BAET 20300: Introduction to Business Ethics

Fall 2013

BAET 20300: Introduction to Business Ethics

Course Objectives 1
Raise ethical awareness the course will introduce and explore the ethical dimensions of business. The objective is to enhance awareness of and sensitivity to the broad range of ethical issues in business.
Improve ethical knowledge the course will introduce key terms and concepts. The objective is to understand the major theoretical foundations of ethics, moral reasoning and decision making, and to enhance our capacity to engage in fruitful ethical dialogue and consideration. Improve ethical judgment the course will provide and improve skills of ethical decision making. The objective is to move beyond identifying and understanding ethical issues in business to orienting ourselves toward ethical decision making and action.
Do

Course Overview
Requirements

Grading
Assignments Quiz Attendance & Discussion Exam 35% 15% 15% 35% _____ 100%

PLEASE NOTE: In all correspondence to me, including emails and your reflection papers, be sure to include your course section number. Thank you. Slides for individual student use only.
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FINAL EXAM: All sections, Tuesday, November 5, MCOB Jordan Auditorium Sections 03, 04, 05, 08, 09: 7:00-8:00 PM Sections 10, 11, 12, 13: 8:15-9:15 PM Attendance with your section is required; due to space constraints, no time changes will be permitted.

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Class meeting dates once per week

Dates by section.

fill in your syllabus

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Course assignments

3 Assignments EVERYTHING IS COMPLETED ONLINE!

1) Ethical Lens Inventory (due by next class!) instructions on Sakai

2) Online case assignment (due Week 5) Assignments on Sakai 3) External lecture/reflection (see syllabus) Assignments on Sakai

Quiz: In class Week 7

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Getting started

Introductions: Name, major?, hometown, something you did this summer!

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Discussion Question
To whom do you look as a model of good decision making? Why?

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Are values universal?

Universally admired, valued character traits: VIRTUES

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Creating culture what is the role of a leader? How do we create culture? What does this tell us about corporate culture?

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On talent in organizations.

Session 1
The broader failing of McKinsey and its acolytes at Enron is their assumption that an organization's intelligence is simply a function of the intelligence of its employees. They believe in stars, because they don't believe in systems. In a way, that's understandable, because our lives are so obviously enriched by individual brilliance. Groups don't write great novels, and a committee didn't come up with the theory of relativity. But companies work by different rules. They don't just create; they execute and compete and coordinate the efforts of many different people, and the organizations that are most successful at that task are the ones where the system is the star. - Malcolm Gladwell

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US/Global Financial Crisis

Session 1

What are the ethical implications of how we got here? Where were going?

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Due next class

1) Read Why Study Ethics 2) Complete EthicsGame Ethical Lens Inventory
Access directions/link are posted on Sakai Hard copy printout of your ELI report due in class

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Week 2: Why Study Ethics? Todays Agenda Chapter 1: Why Study Ethics? Ethical Lens Inventory

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Desjardins: Chapter 1: Why Study Ethics?

Discussion Case: Bernie Madoff why does this case resonate? Why Study Business Ethics? Course objectives sensitivity, knowledge, judgment No longer why or should now which ethics and how Stakeholders Legal requirements Sarbanes-Oxley Legal risks, financial risks, marketing risks Competitive advantage/disadvantage Is ethics good for business? Trust, loyalty, initiative, creativity

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Values and Ethics: Doing Good and Doing Well

Key findings of Collins and Porras study

Values: those beliefs or standards that incline us to act or choose in one way rather than another. Is good ethics clearly connected to good business? Ethical Values: distinguished by the ends that they serve serve the ends of human well-being not personal/selfish ethical acts and choices should be acceptable and reasonable from all relevant points of view consider ELI! Thus: Ethical values are those beliefs and principles that seek to promote human well-being in an impartial way.
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Chapter 1 (cont.)

Session 2

Malden Mills example

Are strong ethical values good for business?

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Chapter 1 (cont.)

Session 2

The Nature and Goals of Business Ethics Business Ethics: those values, standards, and principles that operate within business; also, The academic discipline that not only studies those standards, values and principles, but seeks to articulate and defend those that ought or should operate in business describe, examine and evaluate ethical issues that arise within business settings Common goals, concepts, principles and frameworks of BE Theories and principles should translate into behavior Knowing versus doing Concerned with process of ethical reasoning principled reasoning

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Chapter 1 (cont.)
Business Ethics and the Law

Legal compliance versus ethical responsibility

We cant always rely on the law to decide what is right or wrong ignores role of managerial discretion Whether we examine ethical questions explicitly or not, they are answered by each of us every day in the course of living our lives it is our choice whether we answer them deliberately or unconsciously
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Chapter 1 (cont.)
Ethics and Ethos

Ethics derived from Greek ethos Philosophical ethics does not accept this conformity and obedience are not the best guides to how we should live. Reason as the foundation of ethics a reasoned analysis of custom and a reasoned defense of how we should live Difference between what is valued and what ought to be valued How ought we to live?

