MGMT 42403
ETHICS & CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Course Syllabus Fall 2024
Professor: Dr. Meline Schaffer
Email: mschaff@uark.edu
Office Hours: WCOB 425 Monday & Wednesday 9:30-10:30, Tuesday 8:30-9:30
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Comprehensive and critical examination of traditional and current ethical theories and approaches that
guide business decision-making, ethical issues that affect business decisions, and ethics related to the various business disciplines.
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES: My goal for this class is to provide you with the tools and the confidence necessary to
recognize and respond to ethical challenges that are an inevitable part of business life. While ethical issues often appear very black
and white and therefore easy to avoid, this class will help students understand how factors such as organizational culture,
leadership, and individual psychology make these issues so challenging.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
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Apply the 3 prescriptive approaches to ethical dilemmas.
Be prepared to address common ethical issues that arise for individuals, managers, and businesses.
Recognize how factors such as individual differences and psychological factors such as cognitive biases and moral
disengagement may influence your own ethical choices.
Understand how organizational culture, leadership, and performance and rewards systems influence ethics within a
business; apply the analysis to thinking about organizations you may wish to join and how you wish to lead.
Recognize the role you will play as a manager or business owner in influencing the ethical decision making of those who
work for you.
Understand corporate social responsibility (CSR) and evaluate the balance organizations must find in value creation for
multiple stakeholders.
Identify reasons why businesses and businesspeople should be ethical and socially responsible and provide examples of
businesses and people that are doing so.
Recognize the special challenges of managing ethics internationally.
Identify and prioritize your own values and apply those to making ethical decisions and choosing an organization.
REQUIRED TEXT AND READING MATERIALS:
1.
Text. Treviño, L. & Nelson, K. Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do it Right. 8th edition. NY:
John Wiley & Sons. (you can rent an eBook from the publisher for $44 or rent a physical book for $50, also available in
the bookstore)
2.
Other assigned readings will be made available on course reserves through Blackboard.
OFFICE HOURS: I’m available most mornings around teaching class. I’m also happy to meet with you by appointment or over
Zoom if those times don’t work for you; send me an email and we’ll figure it out.
RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY: The Sam M. Walton College of Business values the diversity of its students, faculty and staff as a
strength that is critical to our educational mission. The Walton College strives to be EPIC in valuing our differences, respecting
everyone, and welcoming all. We promise to provide a rich intellectual community that includes differences in race, ethnicity and
national origin, gender and gender identity, age, disability, sexual identity, social class, and religion. We expect differences in
values and opinions and welcome community members to share those. We promise to create an inclusive environment (in
classrooms, work environments, and at events) in which each person is heard and treated with respect. We strive to create an
environment of speaking up when challenges arise and of learning together.
GUIDELINES FOR STUDENTS REQUIRING ACCOMMODATION: It is the Walton College policy that students must request testing
accommodations from their instructor in addition to requesting accommodations from the CEA. When possible, and in accordance
with 504/ADA guidelines, staff members from the Center for Educational Access will work individually with students and assist
academic units to determine reasonable accommodations that will enable every student to have access to the full range of programs
and services. Students may contact the CEA via phone at 479.575.3104 or by email at ada@uark.edu. If you are registered with the
CEA and require accommodations, you MUST contact your instructor during the first week of classes. We will take exams during
class time via Blackboard. If you need time accommodations, etc. you will need to arrange through CEA.
COURSE COMPONENTS:
Component
In-Class Assignments
Out of class assignments
Group Project
Exam I (Midterm Exam)
Exam II (Comprehensive Final Exam)
Total
Course Points
10%
20%
20%
25%
25%
100%
GRADING SCALE:
A 90-100%
B 80-89
C 70-79
D 60-69
F Below 60%
Note: At the end of the semester, final grades will be rounded following normal rounding rules (e.g., 89.5% will be rounded to
90% A; 89.4% will not be rounded up).
ATTENDANCE AND IN CLASS ASSIGNMENTS:
This is a traditional in-person class, and the expectation is that you will regularly attend class. Ethics often isn’t black and white,
the point of this class is to get you thinking critically. Class discussion will be a key part of this class and will allow you to hear the
perspectives of your peers and hopefully think about things in a new way. You’ll miss out on that if you don’t come to class.
Periodically we will have in-class assignments that will require your attendance to complete.
I will let students make up in-class assignments for University excused absences if they email me prior to class to let me know
they will miss. This is meant to be a rare exception. If you have more than two excused absences during a semester you will need
to provide documentation before being allowed to complete additional in-class assignments at home. Students who require
ongoing attendance flexibility must go through the Center for Educational Access and have an attendance flexibility agreement on
file. At the end of the semester, I will drop one in-class assignment.
