COURSE OVERVIEW

In this day and age, it is no longer sufficient for managers and leaders in organizations to be simply transactional or simply transformational. They also need to be fair, just, ethical, moral and responsible. This course is designed to explore, inform, and stimulate thinking on issues related to behavioural ethics and responsibility as encountered in the corporate world. To create this intellectual exchange, this course will focus on how individual and organizational behaviour is shaped by context as well as by biases, why these factors make it difficult for managers to be responsible leaders, and what can be done about the influence of these factors.

It is important to emphasize that the goal of this course is not the ethical or moral transformation of students but to develop a set of tools and frameworks (where possible) that allow us to manage effectively in a world increasingly characterized by stakeholders with competing needs and responsibilities.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Have a working understanding of established ethical theories; be able to explain their distinctive features, attractions and limitations; and be able to articulate their usefulness across disciplines. Candidates for professional degrees should furthermore be familiar with the standards to which these professions are held, especially in light of the role these professions play in society.
• Recognize the ethical dimension of human activities on the domestic as well as international plane, in public as well as private life; be able to identify the stakeholders, interests and risks involved; and be able to apply appropriate ethical frameworks of analysis to articulate distinct justifiable outcomes.
• Internalize and recognize the place of ethics in society and the workplace; master the ability to work through social dilemmas to arrive at an ethically sound outcome; and demonstrate how ethics can be applied to strengthen corporate and/or social governance.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Issues of ethics and social responsibility arise frequently in our professional and personal lives. The failure to recognize and deal effectively with these issues can have serious implications for us as individuals and as legal professionals. The violation of some fundamental ethical rule has been the cause of almost every major corporate scandal in the world. One major challenge is recognizing issues of ethics and social responsibility when they arise. Another challenge is understanding why and how individuals, companies and governments get themselves into ethical difficulties and how and why companies fail in being “socially responsible”. A third challenge is figuring out how to resolve ethical challenges and dilemmas as they arise: what is the right thing to do? Additionally, a lawyer has to advise his clients against ethical misconduct apart from being an ethical person.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Through cases, problems, seminar discussions and readings, issues of ethics and social responsibility that arise in real life contexts, decide what principles to apply to an ethical problem and what they would do in that situation. Lawyers have a special responsibility in both the public and private sectors in ensuring ethical behaviour and in establishing systems for preventing unethical behaviour. Issues of concern to lawyers will be integrated into each class seminar discussion. The first part of the course will be a study of business ethics but with an emphasis on the nexus between law and ethics. The second part of the course will be devoted to a study of professional values and responsibility and legal ethics.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Issues of ethics and social responsibility arise in all professions, in government, and in the context of personal decision-making. Ethical and socially responsible conduct is treated with increasing importance and prominence by the corporate world, governments, the public, and other stakeholders globally, and for good reason. More and more, the reputation and success of organizations (and associated individuals) are linked with their ethical (or non-ethical) conduct. The failure to recognize and deal effectively with these issues can have (and has had) serious implications for individuals, companies, governments, stakeholders, and society.

This course aims to help students become sensitized to ethics and social responsibility issues in various contexts, including the business environment. To this end, students are prescribed readings that help them understand the background to particular issues and acquire the vocabulary to describe relevant concepts. A working understanding of some of the major traditions of philosophy and ethical theory is undertaken to provide students with some foundational tools of analysis.

This course is designed to encourage students to engage in ethical, practical and civic reasoning and to go beyond the stance that in ethics, anything goes. Students are challenged to critically reflect on the role of morality in society and in their personal or professional lives. Students are further challenged to develop their ability to analyze ethical issues with nuance from a relevant range of perspectives, in order to reach conclusions that stand up to public scrutiny, and not merely ones that accord with personal conviction.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Critically identify relevant ethical issues raised by a set of facts.
• Clarify the meaning of any concepts involved with appropriate vocabulary.
• Select appropriate ethical frameworks for analyzing the matter.
• Apply these frameworks accurately and appropriately.
• Generate a reasoned and persuasive conclusion, one that stands up to public scrutiny.

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course discusses issues of ethics and social responsibility in the context of business in general, and the accounting profession in particular. The theories of ethics will be explored, together with their relevance in various personal, organizational, professional and societal settings. The challenges of recognizing situations involving ethical issues and dilemmas when they arise; understanding why individuals, organizations, professionals and governments respond to them the way they do; and identifying ways to manage or resolve them, will be examined. Real and hypothetical cases and problems will be discussed.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Understand the importance of ethics in business and in the accounting profession; and thus;
• Be aware of ethical issues and dilemmas in many business or professional situations.
• Understand key ethical theories and frameworks and how these can inform on what are the appropriate responses to ethics-laden situations; and thus;
• Apply an ethical decision making process to arrive at an ethically responsible conduct or course of action in response to the ethical dilemmas, whether as an individual or manager of a firm and also as a professional accountant.