Business ethics, 7.5 credits

Organisationsetik, 7.5 hp

7FIEI13

Course level

Third-cycle Education

Description

Welcome to Business Ethics for research students 7,5 hp, VT24 7FIEI13

This course will introduce the theoretical foundation for existing ethical conduct in organizational and business settings; explore various aspects of ethical issues and dilemmas that individuals and management are facing; provide the theoretical lens for critically analyzing ethical issues (both visible and invisible ones); moreover, the course will introduce new streams of thoughts and alternative theoretical frames that my challenge, supplement or contest the current normative theoretical foundation for business ethics.

We offer mini lectures and seminars around the following themes:

1. Normative ethics theories.

  1. Virtue ethics
  2. Utilitarianism
  3. Deontology
  4. Feminist ethics
  5. Discourse ethics

2\. The issue of multiple-stakeholders and the flaws in current CSR models and Business Ethics practices.
3\. The ethical individuals: from the cognition theory to a relational view

4. To understand why Business Ethics fail and the possible remedies:

  1. Normative practices in Business Ethics Management
  2. A critical perspective of currently used interventions
  3. A proposal of incorporating theories of care ethic

After completion of the course, you should be able to:
\-account for and discuss key ethical theories critically with a historical and global perspective
\-problematize and assess organizations’ ethical tools
\-problematize and assess organizations’ engagement with social responsibilities
\-problematize and assess the consequences of unethical organizational behaviour on people, other organizations and society
\-reflect upon the individual’s responsibility and the possibility to act as an ethical organizational member
\-apply new theoretical approaches in the research of ethical dilemmas in organizational and business contexts.

Course director: Dr Janet Johansson, Department of Management and Engineering, janet.johansson@liu.se

Contact

Entry requirements

Admitted to graduate studies. To acquire the course content, the students must have an understanding of organizations, organizing and decision.

The course is intended for postgraduate students within business administration (who are given preference in case the course is full). The course is also suitable for postgraduate students within other subjects in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Faculty of Science and Engineering, in which ethical issues in organizational contexts are topical.

Specific information

This is only a translation. In the event of differences, what is decided in the Swedish syllabus always applies

The course aim is to introduce the students to the field of business ethics and deepen the students’ knowledge within various subfields of business ethics for them to be able to identify, analyze and suggest solutions to ethical dilemmas.

Learning outcomes

After completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • account for and demonstrate understanding of key theories’ significance for individuals’ ethical decision-making in an organizational context
  • account for and demonstrate understanding of the historical development of responsibility and what responsibility means in an organizational context
  • account for and demonstrate understanding of how organizations use different ethical tools
  • account for and demonstrate understanding of how organizations manage and relate to various stakeholders’ demands and needs

After completion of the course, the student should be able to:
  • demonstrate ability to identify ethical problems and issues in an organizational context
  • demonstrate ability to describe and use central ethical theories to understand and explain ethical problems

    After completion of the course, the student should be able to:
  • critically analyze and value ethical problems and theories in an organizational context
  • argue for how the students’ dissertation project can be related to ethical issues and theoretical frameworks

Contents

The course deals with different sub-fields: normative theories, individual decision-making, organizations’ management of various stakeholders, organizations’ use of ethical tools. The student prepares different assignments and reads literature within every sub-field intensively. The assignments are discussed in seminars. The course ends with an individual assignment.

Educational methods

Teaching consists of seminars where assignments are presented and discussed. The assignments are connected to literature studies and should be based on empirical observations.

The course is given in Swedish or English depending on the participants’ language skills.

Examination

The learning outcomes are examined through individual preparations before and active participation at the seminars and through an individual written assignment.

Grading

Two-grade scale

Course literature

Available at course start.

General information

The course is carried out and aims to utilise all resources that students with various background, life situations and competence bring with them.

The literature list and schedule are determined in a separate order.

Course evaluation must be done by the course coordinator after each course. The results of the course evaluation must be communicated to the participants and the postgraduate education council at IEI.