Stanwick, P. A., & Stanwick, S. D. (2014). Understanding business ethics (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Transcription

1 MBA 6301, Business Ethics Course Syllabus Course Description Explores the role of individual, business, and government activities related to ethically responsible commerce and socially beneficial business activity. Course Textbook Stanwick, P. A., & Stanwick, S. D. (2014). Understanding business ethics (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Course Learning Outcomes Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: 1. Analyze the concepts of business ethics from a personal and an organizational perspective. 2. Assess the ethical issues facing business leaders. 3. Evaluate and distinguish between the concepts of social responsibility, integrity, and business ethics. 4. Explain the framework required to make ethical decisions in today's business environment and how it improves the business climate. 5. Summarize how moral philosophies, on a corporate and individual level, influence ethical decision-making in business. 6. Analyze the influence of corporate culture, including leadership, power, and motivation, on business ethics in the workplace. 7. Explain the pressures that influence ethical decision making in the organization. 8. Evaluate the need for ethical standards, codes of ethics and practices in business. 9. Assess the auditing process to assure ethical practices are being followed. 10. Analyze the role that culture plays in global business ethics. Credits Upon completion of this course, the students will earn three (3) hours of college credit. Course Structure 1. Unit Learning Outcomes: Each unit contains Learning Outcomes that specify the measurable skills and knowledge students should gain upon completion of the unit. 2. Unit Lesson: Each unit contains a Unit Lesson, which discusses unit material. 3. Reading Assignments: Each unit contains Reading Assignments from one or more chapters from the textbook. Chapter presentations are provided in each unit study guide as Supplemental Reading to aid students in their course of study. Suggested Further Readings are listed in each unit study guide. The readings themselves are not provided in the course, but students are encouraged to read the resources listed if the opportunity arises as they have valuable information that expands upon the lesson material. 4. Learning Activities (Non-Graded): These non-graded Learning Activities are provided in each unit to aid students in their course of study. 5. Key Terms: Key Terms are intended to guide students in their course of study. Students should pay particular attention to Key Terms as they represent important concepts within the unit material and reading. 6. Discussion Boards: Discussion Boards are a part of all CSU term courses. Information and specifications regarding these assignments are provided in the Academic Policies listed in the Course Menu bar. 7. Unit Assessments: This course contains two Unit Assessments, one to be completed at the end of Units I and VI. Assessments are composed of written response questions. MBA 6301, Business Ethics 1

2 8. Unit Assignments: Students are required to submit for grading Unit Assignments in Units II, III, IV, V, and VII. Specific information and instructions regarding these assignments are provided below. Grading rubrics are included with the Unit II, III, IV, V, and VII Assignments. Specific information about accessing these rubrics is provided below. 9. Final Exam: Students are to complete a Final Exam in Unit VIII. All Final Exams are proctored see below for additional information. You are permitted four (4) hours to complete this exam in the presence of your approved proctor. This is an open book exam. Only course textbooks and a calculator, if necessary, are allowed when taking proctored exams. The Final Exam is composed of written response questions. 10. Ask the Professor: This communication forum provides you with an opportunity to ask your professor general or course content related questions. 11. Student Break Room: This communication forum allows for casual conversation with your classmates. CSU Online Library There is a virtual library with resources, including both journals and ebooks, to support your program and your course at Columbia Southern University. eresources are accessible 24 hours a day/7 days a week from the CSU Online Library gateway page. To access the library, log into mycsu, and then click on CSU Online Library. Resources are organized in the library by title, but if you click on Research Guides, you will find eresources arranged by subject. The Library Reference service is available 7 days a week; you can reach CSU s virtual librarians by ing thevirtuallibrarian@columbiasouthern.edu. These professional librarians will be glad to help you develop your research plan or to assist you in any way in finding relevant, appropriate, and timely information. Librarian responses may occur within minutes or hours, but it will never take more than 24 hours for a librarian to send a response to the address you have provided. Replies to reference requests may include customized keyword search strategies, links to videos, research guides, screen captures, attachments, a phone call, live screen sharing, and meeting room appointments, as well as other forms of instruction. Unit Assignments Unit II Article Review For this assignment, choose an article from SAGE Journal Articles on by clicking the Student Resources tab then selecting Journal Articles on the left menu. You may choose any article from Chapters 1-3 so long as the article is at least five pages in length. The purpose of this assignment is for you to practice reviewing articles that contribute to the industry. The authors of these articles are researchers and professionals that have shared or experimented with ideas that demonstrate potential to improve the industry. As a professional in the industry, it is in your best interest to review the literature and trends. This provides you with the opportunity to read about what was successful and how they accomplished it. Plus, it allows you to analyze what was unsuccessful, how you can improve it, or at least avoid repeating the mistakes of others. These skills are vital when contributing to research papers and other scholarly writing. If you have not already, hopefully you ll contribute to the industry by publishing an article and sharing with your community of peers. As you read the articles, consider the following questions: Who were the stakeholders in the article? What was the firm s corporate reputation? How could the topic of this article apply to your personal or professional life? How could it apply to an organization you have observed? What conclusions can you draw about the ethical issues facing business leaders? Your first paragraph should briefly introduce and summarize the article while identifying the author s main points. Your Article Review should be at least 500 words in length, double spaced, 12pt New Times Roman font, with references and direct quotes in APA format. Title page, abstract, and running head are not required. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. MBA 6301, Business Ethics 2