Questions of individual morality and social ethics and public policy

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Session 2 Chapter 1 (cont.)

Ethical Perspectives: Managers and other Stakeholders Perspective-taking a variety of perspectives can be taken when examining ethical issues in business ethical lenses matter Questions of management are key Perspective/point of view matters Context matters social, legal

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Chapter 1 (cont.)

A Model for Ethical Decision-Making (more later)

1) Understand the facts, identify the ethical issues involved 2) Identify the stakeholders and how they will be affected 3) Explore alternatives 4) Consider the consequences

5) Make a principled decision

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Ethical Lens Inventory

Business ethics can be understood in a broad sense to cover the whole domain of life. Understood in this way, business ethics deals with the individual decision-making of economic actors (such as managers and employees), the shaping and conduct of

economic organizations, business-related public policies,

economic systems and global economic and financial institutions. G. Enderle

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GOAL OF ETHICAL MATURITY

Raise ethical awareness Make good decisions Change behavior Notice the positive impact

EthicsGame All Rights Reserved

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VALUES IN TENSION
RATIONALITY
(reason/head)

AUTONOMY

EQUALITY

SENSIBILITY
(intuition/heart)
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EthicsGame All Rights Reserved

BECOME AN ETHICS ADVOCATE

Live from your core values and encourage others to do the same. One person can change a culture!

Are the RIGHTS of constituents being respected?

EthicsGame All Rights Reserved

Do the RESULTS focus on excellence?

Are RELATIONSHIPS fair and just? Is your REPUTATION stellar?
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ELI Spring 2013 BAET 20300 SAMPLE RESULTS

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QUESTIONS? MORE LATER KEEP YOUR REPORT!

RATIONALITY
(reason/head)

AUTONOMY

EQUALITY

SENSIBILITY
(intuition/heart)
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EthicsGame All Rights Reserved

For next class..

Read DesJardins: Ethical Theory & Business (in textbook)

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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

AIG Bonuses and Executive Salary Caps

Executive compensation how are they paid?

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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Ethical theories systematic answers to the fundamental question of how human beings should live their lives. Based on reason and principles.

Major Approaches
Utilitarian Rights-based/Kantian Virtue

But first
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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Ethical Relativism and Reasoning in Ethics Ethical relativism Presents a challenge to ethics Particularly important as we consider international business different cultures and standards For our purposes important to learn from ethical relativism, agree on importance of tolerance BUT agree that our own opinions are not adequate

Though there is a variety of cultural beliefs, customs, values and practices, there is a wide agreement about many values as well
Respect, tolerance, impartiality relativism
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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Utilitarian ethics

Especially influential in business, public policy, politics, economics

Determine the ethical significance of any action by looking to the consequences of that act the greatest good Consequentialist ethics

Expert and market conceptions of utilitarian ethics

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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Challenges to the Utilitarian Perspective

Must find a defensible way to measure happiness Committed to considering all consequences to all affected parties Different versions of what is good for mankind Balance between individual freedom and the overall good Sacrificing the good of individuals for the overall good of mankind The essence of utilitarianism: the end justifies the means May violate the principles of justice, equality and respect Attempts to calculate/quantify the unquantifiable what of duty? Commitments? Love?
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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Rights-Based and Kantian Ethics
Some things we should and should not do regardless of consequences Individuals have rights that should not be sacrificed just for a means to an end the common good We should act only in way that our intentions for the act could be made a universal law; i.e. telling the truth is a universal ethical law the categorical imperative

Act only in those ways in which the maxim (intention) of our acts could be made universal law
Ethics requires us to treat all people as ends and never only as means We are required to treat people as subjects, not as objects Rights and duties
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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Child labor example Wants versus interests. Sugar cereal example. Wants and interests can coincide, but are they the same thing? Rights offer protection of certain central human interests.. Those interests are connected to human well-being in an impartial way.

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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Virtue Ethics
Seeks a full and detailed description of those character traits (virtues) that would constitute a good and full human life
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle

Our motivations (interests, wants, desires) are rooted in character human beings act in and from character - character plays a deciding role in our behavior Thus how these traits of character are formed and illustrated is the focus of virtue ethics parents, schools, social institutions, business - role modeling What type of person are we to be? Look at actual practices found in businesses and ask what type of people are created by them

What type of person would you become when working for this type of Slides for individual student use only. Do business?
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Tom Mendoza Best Company to Work for

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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Ford Pinto J & J Tylenol What happened? Which ethical perspectives were reflected in the companies decision making?
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Chapter 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Reflections on the chapter discussion case What is our response?

DUE NEXT CLASS! 1) Read Audi Chapter excerpt (on Sakai)

Come prepared to discuss this required reading which you will use for upcoming homework assignment (due Week 5)

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