BADM 261-01, Business Ethics, Fall 2005

Abstract

This is neither a comprehensive course in ethical philosophy nor is it a course in which I will pretend to be able to confer on students a previously undiscovered ability to tell right from wrong. Instead, this course is designed to give you the opportunity to think about applying your own moral code to a wide variety of business situations. This process will be enriched by allowing you to compare your opinions and arguments to those of other students and to those that have currency in society or in academic discussions drawn from philosophy, economics and other disciplines. While much of the emphasis in the classroom will be on learning through consideration of real or simulated examples (cases, role playing, presentations, and videos), I will also direct your attention to ethical philosophy. Among the more abstract questions we will examine are such issues as whether corporations (as opposed to individuals) can have moral responsibilities and whether there are moral limitations on the exercise of free enterprise. 2 During the semester I will make every effort to bring up some the most provocative issues that businesses and managers face in real life. These include, but are not limited to, issues related to: discrimination, product safety, worker safety, environmental impacts of business activity, strike behavior (including discussion of picket-lines and use of replacement workers), worker privacy, industrial espionage, bribery, animal rights, final use or abuse of products (e.g. armaments, drugs, pornography), insider trading, expense account padding, malingering, plant closures, and bankruptcy. I will show videos and movies extensively in order to help stimulate and direct class discussion. Given the nature of the issues addressed, it is unlikely that an ethical consensus is achievable on all, or perhaps even any, of the issues to be discussed. In some cases, students may not even agree that a given issue is one of ethics. In all cases, however, I will argue that being sensitive to the kinds of issues that have the potential to cause moral outrage will not only help you decide how to act morally in business situations, but will also help you to recognize the strategic threats and opportunities that ethical issues can represent for individuals and for companies.