Prof. Robert Bennett, Butler University, USA
Business Ethics (5 ECTS)
| Course Description
This course is designed to help students to reflect on and reason about ethical issues that confront the modern business. We will consider prevailing ethical theories and explore the nature of the corporation, its economic and social responsibilities, the conflicting demands of stakeholders, and the ultimate priorities and obligations of the firm.
As a result of full participation in this course, Bennett expects that students will:
1. Develop an ability to detect ethical dilemmas when they arise.
2. Become familiar with classic ethical theories and perspectives.
3. Understand the cultural and ethical differences involved in international management.
4. Develop a sense of the manager=s moral responsibility in fostering respect for others, managing diversity, telling the truth, building trust, leading change, etc.
5. Develop a personal ethics statement to guide individual principled decision making.
6. Integrate ethical decision making throughout the business disciplines.
1. Classical Theories.
2. Ethics and Business.
3. Ethics and the Environment.
4. Ethics of Consumer Production and Marketing.
5. The Individual in the Organization.
| Course Organization :
Involvement in class discussion is a critical element of the course and is weighted accordingly in the final grade. The free and candid exchange of views will be encouraged and rewarded. The class will analyze cases and problems to highlight specific points within the texts and to illustrate the development and application of ethical principles. Obviously, a prerequisite to knowledgeable classroom discussion will be adequate preparation for class.
Manuel G. Velasquez, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases (6th Ed. 2006)
A working schedule of the classroom discussions and reading assignments follows. Obviously, there may have to be adjustments to the schedule as the course proceeds.
In Class and Overnight Writes:
There will be several in-class and overnight writing assignments that will ask students to reflect upon experiences, classroom discussions and the readings.
The first overnight write will be due at the beginning of class on March 16. I would like students to write a brief paper reflecting on the following questions:
1. What is ‘ethics’? Can ethics be taught?
2. Where did you get your personal “code of ethics”?
3. Describe in detail an ethical dilemma that you have encountered at school or in the workplace.
Students will be assigned to groups who responsible to identify a contemporary (within the last 5 years) business ethics dilemma from personal experience, the internet, newspapers or other periodicals. [The instructor will provide some ideas.] Students should thoroughly research the issue using at least 5 sources. Each student will then be responsible for presenting a case study about the dilemma including charts and tables (as needed) and a complete analysis. Further details about this project follow.
There will be a final paper assignment which will ask students to review and reflect on the substantive materials in the course and will ask students to apply the materials in the course to ethical dilemmas.