Business Ethics Course Overview

Explore the Challenges of Ethical Decision Making

This course defines the terms and the challenges of ethical decision making within the framework of business stakeholders and issues. The focus of this course is on the economic, social, and environmental effects of business decisions and policies. In this course, you will identify and explore significant ethical issues affecting today's multicultural business environment. In addition, you will evaluate how businesses have responded to these issues through policy development.

Evaluate the impact of corporate social responsibility policy on the workplace and the corporate world. Also, assess the ethicality of an organization and identify the related stakeholders and their roles.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 2: Assess the impact of corporate social responsibility policy. 

1. Assesses the impact of corporate social responsibility policy.

2. Assess the ethical nature of a selected organization.

3. Identify the major stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities regarding an issue.

4.Assess the impact of the issue on various stakeholders.

5. Assess the potential costs and benefits for various stakeholders in addressing an issue through corporate policy.

To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.

1. Workplace privacy is a very contentious issue today, because the growth of technology that might threaten privacy is outpacing the development of privacy laws. New technologies for communication and surveillance are not legally restricted because they are not yet addressed in existing laws. What right to privacy you believe an employee should enjoy at work? What right to surveillance should a company have in watching over the employees it is paying, and the property it owns? Where would you draw the line with regard to workplace privacy?

2. Think about a real-world example of whistleblowing with which you are personally familiar, or which you have heard about. Why might you feel pressure not to report what you know in the situation, and to what extent would it affect you? What would you do (or did you do) in this situation? Would a code of ethics you are familiar with, such as a military code that requires reporting of unethical behavior, influence your decision?

3. Analyze an advertisement that was misleading, and did not provide complete and honest information about the product or service. Your example might be from print, television, radio, or the Internet. It might be local, national, or international. How could this deception have been harmful? What action would you recommend to deter this type of deception in the future?

Complete the following:

1. Assess the impact of corporate social responsibility policy on the workplace and the corporate world. 

2. Assess how, and to what extent, corporate social responsibility can be coordinated with an organization's obligation to maximize profits for its shareholders.

3. Identify a potential ethical issue at a real-world organization. You may use the organization and issue you used in the first and second assessments. 

4. Assess the ethicality of the organization.

5. Identify the major stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities regarding the issue.

6. Assess the potential impact of the organization's choice to address or not address the issue via corporate policy. Address the financial and legal impacts of this choice on the organization, employees, and other stakeholders. In addition, address the potential impact on the organization's reputation.