But Bulkeley, like Journal readers who wrote letters to the paper supporting his account of the class, questions whether or not students need to lie at all in order to identify and learn to cope with deceit they may encounter in business.

Raiffa describes his area of research as "fair mediation"--ways to restructure the rules of bargaining to encourage truth-telling. He designs the games in his course as pedagogical tools that members of the class use to examine the practical options in bargaining situations. Students formulate strategies based on a thorough analysis of these options. The class also discusses ways in which restructuring the fundamental situation might inhibit lying.

Like other B-School professors, Raiffa uses the case method system of teaching. However, his practice of casting his students as players actually engaged in arbitration differs from standard B-School technique by forcing the students to adopt the biases inherent in their roles. Thus the students confront the ethical issues in their own behavior and analyze the place of ethics in negotiations.

Fouraker summed up the B-School's point of view on teaching ethics in a column published in the last Harvard Business School Bulletin.

"Courses on ethics are not the principal means by which a professional school of administration can promote the ethical sensitivity of its students," he wrote. "We certainly do not think it would be wise or successful to start courses on ethics in the abstract...we favor incorporating ethical issues into our regular courses."

James L. Heskett, chairman of the Master of Business Administration program, said a recent survey showed that "a considerable proportion" of the required first-year courses include cases that involve moral issues.

"I think the case method is ideal for teaching about ethics," he said, adding "I have confidence in my colleagues and in their ability to put this approach to good use."

One course that directly addresses the issue of ethics is "Ethical Aspects of Corporate Policy," taught by John B. Matthews, Wilson Professor of Business Administration, and Preston N. Williams, Houghton Professor of Theology and Contemporary Change. The second-year elective began as a seminar three years ago, and has since tripled in enrollment.

Discussing his course, Matthews said, "We give the student readings in ethics-as-a-discipline as well as a number of case studies which have ethical, moral, and social responsibility dimensions. The course will not give you answers, but it will sharpen the definition of the problem and one's thinking of the problem."

The definition of the problem is always difficult, even for Bulkeley. "When I was writing the article," he said, "I had trouble seeing how far I'd go in defining lying: is non-disclosure, not volunteering information, lying? Is bluffing lying?"

Much of the later press coverage was based on Bulkeley's article. The Globe originally reprinted the Journal story unchanged, then followed with the story on Fouraker and the Dow Jones subsidiary.

"It's the laziest form of journalism imaginable," Raiffa said. The original story didn't present the course in the proper light. These other papers are willing to repeat it and embellish it without doing their homework and checking out the facts."

The story clearly has been repeated and embellished. Raiffa last week received a telegram from Zurich reading, in part: "Last week, a well known columnist [Mseva Maria Borer] in a mass-circulation newspaper in Zurich wrote an article with the title "Lying Can Be Taught..."In the article she referred to your course on competitive decision making. The course section dealing with the strategy of deception was quoted as an example of the decadence of American society in general and the business world in particular. Teaching the youth and the future manager how to lie most effectively seemed to be the main part of your course..."

"The press has blown this way out of proportion," Steiner, said and Raiffa agrees. Of the many articles written about his course, Raiffa approves of only two: one an interview in last week's Harvard Gazette, and the other a Globe story by Charles L. Whipple. "The Whipple article pointed up errors in the Journal article and said the press, in this case, was wrong," said Raiffa. "That's a very gracious step to take."

Bulkeley, however, said "I stand by my story." "My portrayal of the class was accurate." Although some students quoted in that story claim Bulkeley took their comments out of context, even Raiffa agreed that no one was actually misquoted.