BUSINESS: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ETHICS – BUAD 4706
Dr. Matthew A. Butkus
Dept. of Social Sciences
McNeese State University
4705 Ryan St.
Lake Charles, LA 70609
Contact Information:
mbutkus@mcneese.edu
Kaufman Hall 210-A
337-562-4261 (office)
COURSE OVERVIEW
Contemporary business culture reflects complex ethical territory – ethics requires the moral agent to weigh evidence critically
and navigate significant uncertainty in making decisions that may profoundly impact their employees, the natural environment, and
entire cultures in developing nations. International business adds additional complexity, introducing concepts like multiculturalism
and differing mores and laws regarding populations – what is assumed to be true or right in our culture may be viewed very differently
in another culture, producing a conflict in setting domestic and international corporate policy. Broadly, business ethics asks a number
of important questions: Are businesses accountable to only their shareholders or to all the people who are impacted by a particular
decision? What sorts of principles should guide ethical business decision-making? What is a healthy corporate and organizational
climate? How should a corporation handle a third-party supplier who relies on slave labor or other forms of exploitation and
harassment? These are but a handful of topics the course is designed to cover, providing students with the tools needed to navigate the
complexities of current domestic and international business.
The course has ten central components, beginning with essential elements of ethical theory, ethical methodologies, and
distributive justice. Once the students understand these bases, the course will shift to address specific applications in hiring/firing,
corporate and organizational environments (drawing on elements of organizational leadership), and marketing (among other topics)
using a problem- and case-based approach to learning.
TOPICS TO BE COVERED:
1.
Meta-ethics and Ethical Methodologies
a. Absolutism/Relativism
b. Utilitarianism
c. Deontology
d. Virtue Ethics
e. Natural Law
f. Care Ethics
g. Casuistry
2.
Social and Economic Justice
a. Contractarian/Communitarian
b. Libertarian
3.
The Purpose of the Corporation
a. Stockholder/Stakeholder
b. The Economics of Inequality, Exclusion, and
Consumerism
c. Ethical Organizational Culture (e.g., Toxic
Leadership/Followership, groupthink)
d. Ethical Choices in a Corporate Environment
e. Social Investment
f. Social Responsibility to Consumers (Tobacco, alcohol,
pharma)
4.
Ethical Treatment of Employees
a. Hiring/Firing of Employees (Nepotism,
connections)
b. Diversity
c. Occupational Risk
d. Whistle-blowing
5.
Diversity, Discrimination, and Harassment in the Workplace
a. Diversity and Affirmative Action
b. Sexual Harassment
6.
Marketing and Information Disclosure
a. Advertising and Disclosure
b. Marketing to the Bottom of the
Pyramid
c. Competitive Intelligence
7.
Ethical Issues in Finance and Accounting
a. Auditing after Enron
b. Financial Services
c. Conflicts of Interest/Insider Trading
d. Tax evasion
8.
Ethical Issues Regarding the Natural
Environment
a. Business and Environmental
Obligations
b. Sustainable Development
c.
9.
Ethical Issues in International Business
a. Universalism, Relativism, and Human Rights
b. Sweatshops and Bribery
c. Human Trafficking
d. Globalization
e. Multiculturalism/Imperialism/Cosmopolitanism
10. Other
a.
b.
c.
Greenwashing
Honesty in the Workplace
Regulation/Deregulation
Contract Formation
Students will also have the opportunity to discuss complex ethical issues with working professionals from major institutions in
London. Tentatively, guest speaker and site visits are planned around the following topics
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Privacy and data mining (Google)
Lessons learned in corporate accountability (BP)
Direct marketing of medications
Globalization and exploitation
Transparency in financial reporting
Public/Private/NGO engagement
Social media use
Intellectual Property
Child Labor/Human Trafficking
Students will draw from lectures, guest speakers, and outside class activities in designing their final papers. They will synthesize
these with their own original research exploring a question agreed upon by them and the professor of record. Specific dates for topic
coverage are listed at the end of the syllabus, but may change dependent upon speaker and venue availability. Additional and
alternative outside class activities are currently being explored.
RESOURCES (TENTATIVE)
Lectures are based around one central text and supplemental reading. Students will be provided a PDF document of the readings
required for the course. They will be encouraged, but not required, to purchase the textbook.
Ethical Theory and Business (8th; ed. Beauchamp, Bowie, and Arnold). Upper Saddle, New Jersey: Pearson (Prentice Hall), 2009.
Sample selected additional readings:
Anderson, Elizabeth. “Recent Thinking about Sexual Harassment: A Review Essay.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 4(3): 284-312.
Banaji, Mahzarin R., Bazerman, Max H., Chugh, Dolly. “How (Un)ethical are You?” Harvard Business Review, December 2003: 310.
Bazerman, Max H., Tenbrunsel, Ann E. “Ethical Breakdowns.” Harvard Business Review, April 2011: 58-65.
Christensen, Clayton M., Raynor Michael E. “Why Hard-Nosed Executives Should Care about Management Theory.” Harvard
Business Review. September 2003: 1-10.
Coakley, Mathew, Kates, Michael. “The Ethical and Economic Case for Sweatshop Regulation.” Journal of Business Ethics. DOI:
10.1007/s10551-012-1540-y
Freeman, R. Edward. “Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation.”
Friedman, Milton. “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” The New York Times Magazine. September 13,
1970.
International Labour Organization. Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100).
-----. Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111).
-----. Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138).
-----. Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).
Kasser, Tim, Cohn, Steve, Kanner, Allen D., Ryan, Richard M. “Some Costs of American Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological
Exploration of Value and Goal Conflicts.” Psychological Inquiry, 2007; 18(1): 1-22.
Lubin, David A., Esty, Daniel C. “The Sustainability Imperative.” Harvard Business Review. May 2010, 2-9.
Maitland, Ian. “Virtuous Markets: The Market as School of the Virtues.” Center of the American Experiment, April 1996.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, 2008.
-----. OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, 2004.
Porter, Michael E., Kramer, Mark R. “Creating Shared Value.” Harvard Business Review. January-February 2011: 1-17.
Rhode, Deborah L., Packel, Amanda K. “Diversity on Corporate Boards: How Much Difference Does Difference Make?” Rock
Center for Corporate Governance Working Paper Series – No. 89, September 2010.
Singer, Peter. “Famine, Affluence, and Morality.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1972; 1(3): 229-243.
Smith, N. Craig. “Corporate Social Responsibility: Not Whether, but How?” Centre for Marketing Working Paper No. 03-701, April
2003.