Welcome to Business Ethics

 

Two major trends – globalisation and responsibility in business – have shaped the way organisations and their leaders approach the challenges facing contemporary corporations. The first trend, globalisation, is all pervasive. At no time in human history has the contact between individuals from different countries and cultures been greater. Today, managers and professionals at every level work and interact with people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The second trend is more recent, but equally pervasive, and concerns the quest for responsibility in business. Stakeholders now expect that corporations and managers address the environmental, social, and economic threats facing our society and take a more active role in the fight against some of the most pressing problems in the world – such as poverty, environmental degradation, or human rights protection. The growing number of public-private partnerships, social innovations, and leadership initiatives show that business leaders increasingly accept their co-responsibility as global citizens for finding solutions to these problems. However, while executives recognize the broader responsibilities of business in society, they seem to struggle to cope effectively with the wider social and environmental issues.

In this course, we will address both the ‘knowing’ and the ‘doing’ side of business ethics, broadly conceived as an overarching frame of mind and action encompassing ethical decision-making, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), responsible stakeholder management, businesses contribution to the greater global common good and responsible leadership. The course objective is to build a solid knowledge base and some fundamental skills (e.g. ethical reflection and stakeholder engagement) to succeed in an environment of contested values. This knowledge will help you to develop a well-informed approach to the wider social and ethical issues you will face in a business career.

 

Hope you will enjoy this course.

 

Dr Sunil Savur

 

There are no prerequisite courses to be completed before this course can be undertaken.

There are no corequisite courses to be completed in conjunction with this course.

On completion of this course, students should be able to:

CO1. Identify and appraise concrete examples of issues involving ethics and values in a management context, from a range of functional areas in business and government

CO2. Critically compare theoretical approaches that assist thought about ethical issues

CO3. Describe and evaluate the activities which enterprises and individuals can use to increase their capacity for ethical action

CO4. Reflect on ethical issues and to formulate, explain and defend ethical decision and action

CO5. Demonstrate Business School Enterprise Skills in the context of the Management discipline: i) Self-Management (intermediate level); ii) Ethical Awareness (intermediate and advanced levels); iii) Teamwork (advanced level); iv) Written Communication (intermediate level); and v) International Perspective (intermediate level)

Upon completion of this course, students will have achieved the following combination of Graduate Qualities and Course Objectives:

A graduate of UniSA:

GQ1. operates effectively with and upon a body of knowledge of sufficient depth to begin professional practice

GQ2. is prepared for life-long learning in pursuit of personal development and excellence in professional practice

GQ3. is an effective problem solver, capable of applying logical, critical, and creative thinking to a range of problems

GQ4. can work both autonomously and collaboratively as a professional

GQ5. is committed to ethical action and social responsibility as a professional and citizen

GQ6. communicates effectively in professional practice and as a member of the community

GQ7. demonstrates international perspectives as a professional and as a citizen

Theories of business ethics; common ethical problems; prescriptive vs descriptive ethics; the psychology of ethical decision making; ethical problems of managers; managing for ethical conduct; ethical problems of organisations; organisational ethical issues in a global business environment.

4.5 units

You will need continual access to the following text(s) to complete this course. Where possible the Library will make the book available for student use. Please check the Library catalogue before purchasing the book(s). The Library will always seek to purchase resources that allow an unlimited number of concurrent users, however availability is dependent on license arrangements with book publishers and platforms. http://www.library.unisa.edu.au

Trevino, LK & Nelson KA (2011). Managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right (5th edn). John Wiley & Sons.

NOTE:

 

It is recommended that you gain access the book mentioned above. The book serves as a general reference work for the course.

All course related materials can be accessed through your learnonline course site which you will be able to access from the my Courses section in myUniSA.

All study related materials can be accessed through: https://my.unisa.edu.au

Details of assessment submission and return are listed under each assessment task. Assessment tasks will be returned to you within two to three weeks of submission.

If the Course Coordinator allows submissions in hard copy format, you will be required to attach an Assignment Cover Sheet which is available on the learnonline student help (https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=1843&chapterid=567) and in myUniSA.

The feedback proforma is available on your course site.

Critical reflection is a crucial part of the ethical skillset. Students will keep a reflective journal throughout the course to determine their key takeaways from every session.

 

Each submission should contain your reflections on three topics, as shown above word count for each reflection around 1300 words. So, word count for each topic would be around 430 words.

 

Reflections should include:

1. Your key take-away from each topic
2. Importance of each topic
3. Application of concepts to your current or future work

Use concepts from topics and provide real-life examples to support your discussions and arguments.

Due dates for each Reflection are mentioned above.

In-text referencing and a reference list should be included wherever required. Use the Harvard-UniSA style of referencing.

 

Please note that only Word documents will be acceptable. PDF format will not be acceptable.

The case study exercise is a graded group exercise.

 

Students will form teams on March 5, 2019 (Week-1) in class. Each team will need to identify an International/global organisation that would be used to apply the Responsible Character matrix to determine the CSR Orientation of your chosen organisation.

 

The Responsible Character matrix is available in the Topic-3 section in the Learnonline site, and will be discussed in class in Week-3 (on 19 March 2019).

 

The process for doing this assignment is as follows:

• Within your team, select a company of your choice - it has to be an international/global company engaged in CSR activities.
• Investigate their CSR reports, mission statements, contribution to society etc.
• Use the "Questionnaire for Character Analysis" to analyse the CSR/CR characteristics of your chosen company.
• From the outcome of your analysis, determine the CSR orientation of the company - Idealist, Traditional Economist, Opportunity Seeker, or Integrator (or even a combination).   
• Justify the selection of the CSR orientation using the data from the Questionnaire.
• Discuss the outcomes and write your suggestions/recommendations.   
• You can conduct further research on CSR theories to support your discussions and arguments.
• Also read Pless, Maak & Waldman 2012, Different approaches toward doing the right thing, Academy of Management Perspectives (available in Topic-3 tab).
• References are required wherever necessary.   