3 Unit III Case Study Read Case Study 1, Bernie Madoff: How One Big Lie Can Destroy Thousands of Lives, on pages Summarize the overall viewpoint of the author, and discuss the major issues presented in the case. Review the Questions for Thought. Answer the four Questions for Thought using the business ethics principles from the textbook. Your summary of the author s viewpoint and your discussion of the major issues presented in the case must be in paragraph form. However, your responses to the four Questions for Thought can be answered either in paragraph form or as a numbered list. Ensure to include your summary of the author s viewpoint, your discussion of the ethical issues facing Bernie Madoff, and your responses to the questions. Deliverable length is a minimum of 500 words, double spaced, 12pt New Times Roman font. Title page, abstract, and running head are not required; however, if you paraphrase or quote words or ideas from your course textbook or other resources, you must cite your sources following the APA style citation guidelines. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit IV Outline The Code of Ethics and Evaluation Paper is a significant project for this course. To stay on track, this assignment asks you to create an outline. Please review the Course Project in Unit VII, titled Code of Ethics and Evaluation Paper. An outline is a great way to organize the ideas that you want to communicate within a paper, or any form of writing. Your unit IV Outline supports the Unit VII Code of Ethics and Evaluation Course Project. The Unit IV Outline is simply an outline to the full Code of Ethics paper you will submit in Unit VII. You are required to make sure your unit IV outline and your unit VII course project are in alignment. It would be in your best interest to make steady progress in every unit towards completing the Code of Ethics and Evaluation Paper. For your outline, include the following: 1. Identify the topic at least five main ideas. The topic main ideas of your paper is are important. Try to sum up the point of your paper in one sentence or phrase as the first main idea that is original and topic focused, well developed, and thought provoking. This will help your paper stay focused on the main point. 2. Read the instructions for the Unit VII Code of Ethics and Evaluation paper assignment, pay particular attention to the 10 points for the code of ethics and five points for the evaluation section that must be addressed. Identify the main categories for your outline. What main points will you cover? The introduction usually introduces all of your main points, should flow logically, and is effectively linked to the main topic. Then the rest of paper can be spent developing those points. 3. Create the first category. What is the first point you want to cover? If the paper centers on a complicated term, a definition is often a good place to start. For a paper about a particular theory, giving the general background on the theory can be a good place to begin. 4. Create subcategories. After you have the main point, create points under it that provide support for the main point. The number of subcategories that you use depends on the amount of information you are going to cover; there is no right or wrong number to use as long as each point is compelling or persuasive in support of the main category. Keep in mind there are 15 content areas to the course project. By convention, each category consists of a minimum of two entries. If your first category is Roman numeral I, your outline must also have a category labeled Roman numeral II; if you have a capital letter A under category I, you must also have a capital letter B. Whether you then go on to have capital letters C, D, E, is up to you, depending on the amount of material you are going to cover. You are required to have a minimum of two of each numbered or lettered categories. You are required to have a minimum of two of each numbered or lettered subcategories to support each main category. Example: I. First main category A. First subcategory B. Second subcategory II. Second main category MBA 6301, Business Ethics 3

