BUSINESS ETHICS

For decades now, news stories have brought to public attention the countless social and ethical issues raised by the operations of all kinds of businesses. The latest wave of criticism began with the rash of scandals first brought to light in late 2001, when the Enron fraud was exposed: the Enron debacle was an ethical tsunami that redefined business’s relationships with society and the global community. Since then, other corporate names have been publicly shamed: Martha Stewart, Rite Aid, ImClone, HealthSouth, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Microsoft, Monsanto, Wal-Mart, Facebook, Tyco, Adelphia, Boeing, and many others. The global economic crisis that began in 2008 has added also banks, financial operators, and insurances to the list of ethically controversial business actors. In general, companies must today grapple with highly complex and vast societal concerns that far exceed the pursuit of a satisfactory bottom-line - and do so in a globalized, highly interconnected, instantly informed, and socially conscious environment. We shall be discussing the role of business in society, and whether business without ethics can be sustained in a world characterized by great economic uncertainty, financial insecurity, dramatic levels of inequality both within and among countries, fast-paced technological progress, stratified and sometimes contradictory legal requirements, weak global institutions, and a rampant environmental crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic will be considered, as well. Business Ethics raises questions about a host of widely diverse issues: executive powers, corporate governance, covert monopolies, delocalized production and outsourced labor, unmet or distorted health standards, the commercial implications of genetic research, the patents and copyrights regime, the accountability of financial institutions, businesses’ employment of political action committees to influence the outcome of legislation - along with the macrotheme of the overall sustainability - ecological, economic, and social - of current production and consumption patterns. .

Familiarity with the main concepts of business organization and international political theory.

1. Knowledge and understanding At the end of the course the student will have acquired a thorough knowledge and understanding of the ethical aspects of business, also observed from a comparative perspective and placed within the global context. In addition to assessing learning through final exams - in written form - more qualitative evaluation devices will be adopted during classes (through videos, questionnaires, evaluation grids). 2. Capacity to apply knowledge and understanding At the end of the course the student will have learned to use ethical knowledge through classroom work, simulations and exercises. These teaching methods are designed to accustom students to deepen their knowledge of a given problem, to critically examine the different ways of dealing with and interpreting it, to defend their point of view in front of colleagues and teachers, to present the results of their reflections in written and/or oral form. The lessons will include discussion of case studies and group project works; All the lessons will be, in their various declinations and characterizations, aimed at providing the necessary tools and concepts to face the challenges to which organizations and institutions are and will be increasingly exposed. These challenges will cross various disciplinary contexts - e.g. digital transformations of organizational functions and processes, human intelligence/artificial intelligence interaction - and will increasingly characterize people's operations. In micro-design, therefore, particular attention will be devoted to the exploration of issues that impact first of all international companies and institutions, and then spread to other social entities. 3. Critical thinking The student is able to integrate knowledge and analyze the complexity of business phenomena in their ethical aspects, to identify problems and indicate solutions, even shared ones. Autonomy will be assessed through written tests and original comments on topics that are the object of in-depth study. Moreover, the assignment of projects during professionalizing teaching such as analysis and resolution of real cases, require the development of skills for the collection and processing of updated data and information. This course will give completion to the critical skills acquired in the other classes and laboratories of the program. 4. Communicative skills This class is taught entirely in English and therefore contributes to the mastery of this language also in the working environment. Students must have the ability to communicate the conclusions of their learning process, and to analyze and diagnose problems, in a clear and unambiguous way, with a language that is understood by both specialists and non-specialists. In order to achieve this objective, the instructor will use teaching materials complementary to textbooks (scientific articles, specialized press articles, reports of companies and institutions) that guide the student to the acquisition of the necessary technical language and the ability of public speaking. 5. Learning capacities The use of teaching methodologies that involve students and increase their capacity for autonomous judgement will contribute to their empowerment and make them protagonists in their own learning process. As students will have to deal with projects or cases, they will develop a greater awareness of their knowledge and skills and acquire the ability to organize their work autonomously. A problem-based approach in teaching activities will be fundamental to make students understand that cases or projects require the application of the knowledge acquired during classes, but also the autonomous research of new data, the creation of new models and the definition of innovative

The course includes four modules. Module 1 deals with the theoretical underpinnings of business ethics in ethical theory and various views of the nature of corporations. Module 2 explores various issues concerning business and global challenges, such as pandemics, climate change, financial crises, AI and cybersecurity. Module 3 deals with cross-cultural issues, such as genders, works conditions, cultures and lifestyles. Modules 4 focussess on the ethics of lobbying.

Required readings: R. Audi, “The Place of Ethical Theory in Business Ethics”, in G.G. Brenkert (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, OUP, 2009 “The Lunatic You Work for,” The Economist, May 2004: http://www.economist.com/node/2647328 Alexei Marcoux, “Business Ethics,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2008 Ronald M. Green and Aine Donovan, “The Methods of Business Ethics “, in G.G. Brenkert (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, OUP, 2009 "Hongwei He and Lloyd Harris, “The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing Philosophy,” Journal of Business Research 116 (August 2020): 176–82, P.T. Mentzel, “Just Access to Health Care and Pharmaceuticals”, in G.G. Brenkert (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, OUP, 2009 Arnold, Denis G., and Keith Bustos. "Business, Ethics, and Global Climate Change." Business & Professional Ethics Journal 24, no. 1/2 (2005): 103-30 van den Hove, Sybille & Le Menestrel, Marc & Bettignies, Henri-Claude. (2002). The oil industry and climate change: Strategies and ethical dilemmas. Climate Policy. 2. 3-18. S. Power, M.L. Di Domenico, G. Miller, “The nature of ethical entrepreneurship in tourism”, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 65, 2017, pp. 36-48 B. De Bruin, Ethics and the Global Financial Crisis. Why Incompetence is Worse than Greed, CUP, 2015, Introduction, chaps. 4, 6, 8 “A Care-based Stakeholder Approach to Cybersecurity in Business”

Case-studies, lectures, guided discussions, mini-polls, project works, guest lectures

The course is meant to stimulate active dialogue rather than merely promote the absorption of relevant concepts and theories. Reading is therefore absolutely essential, and will be constantly supervised in various ways, especially with guided discussions, guided case analysis, and mini-questionnaires. The intermediate assessment (worth 70% of the final grade) will consist of guided discussions of texts and cases. Students will be asked to present a commentary and raise three critical objections to one of the papers on managerial authority (module 4). The final exam (worth 30% of the final grade) consists of answering three out of nine open-ended questions on the topic of managerial authority (module 4). Non-attending students will answer three out of nine open-ended questions on the entire reading list.

None.