Description
The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of a storytelling teaching
method in a company law course for accounting students and to evaluate its influence on engagement
and effective learning.
Design/methodology/
Accounting Research Journal
Corporate villains: taking the bore out of law
Craig Cameron
Article information:
To cite this document:
Craig Cameron, (2012),"Corporate villains: taking the bore out of law", Accounting Research J ournal, Vol.
25 Iss 1 pp. 56 - 66
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Corporate villains: taking the bore
out of law
Craig Cameron
Accounting, Finance and Economics, Grif?th University, Southport, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of a storytelling teaching
method in a company law course for accounting students and to evaluate its in?uence on engagement
and effective learning.
Design/methodology/approach – The learning activity, known as “corporate villains”, is based on
theories of storytelling and engagement. Selected qualitative and quantitative data from university
course and teaching evaluation surveys were used to assess the achievement of objectives and identify
learning outcomes.
Findings – The corporate villains learning activity engaged students at the beginning of the lecture
and in?uenced student learning by demonstrating the relevance, or “real life” application, of company
law to accounting students. Corporate villains also stimulated curiosity in learning more about the law
which is characteristic of students pursuing a deep approach to learning.
Originality/value – The study extends the research on storytelling in accounting and legal
education and supports empirical evidence as to the positive impact of storytelling on student
engagement in learning. In particular, the study reveals the potential for corporate villains to address
various academic and student concerns about company law by humanising the law and enabling
students to connect the legal concepts to the story and to the curriculum.
Keywords Storytelling, Company law, Engagement, Deep learning, Accounting education, Villainy,
Education, Learning, Students, Law
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Corporate law teachers face an enormous challenge – how does one take an arti?cial
creature known as the company and make it engaging for accounting students exposed
to an array of distractions in and out of the lecture theatre? Accounting students have
expressed concern about the potential for company law to be “dull”, “dry” and “not
very interesting”[1]. In this respect I can relate to Miley’s (2009, p. 357) initial
frustration with her introductory accounting cohort:
I have eighty plus students in accounting this semester. All of them want to be elsewhere.
I asked them what they thought of when I mentioned the word ‘accounting’: dull, boring, too
many numbers. Not a single positive comment. One student told me he was only doing
accounting because it allowed him to plan his study schedule to have a day off. Most said
they were doing it because it was compulsory [. . .]
Like Miley my response was to introduce stories to lectures. “Corporate villains” is an
innovative teaching activity which adopts a storytelling teaching method. It is
designed to support learning objectives by engaging students in productive learning
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1030-9616.htm
The author would like to thank the anonymous referees for providing their insightful comments.
Any errors are the author’s own.
ARJ
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Accounting Research Journal
Vol. 25 No. 1, 2012
pp. 56-66
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1030-9616
DOI 10.1108/10309611211244537
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and demonstrating the relevance of company law to accounting students. The stories
of infamous corporate identities are told, with the legal elements of their exploits
woven into the story. This study ?rst identi?es the learning issue addressed by the
corporate villains activity before exploring its theoretical bases, namely storytelling
and student engagement. A summary of the teaching and learning objectives relevant
to corporate villains and a description of the teaching activity follow. Quantitative and
qualitative data is then provided which supports the in?uence of corporate villains on
student learning and engagement. The study concludes with my response to academic
feedback and the potential future applications of corporate villains.
Teaching issue
A corporate law education for business students is generally different from their law
school colleagues. Law students are more familiar with legal concepts and predisposed
to engage with the law having completed a number of introductory law courses. The
curriculum requires the law student to read, analyse and discuss decided cases as part
of their legal training. With business students, the teacher places greater emphasis on
introducing legal concepts and demonstrating their relevance and application to
business (Steslown and Gardner, 2011, p. 257). The initial negative perceptions towards
company law can perhaps be attributed to students’ lack of familiarity with legal
concepts as well as the curriculum lacking a human element (Tzannes and King, 1997).
The company is the creation of a complex regulatory regime that numbers in the
thousands of pages and its consolidated text represents a visual nightmare for
accounting students. For the vast majority of these students, their only previous foray
into the law was an introductory business law course which involved tales of: sex
(labour law); drug and alcohol fuelled behaviour, botched medical procedures and acts
of random stupidity (tort law); and deceptive advertising and sales practices (consumer
protection law). Though contract law may be dry, students are at least attuned to the
legal issues raised because they encounter contracts in their daily lives. Such a cursory
inspection of the introductory law curriculum highlights the fundamental challenge of
teaching company law – many students without a business background cannot relate
to its subject matter, in part because they are unable to visualise and identify with the
issues regulated by company law (Dyer, 1995, pp. 284-5).
Company law teachers have proposed and/or implemented practical elements in the
curriculum such as problem-based learning (Dyer, 1995), meeting procedures (Tzannes
and King, 1997) and case studies involving “real life” company documentation (Hicks,
1992) for the purpose of contextualising the law for their students. Part of my response
to the challenge of teaching company law was the introduction of storytelling using
corporate villains. Engagement and storytelling represent the theoretical bases for the
corporate villains concept and are discussed in the next section.
Corporate villains: literature review
Engagement
Effective teaching entails the creation of a learning environment which motivates
students to engage in deep, as opposed to surface, approaches to learning (Ramsden,
1992; Biggs and Tang, 2007). Students who adopt a deep approach to learning strive to
understand ideas and seek meanings, possess an intrinsic interest in the learning task,
enjoy completing it and adopt a variety of strategies to satisfy their curiosity
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(Prosser and Trigwell, 1999, p. 3). So what are the characteristics of an effective
learning environment? In his study of teaching strategies for effective learning,
Ramsden suggests that a good lecture requires teachers to (amongst other things):
engage the student’s interest; stimulate their thinking and their desire to ?nd out more
about the subject; and use memorable illustrations (Ramsden, 1992, p. 156). Biggs and
Tang answer the same question by reference to the psychological constraints on
human learning. The authors posit that the typical student attention span without a
pause or change in activity is ten to 15 minutes, after which time the students’ learning
levels drop dramatically. Conversely a short rest or change in activity every 15 minutes
almost restores performance to their original level (Biggs and Tang, 2007, p. 109).
Although Biggs and Tang acknowledge that the time periods can vary, they appear
to assume that a student’s learning level is at its peak at the beginning of the lecture. This
assumption does not re?ect my experience in teaching introductory law courses to
business students. The time of day and the students’ academic or other work
commitments prior to the lecture can change the timing of a student’s optimum learning
level. Some students take time to reach their optimum performance if the lecture
commences at 8 a.m. in the morning, or they have attended a number of lectures and/or
tutorials earlier in the day, or completed a long day at work or have had to hurry to the
lecture for whatever reason. The ten minutes break between the ?rst and second hour of
the lecture may be one of fewopportunities during the day for the student to relax and/or
refuel. As such the students’ optimum learning level may not be achieved until a
subsequent rest or change in activity later in the lecture. This has implications for the
design of effective learning environments.
