Good Things (About Bad Behavior) Come in Small Packages: Using the Short Story “Great Experiment” to Teach Business Ethics

We present a fictional short story about embezzlement, “Great Experiment” by Jeffrey Eugenides, as a resource for management classes. We begin by providing a brief description of the story, in which a decent and law-abiding 40-something man’s lack of professional success and envy of his wealthy neighbors contribute to his decision to accept a coworker’s invitation to participate in an embezzlement scheme to steal money from their employer. Then, we discuss how to use the story to prompt students to identify the antecedents and consequences of illegal, unethical behavior and consider ways organizations can prevent such behavior. We also suggest other ways to use this resource.