Business Ethics

Business ethics addresses ethical issues and challenges of companies. Challenges involve links to legal, societal, environmental, and cultural contexts corporations operate in. Unlike similar concepts such as ‘corporate social responsibility,’ ‘corporate sustainability’, ‘corporate citizenship’ or ‘sustainable development’, business ethics applies a more foundational perspective of normative implications of business conduct and the economy at large. The most fundamental ethical theories (derived from practical philosophy) are introduced (utilitarianism, virtue ethics, deontology, discourse ethics) and discussed against the antagonism of ‘morals’ and ‘ethics.’

Topics to be discussed in the course are:
1. (on an micro level): good life, ethical leadership, individual responsibility, whistle-blowing, or gender topics such as equal-payment ‘social egg freezing’.
2. (on a meso level): code of ethics/conduct, corporate culture, gender/diversity in business, compliance, or good governance.
3. (on a macro level): economic system, social cohesion, order ethics, global business ethics, future of capitalism and digitalization.
Additionally, key terms such as freedom, value, utility, common good, or deliberation are presented and discussed. Following several major scandals such as the Enron collapse, the Rana-Plaza building collapse, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and most recently, the diesel emission scandal managerial implications and legal consequences are discussed and reflected.
Towards the end of the course, more contemporary issues stemming from USI-based research are discussed regarding digitalization, blockchain, or instant-transparency.

Required material

• Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2010). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dierksmeier, C. (2016), “What is ‘Humanistic’ About Humanistic Management?”, Humanistic Management Journal,1/1, pp. 9–32.
• Enderle, G. (2016), “How Can Business Ethics Strengthen the Social Cohesion of a Society?”, Journal of Business Ethics, Springer Netherlands, pp. 1–11.
• Freeman, E. (2000). Business ethics at the millennium. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(1), 169–180.
• Michalos, A., & Poff, D. (2013). Citation classics from the Journal of Business Ethics. Celebrating the first thirty years of publication. New York: Springer Books.
• Saul, G.K. (1981), “Business Ethics: Where Are We Going?”, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 269–276.
• Seele, P. (2016), “What Makes a Business Ethicist? A Reflection on the Transition from Applied Philosophy to Critical Thinking”, Journal of Business Ethics, Springer Netherlands, pp. 1–10.
• Solomon, R.C. (2003), “Victims of circumstances? A defense of virtue ethics in business”, Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 43–62
• Wicks, A. C., Freeman, R. E., & Werhane, P. (2009). Business ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

By the end of the course students will be able to:

• Understand the underlying normative foundations of business and society, based on both a brief introduction to general ethics and the history of business ethics.
• Gain a state-of-the-art understanding of the major topics in business ethics
• Apply multilateral thinking to approach ethical challenges in business from different ethical perspectives
• Develop critical thinking skills: business ethics lives from questioning and challenging existing practices and concepts

• Quality education
• Decent work and economic growth
• Indusrty, innovation and infrastracture
• Reduced inequalities
• Responsible consumption and production
• Peace and justice strong institutions

In presence

Attendance: Encouraged

100% exam