Storytelling
Storytelling, also known as narrative, involves telling a sequence of events that occur in
another time and/or place (Lickorish, 2009, p. 21). It appeals to a variety of learning types
by tapping into the student’s imagination (Kosa, 2008). The student connects with the
story by generating images, sounds and emotions which encourages long-term memory
retention of the story’s message(s) (Lickorish, 2009; Abrahamson, 1998). Business
educators have employed storytelling in teaching ethics (Bridgman, 2010), accounting
information systems (Savage et al., 2008) and introductory accounting (Gobeil and
Phillips, 2001; Miley, 2009). For example, Savage et al. (2008) devised a case study based
on the movie Rogue Trader which required accounting students to analyse the internal
control mechanisms of a ?nancial institution. Results from the self-reported survey
instrument revealed that viewing and analysing the story improved students’
knowledge of various aspects associated with internal controls. Miley (2009) used a
series of military stories to defence force students completing a non-accounting degree to
demonstrate accounting concepts. Miley noticed a change in student attitudes towards
accounting when the story was told. Students reported increased motivation to study the
introductory accounting course. Miley also found that students were better prepared for
class when they took responsibility for developing the story. Finally, Gobeil and
Phillips (2001) study of introductory ?nancial accounting students found that
low-knowledge students (as measured by course grade) were better able to apply the
facts of an accounting case when it was presented in a narrative as opposed to an
expository style whereas the style of presentation had no signi?cant effect on
high-knowledge students.
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The legal education literature reveals the bene?ts of storytelling speci?c to law
courses. As in business education, storytelling is a pedagogical tool used in legal
education to promote student engagement and deepen student understanding of the
subject matter (Blissenden, 2007). Legal storytelling can take a variety of forms
including: background information of parties in decided cases; stories about personal
experiences inthe legal world; and discussion of law-related movies, music and literature
(Lewinbuk, 2008, pp. 8-9). In particular, legal academics have advocated storytelling as
an alternative to the traditional case method of legal education, whereby the lecturer
outlines the relevant facts, law and decision in a decided case to a generally passive
audience. Storytelling breathes life into the parties to a case (Moore, 2006). No longer just
the “plaintiff”, “defendant”, “appellant” or “respondent”, the historical, present
and future context revealed in the story “re-humanizes” the parties in a way that
facilitates active learning (Menkel-Meadow, 2000; Steslown and Gardner, 2011).
Students retain the legal concepts that are weaved into the stories because theycan relate
the concepts to the story (Steslown and Gardner, 2011, p. 271). Steslown and Gardner
suggest that storytelling may be more appropriate when teaching law to business
students. Business students are not trained to think like lawyers, but rather are
introduced to legal concepts and cases relevant to their business career (Steslown and
Gardner, p. 250). Lewinbuk (2008, p. 9) argues that storytelling can also assist students in
which English is their second language (“ESL students”) because “storytelling is
something everyone can relate to. The law, in contrast, is not”. This is a particularly
important point for educators as ESL students represent a signi?cant proportion of the
accounting cohort.
Corporate villains: teaching and learning objectives
I devised the corporate villains activity to achieve two teaching objectives. The ?rst was
to engage students in learning by humanising company law and demonstrating its
relevance, or “real life” application, to accounting students. Students are motivated to
learn something if they perceive it to have value (Biggs and Tang, 2007, p. 32). The
second objective was to create a more effective learning environment by capturing the
attention of students at the beginning of the lecture. By this I am not suggesting that a
corporate villain’s story would be ineffective at all other times. In fact the story could be
that important change in activity during a lecture that stimulates student engagement in
learning. Nevertheless, in my circumstances storytelling was a pedagogy targeted at
returning students to their optimal learning level at the beginning of the lecture. My task
as a lecturer thereafter was to maintain that level using the means alluded to by Biggs
and Tang. The corporate villains activity was designed to support, not address, the
prescribed learning objectives in company law. In particular, company law students are
expected to demonstrate: knowledge of case law and legislation (technical skill); and
written communication, analytical, evaluative and problem solving skills (professional
skills). The corporate villain’s story introduces students to a company lawtopic(s) which
is explored in greater detail during the lecture. The subsequent discussion of case law
and legislation relevant to the story expands and reinforces the students’ basic legal
knowledge gained from the story. Students can relate their expanded legal knowledge
back to the story. Students then apply their legal knowledge and professional skills to
complete case studies, hypothetical exercises and role playactivities inlectures, tutorials
and assessment items. For example, a hypothetical exercise is a set of facts which
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requires the student to identify the relevant legal issues (professional and technical
skills), describe the law relevant to the issues (technical skill), apply the relevant law to
the facts and provide a conclusion for the client (professional skills). In summary, the
corporate villains activity was intended to support the prescribed learning objectives by
facilitating the retention of legal knowledge (direct support) and motivating students to
develop their legal knowledge and professional skills (indirect support).
Corporate villains: teaching activity
Corporate Villains was implemented in company law, a compulsory course in both
undergraduate and postgraduate accounting degrees at an Australian university.
A photograph or “mugshot” of the corporate villain is posted on the front cover of each
week’s reading guide. This is done for two reasons. First, the students are afforded the
opportunity to investigate the identity of the corporate villain before the lecture,
piquing their curiosity. Second, the photograph enables students to put a face to a case,
providing a visual means of humanising company law for students (Menkel-Meadow,
2000). Rene Rivkin is not just a defendant in an insider trading case, but was indirectly
involved with the company Offset Alpine Printing Ltd, the subject of a mysterious ?re
which destroyed its sole asset, a manufacturing plant, in 1993. Alan Bond is not just a
convicted fraudster, but also funded Australia’s successful crew in the America’s Cup
and paid far too much for acquiring the television station Channel 9 from Kerry Packer
prior to the stock market crash in 1987.
I select subjects based on three criteria: their infamy; compatibility with the subject
matter of the lecture and their criminal and/or civil breach of the Corporations Act 2001
(Cth). In terms of compatibility, corporate villains are matched where possible to the
cases in which they appear and are discussed in that week’s lecture. New corporate
villains are added each semester but only one corporate villain story is told in the
lecture. The list of past and present corporate villains includes Eric Krecichwost,
Ray Williams, Rodney Adler, Alan Bond, Peter Foster and Rene Rivkin. I explain the
teaching and learning objectives of corporate villains during the ?rst lecture.
The corporate villains segment runs for approximately ?ve to ten minutes at the
beginning of each lecture. I ask the students to reveal the corporate villain and what
they know about the person. Students who have undertaken background research
initiate and participate in the story telling process. Initial student contributions are
acknowledged and their comments incorporated into the story. Since the corporate
villains activity was introduced in 2008, four students have been directly or indirectly
associated with a corporate villain and told their story. The story typically follows a
chronological path involving the villain’s personal and corporate background (before
the event), description of the misconduct (during the event) and its legal consequences
(after the event) and ?nishing with a postscript. In many cases the story telling process
is supported by visual aids such as television clips (Rodney Adler) and diagrams to
explain key legal concepts (Eric Krecichwost).
