This course discusses the nature and significance of ethical standards and identifies four kinds of moral principles for resolving ethical dilemmas in business. It then encourages candidates to apply the resulting theory to specific issues such as the ethics of markets and prices (free markets, Marxist criticisms, the mixed economy, various forms of competition); environmental and consumer issues (pollution, depletable resources, conservation, consumer protection, advertising ethics); and employee issues (job discrimination, employee rights and obligations, affirmative action, a firm's duties to its employees). The course aims to 1) introduce ethical concepts that are relevant to resolving moral issues in business, 2) develop the reasoning and analytical skills needed to apply ethical concepts to business decisions, 3) identify the moral issues involved in the management of specific problem areas in business, and 4) examine the social and natural environments within which moral issues in business arise. Topics covered include ethics and business, ethical principles in business, the business system, ethics in the marketplace, ethics and the environment, the ethics of consumer production and marketing, the ethics of job discrimination, and the individual in the organization. This course should be of benefit to anyone in business.
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