Ethics & Governance
Lecture 1: Introduction to
Ethics & Governance
Overview Today
•A brief introduction to the course’s
management, readings and assessments
•Plagiarism – academic integrity
•Essay writing – study research techniques
•Ethics and morality
•Ethics and the law
•Ethics in business and corporate
governance
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
2
Readings
 There is no prescribed textbook for this subject.
 There are essential readings on the myRMIT
studies website.
 A lot of the material in the course has been
developed from these two texts which are excellent
references:
1. Mallin, C A, 2010. Corporate Governance, Oxford
University Press, UK.
2. Trevino, LK & Nelson, KA (2011) Managing Business
Ethics: Straight Talk about How to Do It Right (5th Edition),
John Wiley, USA.
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
3
Assessment Overview
Research Essay (2000 words)
40%
Due date: TBA.
Exam
60%
Scheduled during examinations period
All assessment tasks must be submitted
to pass & 50% must be attained in order
to pass
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
4
Assessment 1: Research Essay
(2000 words)
Choose one of the following three topics:
1. Is the formal cultural system within a firm the most
important factor in creating an ethical workplace? How
do formal cultural systems attempt to promote ethics?
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
5
For the essay:Use at least 15 references:
* eight academic journal articles
peer reviewed
&
* six other quality references
Electronic and Hardcopy submission.
Turnitin
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
6
Assessment Criteria for the Essay
• Key issues relating to the question have been developed
• Original and clear argument
• Logical and convincing discussion
• Ideas and assertions substantiated through use of high quality
reference material and key academic perspectives/views used to
develop arguments
• Appropriate Harvard style referencing (intext and list of
references)
• Number and quality of references
• Clear and comprehensive written style (spelling, grammar,
syntax etc.)
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
7
Harvard referencing style continued
•Harvard is an author-date referencing style
widely accepted in scholarly circles. Each
reference is indicated in the text by the
author and date of the publication cited,
sometimes with added information such as
page numbers. The full details of these
references are listed at the end of the text
in a Reference list. Please follow this
information given to you by us regarding
referencing.
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
8
Harvard Referencing continued
• Here is another clear guide to show our students and
staff how to reference using the Harvard Referencing
style.
• Harvard Citation Style Examples
• Follow this link for a simple and clear way to use
Harvard Citation Style Examples –
• http://guides.is.uwa.edu.au/content.php?pid=43218&sid
=318559
• The PDF for the above url is also on the on MyRMIT
Learning Hub for this Course – see Assessment
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
9
REFERENCING FROM THE INTERNET
You cannot copy works (text, images, media etc.) off
the
Internet without referencing your source.
• If you are using text, an image or other media from a
webpage, you must reference the material.
• Check with your lecturer or course guides for your
course requirements.
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
10
Essay assessment criteria
• See the Course information Document for
assessment criteria for the essay.
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
11
Ethics vs Morality
•
Morality reflects a person’s or group’s
standards of right and wrong. Moral
understanding is usually developed
passively.
•
Ethics is the assessment of moral
standards. Ethics is developed actively –
through the use of theories and experience.
RMIT University©2013
School of Management
12