For example, the story of Eric Krecichwost entails: his former job as a vacuumcleaner
salesman; his position as founder and CEO of Fincorp, a property development and
?nance company; the ?nancing of property developments through the issue of
debenture notes; Krecichwost’s criminal conduct involving three cheques paid to
Krecichwost and related entities for services that were never provided; his resignation as
a director of Fincorp 15 months prior to its administration; his involvement with Fincorp
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as a shareholder and senior manager in that 15 month period; the liquidation of Fincorp;
the conviction, sentencing and release of Krecichwost involving offences against
Section 184(2)(a) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth); and his automatic disquali?cation
from managing corporations (ASIC, 2011). The parts of the story concerning
Krecichwost’s criminal conduct, resignation as a director and disquali?cation
introduces legal concepts for further discussion during that week’s lecture on
dividends and directors. The “court action” segment of the story introduces students to
the directors’ duty not to improperly use their position (Section 182) and the potential
criminal penalties for breaching that duty (Section 184). These topics are addressed in
more detail later in the semester, as is liquidation and voluntary administration.
Corporate villains: results
A standard university Student Evaluation of Course (SEC) and Student Evaluation of
Teaching (SET) questionnaire was administered at the end of each teaching semester
in company law between the years 2008 and 2011. The SEC and SET contain a list of
questions assessed on a Likert scale. For the purpose of this note, I identi?ed SET and
SEC questions relevant to the two teaching objectives of the corporate villains
activity – engagement and the creation of an effective learning environment. The SET
and SEC then includes open ended questions about aspects of the course and teaching
that are done well and aspects in need of improvement. Whilst these questions do not
speci?cally address the topic of corporate villains, tabulating and classifying the
responses concerning corporate villains can support the quantitative data and enable
me to draw preliminary conclusions about storytelling in company law. For example,
Scott (2005) examined a substantial database of open ended comments made by
graduates from 14 Australian universities during the period 2001-2004 about the best
aspects of their university course and those aspects most needing improvement. A key
?nding in Scott’s report was that practice-orientated (which included “real world” case
studies) and interactive, face-to-face learning methods attracted the largest number of
“best aspect” comments. From these ?ndings, Scott suggested that it is these methods
students identify as most engaging them in productive learning (Scott, 2005, p. xi).
The results provide preliminary evidence that telling the story of a corporate villain
engaged students at the beginning of the lecture and enhanced their learning. With
respect to quantitative data:
.
96 percent of company law students surveyed in 2008 and 2009 responded with
good, very good or excellent to the SET question: “how effective was this lecturer
in using teaching methods that helped you to learn” (309 respondents);
.
99 percent of company law students surveyed in 2010 and 2011 responded with
agree or strongly agree to the SET question: “the staff member presented
material in an interesting way” (155 respondents); and
.
50 percent of company law students surveyed in one 2008 cohort who provided a
comment in response to the open ended SEC question: “aspects which were done
well and should be continued” mentioned corporate villains (19 respondents).
The smaller number of respondents after 2009 can be explained by the author no
longer lecturing the postgraduate cohort and a lower survey response rate (expressed
as a percentage of the overall cohort). This was due to a change in university policy
from physical distribution of surveys in class to an electronic distribution of surveys
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via e-mail. Although a small cohort, the responses to the open ended evaluation
question above offers some support for Scott’s (2005) conclusion that active learning
methods such as storytelling engage students in effective learning.
One problem with the quantitative data is that it does not distinguish the levels of
engagement nor effective learning attributable to the various teaching methods I employ
during the course. These teaching methods in company law include storytelling, role
play exercises, ?owcharting and case studies. Nevertheless, student responses to the
open ended SET and SEC questions support the two teaching objectives of the
corporative villains activity and indicate that storytelling was a teaching method that
contributed to the quantitative results. In terms of engagement, students repeatedly
used the word “interesting” to describe corporate villains. They commented that “the
discussion of corporate criminals was interesting and motivating” and “I really like the
corporate villaintechnique keeps me interested inthe course”. Further, corporate villains
assisted me in transforming student perceptions of company law from boring to
interesting:
The lecturer was effective in communicating the subject matter and made a seemingly boring
subject surprisingly interesting and relevant (inclusion of the weekly corporate villains was
like my weekly ?x of corporate gossip; with mugshots to boot).
The course was really engaging and interesting. The lecturer has done a great job in making
it as exciting as possible. One of the most interesting features of the course was the “corporate
villain” concept.
Corporate villains in?uenced student learning of legal concepts by demonstrating its
relevance, or “real life” application, to accounting students. The story contextualised
and humanised company law for students. Students could relate the legal concepts to
the story (i.e. the “real world”) and to the curriculum. This supports the retention of
legal knowledge (Steslown and Gardner, 2011), a learning objective of the course, and
addresses Dyer’s (1995) concern about the inability of students to relate to the subject
matter of company law. In particular, students commented that:
The corporate villains were extremely interesting and put the learning material into
perspective.
The reading guides were great (and) should be continued, especially each corporate villain
that Craig had on each one when matched the relevant topics throughout the semester.
I loved the corporate villain concept. It was an interesting and engaging way to meld
classroom learning into real world application and demonstration of the law. It was also
interesting in the way that most people have heard of these guys, and knew they were
involved in white collar crime however never really know the ins and outs. This in depth
knowledge makes for some great water cooler conversation.
I really enjoyed the corporate villain theme each week, I found that gave the course an
interesting but also real life aspect to the course.
Corporate villains also stimulated curiosity in learning more about the law which is
characteristic of students pursuing a deep approach to learning (Prosser and Trigwell,
1999) and an engaging lecture (Ramsden, 1992). Students conducted further research
about the corporate villains and discussed the corporate villains with colleagues
outside the lecture time:
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Corporate villain: this was a brilliant way of creating interest in the weeks topic and caused
quite a lot of discussion after the lecture had ?nished sometimes for days.
[. . .] he makes the topics so interesting that you are willing to do some research [. . .] on the
internet to ?nd out more. I de?nitely enjoyed his descriptions of corporate villains and did
some search on the internet about some of them.
The results demonstrate the capacity of storytelling to create a context for active learning
whereby the student takes ownership of their learning (Abrahamson, 1998, p. 450).
Corporate villains: tertiary response and future application
The response fromlegal educators to corporate villains has been generally positive. The
current postgraduate course convenor of company law at the author’s university has
successfully adopted corporate villains. Her words support the qualitative and
quantitative evidence above – corporate villains is a formof storytelling that in?uenced,
motivated and inspired her students to learn[2]:
The inclusion of the corporate villain made what can be a dry and dull subject most interesting
to students. Each lecture the students were asked to name the particular villain and give a brief
history of his exploits (no female corporate villains were included – not an oversight on Craig’s
part but a lack of choice). Students who correctly identi?ed the particular villain were rewarded
in turn. My students looked forward to identifying the villain each week. Class discussion
regarding both the legal and ethical repercussions of the villains behaviour were often heated
and diverse, with students offering to include other corporate villains.
