Course

Module 1

Module 1: Moral Values & Conflicts and theoretical Foundation (7.5 hours)

1. Facets of Morality: Consensus, Contradictions, and Conflicts
2. Philosophical perspectives: Consequentialist and Deontological stands of Morality
3. Psychological approaches to moral reasoning
4. Moral Universals, Justice & Fairness, and Ethics of Care
5. Moral dilemmas in professional life: Duties, ethics, and conflicts

Module 2

Module 2: Values and Ethics in Business and Functional areas of management (7.5 hours)

1. Ethical Dilemmas and Decision Making
2. Ethics in Marketing
3. Ethics in Operations Management
4. Ethical Issues in Financial & Accounting Management
5. Ethical issues in Human Resource Management
6. Ethics and the Environment

Module 3

Module 3: Managing Organizational Ethics (7.5 hours)

1. Employee and employer ethical roles & responsibilities
2. Ethical Codes of Conduct and Ethics Audit
3. Ethical Leadership
4. Organizational Ethical Climate and Ethical Culture
5. Ethical Trade and Ethical Supply Chain & Value Chain

Module 4

Module 4: Ethics and Indian Business (7.5 hours)

1. Corruption in India
2. Corporate Ethics and Whistleblowing
3. Social Responsibility and Indian Corporation
4. Project Presentation

Course Description

Corporate scandals and frauds (e.g., Enron, Satyam, etc.) affect the business ecosystem in many ways: trust deficits in the business exchange rise, shareholders face losses, employees lose jobs, market collapses, regulatory restrictions are imposed, etc. Each such scandal storms debate on business ethics, corporate responsibilities, ethical decision-making, organizational & managerial values, etc., to reinforce the need of safeguarding common and collective interest. In this respect, understanding the ethical dimensions of exchange becomes essential for business managers. In this course, the initial sessions would help the participant develop self-clarity on his/her value inclinations. The subsequent sessions would focus on different managerial ethical dilemmas and their implications. The course demands active dialogs on fundamentally relevant questions related to ethics and business management practices. Some of such questions are: What is ethical and unethical in business? Why or what kind of ethical issues do business leaders or employees face in their profession? What does employees’ ethical behaviour mean to organizations? Do corporate benefit by being ethical? Upon the course’s successful completion, the participant is expected to develop competencies in recognizing ethical issues, comprehending possible impacts, and striving for reasonable solution(s).

Course Outcomes & Learning Levels

The course aims to impart learning required to have the participant self-clarity on their value inclinations, recognize and resolve managerial ethical dilemmas, and develop a framework for guiding ethical decision-making. A participant, after the successful completion of the course, would gain appropriate advancements in the following key areas:

Able to identify and critically assess self-motivation, moral values, and inherent conflicts and reflect upon individual-level value (L4 Analyze).
Able to diagnose and evaluate the ethical contents, issues, or dilemmas in business/management functions with various perspectives (L5 Evaluate).
Able to map relevant stakeholders and their stakes and evaluate the situation by applying appropriate theories and tools (L5 Evaluate).
Able to develop ethical decision-making strategies and adopt an appropriate action plan to deal with ethics-related issues or dilemmas (L6 Create).

Evaluation Pattern 

*Based on assignments / Tests / Quizzes / Case Studies / Project / Term paper / Field visit report. 

Course Text

1. Velasquez, M. G. (2012). Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases, Edition Seventh.