Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
Academic Year: 2015/2016
Trimester: 3rd
Instructor(s): Tommaso Ramus
Course Description:
Why do Ethics matter in business? What are the ethical responsibilities associated with
being a manager, an accountant or a financial trader? What are the main communalities
and differences of recent corporate scandals and how is it possible to adopt individual and
organizational strategies to prevent new ones? Why should business organizations behave in
a socially responsible way? How can organizations develop a business strategy that
integrates the generation of commercial and social value?
This course will assist students to answer such questions through the discussion of case
studies concerning ethical issues and dilemmas faced by managers, financial professionals and
entrepreneurs in different cultural, industrial and organizational contexts.
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Course Content:
This course will examine the most recent approaches to corporate social responsibility
and a broad range of alternative applied ethics theories in support to managerial and
professional decision making. Perspectives will include professional and applied ethics,
law, public policy, organizational design, strategy, and organizational behavior.
The course will be based on the analysis and discussion in class of case studies concerning
the most controversial corporate scandals such as Enron, challenging corporate crises
such as Deutsche Telekom and Guidant Corporation and innovative CSR strategies
as in the case of Nike and Timberland.
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Course Objectives:
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Become familiar with tools and procedures to prevent, identify and resolve corporate
scandals and crises caused by unethical behaviours
Understand the mutual relationship between financial, relational and ethical
drivers in managerial decision making
Become familiar with tools and procedures to understand and manage different
stakeholders’ demands and pressures
Understand the opportunities associated with the corporate social responsibility (CSR)
movement and how to integrate socially responsible practices in organizational and
strategic planning
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Grading:
30% class participation
70% final exam
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Bibliography:
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Jeffrey Skilling, Bernie Madoff the Monster & the Other Smartest Guys of the Room (BE0180-E IESE Case Study)
Guidant: Disclosure or not disclosure? (BE-168-E IESE Case Study)
"Do you really think we are so stupid?" A letter to the CEO of Deutsche Telekom (A)
(ES1001 ESMT Case Study)
Addiopizzo: Mafia, Anti-mafia or hiding in the grey area? (BE-172-E IESE case study)
Driving Sustainability at Bloomberg L.P. (411-025 Harvard Business School case study)
Timberland: Commerce and Justice (305002 Harvard Business School case study)
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Biography:
Tommaso Ramus is Assistant Professor for the area of Business Ethics at CATOLICALISBON. Before joining CATOLICA, Tommaso Ramus was post doctoral research fellow at
the Centre for Business in Society of the IESE Business School (Spain) and researcher at
the European Research Institute for Cooperatives and Social Enterprises (EURICSE). He
received a MSc in Business Administration (University of Trento, Italy) and a PhD in
Management (University of Bergamo, Italy).
His research focuses on social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and
institutional complexity. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Business
Ethics and Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations.
Tommaso Ramus has worked in consultancy for several Italian social enterprises and
for profit organizations on projects related to organizational reconfiguration, organizational
change and ethical leadership.
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Contact(s) and Office hours:
Office: 5318
Mail: tommaso.ramus@ucp.pt
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