The postgraduate students, many of whom had business experience, went beyond the
storytelling process I employ for the undergraduate students by discussing the ethical
issues attached to the villain’s behaviour and by enabling students to identify other
corporate villains. These activities could be incorporated in future iterations of the
course. Another worthwhile suggestion posed by one company law student and
implemented in Miley’s (2009) introductory accounting class is to give students the
responsibility to tell the story, creating a more collaborative learning environment.
Educators have expressed four main concerns with the corporate villains concept.
The ?rst is that corporate villains may be entertaining but does not necessarily
stimulate productive learning. Ramsden (1992, p. 74) acknowledges this concern in his
study of teaching in higher education:
[. . .] a good performance is not necessarily good teaching. In fact, an entertaining lecturer
may leave students with a sense of having been entertained, but with little advancement of
their learning.
The corporate villain story is designed to entertain through narrative. But what makes
storytelling using corporate villains an effective teaching method is that legal concepts
relevant to the study of company law are immersed in that narrative and then
reinforced during the lecture. Without that immersion, the story is merely a colourful
presentation devoid of learning outcomes. The quantitative and qualitative results
provide preliminary evidence that the stories not only motivated students to learn legal
concepts, but facilitated the retention of legal concepts as students could relate the legal
concepts in the story back to the curriculum.
The second concern lies in the overrepresentation of company directors as corporate
villains. A typical 13 week company law course only covers the topic of directors’
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duties for two to three weeks. In other words, how do the corporate villains apply to
each week of company law? The answer is that the company directors’ story generally
involves a corporate activity attributable to the breach of their directors’ duties –
a separate topic in company law. For example, Rodney Adler breached a number of
directors’ duties involving the provision of ?nancial assistance from a HIH group
company to an entity that he controlled. The provision of such ?nancial assistance is
prohibited under the Corporations Act for the purpose of maintaining share capital.
Rodney Adler is then the corporate villain for the topic of share capital transactions. In
fact storytelling can be a particularly powerful teaching method in company law
because it provides a holistic view of company law. Students see the curriculum not as
a set of discrete legal topics and can make connections between topics covered in the
course. For instance, the story of Eric Krecichwost is told early in the semester during
the topic “dividends and directors”, but I refer back to the story later in the semester
when directors’ duties and liquidation are addressed.
A third concern is that the title “corporate villains” may create the perception that
I overemphasize the punitive function of company law in teaching and learning
activities. This is not the case. The curriculum I deliver is not unusual for a company
law course and includes: the formation of a company; company participants (e.g. ASIC,
directors, creditors, members and company secretary); the internal management rules
and share capital transactions of a company; directors’ duties and meetings; members’
meetings and remedies; and the insolvency regime. The corporate villain’s story is only
a minor component of the lecture, is not related to all the legal topics covered in that
week’s lecture and the legal focus of the story is not necessarily on the villain’s
misconduct. For example, the poor corporate governance practices associated with
HIH’s acquisition of the FAI insurance group forms the majority of Ray Williams’ story
I present to the students, not his criminal conviction. The topics covered later in that
week’s lecture are corporate governance, the directors’ duty of good faith and con?icts
of interest. Nevertheless, stories that do focus on the corporate villain’s misconduct are
also instructive. As James Joyce, famous Irish author once said “mistakes are the
portals of discovery”. Students gain legal knowledge by learning from the mistakes
made by corporate villains.
The ?nal concern is that by focusing on villains, the author is ignoring Australia’s
corporate heroes. Why not tell stories about ASIC, Australia’s enforcement knight,
slaying the dragons of the corporate world, or champions of corporate governance or
corporate citizenship? I can proffer two reasons. First, company law curriculum and
assessment is geared towards the traditional or Socratic method of teaching in which
villains are easier to identify. As company law teachers we are more likely to discuss
case lawinvolving the transgressions by companies and individuals of the Corporations
Act 2001 (Cth) than case studies of goodcorporate citizenship or governance. The second
reason is that popular culture has a greater af?nity with villains than heroes. The rogue,
baddie, fugitive andheavy is anedgier and more exciting character thana hero. I suggest
that students (who formpart of that popular culture) are more likely to be engaged by the
story attached to a corporate villain than a hero. It is engagement that can stimulate
effective learning. By no means am I advocating the removal of heroes of corporate
governance and citizenship from the company law curriculum. Rather I posit that
storytelling may not be the best teaching method of presenting this material to students
to facilitate effective learning.
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Conclusion
Storytelling is a teaching method designed to promote student engagement and
improve student learning. The inclusion of an antagonist, the corporate villain, and
his/her story in a company law course engaged accounting students in learning by
humanising the law and demonstrating its relevance. The litigant became a person and
that person had an interesting personal, corporate and legal history that students could
relate back to the company law curriculum. The issues raised and learning outcomes
referred to in this study suggest that storytelling is worthy of consideration by
academics to supplement, not replace, other methods of teaching law to accounting
students. In company law, the corporate villain story can take the bore out of an area of
law in which its protagonist, the company, has no more than a legal personality.
Notes
1. All quotes are derived from SET and SEC responses for Company Law in the years
2008-2011 unless otherwise stated.
2. Excerpt of e-mail used with permission of author.
References
Abrahamson, C.E. (1998), “Storytelling as a pedagogical tool in higher education”, Education,
Vol. 118 No. 3, pp. 440-51.
ASIC (2011), “Fincorp director imprisoned for dishonesty offences”, available at: www.asic.gov.
au/asic/asic.nsf/byheadline/11-78ADþFincorpþdirectorþimprisonedþforþdishonestyþ
offences?openDocument (accessed 28 March 2012).
Biggs, J. and Tang, C. (2007), Teaching for Quality Learning at University, 3rd ed., Open
University Press, Buckingham.
Blissenden, M. (2007), “Using storytelling as a teaching model in a law school: the experience in
an Australian context”, The Law Teacher, Vol. 41 No. 3, pp. 260-74.
Bridgman, T. (2010), “Beyond the manager’s moral dilemma: rethinking the ‘ideal-type’ business
ethics case”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 94, pp. 311-22.
Dyer, B. (1995), “Making company law more practical and more theoretical – curriculum design”,
Australian Journal of Corporate Law, Vol. 5, pp. 281-94.
Gobeil, J. and Phillips, F. (2001), “Relating case presentation style and level of student knowledge
to fact acquisition and application in accounting case analyses”, Issues in Accounting
Education, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 205-22.
Hicks, A. (1992), “Teaching modern company law – the pint pot”, The Law Teacher, Vol. 26 No. 1,
pp. 4-13.
Kosa, J. (2008), “Tell a story”, The Education Digest, Vol. 74 No. 2, pp. 43-7.
Lewinbuk, K.P. (2008), “Can successful lawyers think in different languages? Incorporating
critical strategies that support learning lawyering skills for the practice of law in a global
environment”, Richmond Journal of Global Law and Business, Vol. 7, pp. 1-14.
Lickorish, S. (2009), “Storytelling: how to enrich the learning experience”, Training Journal,
Febrauary, pp. 21-3.
