ELAB BUSINESS ETHICS PGPCBM (2010-11A) (13 Aug, 2011 -
27 Nov, 2011) TERM-III DR.B.P.PATRA
XIM,Bhubaneswar OBJECTIVE OF THE COURSE:
The recent scandals of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, Rite Aid, Health South, Arthur Andersen, Earnest & Young, J.P Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Xerox, and Boeing Corporation, clearly illustrate the perilous consequences of corporate misconduct. The insatiable greed and lust for power not only ruined these organizations but also wounded the society at large. They have done irreparable damages to creditors, employees, competitors and the shareholders (particularly the small investors). The two major scams (Harshad Meheta and Ketan Parekh) in the Indian stock market and major brokerage houses like; Smith-Barney and Merrill-Lynch in USA betrayed small investors with inflated stock recommendations. This clearly gives an idea about the indifferent attitude of the stock brokers towards the small investors. The root cause of the entire crisis is ethical -break down (or moral failure) not market failure.
In order to prevent the risk associated with moral failure students need to develop a clear understanding of the ethical issues. The main aim of the course is to sensitize the students to different ethical issues entailed in contemporary business. This course will help them to identify and resolve the ethical problems. It will also motivate them to act ethically/rationally in business decision-making as well as other areas of life. Of course, the objective of the course is neither character building, nor providing any specific solution to wipe out unethical business behavior. Rather, the primary purpose of this course is to prepare the students to prevent unethical activities that affect business (both in macro and micro level). This course will also focus on the fact that acting ethically “pays.” Nonetheless, acting ethically and acting in the best interests of oneself and one’s company, far from being exclusive, are complementary. There is therefore, every reason to act ethically, and this course is devoted to explore the ethical truth in the professions through the use of critical and logical analysis. Conceptual clarity of some basic moral conduct concepts like; right, wrong, good, bad, just, unjust, obligation, responsibility, virtue, vice and lucid exposition of moral theories will provide them the support to take effective decision . Thus this course will work as a useful tool (i.e. by critical thinking and sound moral reasoning) and help the students to become efficient managers. As a result they will be enabled to:
· Take-up responsibility by using sound moral judgment.
· Walk the Talk by creating value (for stake holders), which are morally rich.
· Put together “doing right things” and “doing right things for business”.
· Encounter the environment of scandal and bad behavior with moral courage and not hide behind the old excuse of “the business of business is business”.
COURSE CONTENTS: Sessions: Session 1 General Introduction:
Ethics&Economics, Ethics & Management, Ethics & Business (Long Term vs. Short Term) Session 2&3 What is ethics? Ethical thinking:(i) Why be Moral?(ii) Nature of ethics, (iii) Fact and Value(iv)Ethical Subjectivism (v)Ethical Relativism,(i)Moral Development:(i)Kohlber’s 6 stages of moral development Ethics and Business:
(ii)Why be moral in business?
(iii)The myth of amoral business.
(iv) Morality and Law( Is law sufficient for conduct of business?)
Sessions- 4
Ethical Theories:(i)Utilitarianism (J.S.Mill),(ii)Deontology (ImmanuelKant),
(iii)Virtue Theory (Aristotle) Session -5 Theories of Economic Justice:
(i)Distributive Justice (John Rawls)
(ii) Libertarian Justice (Robert Nozick)
Session -6&7 Ethical Issues in Functional Areas of Business :
(i) Characteristics of Free and Perfect Competitive market, (ii) Pricing: Monopoly and Oligopoly
(iii) Fairness and Efficiency in Financial Market (Insider Trading and Green mail)
(iv) Whistle blowing PEDAGOGICAL METHODS:
The nature of the course is such that much of the learning comes form the students’ participation in the class discussion. Basically it is a critical thinking class. Better understanding of the course is possible through your thoughtful deliberations in the class. Cases: 1. Parable of the Sadhu, by Bowen H. McCoy, Harvard Business Review , Sept - Oct 1983. 2. Why Good Managers make Bad Ethical Choices, Three cases are given here to illustrate the point.(i)MANVILLE CORPORTAION,(ii)CONTINENTAL ILLINOIS BANK and(iii)E.F HUTTON.
by Saul W. Gellerman in Andrews Kenneth R.(ed) Ethics in Practice: Managing the moral corporation, Harvard Business School Press, 1989. pp - 18 - 26. More details on these cases will be provided to students from other sources.
