INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT SAMBALPUR

Post Graduate Programme in Management

AY 2015-16
TERM: II
TITLE OF THE COURSE: ETHICS AND CSR (WORKSHOP)
CREDITS: 2 Credits
Name of the Faculty Member

Email ID

Contact Number

Prof. Biswanath Swain

biswanath@iimidr.ac.in

9589329844

COURSE DESCRIPTION
In todays rapidly changing milieu, society increasingly demands ethical and social responsibility.
The business ethics course is designed to provide an ethical dimension to the conduct of commerce.
It not only highlights at what is, but also what can be and what ought to be. The course intends to
help participants to think more deeply about the ethical choices they make and will have to make in
their business and professional lives.
COURSE OBJECTIVES

To make participants aware of ethical issues and their place in business

To apply different frameworks to ethical issues that arise in business activity
To develop critical thinking for decision making

PEDAGOGY/TEACHING METHOD:
The course is structured to be a combination of lectures, discussions, classroom activities, and
projection of some video clips.
EVALUATION
Quiz (Individual)
Poor, Satisfactory, Good, Excellent
Report Submission and Presentation (Group)
Poor, Satisfactory, Good, Excellent
Report Submission and Presentation (Individual) Poor, Satisfactory, Good, Excellent

Expected Learning Outcomes and Associated Measures

At the end of the course student is expected to accomplish the following learning outcomes (CLO).
Alignment of CLO with the Programme Level Goals & Objectives and Assessment of the learning
outcomes of the course is presented below.
Course Learning Outcome

Program Level Goals/ Outcome

1. Will be able to appreciate

differences between ethical
and non-ethical dilemmas

Assessment
Tool(s)
Quiz

PLG 8: Prepare business leaders of integrity with

a sound understanding of ethics
8.1Identifies and differentiates ethical issues
from unethical ones pertaining to a business
2. Will be able to apply ethical 8.2 Analyse the given perspective in the light of Report
ethical principles
approaches to solve
submission
workplace dilemmas
and
presentation
3. Will be able to appreciate
8.4 Demonstrates understanding of the current Report
issues of leadership behavior
the moral corporation
submission
PLG 4: Inculcate Integrative Thinking ability
through CSR initiatives
and
4.3 Adopts or develops own perspective or
presentation
position
4.6 Devises necessary strategies or tactics as
part of action plan to address the problem
SCHEDULE OF SESSIONS
Module I:

Introduction to Business Ethics

Module Objective:

To appreciate the relevance of ethics in business today

SESSIONS AND OBJECTIVES

Session 1: Why Business Ethics?
Objective: To comprehend the nature of business ethics and to analyze why there is a requirement
of ethics in Business.
Reading:

Badaracco, J.L Jr., Right versus Right: When Managers Are Faced with Tough Ethical
Choices, HBR 1997, Product no. 3052BC

Gellerman, Saul W., Why Good Managers Make Bad Ethical Choices, HBR July 1986.
Activity: Ethics Compliance Test (Quiz)
Session 2: Contemporary Issues in Business
Objective: To familiarize with relevant concepts in Ethics. Some of the concepts to be introduced in
this session include ethical fading, motivated blindness, indirect blindness, slippery slope, Dan
Arielys concepts like the ego motivation and financial motivation and the fuzz factor. In addition to

that there would be a discussion on various contemporary issues in Business and their ethical
solution.
Reading: Bazerman, H. Max and Tenbrunsel, Ann E., Ethical Breakdowns, HBR April 2011
Activity 2: Test to be conducted by taking one or two issues happened/happening in an
organization or organizations and to identify the ethical issue in the same.
Module II: Ethical Decision Making
Module Objective:

To hone the ethical decision making skills

SESSIONS AND OBJECTIVES

Session 3: Ethical Approaches
Objective: To know, analyze, and appreciate the developed/given ethical frameworks. Alternatively
we can say: To introduce students to the basic premises of some of the well-established ethical
frameworks like teleology, deontology, virtue ethics
Reading: Kvalnes, Oyvind and Overenger, Einar., Ethical Navigation in Leadership Training,
EtikkPraksis: Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, 2012, 6(1), pp. 58 71
Case: Approaches to Ethics: The Study of Ethics, 1984, Darden Business Publishing, University of
Virginia, UVA-E-0020
Activity: Choose film/literature/incident to present, in session 4, through one framework
Session 4: Application of Ethical Approaches
Objective: To apply ethical approaches in resolving workplace dilemmas
Activity: Presentation of the write ups submitted by participants
Module III: Corporate Governance and Accountability
Module Objective:

To critically examine and discuss various facets of corporate governance

SESSIONS AND OBJECTIVES

Session 5: Corporate Governance
Objective: To enable grappling with the questions like in whose interest the corporate should be
run and what group/groups ought to have ultimate decision power?
Activity: Group Discussion
Module

IV:

Module Objective:

Corporate Social Responsibility

To analyze and appreciate the ethical issues in Corporate Social Responsibility

SESSIONS AND OBJECTIVES

Session 6: Introducing Corporate Responsibility; The origins of Corporate Responsibility
Objective: To create an awareness of corporate responsibility which is one of the contested issues
in business arena
Reading: Blowfield, Michael and Murray, Alan. Corporate Social Responsibility. Oxford University
Press, 2011, chapter 1 & 2.
Documentary: The Corporation
Session 7: Corporations, Morality, and Corporate Social Responsibility; Concept of the Corporation:
Shareholder vs. Stakeholder; Corporate Codes.
Objective: To assess the interwoven relationship between corporations, morality, and Corporate
Social Responsibility
Reading: DeGeorge, Richard T., Business Ethics, Pearson Publication, 2011, chapter 10.
Session8: Various Models of Corporate Social Responsibility
Objective: To create awareness of various models of corporate social responsibility and Best
Practices of CSR
Reading:
Kleinrichert, Denise. Ethics, Power and Communities: Corporate Social Responsibility,
Journal of Business Ethics 78, pp. 475 485, 2007.
Albareda, Laura et al., The Changing role of Governments in Corporate Social Responsibility:
Drivers and Responses, Business Ethics: A European Review 17, no. 4, 2008
Ghosh, B N. Business Ethics and Corporate Governance, Tata McGraw Hill Education Private
Ltd., 2012, chapter 12.
Case: Corporate Social Responsibility at ONGC Ltd., IBS Centre for Management Research, Case
Code: BECG066, 2006.
Session 9: Corporate Social Responsibility in Private and Public Corporations
Objective: To assess the CSR initiatives in companies whether these initiatives are well-worn or not.
To discuss and deliberate on the role of industry in solving public problems, especially in the
contextin the context of a developing society where the government is constrained by various
limitations infulfilling its role.
Reading: Porter, Michael E. and Kramer, Mark R. Creating Shared Value, HBR January-February,
2011.
Case: Rishikesha T Krishnana, The Pune Power Model, HBS, IIM B 441
Session 10: Revisit into Ethics, Ethical aspects of Corporate Governance, and Corporate Social
Responsibility

Objective: To gauge whether the participants have inculcated the ethical perspectives Corporate
Social Responsibility
Activity: Investigate the companys website and set out the main aspects of their corporate
responsibility, sustainability, or corporate citizenship programme. What are the benefits and
drawbacks of the corporation taking over these responsibilities? And critically examine the
sustainability of the programme/responsibilities that the company has taken.

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