Asking Better Questions: Marc Cohen on Ethics, Trust, and Business Education at Seattle University

In a world where stakes are high and trust in business is fragile, leadership education has to go deeper than technical skills.

At Seattle University’s Albers School of Business and Economics, the Leadership Executive MBA program centers on a key set of questions about how businesses can serve as a force for a more just and humane world.

Marc Cohen, PhD, a former banker, academic philosopher, and management theorist brings unique perspectives to Seattle University. As a faculty member and director of the Professional MBA program, he works at the intersection of philosophy and leadership, helping students understand how businesses should operate.

Learn how ethics, trust, and business education come together to shape the next generation of leaders.

Executive Education Grounded in Purpose

At Albers, ethics is a core element of business education, embedded in the institution’s identity rather than treated as an add-on.

“There’s something distinctive about the way that Seattle University thinks about business education,” Cohen explains. “There’s this underlying commitment to thinking about how business fits into and contributes to the rest of the world.” That commitment shapes the Leadership Executive MBA (LEMBA) experience from the very beginning. By integrating ethical reflection for leadership and organizational design, the program encourages students to examine how business systems interact with broader social and economic realities.

“It's a place where these questions are taken seriously,” Cohen notes.

Ethical Reasoning

In many business programs, ethics is treated as a standalone requirement, often confined to a single course or framed as a set of compliance rules to follow. This approach can leave little room for grappling with the ambiguity and real-world tradeoffs leaders face once they step into complex organizations.

At Seattle University’s Albers School of Business and Economics, ethics is approached differently. Rather than prescribing easy answers, students are taught how to think ethically, developing the reasoning skills needed to navigate uncertainty and make principled decisions when the “right” choice is not immediately clear.

“What we do in these kinds of classes is ask: what is the right thing to do in a given context?” Cohen explains. “There may not be one right answer, but how you approach the question matters.”

In the Leadership Executive MBA program, faculty guide students in developing ethical decision-making frameworks that take stakeholders and long-term impact into account. Coursework emphasizes responsibility and accountability, preparing leaders for high-stakes situations where the “right” choice isn’t always obvious.

Teaching Ethics as Possibility

For many business leaders, ethics can feel aspirational but impractical—something that matters in theory yet seems difficult to sustain within the pressures of real organizations. Even leaders with strong values often assume that doing the “right” thing will come at the expense of company results or personal career advancement.

At Albers, teaching ethics as a way of thinking helps challenge that assumption. In the Leadership Executive MBA classroom, ethics is framed not as a limitation, but as a genuine opportunity for leaders to create meaningful change.

“The vast majority of my students want to do good things, but they feel like they can’t,” Cohen says. “They feel like the corporate system constrains them, or society more broadly puts pressure on them to maximize profit and prevents them from having a positive impact in the world.”

Seattle University’s approach helps leaders work through that tension. Through intentional coursework, open dialogue, and real-world examples, executives examine how organizations can be designed to support ethical action while remaining true competitors in their industries.

“What students need are examples of people who have changed organizations to make them better places, better in a normative or ethical sense, and also more economically productive,” Cohen shares.

Rather than relying on abstract problems, students focus on organizational design and the mechanisms that make ethical behavior sustainable.

“I tend to think about the systems,” Cohen explains. “How do you build an organization that has systems or cultures that treat people fairly?”

Curiosity, Conflict, and Leadership

At Seattle University, curiosity is taught as an ethical leadership practice, one that shapes how leaders listen, respond, and engage during moments of disagreement.

Cohen often shares a simple mantra with students managing difficult conversations: Why does that person think this? or Why does that person think that?

“Our students learn that curiosity is just as much a leadership practice as it is a communication skill,” Cohen explains. “If that kind of curiosity is animating your conversations, then you’re listening, you’re paying attention, and you’re considering—and you’re learning.”

In the Leadership Executive MBA program, conflict is also reframed as a signal for genuine engagement.

“When you’re in an organizational context and there’s no conflict, it just means people are resigned to the status quo,” Cohen shares. “It means people don’t care enough to disagree.”

In other words, disagreement can be a sign of personal investment—and an opportunity for stronger decision-making.

That perspective directly aligns with Seattle University’s mission-driven approach to leadership development: Preparing students to embrace tension, engaging it thoughtfully and responsibly. Students are encouraged to approach conflict thoughtfully, recognizing it as an opportunity to strengthen trust and make better decisions.

A Distinctive MBA Experience

Seattle University’s Leadership Executive MBA is designed for leaders seeking more than technical expertise. The program creates intentional space to reflect on responsibility, values, and the broader impact of leadership decisions within complex organizations.

“You get a distinctive view here about the way business fits into the world around it,” Cohen explains. “It’s a place where a community of people are interested in figuring that out together.”

Throughout the program, executives are challenged to step back from day-to-day demands and consider what they are ultimately working toward through their leadership careers.

“Much of what we talk about comes back to the kind of person you want to be as a leader,” Cohen says. “What’s distinctive about the Executive MBA program is that we make space to ask that question. Explicitly.”

Explore Seattle University's Leadership Executive MBA to learn more.