BE439-6-AU-CO:
Business Ethics
2020/21
Essex Business School
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Thursday 08 October 2020
Friday 18 December 2020
15
07 October 2020
Requisites for this module
BE410
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BSC N200 Business Management,
BSC N201 Business Management (Including Foundation Year),
BSC N202 Business Management (Including Year Abroad),
BSC N204 Business Management (Including Placement Year),
BSC N2N5 Management and Marketing (Including Foundation Year),
BSC NN25 Management and Marketing,
BSC NN2M Management and Marketing (Including Placement Year),
BSC NNF5 Management and Marketing (Including Year Abroad),
BA LN10 Business Economics,
BA LN11 Business Economics (Including Year Abroad),
BA LN12 Business Economics (Including Placement Year),
BA LX10 Business Economics (Including Foundation Year),
MMANNN35 Marketing and Management,
MMANNN36 Marketing and Management (Including Placement Year),
MMANNN37 Marketing and Management (Including Year Abroad)
This 10 week module builds upon your existing understandings of management and organisation by considering specifically the ethics of, and in, business. The emergent field of Business Ethics and associated field of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability have made particular contributions in shaping an ethical examination of business. In this module you will be introduced to the origins, practice and theory of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. You will be provided with the conceptual and theoretical resources to examine critically the nature of their contributions. Identifying particular assumptions that inform but also constrain the Business Ethics field the module also explores a number of wider literatures and perspectives that provide further resources for a critical examination of the ethics of business.
1. Provide an understanding of business and management as a complex and contested ethical terrain.
2. Provide an appreciation of the emergent discipline of Business Ethics and enable students to identify, explore and critique its contributions.
3. Develop students’ appreciation of the basis of ethical reflexivity and agency and awareness of potential inhibitors to their expression in an organised context.
4. Through class discussion, reading, participation and assessment develop students’ abilities to engage in critical argumentation that is informed by, and sensitive to, their own and others’ ethical perspectives and values.
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
1. Understand a range of ethical factors in, and perspectives, practices and critiques of, business and organisation.
2. Develop greater sensitivity and awareness of implied and explicit ethical assumptions and beliefs in their own and others’ argumentation.
3. Critically analyse, using appropriate ethical concepts and theory, management and business practices and the contribution of the field of Business Ethics towards enhancing ethical accountability in business.
Skills for Your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)
1. Written Communication
2. Oral Communication
3. Research Skills
4. Critical Thinking
5. Teamwork-Collaboration
6. Digital and Technical Fluency
The module will be delivered through a mixture of formal lectures and online seminars. You are strongly advised to attend all lectures and seminars and participate fully. In the seminars we will discuss and debate empirical and theoretical research on business ethics, examine relevant influential representations of the ethics of business in film and other media, and consider examples from contemporary organisational practice. Details of the necessary reading and preparation required for the lectures and the seminars will be provided on Moodle.
In academic year 2020-2021 the delivery is likely to be different and involve online learning.
- Bakan, Joel. (2005) The corporation: the pathological pursuit of profit and power, London: Constable.
- The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits, by Milton Friedman, http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html
- Critchley, Simon. (2007) Infinitely demanding: ethics of commitment, politics of resistance, London: Verso.
- Crane, Andrew; Matten, Dirk; Glozer, Sarah; Spence, Laura J. (2019) Business ethics: managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
ASSESSMENT ONE |
|
62.5% |
| Coursework |
ASSESSMENT TWO |
|
37.5% |
| Exam |
Main exam: 24hr during Summer (Main Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Ms Sandra Moog, email: samoog@essex.ac.uk.
Ms Sandra Moog and Dr. Jayne Jennett
email: ebsugcol@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
No
Prof Simon Lilley
University of Lincoln
Professor
Available via Moodle
Of 1232 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
1232 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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