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Culture and Ethics in Business Fourth Module 2015 Tuesday and Friday 10:30-12:20
Culture and Ethics in Business
Fourth Module 2015
Tuesday and Friday
10:30-12:20
Prof. Christopher Balding
#744
Office Hours: Tuesday
9:00-10:00
Course Objectives
• No one here end up in the newspaper for scandalous behavior.
• Provide you the tools, skills, and back ground to become the ethical and moral leaders of China and the world.
• Improve critical thinking and creative problem solving skills to be able to analyze ethical and cultural dilemmas in the work place and arrive at well reasoned solutions to problems faced in the work place.
Student Expectations
• Come to class COMPLETELY prepared.
• All work must be turned in on time.
• Students must be able to critically analyze and present independent thought about the material covered in class.
Student Don’ts
• The student MUST perform their own work. Any student caught cheating, plagiarizing, or using others work will receive a failing grade for the course automatically. No exceptions.
• Attend class.
Class Resources
• The course syllabus and readings will be available at: baldingsworld.com/courses
• All readings will be available online through the group in the “Files” section for easy downloading.
• Merlin will collect the course email list. It is vital that you receive and check emails.
Class Readings
• You are expected to have completed the reading, prepared questions, and be ready to engage in discussion about the material before attending class.
• The student must be able to analyze the text and decide based upon the given information such questions as: which facts are more important, what additional information might be helpful in making a decision, how might I act differently, why would my actions be differently, does culture play a role in the decision made?
• Merely being able to restate the facts will not give the student a good grade!!
Class Presentations
• Each team will be required to give one presentation. The presentation will count for 15% of your final grade.
• The presentation must present a critical analysis of the text and not simply restate what was written.
• The presentation should be as if to a board of directors who have already read the case study.
Class Presentations cont.
• The presenter should doing things such as recommending a course of action, how a situation could have been handled better and why, what would be recommendations to avoid future problems, or discussing the ethical or cultural dilemmas at hand.
• Students are encouraged to use computer resources such as PowerPoint, hand outs, or other materials in making their presentations.
Writing Assignments
• Teams will be assigned writing assignments for the midterm and final of 2-5 pages each over the course of the class which will require them to critically analyze a case study or ethical dilemma.
• The student must analyze the case study or situation provided by the professor and critically analyze the fundamental problem, strengths and weaknesses, and recommend a course of action and defend the recommendation made.
• Students are encouraged to think like managers and act as if they have been given an assignment and must make a recommendation about how to handle a specific situation and defend their choice to the board of directors.
Writing Assignments cont.
• Students must present a hard copy of the written assignment at the beginning of class. Students must also email an electronic copy to the professor before the beginning of class.
• Written assignments will comprise a total of 40% of the final grade.
Class Participation
• Class participation will count for 15% of your final grade.
• Class participation is very important and you are expected to arrive at class prepared to work through the foundational readings and case studies presented.
• You are required to prepare three questions about each case study and three questions on the foundational reading.
Class Participation cont.
• You should be prepared to ask these questions in class so we can work through the ethical questions and so you gain a better understanding of the material being presented.
• I will not make a habit of collecting questions and grading them. However, if I do not feel that students are coming to class prepared, ready to ask questions, and discuss the material I will collect and grade questions.
• Students are encouraged to ask the presenters about contradictions, strengths or weaknesses of the readings, how it relates to other readings, or why one was better than another for instance.
Class Structure
• First 20-30 minutes I will lecture and we will cover the basic themes of the week
• The second half hour a student will give a presentation on the foundational readings
• The second hour we will have student presentations on the two case studies
• The last 5-10 minutes will consist of wrap up and general questions about the weeks theme
Teams
• Each student should be apart of a 2 person team
• International students should only be on a team with a Chinese student
• Teams will submit the midterm and final jointly and will be held responsible for any issues of plagiarism found.
Final Class Notes
• Additional class readings will be posted on the website. This class schedule should not be considered final and the student will be responsible for additional readings, projects, and assignments not listed below.
• Any student caught cheating, plagiarizing, or using others work will receive a failing grade for the course automatically. No exceptions.
General Course Outline
• Foundations to Ethics and Culture
• The Relationship between Culture and Ethics
• The Corporation and the Individual
• Government and Business
• Leadership and the Organization
• Ethics in Finance
• Ethics in China
Readings for May 12th
• Cases: “Bhopal (A): Choosing a Safe Plant Location and Design”,
Darden Business School Case Study, Sarah Diersen “’AIDS is Not a Business’: A Study in Global Corporate
Responsibility – Securing Access to Low-cost HIV Medications”, Journal of Business Ethics, William Flanagan and Gail Whiteman
Readings for May 12th
• Foundations:
“What Makes Ethics Practical”, Kenneth Winston, Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Research Working Paper Series
“An Economic Approach to Business Ethics: Moral Agency of the Firm and the Enabling and Constraining Effects of Economic Institutions and Interaction in a Market Economy”, The Journal of Business Ethics, Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto
Writing Assignment Due May 12th
With regards to business ethics, what do I believe and why do I believe it?
2-3 pages
Electronic and Hard copy due at the beginning of class. CC to TA who I will announce via email
Introduction to Ethics and Culture
• Why are you taking this class?
• What do you hope to learn?
• Why are culture and ethics important in business, economics, and finance?
How a 25-Year-Old Sparked Lumber Liquidators’ Stock Plunge
Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc.’s stock plunge over the past week, fueled by allegations of excessive formaldehyde in its flooring, can be traced back to a blog post from an obscure 25-year-old short seller. Xuhua Zhou, who had dropped out of UCLA’s doctoral program in finance and became an individual investor, took an interest in Lumber Liquidators about two years ago. After seeing a surge in the company’s gross profit margin, Zhou learned that it sourced some products from China. That raised his suspicions that safety might have been skirted in pursuit of lower costs, he said in an interview.
How a 25-Year-Old Sparked Lumber Liquidators’ Stock Plunge cont.
Zhou, who was born and raised in China, already had experience researching suppliers in the country, so he began investigating. His digging ultimately led to lawsuits, a “60 Minutes” report and accolades from the well-known short seller Whitney Tilson, who also bet against Lumber Liquidators…. When Zhou began looking into the Toano, Virginia-based company back in 2013, he says he found online complaints about its Chinese-made flooring. So he bought products from Lumber Liquidators and paid to have them analyzed.
A Simple Ethical Question?
• Is stealing always wrong?
– Is downloading music or software wrong?
• Is corruption always wrong?
– What about buying gifts?
• Should the employee always follow the employer?
– What if the employer asks the employee to engage in unethical or illegal behavior?
Conclusion for May 8th
• Business ethics requires thinking through difficult decisions
• Answers are rarely simple