OUT OF CLASS ASSIGNMENTS:
Each week, you will be asked to read or watch something relevant to the topics we’re covering in class and submit a brief
assignment on it. This will be made available on Blackboard at the beginning of the week and will be due Sunday at midnight.
Assignments are to be completed individually and should be done without the aide of tools like ChatGPT. The whole point is that
you are thinking about ethics, ChatGPT can’t do that for you. Given that you will have all week to complete the work, late work
will not be accepted. These assignments will serve as the basis for class discussions, so it’s important that you complete them on
time in order to participate in the discussion.
These assignments are worth 20% of your grade, so I expect that you put some time/energy/thought into them. When grading, I’m
really just looking to ensure that you actually read/watched what I’ve assigned and did some thinking/reflecting on it. If I’m left
wondering “did they actually watch this?” or thinking “ok, but they completely missed the point?”, that’s when I’ll take points off.
If you lose points, I’ll be sure to give you feedback on why you missed points so you can improve on the next assignment.
EXAM I (MIDTERM):
We will have one regular-semester (midterm) exam in this class. Exam questions may include (but are not limited to) multiple
choice, matching, and/or short answer/essay. The purpose is to ensure that students have a general understanding of the concepts
covered in the course. The midterm may include any content we have covered in class including chapters, slides, cases, readings,
discussions, homework activities, movies, etc. We will take this exam in class via Blackboard.
FINAL EXAM:
This comprehensive final exam will encourage students to summarize and integrate what they have learned throughout the
semester. The final exam is cumulative and will integrate concepts from the entire semester. We will take the exam in the class via
Blackboard during our scheduled final exam time.
Missed Exams. Missed exams can only be made up when the student has a documented University Excused Absence showing
that the student was unable to take the exam during the exam. Makeup exams may be different from the exam that was given to the
rest of the class. The professor should be notified prior to the exam if a student will miss.
GROUP PROJECT:
As part of the course, students will complete a group project researching and analyzing a current ethical dilemma faced by a
company and propose a solution that is sound from both a business and ethical perspective. This will be turned in as a paper and
presented to the class. Project grades will be influenced in part by feedback provided by students on the contribution of their
teammates.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
As a core part of its mission, the University of Arkansas provides students with the opportunity to further their educational goals
through programs of study and research in an environment that promotes freedom of inquiry and academic responsibility.
Accomplishing this mission is only possible when intellectual honesty and individual integrity prevail.
Each University of Arkansas student is required to be familiar with and abide by the University's 'Academic Integrity Policy' at
honesty.uark.edu/policy. Students with questions about how these policies apply to a particular course or assignment should
immediately contact their instructor.
Reminder: when we do in-class assignments for an attendance grade we will often be in groups. You should ONLY be writing
your name on the assignment that is turned in (not the names of those who didn’t make it to class that day). This is a class on
Ethics….if you violate this I’ll have to assume you aren’t learning anything in class and I will not award anyone involved points
for that day and will report it as an academic integrity violation.
The use of generative artificial intelligence tools in any capacity while completing academic work that is submitted for credit,
independently or collaboratively will be considered academic dishonesty in this course and reported to the Office of Academic
Initiatives and Integrity.
COURSE CALENDAR:
WEEK
TOPIC/CHAPTERS
READ/WATCH
WEEK 1: 8/19
Introduction
Ch 1
WEEK 2: 8/26
Prescriptive approaches
Ch 2 + Pinto Fires Case
WEEK 3: 9/2
Ethical Awareness
WEEK 4: 9/9
Moral Disengagement
Ch 3 + Milgram experiment, Pinto
Fires Continued
Ch 3 contd + Theranos
WEEK 5: 9/16
Ethical Judgment and Unconscious Bias
Ch 4 + Atlanta Cheating Scandal
WEEK 6: 9/23
Culture
Ch 5 + Uber
WEEK 7: 9/30
Culture Cont’d
Ch 5 + Wells Fargo
WEEK 8: 10/7
Wrap up, Review, Midterm
Midterm 10/9 + Enron
WEEK 9: 10/14 (FALL BREAK)
Managing for Ethics
Ch 6 + Stanford Prison Study
WEEK 10: 10/21
Ch 7 & Ch 9+ The Value of Values
WEEK 11: 10/28
Managing for Ethics and Corporate Social
Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility & ESG
WEEK 12: 11/4
International Ethics
Ch 11
WEEK 13: 11/11
Project Presentations
Projects Due 11/11
WEEK 14: 11/18
Ethics and My Professional Life
Voice to Values
11/25
Thanksgiving
NO CLASS
WEEK 15: 12/2
Wrap up and Review
WEEK OF DEC 9
FINAL EXAM
** DATES AND/OR CONTENT COVERED ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
Ch 9 + FIFA World Cup
FINAL EXAM