MRSyllabus_E0211.v1

Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

Academic Year: 2013-2014 Trimester: 2nd and 3rd

Instructor(s): Tommaso Ramus __________________________________________________________________________________

Course Description: Why does Ethics matter in business? What are the ethical responsibilities associated with being a manager, an accountant or a financial trader? What are the main communalities and differences of recent corporate scandals and how is it possible to adopt individual and organizational strategies to prevent new ones? Why should business organizations behave in a socially responsible way? How can organizations develop a business strategy that integrates the generation of commercial and social value? This course will assist students to answer such questions through the discussion of case studies concerning ethical issues and dilemmas faced by managers, financial professionals and entrepreneurs in different cultural, industrial and organizational contexts.

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Course Content: This course will examine the most recent approaches to corporate social responsibility and a broad range of alternative applied ethics theories in support to managerial and professional decision making. Perspectives will include professional and applied ethics, law, public policy, organizational design, strategy, and organizational behavior. The course will be based on the analysis and discussion in class of case studies concerning the most controversial corporate scandals such as Enron, challenging corporate crises such as Deutsche Telekom and Guidant Corporation and innovative CSR strategies as in the case of Nike and Timberland.

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Course Objectives:

• Become familiar with tools and procedures to prevent, identify and resolve corporate scandals and crises caused by unethical behaviours

• Understanding the mutual relationship between financial, relational and ethical drivers in managerial decision making

• Become familiar with tools and procedures to understand and manage different stakeholders’ demands and pressures

• Understanding the opportunities associated with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement and how to integrate socially responsible practices in organizational and strategic planning

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MRSyllabus_E0211.v1

Grading: 30% class participation 70% final exam

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Bibliography:

• Jeffrey Skilling, Bernie Madoff the Monster & the Other Smartest Guys of the Room (BE-0180-E IESE Case Study)

• Guidant: Disclosure or not disclosure? (BE-168-E IESE Case Study)

• "Do you really think we are so stupid?" A letter to the CEO of Deutsche Telekom (A) (ES1001 ESMT Case Study)

• Addiopizzo: Mafia, Anti-mafia or hiding in the grey area? (BE-172-E IESE case study)

• Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing, and a Partnership with Nike (E376 Stanford Graduate School of Business case study)

• Timberland: Commerce and Justice (305002 Harvard Business School case study)

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Biography:

Tommaso Ramus is Assistant Professor for the area of Business Ethics at CATOLICA-LISBON. Before joining CATOLICA, Tommaso Ramus was post doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Business in Society of the IESE Business School (Spain) and researcher at the European Research Institute for Cooperatives and Social Enterprises (EURICSE). He received a MSc in Business Administration (University of Trento, Italy) and a PhD in Management (University of Bergamo, Italy). His research focuses on social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and institutional complexity. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics and Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. Tommaso Ramus has worked in consultancy for several Italian social enterprises and for profit organizations on projects related to organizational reconfiguration, organizational change and ethical leadership.

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Contact(s) and Office hours:

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