COURSE GUIDE   ix

COURSE GUIDE DESCRIPTION

You must read this Course Guide carefully from the beginning to the end. It tellsyou briefly what the course is about and how you can work your way throughthe course material. It also suggests the amount of time you are likely to spend inorder to complete the course successfully. Please keep on referring to Course Guide  as you go through the course material as it will help you to clarifyimportant study components or points that you might miss or overlook.

INTRODUCTION

OUMM3203 Professional Ethics is one of the courses offered by Faculty of Business and Management at Open University Malaysia (OUM). This course isworth 3 credit hours and should be covered over 8 to 15 weeks.

COURSE AUDIENCE

This is a compulsory OUM course for all students of OUM.

As an open and distance learner, you should be acquainted with learningindependently and being able to optimise the learning modes and environmentavailable to you. Before you begin this course, please confirm the course material,the course requirements and how the course is conducted.

STUDY SCHEDULE

It is a standard OUM practice that learners accumulate 40 study hours for everycredit hour. As such, for a three-credit hour course, you are expected to spend120 study hours. Table 1 gives an estimation of how the 120 study hours could beaccumulated.

 

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Table 1: Estimation of Time Accumulation of Study Hours

Study Activities

Study

Hours

Briefly go through the course content and participate in initial discussion 3

Study the module 60

Attend 3 to 5 tutorial sessions 10

Online participation 12

Revision 15

Assignment(s), Test(s) and Examination(s) 20

TOTAL STUDY HOURS 120

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, learners should be able to:

1. Discuss a variety of ethical issues related to business and professionalpractices;

2. Explain different ethical and theoretical perspectives;

3. Explain law as a combined moral judgement;

4. Elaborate on stakeholder perspective;

5. Describe the future of Corporate Governance;

6. Discuss several causes of unethical behaviour in organisations; and

7. Discuss good management, employment rights and how the economicsystem deals with the opportunities related to employment.

COURSE SYNOPSIS

This course is divided into 10 topics. The synopsis for each topic is presented below: 

Topic 1 aims to introduce the learner to fundamental concepts and theories of morals, the history and development of ethical theories, and a systematic studyof right and wrong with a critical application of ethical theories to current socialproblems.

 

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Topic 2 focuses on stakeholder relationships. Stakeholders are individuals orgroups who can affect by the actions, decisions, policies or goals of anorganisation. Stakeholders can be categorised into market and non-marketstakeholders.

Topic 3 deals with the question of finding a balance between economic performanceand the social performance of an organisation when faced with an ethical dilemma.

Topic 4 examines issues related to the law as a guide to managerial decisions andactions, and the causes of unethical behaviour in an organisation.

Topic 5 focuses on unethical behaviour in an organisation and the responsibilitiesof the senior management.

Topic 6 exposed the learner to ethics in the organisational context, focusing moreon social responsibility.

Topic 7 discusses about corporate governance, its definition, reason of study itand also the future of corporate governance.

Topic 8 outlines the general economic systems which deal with the opportunityrelated to employment.

Topic 9 details the employeeÊs right to privacy and instances leading to violationsof privacy. This topic also identifies a variety of factors influencing the appraisalof an employeeÊs performance.

Topic 10 discusses the actual meaning of loyalty to a company or an organisation.

TEXT ARRANGEMENT GUIDE

Before you go through this module, it is important that you note the textarrangement. Understanding the text arrangement should help you to organiseyour study of this course to be more objective and more effective. Generally, thetext arrangement for each topic is as follows:

Learning Outcomes: This section refers to what you should achieve after youhave completely gone through a topic. As you go through each topic, you shouldfrequently refer to these learning outcomes. By doing this, you can continuouslygauge your progress of digesting the topic.

Self-Check: This component of the module is inserted at strategic locationsthroughout the module. It is inserted after you have gone through one sub-section or sometimes a few sub-sections. It usually comes in the form of a

 

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question that may require you to stop your reading and start thinking. When youcome across this component, try to reflect on what you have already gonethrough. When you attempt to answer the question prompted, you should beable to gauge whether you have understood what you have read (clearly,vaguely or worse you might find out that you had not comprehended or retainedthe sub-section(s) that you had just gone through). Most of the time, the answersto the questions can be found directly from the module itself.

Activity: Like Self-Check, activities are also placed at various locations or juncturesthroughout the module. Compared to Self-Check, Activity can appear in variousforms such as questions, short case studies or it may even ask you to conduct anobservation or research. Activity may also ask your opinion and evaluation on agiven scenario. When you come across an Activity, you should try to widen whatyou have gathered from the module and introduce it to real situations. You shouldengage yourself in higher order thinking where you might be required to analyse,synthesise and evaluate instead of just having to recall and define.

Summary: You can find this component at the end of each topic. This componenthelps you to recap the whole topic. By going through the summary, you should

 be able to gauge your knowledge retention level. Should you find points insidethe summary that you do not fully understand, it would be a good idea for youto revisit the details from the module.

Key Terms: This component can be found at the end of each topic. You should gothrough this component to remind yourself of important terms or jargons usedthroughout the module. Should you find terms here that you are not able toexplain, you should look for the terms from the module.

References: References is where a list of relevant and useful textbooks, journals,articles, electronic contents or sources can be found. This list can appear in a fewlocations such as in the Course Guide (at References section), at the end of everytopic or at the back of the module. You are encouraged to read and refer to thesuggested sources to elicit the additional information needed as well as toenhance your overall understanding of the course.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

There is no prerequisite requirement for learners prior taking this subject.

ASSESSMENT METHOD

Please refer to myVLE.

 

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REFERENCES

Carroll, A. B., & Buchholtz, A. K. (2006). Business and Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management. (6th ed.). Ohio: South-Western

Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. (1995). The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation:Concepts, Evidence, Implications. Academy of Management Review 20 (1),65-91.

Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach . Boston:Pitman Publishing.

Hosmer, L. 1991. The ethics of management . (2nd ed.). Boston: Irwin.

Institue for Global Ethics. (2006). Cooked Books, Fried Reputation: Study, Ethics Newsline (Vol. 2006): Ethics Newsline.

Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2011). Business and Society: Stakeholders , Ethicsand Public Policy (13th ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.

Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2011). Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics and Public Policy. (13th ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill.

Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a Theory of StakeholderIdentification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What ReallyCounts. The Academy of Management Review, 22 (4), 853-886.

Thorne, D. M., Ferrell, O. C., & Ferrell, L. (2008). Business and Society. (3th ed.).Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Wheeler, D., & Sillanpaa, M., The Stakeholder Corporation: A Blueprint forMaximising Stakeholder Value, London: Pitman Publishing. (1997). The Stakeholder Corporation: A Blueprint for Maximising Stakeholder Value .London: Pitman Publishing.