Enterprise Ethics & Sustainability

Catalog description

This course will provide an overview of the broad range of Ethical Risks inherent with the explosive growth of the global economy. The core focus of the class is in defining, discussing, and addressing the unique regulatory, cultural, and personal ethical dilemmas confronted by managers in the world economy of the twenty first century. Many nuances and realities of formal (regulatory), global (cultural), and personal ethical risks will be presented for discussion and debate. Case study examples will be addressed, including but not limited to, Lockheed, MCI, the Cuban Embargo, the South African and Israeli trade embargoes, and the Iraq oil for food embargoes. Postulation of example risks will be offered as stimulation for the student?s individual development of avoidance and/or resolution methodologies. Formal and informal student classroom interaction will be crucial to stimulating the sharing of actual day to day business related ethical dilemmas. Classroom discussions will provide the baselines for identifying potential ethical conflicts that can be faced by managers as they manage cross-border, cross cultural and multi-ethnic organizations. Development of possible resolutions will be proposed, dissected, evaluated and debated, within the parameters of both experienced and theoretical, ethically conflicting business situations. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have gained a broad understanding of the existence of Ethical Risks, (regulatory, global and personal), in business, the skills with which to evaluate the impact of conflicting ethics on the geopolitical landscape, and a solid foundation for recognizing the need for both personal awareness of, and adjustment to, ethical risks in a global economy.