Menkel-Meadow, C. (2000), “Using case studies and stories to teach legal ethics”, Fordham Law
Review, Vol. 69 No. 3, pp. 787-816.
Miley, F. (2009), “The storytelling project: innovating to engage students in their learning”,
Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 28 No. 4, pp. 357-69.
Corporate
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Moore, A.F. (2006), “Contact and concepts: educating students at Jesuit law schools”, Gonzaga
Law Review, Vol. 41 No. 3, pp. 459-80.
Prosser, M. and Trigwell, K. (1999), Understanding Learning and Teaching: The Experience in
Higher Education, Open University Press, Buckingham.
Ramsden, P. (1992), Learning to Teach in Higher Education, Routledge, London.
Savage, A., Norman, C.S. and Lancaster, K.A.S. (2008), “Using a movie to study the COSO
internal control framework: an instructional case”, Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 22
No. 1, pp. 63-76.
Scott, W. (2005), “Accessing the student voice: using CEQuery to identify what retains students
and promotes engagement in productive learning in Australian higher
education”, available at: www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/9196224F-FEEA-4CF8-AEC7
4DB4AFFD41E5/10605/HEIPCEQueryFinalv21stFeb06.pdf (accessed 20 January 2012).
Steslown, D.M. and Gardner, C. (2011), “More than one way to tell a story: integrating storytelling
into your law course”, Journal of Legal Studies Education, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 249-71.
Tzannes, M. and King, P. (1997), “Meeting procedure: a vehicle to better teach corporations law
and a professional legal skill”, Journal of Professional Legal Education, Vol. 15 No. 2,
pp. 123-36.
About the author
Craig Cameron is a Lecturer in Corporations Law in the Department of Accounting, Finance and
Economics at Grif?th University. Craig Cameron can be contacted at: craig.cameron@grif?th.
edu.au
ARJ
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doc_518907097.pdf
The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of a storytelling teaching
method in a company law course for accounting students and to evaluate its influence on engagement
and effective learning.
Design/methodology/
Accounting Research Journal
Corporate villains: taking the bore out of law
Craig Cameron
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Corporate villains: taking the bore
out of law
Craig Cameron
Accounting, Finance and Economics, Grif?th University, Southport, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of a storytelling teaching
method in a company law course for accounting students and to evaluate its in?uence on engagement
and effective learning.
Design/methodology/approach – The learning activity, known as “corporate villains”, is based on
theories of storytelling and engagement. Selected qualitative and quantitative data from university
course and teaching evaluation surveys were used to assess the achievement of objectives and identify
learning outcomes.
Findings – The corporate villains learning activity engaged students at the beginning of the lecture
and in?uenced student learning by demonstrating the relevance, or “real life” application, of company
law to accounting students. Corporate villains also stimulated curiosity in learning more about the law
which is characteristic of students pursuing a deep approach to learning.
Originality/value – The study extends the research on storytelling in accounting and legal
education and supports empirical evidence as to the positive impact of storytelling on student
engagement in learning. In particular, the study reveals the potential for corporate villains to address
various academic and student concerns about company law by humanising the law and enabling
students to connect the legal concepts to the story and to the curriculum.
Keywords Storytelling, Company law, Engagement, Deep learning, Accounting education, Villainy,
Education, Learning, Students, Law
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Corporate law teachers face an enormous challenge – how does one take an arti?cial
creature known as the company and make it engaging for accounting students exposed
to an array of distractions in and out of the lecture theatre? Accounting students have
expressed concern about the potential for company law to be “dull”, “dry” and “not
very interesting”[1]. In this respect I can relate to Miley’s (2009, p. 357) initial
frustration with her introductory accounting cohort:
I have eighty plus students in accounting this semester. All of them want to be elsewhere.
I asked them what they thought of when I mentioned the word ‘accounting’: dull, boring, too
many numbers. Not a single positive comment. One student told me he was only doing
accounting because it allowed him to plan his study schedule to have a day off. Most said
they were doing it because it was compulsory [. . .]
Like Miley my response was to introduce stories to lectures. “Corporate villains” is an
innovative teaching activity which adopts a storytelling teaching method. It is
designed to support learning objectives by engaging students in productive learning
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1030-9616.htm
The author would like to thank the anonymous referees for providing their insightful comments.
Any errors are the author’s own.
ARJ
25,1
56
Accounting Research Journal
Vol. 25 No. 1, 2012
pp. 56-66
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1030-9616
DOI 10.1108/10309611211244537
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and demonstrating the relevance of company law to accounting students. The stories
of infamous corporate identities are told, with the legal elements of their exploits
woven into the story. This study ?rst identi?es the learning issue addressed by the
corporate villains activity before exploring its theoretical bases, namely storytelling
and student engagement. A summary of the teaching and learning objectives relevant
to corporate villains and a description of the teaching activity follow. Quantitative and
qualitative data is then provided which supports the in?uence of corporate villains on
student learning and engagement. The study concludes with my response to academic
feedback and the potential future applications of corporate villains.
Teaching issue
A corporate law education for business students is generally different from their law
school colleagues. Law students are more familiar with legal concepts and predisposed
to engage with the law having completed a number of introductory law courses. The
curriculum requires the law student to read, analyse and discuss decided cases as part
of their legal training. With business students, the teacher places greater emphasis on
introducing legal concepts and demonstrating their relevance and application to
business (Steslown and Gardner, 2011, p. 257). The initial negative perceptions towards
company law can perhaps be attributed to students’ lack of familiarity with legal
concepts as well as the curriculum lacking a human element (Tzannes and King, 1997).
The company is the creation of a complex regulatory regime that numbers in the
thousands of pages and its consolidated text represents a visual nightmare for
accounting students. For the vast majority of these students, their only previous foray
into the law was an introductory business law course which involved tales of: sex
(labour law); drug and alcohol fuelled behaviour, botched medical procedures and acts
of random stupidity (tort law); and deceptive advertising and sales practices (consumer
protection law). Though contract law may be dry, students are at least attuned to the
legal issues raised because they encounter contracts in their daily lives. Such a cursory
inspection of the introductory law curriculum highlights the fundamental challenge of
teaching company law – many students without a business background cannot relate
to its subject matter, in part because they are unable to visualise and identify with the
issues regulated by company law (Dyer, 1995, pp. 284-5).
Company law teachers have proposed and/or implemented practical elements in the
curriculum such as problem-based learning (Dyer, 1995), meeting procedures (Tzannes
and King, 1997) and case studies involving “real life” company documentation (Hicks,
1992) for the purpose of contextualising the law for their students. Part of my response
to the challenge of teaching company law was the introduction of storytelling using
corporate villains. Engagement and storytelling represent the theoretical bases for the
corporate villains concept and are discussed in the next section.
