Ethical Practice: Leading Through Professionalism, Social Responsibility, and System Design
Introduction to ethics in business, with a focus on business management. Students explore theoretical concepts in business ethics, and cases representing the challenges they will likely face as managers. Opportunity to work with guest faculty as well as business and other professional practitioners. Individual sessions take the form of moderated discussion, with occasional short lectures from instructor.
Spring 2016
This course offers an introduction to ethics in business, with a focus on business management. Students explore theoretical concepts in business ethics, and cases representing the challenges they will likely face as managers. There is opportunity to work with guest faculty as well as business and other professional practitioners. Individual class sessions take the form of moderated discussion, with occasional short lectures from the instructor.
Readings
- Locke, John. “Of Property.” Chapter V in The Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration (Dover Thrift Editions) . Dover Publications, 2002, pp. 25–37 and 48–51. ISBN: 9780486424644.
- Mencius. Selections in Mencius. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016. ISBN: 9781536867558.
- Bakan, Joel. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power . Free Press, 2005, pp. 56–59. ISBN: 9780743247467.
- Plato. Part II, Book II in The Republic . CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016, pp. 55–61. ISBN: 9781535499576.
- Aristotle. Chapters 9 and 10 in The Politics . Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780192831095.
- Frank, Robert. “What Price the Moral High Ground?” In What Price the Moral High Ground? Ethical Dilemmas in Competitive Environments . Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 71–91.
- Thoreau, H. D. “Economy.” Chapter 1 in Walden and Civil Disobedience . Penguin Classics, 1983, pp. 45-64 and 112-123. ISBN: 9780140390445.
- Skinner, B. F. Walden Two . Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporation, 2005, pp. 246-260. ISBN: 9780872207783.
- Grandin, Greg. Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City . Picador, 2010, pp. 6-12, 21-26, 37-42 and 365-372. ISBN: 9780312429621.
- Confucius. Selections in The Analects . Penguin Classics, 1979. ISBN: 9780140443486.
- Tocqueville, Alexis de. Chapters II, IV-VI, and X in Democracy in America, Volume II . Alfred P. Knopf, 1945. ISBN: 9781330253267.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None G (Spring; second half of term) 3-0-3 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2016
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.