Business Ethics - Q3

Participation Prerequisites

None.

Course Content

In this course, we focus on ethical challenges that managers are facing during their careers and discuss how these challenges can be addressed successfully. The course particularly focuses on descriptive ethics, not on normative ethics. In this vein, we do not elaborate on an ideal world of ethical behavior, but we discuss how the real-world challenges managers to compromise on their ethical values.

In consequence, we will deal with ethical questions that are relevant to managers, such as:

How to prepare ethically sound decisions? 

How to make ethically sound decisions?

What makes people tap into an ethics trap?

How should we individually respond to ethical failures?

To address these questions, theoretical concepts and empirical findings will be introduced and then applied to real-life case studies. Thus, above and beyond a lecturing part by the lecturer, there will be case study presentations by students. For this aim, students will be grouped in teams and each student team will prepare one case study (out of class) to be presented in class. At the end of the lecturing period, students will write an exam about the content.

Intended Learning Outcomes and Competencies

1. Discipline-specific knowledge and competence:
   Students will discuss ethical dilemmas based on casework. In this vein, students are sensitized to ethical issues through the cases. Furthermore, class discussion will increase students’ competence in analyzing ethical issues and discussing the pros and cons of ethical decisions. 

2. Management-specific skills:
   Taking the role of managers facing an ethical dilemma, students increase their ability to adequately address ethical situations themselves. Critical discussion in class fosters students’ capability for ethical sound decision-making.

3. Global business environment:
   The case studies presented in the course address the global business environment. Students will apply previously learned concepts and discuss the implication of the global business environment on business ethics.

4. Teamwork and responsible leadership:
   While it is important that managers are aware of their own ethical mindset, it is at least of the same importance that managers are able to address their opinion in groups. Therefore, students particularly work in groups when dealing with ethical issues in this class.

5. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills:
   The case-based teaching fosters students to find their own solutions to ethical dilemmas and to defend their decisions in front of their classmates. The class discussion particularly fosters a comprehensive and in-depth view of the ethical dilemma under investigation.

6. Managerial and entrepreneurial practice:
   Real-life cases particularly target managerial and entrepreneurial practice. We discuss how managerial failures related to ethical issues can be successfully addressed by management. In the face of continuous ethical breakdowns, discussions of how to respond to ethical failures are highly relevant for practice.

Instruction Type

In-class.

Form of Examination

Literature