FROM: Rob Walsh, Ph.D.
Management and Marketing
TO: Paul Muench
RE: BGEN 220 Group VIII Review
DATE: 4/18/2016
CC: Klaus Uhlenbruck
From Paul Muensch (email 4/18/2016) … “Our curriculum review team would like more information about the following
matter: assessment of whether learning goals are met. We appreciate the examples you provided of your exam and discussion
forum questions. It would help us if you would also provide a short narrative that relates these measurement tools to the
learning outcomes you obtain and how these different tools individually contribute to your overall assessment of whether the
learning goals have been met”
Assessment of learning goals in BGEN 220 is accomplished using four different types of assessment tools
for a total of 18 graded assignments overall: five Quizzes; three Unit Exams; five Assignments; and five
Discussion Forums.
A. Quizzes (5)
Quizzes, graded on a scale of zero to ten, are designed to measure the extent to which students have
read and understood the basic features of the assigned material and are somewhat familiar with the
concepts, ideas, and arguments presented in the assigned material without necessarily having a
thoroughgoing comprehension of the significance or application of those ideas to other business
constructs or situations. The better the students initial familiarity with the assigned reading, the better
the score on the quiz. Here is an example of one of the five quizzes used this semester:
Quiz 3 (T or F)
1. John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods and the leading proponent of the idea of conscious capitalism, thinks that businesses
should broaden their view and look for under-developed and emerging markets where a social problem can be solved and a
profit made simultaneously.
2. The Mary Kay company was used to exemplify a business that clearly embodies the basic principles of Conscious Capitalism.
3. In his response to the critique of Conscious Capitalism by O’Toole and Vogel, John Mackey argued that we need to realize
that all ordinary business exchanges are inherently virtuous.
4. The question of whether an individual’s moral character can stand up to the situational pressures from a firm’s culture is a
question that is derivative of the larger question of whether human behavior is free or determined.
5. The Stanford Prison Experiment showed how far otherwise moral individuals can be pushed in the process of inflicting
increasingly powerful electric shocks upon another person when told to do so by an authoritarian person in a lab coat.
6. The philosopher Robert Solomon argues for an interaction model where human behavior is influenced by situational factors
(such as corporate culture) and also by character, i.e., a person’s individual moral orientation that tends to remain stable across
many different situations, but clearly leaves room for the exercise of free choice and, hence, responsibility for one’s actions.
7. The Social Psychologist Stanley Milgram was motivated in part by the horror of the Nazi concentration camps to pursue the
study of obedience to figures of authority.
8. Sisela Bok argues that whistle blowers are caught in a conflict between the competing values of loyalty and private interest.
9. Discussing whistle blowing, Robert Larmer argues that acting immorally can never be truly in a person’s best interest, and
therefore if your brother is acting immorally dealing drugs to children (which is not in his best interest since it is immoral) and
you fear that if you confront him he will just hide his actions from you and continue dealing, then, according to Larmer it would
be your moral duty to blow the whistle to the police on your brother’s illegal behavior.
10. Concerning the issue of advertising to young children, one article we read used a Human Rights approach to argue that
children should have the right to exercise free choice about the food they eat because their body is their natural property.
B. Exams (3)
There are three exams in BGEN 220 corresponding to the three sections of the course structure. Exams
are graded on a scale of zero to one hundred. Exams are used to assess a deeper, fuller, and more
nuanced comprehension of the assigned material than is anticipated with quiz assessments. On exams,
students are expected to be able to “apply the basic concepts and forms of reasoning from the [moral]
tradition” with some facility and adroitness. Multiple choice and short and long essay questions are
structured in such a way that students must not only understand and be conversant with a rendition of
the material in multiple choice questions but also must be able to use strategies of moral reasoning to
compare and contrast various ideas or apply moral ideas and concepts to new and different value
situations, as illustrated here with the application of whistle blowing standards and the torture scenario.
Exam 2 (sample from 17 questions)
1. According to John Mackey, conscious capitalism means
a. Businesses should be conscious of corporate social responsibility
b. Businesses should be conscious of treating all stakeholders equally
c. Businesses should strive to achieve a higher purpose than profit
d. Business should strive for creating shared value
2. The question of whether individual moral character can stand firm in the face of the situational pressures of the
workplace is connected to the larger question of
a. the cognitive moral 'feedback loop'
b. Workplace privacy
c. freedom and determinism
d. consequentialism versus deontology
3. What is the difference between "internal" and "external" whistle blowing? When would a person be justified engaging in
external whistle blowing without first engaging in internal whistle blowing?
4. A home-grown terrorist who has threatened to explode several bombs in crowded areas has been apprehended.
Unfortunately, he has already planted the bombs and they are scheduled to go off in a short time. It is possible that hundreds,
perhaps thousands of people may die and many more will be maimed and injured. The authorities cannot make him divulge
the location of the bombs by conventional methods. He refuses to say anything and requests a lawyer to protect his Fifth
Amendment right against self-incrimination since he is a citizen. In exasperation, some high level official suggests the use of
torture. This would be illegal, of course, but the official thinks that it is nevertheless the right thing to do in this desperate
situation. Do you agree or disagree? Why? If you agree, would it also be morally justifiable to torture the terrorist’s innocent
wife if that is the only way to make him talk? Don't forget to give the reasons for your judgment and the specific moral
principles you would use.
5. Some psychologists believe that inundating young children with advertisements repeatedly and from many directions
through various devices
a. Can teach how the economy works
b. Can cause a loss of touch with reality
c. Can cause consumerism and materialism
d. Can increase relaxation and focus
C. Discussion Forums (5)
Discussion Forums are graded on a scale of zero to fifteen. Research demonstrates that didactic ethics
courses like BGEN 220, having a combined focus on philosophical methods and the discussion of moral
dilemmas and scenarios in the context of a concern for personal development, are especially effective in
fostering the growth of principled moral reasoning. In keeping with this research, Discussion Forums in
BGEN 220 present students with pro and con articles regarding specific moral issues taken from current
events that focus on opposing sides of the value conflict. Students must analyze and evaluate these
issues using the conceptual schemes, moral theories and principles which we have studied in class to
make an informed moral judgment about the issue. Students must justify their decision using a moral
conceptual framework learned in the course. Students are evaluated on how well they are able to
frame the moral issue clearly, analyze and evaluate both sides of the issue, and justify their moral
judgment regarding the issue through the application of moral theories, principles or value frameworks
learned in the course in accordance with the four general requirements for Discussion Forum posts:
“Your post should answer these questions: 1. What is the moral issue? 2. What are the arguments on
both sides? Summarize and evaluate the arguments of each author. 3. What is your judgment about the
issue? 4. Give your reasons and your evidence in support your judgment?” I have previously submitted
samples of Discussion Forum topics that I use in this course.
D. Written Assignments (5)
The five writing assignments in this course, graded on a scale of zero to ten, each call for an evaluation
of a fictitious situation in which a person is caught in the horns of a moral dilemma and must make a
choice. Students are graded on how well they are able to ‘get a feel’ for the subjective ‘human’
dimensions of the moral situation and balance these against objective, rational considerations; how well
they are able to recognize and articulate the moral issue that is at stake in the scenario and how
coherently they are able to justify their moral judgment using moral theories, principles, and value
frameworks. The difference between Writing Assignments and Discussion Forums is that assignments
are fictitious scenario descriptions often directly engaging non-rational emotional elements like the
importance of friendship, the fear of losing a job, the need for empathy, etc., whereas Forum issues
involve a fairly straightforward cognitive challenge of evaluating moral position arguments in respect to
the various moral theories, principles, and value frameworks we have studied.