A reserach center at Darden Graduate School of Business Administration (University of Virginia), the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics serves as a critical resource for executives, scholars, students, and Darden alumni who are faced with the challenges of integrating ethical thinking into business decision-making.
History
In 1966 the Elis and Signe Olsson family of West Point, Virginia, founded an agency to focus on “efforts to improve standards of behavior in both public and private business” at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Over the past three decades, the Olsson Center has helped heighten the awareness of ethical and moral issues in business.
Vision
To be one of the leading sources of thinking about the role of ethics in business.
To enhance the intellectual life of the University of Virginia by contributing to a University wide conversation about the role of ethics in modern society.
Center Activities include…
The teaching program in ethics at the Darden School.
A Ph.D. degree program in Management with an emphasis on Business Ethics. The Darden School is the only business school with this program.
Ruffin Lectures: nationally recognized, two-day biannual academic seminars published as The Ruffin Series In Business Ethics.
Editorial responsibilities for the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Business Ethics published by the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management.
Visiting Scholar’s Program. Olsson Fellows, scholars from around the world, spend from one week to one semester at the Olsson Center working on joint research projects with Center members.
Publications for academics and practitioners.
Case studies in business ethics, health care ethics, and environmental ethics.
Grants and proposals including three NSF grants with engineering faculty on ethical issues on environmental design, and a program in technology and ethics.
Involvement with the University of Virginia-wide Institute for Practical Ethics.
