Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability (BØK109)

Content

Students will be presented with different views on the nature and scope of the social responsibility of business, with particular emphasis on shareholder theory and stakeholder theory. Not favouring any particular of these, the presentation will encourage and allow the students to make an independent assessment of their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Students will also be introduced to various frameworks for responsible operations that companies today are expected to operate within. These include government regulations as well as various non-legally binding international conventions and agreements, of which UN's Global Compact is among the most important. An important question in this connection will be how considerations of profit may be balanced with the considerations of responsibility, as defined by the relevant frameworks.

The course will further introduce students to characteristic ethical and responsibility challenges pertaining to companies’ relationships with important stakeholder groups, such as owners, employees, customers, suppliers, and competitors. Relatedly, the course will familiarize them with various tools that can be used to identify, analyze, and handle such challenges. In addition to theories within normative ethics and political philosophy, these will include theories about ethical decision-making and theories about organizational implementation of accountability-promoting measures.

In light of the overall objective of the course - to contribute to strengthening companies' business ethical competence - the course will facilitate the development of the ability to convey and apply knowledge about ethics, social responsibility and sustainability in future working life contexts in a clear and assured way.

Learning outcome

Having completed the course, students are expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

• Knowledge of business issues related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability, and theories related to these.
• Knowledge of existing frameworks for ethical, socially responsible, and sustainable business conduct.
• Knowledge of challenges related to ethics, social responsibility, sustainability within different areas of companies' activities, and of tools that may be used to meet these, including normative ethics and political philosophy.

Skills

• The ability to discuss business issues related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability.
• The ability to recognize, analyze, and handle business challenges related to ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability at the individual as well as the organizational level.
• The ability to convey knowledge about business matters related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability in a clear and assured way.

Required prerequisite knowledge

Exam

Coursework requirements

Course teacher(s)

Casual teacher:

Course coordinator:

Study Program Director:

Method of work

Open for

Course assessment

Literature