Course Learning Objectives
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 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.
Bibliography
Suggested Background Reading:(among many possible articles):
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.