3. Marketing Infant Formula in Less Developed Countries.
Source: Hoffman and Moore, Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality, McGraw Hill 1984. pp - 427-37
4. The Bhopal Tragedy
5. Toy Wars.
Sources: Case 4&5: Velasquez Manuel G. Business Ethics: Concepts; and Cases, Prentice Hall 1992, pp. 3 - 6, &pp. 433 - 437
6 Insider Trading: The HLL case
7. Asian Paints: The Ethical Dimension
8. Product Re-call: The virtuous Behavior of Maruti Udyoga.
9. Tata Tea Funding ULFA:An Ethical Analysis
Source:These four Cases are developed by students of XIMB and moderated by Dr.B.P.Patra.The main sources of information were News Paper Articles and Business periodicals.
10. The Case of the Willful Whistle Blower
11. Burroughs Welcome and the pricing of AZT
Source:Boatright John R.(ed.)Cases in Ethics And conduct of Business,Prentice Hall,1995.pp227-236.
12. Beach-Nut and No-Apple-Juice Apple Juice.
Source:MarianneM.JenningsCaseStudies in BusinessEthics,West Publishing House,NewYork,1993p79.
13. Prisoner's dilemma.
14. Parable of Leadership(source:HBR,July-August,1992)
15. Waste Management Corporation
16. Arthur Andersen
17. Tyco
18. World Com.
19. Enron (Source: Monks and Minow, Corporate Governance, 3rd Edn., 2004, Blackwell Publishing
Text Book John R Boatright and Bibhu Prasan Patra (6th edition) Pearson Education,New Delhi, 2011.
*Additional reading materials and class notes will be provided to students through AIS.
REFERENCE BOOKS
Velasquez, Manuel G. Business Ethics; Concepts and Cases, (6th edition) Prentice Hall of India, 2006.
Buchholz Rogene, A. Fundamental Concepts and problems in Business Ethics, Prentice Hall,
Eaglewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1989.
Donaldson, Thomson & Werhane Patrica, H.,Ethical Issues in Business : A philosophical Approach, (Fourth Edition) Prentice Hall Englewood Cliff, New Jersey, 1993
George Richard T.De.Business ethics, (Third Edition) MacMillan Publishing Company New
York, 1990.
Frankena William K., Ethics, (Second Edition) Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 1973.
Sen., A. Ethics and Economics, Oxford University press, 1987.
Shaw William H. Business Ethics (4th edition), Thomson /Wordsworth,2002
Evaluation Criteria
Quizzes: 20%(Two Quizzes)
Quizzes will be of objective type and will be based on lecture notes and class discussion. End Term Examination: 30%
The End -Term examination will involve both objective and subjective type questions.
Attendance is compulsory.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:
QUIZ- I: Date : Full Marks :20(weightage 10%) Number of Questions:40 MCQs Duration :30 minutes Evaluation: There is Negative Marking( for 8 wrong answer (0.125 x 4) 1 mark will be deducted Portion: Ethics and Economics Ethics and Management Fact and Value Moral and Non Moral Value Judgements Descriptive ethics, Normative ethics and Meta-ethics Ethics and Morality Morality and Law Subjectivism and objectivism Cultural Relativism,and Ethical Relativism Moral Development Surving vs. Thrivng (The EAgle's Secrate) There will not be any make-up examination for those who miss the Quiz-1 Quiz-II Date: Full Marks :20(weightage10%) Questions: MCQs Duration :30 minutes Evaluation: There is Negative Marking( for a wrong answer 0.25 mark will be deducted) There will not be any make-up examination for those who miss the quiz.
Portion:
Ethical Theories:Teleology, Deontology and Virtue Theory
Characteristics of Free and Perfect Competitive marke,
Monopoly and Oligopoly ,Insidertrading, Green Mailing
Truth in Advertising End -Term:[Case Based] Whistle -blowing(morally justifiable criteria), Morality and Law Ethical Theories:Teleology, Deontology and Virtue Theory Read the case "Parable of Sadhu" carefully -from the spiral binding book
