Business Ethics

Course Description
This course aims to provide students with solid skills to know and deal with the essentials of ethics in a business environment. They are enabled to analyze business, social and environmental issues that are relevant to the development of Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainable business practices. The course focuses on the CSR practices of multinational Corporations (MNCs), the challenges and opportunities of acting responsibly in the arena often called “the global village”. It also assesses the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in acting responsibly in a highly competitive environment.
A main goal of the course is to make students aware of what influences individual and organizational decision making and to accept that however strong the external pressure might be individuals are still responsible for their decisions and its consequences. This includes a look at technology development and the role of media.The course provides a comprehensive introduction to ethical considerations in business. Students are enabled to develop a deeper understanding of how to act responsibly towards all business stakeholders while, at the same time, not neglecting the firm’s profitability. The course will discuss models of how CSR can create a sustainable ROI for companies. Students are encouraged to gain awareness of the interconnectedness of organizations and nations in a globalized world and how their actions as managers will affect different stakeholders, nations and the world as a whole.

Course Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
–Show familiarity with current ethical questions, economic, social and environmental policy frameworks in which CSR takes place;
–Demonstrate mastery of CSR theory and practice in Europe from corporate codes of conduct torelated EU policies, frameworks and discussions;
–Appreciate and articulate complex issues in corporate governance under local and global settings;
–Show familiarity with critical issues of CG and CSR, including corporate ownership structures, transparency, board practices, CSR strategy formulation and implementation, and their impact on different stakeholders;
–Know how to integrate management control issues with corporate governance as a firm-specific objective to achieve superior company performance and greater accountability;
–Analyze, communicate and provide recommendations on business cases.