NVCC COLLEGE-WIDE COURSE CONTENT SUMMARY
BUS 265 - ETHICAL ISSUES IN MANAGEMENT (3 CR.)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Examines the legal, ethical, and social responsibilities of management. May use cases to develop the ability to think and act responsibly. Lecture 3 hours per week.

GENERAL COURSE PURPOSE

To introduce the student to the ethical concepts that are relevant to making managerial decisions and to develop the reasoning skills needed to apply ethical concepts to managerial decisions. This course can be used as an elective to all Business programs.

ENTRY LEVEL COMPETENCIES

An ability to read, comprehend, and analyze material written at a college level. An ability to write and present ideas using standard English.

GENERAL COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon the successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

    1. describe the ethical concepts relevant to business situations
    2. demonstrate reasoning skills needed to apply ethical concepts in managerial decision-making
    3. display an understanding of the role of business in society
    4. understand case studies of actual ethical problems faced by business manager
MAJOR TOPICS TO BE COVERED
    1. The nature of ethics
    1. normative judgments
    2. moral judgments
    3. business ethics
    4. moral reasoning
    5. moral responsibility
    6. corporate responsibility
    1. The business environment
    1. ethics in the marketplace
    2. the role of government
    3. the manager's legal and moral responsibility
    4. monopolies and oligopolies
    1. Ethics and the natural environment
    1. ethics of pollution control
    2. ethics of natural resource conservation
    1. Ethics and the consumers
    1. consumers rights
    2. debtors rights
    3. business duties of consumers
    4. advertising ethics
    5. product liability
    1. Ethics and the employees
    1. job discrimination
    2. business duties to employees
    3. employee economic security
    4. employee counseling
    5. business duties to the disabled and to the unemployed
    6. employee civil rights
    7. privacy rights
    8. employee obligations to the firm
    1. Ethics and stockholders
    1. business duties to stockholders
    2. duties to other constituencies
    3. responsibilities of the board
    4. social audits
    5. codes of ethics
    6. ethics of mergers
    7. acquisitions
    8. buy outs
OPTIONAL TOPICS
    1. Current business issues having ethical implications
    2. Ethics and international competition
    3. Ethical issues in non-profit institutions
Revised 8/96
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