Business Ethics-Practice and Norm: Corporate Respnsibility, Sustainability and Global Commerce

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course is a comprehensive introduction to business ethics with a special focus on issues and representative cases drawn from business in recent years. Central questions concern the responsibilities of corporations, especially in regard to their stakeholders and the environment. These concerns range from questions about hiring, firing, and promotion, to executive compensation, to marketing ethics, to financial representation, and to religion in the workplace. The globalization of business is also a main focus, involving such issues as outsourcing (domestic and international), bribery, child labor, and the treatment of women in and beyond the company's home country. The work will consist in readings from texts and cases, short papers, and likely one or two or at most three short essay exams. The aim is both to advance understanding of business ethics and to help students make better decisions both in business practice in particular and in ethical matters generally.