30281 - CSR & ETHICS IN BUSINESS
Department of Management and Technology
Course taught in English
Course Director:
ESTHER ROCA BATLLORI
ESTHER ROCA BATLLORI
Instructors:
Class 21: SOOK LIAN DAPHNE TEH, Class 22: LUCA PISTILLI
Class 21: SOOK LIAN DAPHNE TEH, Class 22: LUCA PISTILLI
Suggested background knowledge
To feel comfortable in this course, students should be familiar with basic concepts in management.
Mission & Content Summary
MISSION
Sustainable development goals, ecological problems such, globalization of supply chains and growing social and ethical conflicts affect business and decision-making processes. Consequently, companies are increasingly required to respond to these challenges developing adequate policies and practices. The seminar aims at providing students with basic concepts and a first understanding of the ethical and strategic implications of corporate responsibility and sustainability. Adopting a management perspective, the seminar intends to familiarize participants with the complexity of these decisions, and with the business opportunities resulting from a proper stakeholder management approach. We accomplish these objectives through engaging students in active learning based on highly interactive lectures, mini-case studies coupled with plenary discussions, and by providing evidences thanks to managers and practitioners’ leadership examples.
CONTENT SUMMARY
- Understanding decision-making processes
- Dealing with complex decisions, dilemmas and trade-offs in CSR and sustainability.
- Defining business ethics, CSR, and corporate sustainability.
- Understanding ethical and social challenges for managers: from climate change to social and ethical conflicts.
- A strategic approach to CSR and sustainability: competitive opportunities, legitimacy and risks.
- How to adopt CSR and sustainability practices
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course student will be able to...
The course equips students with the basic knowledge and skills to:
- Understand the complexity of decision-making processes
- Identify the moral content on decision-making processes
- Analyze the main challenges related to sustainable development.
- Differentiate between sustainability, CSR, business ethics, stakeholder theory, social entrepreneurship.
- Understand why CSR and ethics matter for business.
- Understand the business case for CSR and elaborate on the relations between the firm financial and social performance.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course student will be able to...
- Provide business examples of CSR and sustainability.
- Identify the importance of the moral and social issues on decison making processes.
- Recognise the distinctive features of a sustainable and responsible company.
- Evaluate and discuss the CSR and sustainability strategy of a company.
- Outline the main characteristics of a social enterprise.
Teaching methods
- Online lectures
- Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
- Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
- Individual assignments
- Group assignments
- Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)
DETAILS
The course uses multiple teaching approaches to favour active learning processes.
Assessment methods
Continuous assessment | Partial exams | General exam | |
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ATTENDING STUDENTS
For all students (attending and not attending), the final evaluation is expressed as “pass or fail”.
- Attendance at seminars is compulsory for all the sessions and is verified by the teachers. No class exchanges are accepted. Assessment based on individual written exam based on open questions and different group actitivities developed during the lessons. Student are required to show that they can apply some basic theories and concepts to specific situations, , and that they can analyze and discuss CSR and ethical problems at business level.
NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
For all students (attending and not attending), the final evaluation is expressed as “pass or fail”.
- Assessment based on individual project (100%). The project will cover the different parts of the teaching material, in particular checking the basic theories, constructs, and facts.
Teaching materials
ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
The material will be comunicated to the students at the first session of the course.
Last change 08/06/2022 15:02