned about business & ethics from the pandemic?” We also co-sponsored a seminar on how businesses should respond to war with Oxford’s Saïd School, the University of Bath, and ESADE.

Behavioral and Organizational Ethics

Scharding, T.K., & Warren, D.E. 2024. When are norms prescriptive? Clarifying the role of norms in behavioral ethics research. Business Ethics Quarterly, 34: 331-364. https://doi.org/10.1017/beq.2023.11

Warren, D.E. 2024. Wake up! Advancing the conversation on woke labeling. Journal of Management Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1177/10564926241265297

Scharding, T.K. & Warren, D.E. 2023. When Workplace Norms Conflict: Using Intersubjective Reflection to Guide Ethical Decision-Making. Business Ethics Quarterly, 33(2): 352-380.

Corporate Governance

Ivana V. Katic, Jerry W. Kim (2024) Caught in the Revolving Door: Firm-Government Employee Mobility as a Fleeting Regulatory Advantage. Organization Science 35(1):281-306.

Pattit, Jason M., Pattit, Katherina G., & Spender, J.-C. (2024). Edith T. Penrose: Economist of ‘The Ordinary Business of Life’. Strategic Management Review, 5(1/2), 51-74. 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Lewin, L.D. & Warren, D.E. 2024. Hypocrites! Social media reactions and stakeholder backlash to conflicting CSR information. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05700-4

Lewin, L. D., & Warren, D.E. 2024. Calls to action: The dangers of negative CSR information and stakeholder punishments. Corporate Reputation Review, 27: 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1057/S41299-023-00158-Y

M.L. Barnett. 2024. (Re)Building a bridge between scholars and practitioners: Get AMPed! Academy of Management Perspectives (in press).

J. Gualandris, O. Branzei, S. Lazzarini, M. Wilhelm, K. Dooley, M. Linnenluecke, M. Barnett, R. Hamann & C-M Chen. 2024. Unchaining supply chains: Transformative leaps towards regenerating social-ecological systems. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 60: 53-67.

T. Busch, M. L. Barnett, R. Burritt, B. Cashore, E. Freeman, I. Henriques, B. Husted, R. Panwar, J. Pinkse, S. Schaltegger & J. York. 2024. Moving beyond ‘the’ business case: How to make corporate sustainability work. Business Strategy & the Environment, 33: 776-787.

M. L. Barnett, V. Dimitrov & F. Gao. 2024. The nail that sticks out: Corporate social responsibility and shareholder proposals. Review of Accounting Studies, 29: 1575-1618.

F. Aragon-Guiller & M. L. Barnett. 2024. Does it pay to pay to be good? Exploring returns to CSR outsourcing. In A. Hawk, M. Larsen, M. Leiblein & J. Ruer (eds), Strategy in a Turbulent Era Cheltham, UK: Edward Elgar, 206-228.

R. Hamann, C-M Chen, J. Gualandris, K. Dooley, M. Linnenluecke, M. L. Barnett, M. Wilhelm & S. Lazzarini. 2024. Supply chains should make the world better, not worse – it’s time for a rethink. The Conversation, Aug. 14: https://theconversation.com/supply-chains-should-make-the-world-better-not-worse-its-time-for-a-rethink-235021

M. L. Barnett. 2023. Corporate social responsibility. In G. Goethals, T. Allison & G. Sorenson (eds.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Leadership Studies (forthcoming).

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

M. L. Barnett, B. A. Gilbert, C. Post & J. Robinson. 2024. Strengthening our cities: Exploring the intersection of ethics, diversity and inclusion, and social innovation in revitalizing urban environments. Journal of Business Ethics, 189(4): 647-653.

Ethics, Finance, and Money

Spender, J.C. 2024. Simon and Knight. In G. Gigerenzer, S. Mousavi, R. VialeElgar Companion to Herbert Simon. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Ethics and Law

Hughes, RC. Exploitation and the Desirability of Unenforced Law. Business Ethics Quarterly. 2024;34(3):471-493. doi:10.1017/beq.2023.3

Ethics and Technology

M.L. Barnett, I. Henriques & B. Husted. 2024. Hashing out hashtags: Empty signifiers offer empty promises of greater stakeholder influence in the digital age. Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(3): 448-455.

Leadership Ethics

Ciulla, Joanne B. “Hatshepsut the Female King,” in G. Goethals, Case Studies in Political Leadership, Edward Elgar Publishing (forthcoming).

Ciulla, Joanne B. “Leadership Ethics,” in K. Akrivou, ed., Elgar Encyclopedia of Business Ethics, (forthcoming).

Philosophical Ethics and Approaches to Business Ethics

Oyku Arkan & Mahak Nagpal & Tobey K. Scharding & Danielle E. Warren, 2023. "Don’t Just Trust Your Gut: The Importance of Normative Deliberation to Ethical Decision-Making at Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(2), pages 257-277, August.

Awards

Michael Barnett
Editorship: Editor-in-Chief, Academy of Management Perspectives, 2025-2027   

Danielle Warren
Dean’s Meritorious Research Award, Rutgers Business School, 2023

Best Practical Solutions Award Finalist, Society for Business Ethics Annual Meeting, 2023 [it was for Lewin & Warren 2024 listed above]

Bright Idea Award, Research Award, 2023 [it was for Arkan, Nagpal, Scharding & Warren, 2023 - article is on the IEL website]

Tobey Scharding
SBE Best Paper Award 2024 Society for Business Ethics