Corporate villains: literature review
Engagement
Effective teaching entails the creation of a learning environment which motivates
students to engage in deep, as opposed to surface, approaches to learning (Ramsden,
1992; Biggs and Tang, 2007). Students who adopt a deep approach to learning strive to
understand ideas and seek meanings, possess an intrinsic interest in the learning task,
enjoy completing it and adopt a variety of strategies to satisfy their curiosity
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(Prosser and Trigwell, 1999, p. 3). So what are the characteristics of an effective
learning environment? In his study of teaching strategies for effective learning,
Ramsden suggests that a good lecture requires teachers to (amongst other things):
engage the student’s interest; stimulate their thinking and their desire to ?nd out more
about the subject; and use memorable illustrations (Ramsden, 1992, p. 156). Biggs and
Tang answer the same question by reference to the psychological constraints on
human learning. The authors posit that the typical student attention span without a
pause or change in activity is ten to 15 minutes, after which time the students’ learning
levels drop dramatically. Conversely a short rest or change in activity every 15 minutes
almost restores performance to their original level (Biggs and Tang, 2007, p. 109).
Although Biggs and Tang acknowledge that the time periods can vary, they appear
to assume that a student’s learning level is at its peak at the beginning of the lecture. This
assumption does not re?ect my experience in teaching introductory law courses to
business students. The time of day and the students’ academic or other work
commitments prior to the lecture can change the timing of a student’s optimum learning
level. Some students take time to reach their optimum performance if the lecture
commences at 8 a.m. in the morning, or they have attended a number of lectures and/or
tutorials earlier in the day, or completed a long day at work or have had to hurry to the
lecture for whatever reason. The ten minutes break between the ?rst and second hour of
the lecture may be one of fewopportunities during the day for the student to relax and/or
refuel. As such the students’ optimum learning level may not be achieved until a
subsequent rest or change in activity later in the lecture. This has implications for the
design of effective learning environments.
Storytelling
Storytelling, also known as narrative, involves telling a sequence of events that occur in
another time and/or place (Lickorish, 2009, p. 21). It appeals to a variety of learning types
by tapping into the student’s imagination (Kosa, 2008). The student connects with the
story by generating images, sounds and emotions which encourages long-term memory
retention of the story’s message(s) (Lickorish, 2009; Abrahamson, 1998). Business
educators have employed storytelling in teaching ethics (Bridgman, 2010), accounting
information systems (Savage et al., 2008) and introductory accounting (Gobeil and
Phillips, 2001; Miley, 2009). For example, Savage et al. (2008) devised a case study based
on the movie Rogue Trader which required accounting students to analyse the internal
control mechanisms of a ?nancial institution. Results from the self-reported survey
instrument revealed that viewing and analysing the story improved students’
knowledge of various aspects associated with internal controls. Miley (2009) used a
series of military stories to defence force students completing a non-accounting degree to
demonstrate accounting concepts. Miley noticed a change in student attitudes towards
accounting when the story was told. Students reported increased motivation to study the
introductory accounting course. Miley also found that students were better prepared for
class when they took responsibility for developing the story. Finally, Gobeil and
Phillips (2001) study of introductory ?nancial accounting students found that
low-knowledge students (as measured by course grade) were better able to apply the
facts of an accounting case when it was presented in a narrative as opposed to an
expository style whereas the style of presentation had no signi?cant effect on
high-knowledge students.
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The legal education literature reveals the bene?ts of storytelling speci?c to law
courses. As in business education, storytelling is a pedagogical tool used in legal
education to promote student engagement and deepen student understanding of the
subject matter (Blissenden, 2007). Legal storytelling can take a variety of forms
including: background information of parties in decided cases; stories about personal
experiences inthe legal world; and discussion of law-related movies, music and literature
(Lewinbuk, 2008, pp. 8-9). In particular, legal academics have advocated storytelling as
an alternative to the traditional case method of legal education, whereby the lecturer
outlines the relevant facts, law and decision in a decided case to a generally passive
audience. Storytelling breathes life into the parties to a case (Moore, 2006). No longer just
the “plaintiff”, “defendant”, “appellant” or “respondent”, the historical, present
and future context revealed in the story “re-humanizes” the parties in a way that
facilitates active learning (Menkel-Meadow, 2000; Steslown and Gardner, 2011).
Students retain the legal concepts that are weaved into the stories because theycan relate
the concepts to the story (Steslown and Gardner, 2011, p. 271). Steslown and Gardner
suggest that storytelling may be more appropriate when teaching law to business
students. Business students are not trained to think like lawyers, but rather are
introduced to legal concepts and cases relevant to their business career (Steslown and
Gardner, p. 250). Lewinbuk (2008, p. 9) argues that storytelling can also assist students in
which English is their second language (“ESL students”) because “storytelling is
something everyone can relate to. The law, in contrast, is not”. This is a particularly
important point for educators as ESL students represent a signi?cant proportion of the
accounting cohort.
Corporate villains: teaching and learning objectives
I devised the corporate villains activity to achieve two teaching objectives. The ?rst was
to engage students in learning by humanising company law and demonstrating its
relevance, or “real life” application, to accounting students. Students are motivated to
learn something if they perceive it to have value (Biggs and Tang, 2007, p. 32). The
second objective was to create a more effective learning environment by capturing the
attention of students at the beginning of the lecture. By this I am not suggesting that a
corporate villain’s story would be ineffective at all other times. In fact the story could be
that important change in activity during a lecture that stimulates student engagement in
learning. Nevertheless, in my circumstances storytelling was a pedagogy targeted at
returning students to their optimal learning level at the beginning of the lecture. My task
as a lecturer thereafter was to maintain that level using the means alluded to by Biggs
and Tang. The corporate villains activity was designed to support, not address, the
prescribed learning objectives in company law. In particular, company law students are
expected to demonstrate: knowledge of case law and legislation (technical skill); and
written communication, analytical, evaluative and problem solving skills (professional
skills). The corporate villain’s story introduces students to a company lawtopic(s) which
is explored in greater detail during the lecture. The subsequent discussion of case law
and legislation relevant to the story expands and reinforces the students’ basic legal
knowledge gained from the story. Students can relate their expanded legal knowledge
back to the story. Students then apply their legal knowledge and professional skills to
complete case studies, hypothetical exercises and role playactivities inlectures, tutorials
and assessment items. For example, a hypothetical exercise is a set of facts which
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requires the student to identify the relevant legal issues (professional and technical
skills), describe the law relevant to the issues (technical skill), apply the relevant law to
the facts and provide a conclusion for the client (professional skills). In summary, the
corporate villains activity was intended to support the prescribed learning objectives by
facilitating the retention of legal knowledge (direct support) and motivating students to
develop their legal knowledge and professional skills (indirect support).
Corporate villains: teaching activity
Corporate Villains was implemented in company law, a compulsory course in both
undergraduate and postgraduate accounting degrees at an Australian university.
A photograph or “mugshot” of the corporate villain is posted on the front cover of each
week’s reading guide. This is done for two reasons. First, the students are afforded the
opportunity to investigate the identity of the corporate villain before the lecture,
piquing their curiosity. Second, the photograph enables students to put a face to a case,
providing a visual means of humanising company law for students (Menkel-Meadow,
2000). Rene Rivkin is not just a defendant in an insider trading case, but was indirectly
involved with the company Offset Alpine Printing Ltd, the subject of a mysterious ?re
which destroyed its sole asset, a manufacturing plant, in 1993. Alan Bond is not just a
convicted fraudster, but also funded Australia’s successful crew in the America’s Cup
and paid far too much for acquiring the television station Channel 9 from Kerry Packer
prior to the stock market crash in 1987.
