Business Ethics (blended learning) 222167-D
Kurs internetowy (KINT) Semestr letni 2023/24

Organizational matters: grading, overview of the topics. Three relations of business and ethics: ethical business as good business; ethical business strategies; the conflict of business interests and values (whistleblowing).

Business ethics within business strategy. The need for competition and for respecting its rules and limits. Humanistic approach within managerial perspective. Introducing CSR.

The goals of business: stockholder and stakeholder approach. Details of stakeholder analysis. Business ethics within business. Business ethics within general ethics.

The basics of ethics: consequentialism, deontology and their mix. Virtue ethics. What are moral obligations? How they fit within business?

Ethics and the conflict of reasons: W.D. Ross and prima facie moral reasons. J. Haidt and moral psychology of conflicting values. The history of Business Ethics: Aristotle, A. Smith and E. Kant. Humanist, religious, socialist and feminist sources of Ethics in Business Ethics.

Status of business ethics codes. Importance of privacy and accessibility of services in banking and other domains at the age of digitalization. Should we try to codify ethics? Benefits, harms and limitations of ethical codes. Hierarchies of values. Differences and overlaps between ethics, law, religion and other values.

Global business ethics. Outsourcing: the two perspectives. Negative and positive globalization. Multispectral ethics of business. Global business and the issue of various jurisdictions. Global corporate social responsibility CSR. Immigration, pandemics, global warming -- introduction of those issues from the global perspective.

Employee rights and duties. Kant's categorical imperative's: 'treat others not ONLY as means but always ALSO as ends in themselves' as the basis of employee and stakeholder ethics.

Work-life balance. Children and the careers. Gender and race equality. Distance work and its limits. The 4th space: the mix of private life, work, social networking and online environments.

Environmental issues in business ethics. Global and local efforts towards limiting global warming, species extinction and enhancing human well being. Sustainability and growth.

Technological revolution: AI, AGI -- the new roles for people. The chance and peril for human values.

Professionalism and managerial ethics. A responsible manager at a responsible corporation. The role of the corporations, NGO's and the state. Different kinds of ownership: limited liability, private, public corporation, not for profit businesses, governmental agencies -- their roles and duties.

Ethics, professionalism and social capital. From trustworthy individuals to trustworthy institutions. Case of various criteria of credit worhiness as the issue of business rationality legality and fairness.

Social Philosophy as the background for business ethics: Local and global context.

Well ordered society, the economy and institutional economics. Topics in philosophy of economy: positional goods, economic goods. Moral and economic values in the global perspective.

Review for the finals.

Summing-up student projects, discussion, organizational issues - grades.