4 A. First subcategory B. Second subcategory This assignment also allows you to work with your professor, who can offer guidance and direction to help you successfully complete the Code of Ethics and Evaluation Paper. The deliverable minimum length for this outline is 300 words, double spaced, 12pt New Times Roman font. Use your own words and prepare your outline in a word-processing application (i.e., Word). Submit it as one of the following file formats: DOC, DOCX, or PDF. The Columbia Southern University Writing Center has a short presentation covering outlines that may help you in completing this assignment. Log on to mycsu Student Portal, then select Learning Resources from the banner menu. Next, select Writing Guide and scroll down to find the link to the Creating an Outline presentation. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit V Case Study Read Case Study 8, Google: Don t Be Evil Unless on pages Summarize the overall viewpoint of the author, and discuss the major issues presented in the case. Review the Questions for Thought. Answer the four Questions for Thought using the business ethics principles from the textbook. Your summary of the author s viewpoint and your discussion of the major issues presented in the case must be in paragraph form. However, your responses to the four Questions for Thought can be answered either in paragraph form or as a numbered list. Ensure to include your summary of the author s viewpoint, your discussion of the ethical issues facing Google, and your responses to the questions. Deliverable length is a minimum of 500 words, double spaced, 12pt New Times Roman font. Title page, abstract, and running head are not required; however, if you paraphrase or quote words or ideas from your course textbook or other resources, you must cite your sources following the APA style citation guidelines. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. Unit VII Course Project Code of Ethics and Evaluation Paper Your task is to create an original Code of Ethics and Evaluation Paper for your company or organization. You may also choose to create a Code of Ethics for a fictitious company or organization if you prefer not to use your employer. Codes of conduct for military do not qualify for this assignment. In your company Code of Ethics, please include the following: guiding principles, purpose of the code, core values, training and education, definitions, what employees it covers, how it will be implemented/communicated, how it will be enforced and reported, mission statement, and other pertinent elements you feel necessary to have a comprehensive Code of Ethics. The Evaluation part is to include the following: stakeholders, strategic ethical formulation, strategic ethical implementation, ethical monitoring mechanisms, and ethical performance. Please include a short introduction and background of the company/organization and a summary of the Code of Ethics and Evaluation in the paper. This assignment must be at least 2000 words in length, double spaced, and 12pt New Times MBA 6301, Business Ethics 4

5 Roman font. The title page and reference pages are not included in the required paper length. CSU requires that students use the APA format in writing course papers. Therefore, the APA rules for formatting, quoting, paraphrasing, citing, and listing of sources are to be followed. Your paper should contain at least five references in addition to the textbook and may include Internet sources, books, and professional journals or other pertinent resources. Do not copy or plagiarize others materials. Use references less than four years old. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below. APA Guidelines The application of the APA writing style shall be practical, functional, and appropriate to each academic level, with the primary purpose being the documentation (citation) of sources. CSU requires that students use APA style for certain papers and projects. Students should always carefully read and follow assignment directions and review the associated grading rubric when available. Students can find CSU s Citation Guide in the mycsu Student Portal by clicking on the Citation Resources link in the Learning Resources area. This document includes examples and sample papers and provides information on how to contact the CSU Success Center. Grading Rubrics This course utilizes analytic grading rubrics as tools for your professor in assigning grades for all learning activities. Each rubric serves as a guide that communicates the expectations of the learning activity and describes the criteria for each level of achievement. In addition, a rubric is a reference tool that lists evaluation criteria and can help you organize your efforts to meet the requirements of that learning activity. It is imperative for you to familiarize yourself with these rubrics because these are the primary tools your professor uses for assessing learning activities. Rubric categories include: (1) Discussion Board, (2) Assessment (Written Response), and (3) Assignment. However, it is possible that not all of the listed rubric types will be used in a single course (e.g., some courses may not have Assessments). The Discussion Board rubric can be found within Unit I s Discussion Board submission instructions. The Assessment (Written Response) rubric can be found embedded in a link within the directions for each Unit Assessment. However, these rubrics will only be used when written-response questions appear within the Assessment. Each Assignment type (e.g., article critique, case study, research paper) will have its own rubric. The Assignment rubrics are built into Blackboard, allowing students to review them prior to beginning the Assignment and again once the Assignment has been scored. This rubric can be accessed via the Assignment link located within the unit where it is to be submitted. Students may also access the rubric through the course menu by selecting Tools and then My Grades. Again, it is vitally important for you to become familiar with these rubrics because their application to your Discussion Boards, Assessments, and Assignments is the method by which your instructor assigns all grades. Final Examination Guidelines Final Exams are to be administered to students by an approved Proctor. CSU approves two, flexible proctoring options: a standard Proctor, who is chosen by the student and approved by the university, or Remote Proctor Now (RP Now), an ondemand, third-party testing service that proctors examinations for a small fee. Students choosing RP Now must have an operational webcam/video with audio, a high-speed Internet connection, and the appropriate system rights required to download and install software. To review the complete Examination Proctor Policy, including a list of acceptable Proctors, Proctor responsibilities, Proctor approval procedures, and the Proctor Agreement Form, go to the mycsu Student Portal from the link below. You are permitted four (4) hours to complete this exam, in the presence of your approved Proctor. This is an open book exam. Only course textbooks, writing utensil, and a calculator, if necessary, are allowed when taking proctored exams. MBA 6301, Business Ethics 5