I select subjects based on three criteria: their infamy; compatibility with the subject
matter of the lecture and their criminal and/or civil breach of the Corporations Act 2001
(Cth). In terms of compatibility, corporate villains are matched where possible to the
cases in which they appear and are discussed in that week’s lecture. New corporate
villains are added each semester but only one corporate villain story is told in the
lecture. The list of past and present corporate villains includes Eric Krecichwost,
Ray Williams, Rodney Adler, Alan Bond, Peter Foster and Rene Rivkin. I explain the
teaching and learning objectives of corporate villains during the ?rst lecture.
The corporate villains segment runs for approximately ?ve to ten minutes at the
beginning of each lecture. I ask the students to reveal the corporate villain and what
they know about the person. Students who have undertaken background research
initiate and participate in the story telling process. Initial student contributions are
acknowledged and their comments incorporated into the story. Since the corporate
villains activity was introduced in 2008, four students have been directly or indirectly
associated with a corporate villain and told their story. The story typically follows a
chronological path involving the villain’s personal and corporate background (before
the event), description of the misconduct (during the event) and its legal consequences
(after the event) and ?nishing with a postscript. In many cases the story telling process
is supported by visual aids such as television clips (Rodney Adler) and diagrams to
explain key legal concepts (Eric Krecichwost).
For example, the story of Eric Krecichwost entails: his former job as a vacuumcleaner
salesman; his position as founder and CEO of Fincorp, a property development and
?nance company; the ?nancing of property developments through the issue of
debenture notes; Krecichwost’s criminal conduct involving three cheques paid to
Krecichwost and related entities for services that were never provided; his resignation as
a director of Fincorp 15 months prior to its administration; his involvement with Fincorp
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as a shareholder and senior manager in that 15 month period; the liquidation of Fincorp;
the conviction, sentencing and release of Krecichwost involving offences against
Section 184(2)(a) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth); and his automatic disquali?cation
from managing corporations (ASIC, 2011). The parts of the story concerning
Krecichwost’s criminal conduct, resignation as a director and disquali?cation
introduces legal concepts for further discussion during that week’s lecture on
dividends and directors. The “court action” segment of the story introduces students to
the directors’ duty not to improperly use their position (Section 182) and the potential
criminal penalties for breaching that duty (Section 184). These topics are addressed in
more detail later in the semester, as is liquidation and voluntary administration.
Corporate villains: results
A standard university Student Evaluation of Course (SEC) and Student Evaluation of
Teaching (SET) questionnaire was administered at the end of each teaching semester
in company law between the years 2008 and 2011. The SEC and SET contain a list of
questions assessed on a Likert scale. For the purpose of this note, I identi?ed SET and
SEC questions relevant to the two teaching objectives of the corporate villains
activity – engagement and the creation of an effective learning environment. The SET
and SEC then includes open ended questions about aspects of the course and teaching
that are done well and aspects in need of improvement. Whilst these questions do not
speci?cally address the topic of corporate villains, tabulating and classifying the
responses concerning corporate villains can support the quantitative data and enable
me to draw preliminary conclusions about storytelling in company law. For example,
Scott (2005) examined a substantial database of open ended comments made by
graduates from 14 Australian universities during the period 2001-2004 about the best
aspects of their university course and those aspects most needing improvement. A key
?nding in Scott’s report was that practice-orientated (which included “real world” case
studies) and interactive, face-to-face learning methods attracted the largest number of
“best aspect” comments. From these ?ndings, Scott suggested that it is these methods
students identify as most engaging them in productive learning (Scott, 2005, p. xi).
The results provide preliminary evidence that telling the story of a corporate villain
engaged students at the beginning of the lecture and enhanced their learning. With
respect to quantitative data:
.
96 percent of company law students surveyed in 2008 and 2009 responded with
good, very good or excellent to the SET question: “how effective was this lecturer
in using teaching methods that helped you to learn” (309 respondents);
.
99 percent of company law students surveyed in 2010 and 2011 responded with
agree or strongly agree to the SET question: “the staff member presented
material in an interesting way” (155 respondents); and
.
50 percent of company law students surveyed in one 2008 cohort who provided a
comment in response to the open ended SEC question: “aspects which were done
well and should be continued” mentioned corporate villains (19 respondents).
The smaller number of respondents after 2009 can be explained by the author no
longer lecturing the postgraduate cohort and a lower survey response rate (expressed
as a percentage of the overall cohort). This was due to a change in university policy
from physical distribution of surveys in class to an electronic distribution of surveys
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via e-mail. Although a small cohort, the responses to the open ended evaluation
question above offers some support for Scott’s (2005) conclusion that active learning
methods such as storytelling engage students in effective learning.
One problem with the quantitative data is that it does not distinguish the levels of
engagement nor effective learning attributable to the various teaching methods I employ
during the course. These teaching methods in company law include storytelling, role
play exercises, ?owcharting and case studies. Nevertheless, student responses to the
open ended SET and SEC questions support the two teaching objectives of the
corporative villains activity and indicate that storytelling was a teaching method that
contributed to the quantitative results. In terms of engagement, students repeatedly
used the word “interesting” to describe corporate villains. They commented that “the
discussion of corporate criminals was interesting and motivating” and “I really like the
corporate villaintechnique keeps me interested inthe course”. Further, corporate villains
assisted me in transforming student perceptions of company law from boring to
interesting:
The lecturer was effective in communicating the subject matter and made a seemingly boring
subject surprisingly interesting and relevant (inclusion of the weekly corporate villains was
like my weekly ?x of corporate gossip; with mugshots to boot).
The course was really engaging and interesting. The lecturer has done a great job in making
it as exciting as possible. One of the most interesting features of the course was the “corporate
villain” concept.
Corporate villains in?uenced student learning of legal concepts by demonstrating its
relevance, or “real life” application, to accounting students. The story contextualised
and humanised company law for students. Students could relate the legal concepts to
the story (i.e. the “real world”) and to the curriculum. This supports the retention of
legal knowledge (Steslown and Gardner, 2011), a learning objective of the course, and
addresses Dyer’s (1995) concern about the inability of students to relate to the subject
matter of company law. In particular, students commented that:
The corporate villains were extremely interesting and put the learning material into
perspective.
The reading guides were great (and) should be continued, especially each corporate villain
that Craig had on each one when matched the relevant topics throughout the semester.
I loved the corporate villain concept. It was an interesting and engaging way to meld
classroom learning into real world application and demonstration of the law. It was also
interesting in the way that most people have heard of these guys, and knew they were
involved in white collar crime however never really know the ins and outs. This in depth
knowledge makes for some great water cooler conversation.