 

This assignment has two parts:

 

The first part of group work will occur in class and will consist of a brief analysis of the case and a 10 minute presentation in the class. This activity will take place on May 7, 2019 (Week-8) and May 14, 2019 (Week-9). This activity has 25% weightage.

 

For the second part, the teams will produce a report of the case (approx. 5-6 pages or a max. of 2500 words) and elaborate on their findings, building on the analysis and readings. The group paper is to be uploaded online by June 2, 2019 11 pm. This activity has 75% weightage.

 

The report should consist of:

• introduction (250 words)
• case analysis, outcomes, recommendations (total 2000 words)
• conclusion (250 words)
• reference list (not included in word count)

references should be as per the Harvard-UniSA style of referencing.

 

Please note that only Word documents will be acceptable. PDF format will not be acceptable.

See above under Assessment details.

This course does not have an exam.

Variation to exam arrangements does not apply to this course.

Supplementary assessment or examination offers students an opportunity to gain a supplementary pass (SP) and is available to all students under the following conditions unless supplementary assessment or examination has not been approved for the course:

1. if the student has achieved a final grade between 45-49 per cent (F1) in a course
2. if a student who has successfully completed all of the courses within their program, with the exception of two courses in which they were enrolled in their final study period, a supplementary assessment or examination may be granted where the final grade in either or both of these courses, is less than 45 percent (F1 or F2) and all assessments in the courses were attempted by the student. Supplementary assessment will not be available for a course under investigation for academic integrity until the investigation is completed, and determined that it did not constitute academic misconduct.

More information about supplementary assessment is available in section 7.5 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual.
http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/

All students must adhere to the University of South Australia's policies about assessment:
http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/.

There are no additional assessment requirements identified for this course.

Students with disabilities or medical conditions or students who are carers of a person with a disability may be entitled to a variation or modification to standard assessment arrangements.  See Section 7 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual (APPM) at:  http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/

 

Students who require variations or modifications to standard assessment arrangements should make contact with their Course Coordinator as early as possible in order to ensure that appropriate supports can be implemented or arranged in a timely manner.

 

Students can register for an Access Plan with UniSA Access & Inclusion Service. It is important to make contact early to ensure that appropriate support can be implemented or arranged in a timely manner. See the Disability Hub for more information:  http://www.unisa.edu.au/Disability/Current-students

Students are advised there is a deadline to finalise Access Plan arrangements for examinations. Further information is available at:  http://i.unisa.edu.au/campus-central/Exams_R/Before-the-Exam/Alternative-exam-arrangements/

Deferred assessment or examination is available for the course.

Special consideration is not available for this course. APPM 7.7.4

Variation to assessment methods, tasks and timelines may be provided in:

Unexpected or exceptional circumstances, for example bereavement, unexpected illness (details of unexpected or exceptional circumstances for which variation may be considered are discussed in clauses 7.8 - 7.10 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual). Variation to assessment in unexpected or exceptional circumstances should be discussed with your course coordinator as soon as possible.

Special circumstances, for example religious observance grounds, or community services (details of special circumstances for which variation can be considered are discussed in clause 7.11 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual). Variations to assessment in expected circumstances must be requested within the first two weeks of the course (or equivalent for accelerated or intensive teaching).

 

Students with disabilities or medical conditions please refer to Students with disabilities or medical conditions.

Academic integrity is the foundation of university life and is fundamental to the reputation of UniSA and its staff and students. Academic integrity means a commitment by all staff and students to act with honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, respect and responsibility in all academic work.

An important part of practising integrity in academic work is showing respect for other people's ideas, and being honest about how they have contributed to your work. This means taking care not to represent the work of others as your own. Using another person's work without proper acknowledgement is considered Academic Misconduct, and the University takes this very seriously.

The University of South Australia expects students to demonstrate the highest standards of academic integrity so that its degrees are earned honestly and are trusted and valued by its students and their employers. To ensure this happens, the University has policies and procedures in place to promote academic integrity and manage academic misconduct. For example, work submitted electronically by students for assessment will be examined for copied and un-referenced text using the text comparison software Turnitin http://www.turnitin.com.

More information about academic integrity and what constitutes academic misconduct can be found in Section 9 of the Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual (APPM): http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/. The Academic Integrity Module explains in more detail how students can work with integrity at the University: https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252142

 

Program Learning Outcome Evaluated (non–graded):

 

As part of the Business School’s Assurance of Learning process in Programs, the following Program Learning Outcome(s) (PLO) will be evaluated in this course and the overall findings will inform continuous improvements within Programs. Performance on the PLOs will not form part of any course grade and no feedback on individual performance will be provided.

 

 

MMgt/ iMBA PLO3 – Work Alone and in Teams & Ethical Actions: Demonstrate a high level of personal autonomy and the ability to work in teams, applying judgement in an ethically and socially responsible manner, and to contribute to leadership in projects and organisations.

 

MMgt/ iMBA PLO5 - International Perspective: Demonstrate the ability to analyse and evaluate the impact of global cultural, legal, business and other environmental factors on *business in organisations, and responsibilities of a globally responsible citizenry.

Nil

The information below show the suggested alterations/considerations for assessment items and exam dependent on the duration of the unplanned  outage

 

less than 1 hour outage. No impact on either assessment or examination

 

1 to 4 hour outage.     Assessment  - Consider an extension. Examination - No impact.

 

4 to 24 hour outage.     Assessment - 24 hour extension. Examination - Be mindful of outage when marking

 

Over 24 hour outage.   Assessment - 48 hour extension. Examination- Be mindful of outage when marking