Business Ethics & CSR

Naeem ASHRAF
Spring, 2015
LUMS
1

Ethics and Business*

Course overview
The nature of business ethics
Moral relativism

* Unless specified otherwise, all definitions and examples are quoted from Velasquez, M.G.,2012.
Business Ethics: Concepts & Cases., PHI New Delhi

Course overview
Develop an in-depth understanding of the
three-pillars of the discipline, viz. moral
philosophy, ethical issues and dilemmas, and
corporate social responsibility.
Strengthen students ability to anticipate,
critically analyze and appropriately respond to
some of the critical ethical challenges which
managers confront in the business world.
3

Course overview
After taking this course, students should be able
to:
Understand and apply moral reasoning through the
lens of various ethical theories
Appreciate the importance of ethical decision making
and the difficulties inherent therein
Navigate the terrain of external and internal
stakeholders of business with regard to ethical issues
Understand the concept of CSR and the debates
around it
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Grades Breakup

Class Participation: 10%

Attendance & Punctuality: 5%
Assignments: 10%
Quizzes: 20 % (4: N-1)
Mid-Term Examination: 30%
Project / Term Paper: 25%

COURSE OVERVIEW
Week/
Session/
Module

Week 1

Week 2- 5

Week 6

Week 7

Topics

Introduction & Overview:

Why Study Business Ethics?
The Nature of Business Ethics
Moral Reasoning
Foundations of Ethics:
Introduction to Moral Philosophy
Consequentialist and NonConsequentalist Theories
Virtue Ethics
The Business System:
Criticizing Markets and Free Trade
Ethical Issues in Business Settings:
External Stakeholder Issues
(Environment)
Mid Term

Recommended
Readings
Chapter 1 (Velasquez, 2006)

Chapter 2 (Velasquez, 2006)

Chapter 3 (Velasquez, 2006)

Chapter 5 (Velasquez, 2006)

Objectives/
Application
Introduction and discussion on
the importance of the subject
Understand how moral
reasoning works

Understand the four widely

used bases for making ethical
decisions in various business
contexts
Appreciate the arguments for
and against markets and free
trade
Explore how certain business
practices damage the
environment, and the ethical
responsibility of businesses

Ethical Issues in Business Settings:

External Stakeholder Issues
Week 8 & 9 (Production and Marketing)

Week 10

Week 11 &
12

Week 13

Ethical Issues in Business Settings:

Internal Stakeholder Issues (Job
Discrimination)
Ethical Issues in Business Settings:
Internal Stakeholder Issues
(Employees Rights and Obligations)
Ethics and Corporate Social
Responsibility:
Arguments for and against CSR
Principles of Social Responsibility in
Business
Schools of Thought on Social
Responsibility
Final Project Presentations

Discuss different theories of a

firms duties to consumers, and
Chapter 6 (Velasquez, 2006)
the ethical dimensions of
advertising and consumer
privacy
Analyze the nature and extent
of job discrimination along
Chapter 7 (Velasquez, 2006)
with the ethical dilemmas
inherent in affirmative action
Understand the employees
rights and responsibilities and
Chapter 8 (Velasquez, 2006)
a firms duties to the employee
Reading: Detienne, K.B., Lewis, Discuss the varying views on
L.W. The Pragmatic and
CSR and evaluate the
Ethical Barriers to Corporate
arguments for and against it
Social Responsibility
using Nike as a case
Disclosure: The Nike Case.
Journal of Business Ethics.
2005.

Week 14

Why should we study ethics!

Ethics vs compliance

The clash of two cultures

Purposes of higher education
Nature of challenge
Source: Wines, W.A. (2007). Seven pillars of business ethics: Towards a comprehensive framework, 79: 483-499

The nature of business ethics

Morality
The standards that an individual or a group has
about what is right and wrong or good and evil.

Moral standards
The norms about the kinds of actions believed to
be morally right and wrong as well as the values
placed on what we believe to be morally good and
morally bad.

Morality
Nonmoral standards
The standards by which we judge what is good or
bad and right or wrong in a nonmoral way.
Group One

Group Two

Do not harm other people,

Do not eat with your mouth open,

Do not lie to other people,

Do not chew gum in class,

Do not steal what belongs to

others

Do not wear sox that do not

match

10

Morality
Moral norms and nonmoral norms
From the age of three we can distinguish moral
from nonmoral norms.
From the age of three we tend to think that moral
norms are more serious than nonmoral norms
and apply everywhere independent of what
authorities say.
The ability to distinguish moral from nonmoral
norms is innate and universal.
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Morality
Six characteristics of moral standards
Involve serious wrongs or significant benefits.
Should be preferred to other values including selfinterest.
Not established by authority figures.
Felt to be universal.
Based on impartial considerations.
Associated with special emotions and vocabulary.
12

Ethics
The discipline that examines ones moral standards or
the moral standards of a society to evaluate their
reasonableness and their implications for ones life.
Normative study: An investigation that attempts to
reach conclusions about what things are good or bad or
about what actions are right or wrong.
Descriptive study: An investigation that attempts to
describe or explain the world without reaching any
conclusions about whether the world is as it should be.
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Business Ethics
A specialized study of moral right and wrong that
concentrates on moral standards as they apply to
business institutions, organizations, and behavior.
Study of:
Our moral standards insofar as these apply to
business.
How reasonable or unreasonable these moral
standards we have absorbed from society are.
The implications our moral standards have for
business activities.
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THANKS !

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