I really enjoyed the corporate villain theme each week, I found that gave the course an
interesting but also real life aspect to the course.
Corporate villains also stimulated curiosity in learning more about the law which is
characteristic of students pursuing a deep approach to learning (Prosser and Trigwell,
1999) and an engaging lecture (Ramsden, 1992). Students conducted further research
about the corporate villains and discussed the corporate villains with colleagues
outside the lecture time:
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Corporate villain: this was a brilliant way of creating interest in the weeks topic and caused
quite a lot of discussion after the lecture had ?nished sometimes for days.
[. . .] he makes the topics so interesting that you are willing to do some research [. . .] on the
internet to ?nd out more. I de?nitely enjoyed his descriptions of corporate villains and did
some search on the internet about some of them.
The results demonstrate the capacity of storytelling to create a context for active learning
whereby the student takes ownership of their learning (Abrahamson, 1998, p. 450).
Corporate villains: tertiary response and future application
The response fromlegal educators to corporate villains has been generally positive. The
current postgraduate course convenor of company law at the author’s university has
successfully adopted corporate villains. Her words support the qualitative and
quantitative evidence above – corporate villains is a formof storytelling that in?uenced,
motivated and inspired her students to learn[2]:
The inclusion of the corporate villain made what can be a dry and dull subject most interesting
to students. Each lecture the students were asked to name the particular villain and give a brief
history of his exploits (no female corporate villains were included – not an oversight on Craig’s
part but a lack of choice). Students who correctly identi?ed the particular villain were rewarded
in turn. My students looked forward to identifying the villain each week. Class discussion
regarding both the legal and ethical repercussions of the villains behaviour were often heated
and diverse, with students offering to include other corporate villains.
The postgraduate students, many of whom had business experience, went beyond the
storytelling process I employ for the undergraduate students by discussing the ethical
issues attached to the villain’s behaviour and by enabling students to identify other
corporate villains. These activities could be incorporated in future iterations of the
course. Another worthwhile suggestion posed by one company law student and
implemented in Miley’s (2009) introductory accounting class is to give students the
responsibility to tell the story, creating a more collaborative learning environment.
Educators have expressed four main concerns with the corporate villains concept.
The ?rst is that corporate villains may be entertaining but does not necessarily
stimulate productive learning. Ramsden (1992, p. 74) acknowledges this concern in his
study of teaching in higher education:
[. . .] a good performance is not necessarily good teaching. In fact, an entertaining lecturer
may leave students with a sense of having been entertained, but with little advancement of
their learning.
The corporate villain story is designed to entertain through narrative. But what makes
storytelling using corporate villains an effective teaching method is that legal concepts
relevant to the study of company law are immersed in that narrative and then
reinforced during the lecture. Without that immersion, the story is merely a colourful
presentation devoid of learning outcomes. The quantitative and qualitative results
provide preliminary evidence that the stories not only motivated students to learn legal
concepts, but facilitated the retention of legal concepts as students could relate the legal
concepts in the story back to the curriculum.
The second concern lies in the overrepresentation of company directors as corporate
villains. A typical 13 week company law course only covers the topic of directors’
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duties for two to three weeks. In other words, how do the corporate villains apply to
each week of company law? The answer is that the company directors’ story generally
involves a corporate activity attributable to the breach of their directors’ duties –
a separate topic in company law. For example, Rodney Adler breached a number of
directors’ duties involving the provision of ?nancial assistance from a HIH group
company to an entity that he controlled. The provision of such ?nancial assistance is
prohibited under the Corporations Act for the purpose of maintaining share capital.
Rodney Adler is then the corporate villain for the topic of share capital transactions. In
fact storytelling can be a particularly powerful teaching method in company law
because it provides a holistic view of company law. Students see the curriculum not as
a set of discrete legal topics and can make connections between topics covered in the
course. For instance, the story of Eric Krecichwost is told early in the semester during
the topic “dividends and directors”, but I refer back to the story later in the semester
when directors’ duties and liquidation are addressed.
A third concern is that the title “corporate villains” may create the perception that
I overemphasize the punitive function of company law in teaching and learning
activities. This is not the case. The curriculum I deliver is not unusual for a company
law course and includes: the formation of a company; company participants (e.g. ASIC,
directors, creditors, members and company secretary); the internal management rules
and share capital transactions of a company; directors’ duties and meetings; members’
meetings and remedies; and the insolvency regime. The corporate villain’s story is only
a minor component of the lecture, is not related to all the legal topics covered in that
week’s lecture and the legal focus of the story is not necessarily on the villain’s
misconduct. For example, the poor corporate governance practices associated with
HIH’s acquisition of the FAI insurance group forms the majority of Ray Williams’ story
I present to the students, not his criminal conviction. The topics covered later in that
week’s lecture are corporate governance, the directors’ duty of good faith and con?icts
of interest. Nevertheless, stories that do focus on the corporate villain’s misconduct are
also instructive. As James Joyce, famous Irish author once said “mistakes are the
portals of discovery”. Students gain legal knowledge by learning from the mistakes
made by corporate villains.
The ?nal concern is that by focusing on villains, the author is ignoring Australia’s
corporate heroes. Why not tell stories about ASIC, Australia’s enforcement knight,
slaying the dragons of the corporate world, or champions of corporate governance or
corporate citizenship? I can proffer two reasons. First, company law curriculum and
assessment is geared towards the traditional or Socratic method of teaching in which
villains are easier to identify. As company law teachers we are more likely to discuss
case lawinvolving the transgressions by companies and individuals of the Corporations
Act 2001 (Cth) than case studies of goodcorporate citizenship or governance. The second
reason is that popular culture has a greater af?nity with villains than heroes. The rogue,
baddie, fugitive andheavy is anedgier and more exciting character thana hero. I suggest
that students (who formpart of that popular culture) are more likely to be engaged by the
story attached to a corporate villain than a hero. It is engagement that can stimulate
effective learning. By no means am I advocating the removal of heroes of corporate
governance and citizenship from the company law curriculum. Rather I posit that
storytelling may not be the best teaching method of presenting this material to students
to facilitate effective learning.
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Conclusion
Storytelling is a teaching method designed to promote student engagement and
improve student learning. The inclusion of an antagonist, the corporate villain, and
his/her story in a company law course engaged accounting students in learning by
humanising the law and demonstrating its relevance. The litigant became a person and
that person had an interesting personal, corporate and legal history that students could
relate back to the company law curriculum. The issues raised and learning outcomes
referred to in this study suggest that storytelling is worthy of consideration by
academics to supplement, not replace, other methods of teaching law to accounting
students. In company law, the corporate villain story can take the bore out of an area of
law in which its protagonist, the company, has no more than a legal personality.
Notes
1. All quotes are derived from SET and SEC responses for Company Law in the years
2008-2011 unless otherwise stated.
2. Excerpt of e-mail used with permission of author.
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About the author
Craig Cameron is a Lecturer in Corporations Law in the Department of Accounting, Finance and
Economics at Grif?th University. Craig Cameron can be contacted at: craig.cameron@grif?th.
edu.au
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