Business Ethics and CSR (CMR00110)

General information

Type:	OB	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	2 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
	Daniel Arenas Vives	Ciencias Sociales	ENG

The course is intended to provide participants an understanding of the different theoretical arguments, debates, and methods in the field of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. We will discuss the sources of these theoretical approaches, which come from long-established ethical traditions, or from sociology or political philosophy, and have also been used in the field of management. The course expects that students acquire a good command of both of these theories. In addition, the course will make students aware of different methods used in academic research in this area as well as discuss some of the most relevant topics, such as sweatshops, corruption, the role of values in management, activism against corporations, and base of the pyramid initiatives. Literature not only from applied ethics, but also from management and organizational behavior will be discussed.

25. Committed to ethical and social responsibility

2. Become familiar with organisational and corporate learning theories

19. Be able to adequately inform about results, both orally and in writing

4. Become familiar with knowledge management and research theories

12. Skillful in the use of qualitative methods

1. Ethical Theories and Business a. virtue ethics b. deontological ethics c. utilitarianism d. contract theory e. pragmatism f. dialogical ethics g. ethics of care

2. Theories used in Management applied to Corporate Social Responsibility a. 'business case' approach b. stakeholder theory c. institutional theory d. social movement theory e. networks and social capital f. political approaches to CSR

3. Specific topics in Business Ethics and CSR a. Values in organizations b. CSR and business ethics in a context of cultural differences c. Corruption d. Cross-sector partnerships e. Sustainability and CSR

4. Ethics in Functional Areas and Specific Industries a. Human resources b. Marketing c. Finances d. Supply Chain e. Extractive Sector f. Other sectors

The course will consist mainly of discussions of scholarly articles which exemplify the main theories and topics of the field of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Therefore, class participation is an essential component of the course. In addition, there will be short lectures as well as individual weekly assignments based on the readings. All students will also be required to do one presentation during the course.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Suggested Background Reading:

Aguilera, R. V., Rupp, D. E., Williams, C. A., & Ganapathi, J. (2007). Putting the S back in corporate social responsibility: A multilevel theory of social change in organizations. Academy of management review, 32(3), 836-863.

Campbell, J. L. (2007). Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility. Academy of management Review, 32(3), 946-967.

Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance. Academy of management review, 4(4), 497-505.

Donaldson, T. & Dunfee, T.W. (1999). Ties that Bind: A Social Contracts Approach to Business Ethics. Harvard Business School Press.

Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. E. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of management Review, 20(1), 65-91.

Freeman, R. E., Harrison, J. S., Wicks, A. C., Parmar, B. L., & De Colle, S. (2010). Stakeholder theory: The state of the art. Cambridge University Press.

Ghoshal, S. (2005). Bad management theories are destroying good management practices. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4(1), 75-91.

Matten, D., & Crane, A. (2005). Corporate citizenship: Toward an extended theoretical conceptualization. Academy of Management review, 30(1), 166-179.

Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of management review, 22(4), 853-886.

Phillips, R. (1997). Stakeholder theory and a principle of fairness. Business Ethics Quarterly, 7(1), 51-66.

Post, J.E., Preston, L.E. & Sachs, S., 2002. Redefining the Corporation: Stakeholder Management and Organizational Wealth. Stanford University Press.

Waddock, S. A., & Graves, S. B. (1997). The corporate social performance. Strategic management journal, 8(4), 303-319.

Group	Teacher	Department
	Daniel Arenas Vives	Ciencias Sociales