6 Communication Forums These are non-graded discussion forums that allow you to communicate with your professor and other students. Participation in these discussion forums is encouraged, but not required. You can access these forums with the buttons in the Course Menu. Instructions for subscribing/unsubscribing to these forums are provided below. Click here for instructions on how to subscribe/unsubscribe and post to the Communication Forums. Ask the Professor This communication forum provides you with an opportunity to ask your professor general or course content questions. Questions may focus on Blackboard locations of online course components, textbook or course content elaboration, additional guidance on assessment requirements, or general advice from other students. Questions that are specific in nature, such as inquiries regarding assessment/assignment grades or personal accommodation requests, are NOT to be posted on this forum. If you have questions, comments, or concerns of a nonpublic nature, please feel free to your professor. Responses to your post will be addressed or ed by the professor within 48 hours. Before posting, please ensure that you have read all relevant course documentation, including the syllabus, assessment/assignment instructions, faculty feedback, and other important information. Student Break Room This communication forum allows for casual conversation with your classmates. Communication on this forum should always maintain a standard of appropriateness and respect for your fellow classmates. This forum should NOT be used to share assessment answers. Grading Discussion Boards 2%) = 16% Unit Assessments 9%) = 18% Unit II Article Review = 10% Unit III Case Study = 10% Unit IV Outline = 10% Unit V Case Study = 10% Unit VII Course Project = 12% Unit VIII Final Exam = 14% Total = 100% Course Schedule/Checklist (PLEASE PRINT) The following pages contain a printable Course Schedule to assist you through this course. By following this schedule, you will be assured that you will complete the course within the time allotted. MBA 6301, Business Ethics 6

7 MBA 6301, Business Ethics Course Schedule By following this schedule, you will be assured that you will complete the course within the time allotted. Please keep this schedule for reference as you progress through your course. Unit I Ethical Foundation of Thought and Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics Unit Study Guide Learning Activities (Non-Graded): See Study Guide Chapter 1: The Foundation of Ethical Thought Chapter 2: The Evolving Complexities of Business Ethics Supplemental Reading: See Study Guide Suggested Further Reading: See Study Guide Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, Assessment by Tuesday, Unit II Stakeholders Needs in Ethical Foundation Unit Study Guide Learning Activities (Non-Graded): See Study Guide Chapter 3: Stakeholders and Corporate Social Responsibility Supplemental Reading: See Study Guide Suggested Further Reading: See Study Guide Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, Article Review by Tuesday, Proctor Approval Form MBA 6301, Business Ethics 7

8 MBA 6301, Business Ethics Course Schedule Unit III Corporate Governance and Corporate Compliance Unit Study Guide Learning Activities (Non-Graded): See Study Guide Chapter 5: Ethical Leadership and Corporate Governance Chapter 7: Decision Making and Human Resource Issues Supplemental Reading: See Study Guide Suggested Further Reading: See Study Guide Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, Case Study by Tuesday, Unit IV External Focus of Ethical Issues Unit Study Guide Learning Activities (Non-Graded): See Study Guide Chapter 8: Ethics and the Environment Chapter 10: Marketing and Advertising Supplemental Reading: See Study Guide Suggested Further Reading: See Study Guide Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, Outline by Tuesday, MBA 6301, Business Ethics 8

9 MBA 6301, Business Ethics Course Schedule Unit V Ethics and Information Technology Unit Study Guide Learning Activities (Non-Graded): See Study Guide Chapter 9: Ethics and Information Technology Supplemental Reading: See Study Guide Suggested Further Reading: See Study Guide Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, Case Study by Tuesday, Unit VI Strategic Planning, Corporate Culture, Ethics, and Financial Reporting Unit Study Guide Learning Activities (Non-Graded): See Study Guide Chapter 4: Ethics and Financial Reporting Chapter 6: Strategic Planning, Corporate Culture, and Corporate Compliance Supplemental Reading: See Study Guide Suggested Further Reading: See Study Guide Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, Assessment by Tuesday, MBA 6301, Business Ethics 9

10 MBA 6301, Business Ethics Course Schedule Unit VII Developing and Evaluating a Strong Ethical Focus Unit Study Guide Learning Activities (Non-Graded): See Study Guide Chapter 12: Establishing a Code of Ethics and Ethical Guidelines Chapter 13: Evaluating Corporate Ethics Supplemental Reading: See Study Guide Suggested Further Reading: See Study Guide Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, Course Project by Tuesday, Request to take Final Exam Unit VIII Ethics in International Business Unit Study Guide Learning Activities (Non-Graded): See Study Guide Chapter 11: Ethical Issues in the Developing World Supplemental Reading: See Study Guide Suggested Further Reading: See Study Guide Discussion Board Response: Submit your response to the Discussion Board question by Saturday, Discussion Board Comment: Comment on another student s Discussion Board response by Tuesday, Final Exam by Tuesday, MBA 6301, Business Ethics 10