Business Ethics 
Philosophy 211: Section 3 
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 12:00 
Spring 2000 
Instructor: Dr. Alexander Bertland
Office Hours: 10-11 Monday, Wednesday, Friday
e-mail: bertland@scranton.com		 Office: St. Thomas 558
Office Phone: 941-4183
Course Description and Objectives 

     When people think of criteria for making business decisions, they generally think of either profit or law. This class will examine morality as the third -- and perhaps the most important -- criteria for decision making in business. 
     The primary theoretical goal of this course will be to show that morality should be an essential element of business activity. It will do this in a number of ways. It will show that business operates more efficiently when it is grounded on ethical motives. It will show that using economic methods such as cost benefit analysis to make business decisions are not morally neutral and require sound moral footing to work. It will show that managers and CEO's have a moral responsibility to a company's stakeholders and not just its stockholders. In making these arguments, however, it is important to note that the course will not question the overall legitimacy of capitalism and will acknowledge profit as a necessary goal of business. 
     The secondary theoretical goal of the course will be to show that business ethics is best grounded in Aristotelian virtue ethics. One of the primary dangers of the corporate world is that it encourages people to compartmentalize their lives; it causes people to act one way at home and another way at work. Aristotle reminds us that happiness depends on an integrated character that achieves happiness through reaching a state excellence defined by motives other than profit. 
     The practical goal of the course will be to give students training and practice in using morality as a criteria for making business decisions. As a result, the students will be able to see situations in business more critically and evaluate them more thoroughly. More important, the students will also be able to identify situations in business where they can employ ethical decision making. The business world often creates corporate cultures that suppress the discussion of ethics. This class will help the students see through such cultures in order to recognize situations that call for moral reasoning. 
Course Requirements
3 Exams 
3 Case Studies 
Class Participation		 10 % each
20 % each
10 %
     Exams: The exams will be given on the dates listed below. No make-up exams will be given unless there is a serious emergency and the student has shown the instructor a written excuse from the university or a doctor. The exams will be in-class exams, and they will try to encourage the students to remember and understand the important ideas and arguments of the readings. 
     Case Studies: The papers will be due at the start of class on the dates listed below. One letter grade will be deducted for each day the paper is late. No excuses will be accepted, and any sort of excuses regarding computer failure will be especially unacceptable. The papers will be 4 to 6 type-written pages in length. They will be critical evaluations of specific case studies drawn from business situations. They will be graded on how well they argue for a particular moral evaluation of the case and on how well they incorporate the readings and discussions from class. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and can result in failure for the course. 
     Class Participation: This class is meant to teach the students how to think about and discuss business ethics as much as to teach specific concepts related to this subject matter. Because of this, the student's performance in class discussion will be an important part of the final grade. Specifically, the students are expected to read carefully the material for each class and to come to class prepared with ideas related to the reading. Students are also expected to pay attention in class in order to stay active in class discussion. 
     Readings: Many of the texts selected for this class are very challenging. Nevertheless, it is their intricate and sophisticated nature that makes them valuable for a class such as this. These texts grapple with a very complex subject matter in an attempt to generate theories that are both subtle and grounded in good argumentation. The students are expected to read these texts with respect for their subtlety and with regard for their detail. Reading texts such as these is time-consuming but an important part of the learning process. 
     Students will be expected to come to class having read the texts and prepared to discuss their merits and faults. If, at any point in the semester, the professor suspects that the students are not doing the reading, the professor reserves the right to give reading quizzes, the results of which will be incorporated into the class participation grade. 
     Important Note: The student is free to miss 3 days of class for any reason; however, missing more than 3 classes will affect the student's class participation grade. Further, missing 6 or more classes usually results in failure. 
     Required Text Ethical Issues in Business: A Philosophical Approach. 6th edition. Edited by Thomas Donaldson and Patricia H. Werhane. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999. 
Schedule
Mon 1/31: Introduction
Wed 2/2: The Invisible Hand Smith, Benefits of the Profit Motive, 138-141. 
Fri 2/4:  Donaldson and Werhane, Introduction to Ethical Reasoning, 1-11.
Mon 2/7:  Sen, Does Business Ethics Make Economic Sense? 12-20.
Deception  
Wed 2/9: Case Study, Sears Auto Centers, 479-496. Case Study, Italian Tax Mores, 25-26. 
Fri 2/11: Kant, Ethical Duties Towards Others: Truthfulness, 27-32.
Mon 2/14: Carr, Is Business Bluffing Ethical? 33-38. Betz, Business Ethics and Politics, 39-42. 
Wed 2/16: Cramton and Dees, Promoting Honesty in Negotiation: An Exercise in Practical Ethics, 43-62.
Virtue  
Fri 2/18: Case Study, Run Inc. 63-80. Solomon, Corporate Roles, Personal Virtues: An Aristotelean Approach to Business Ethics, 81-92. 
Mon 2/21: Solomon Continued
Wed 2/23: Jackall, Moral Mazes: Bureaucracy and Managerial Work, 93-110.
Profit  
Fri 2/25: Locke, The Justification of Private Property, 128-132. Marx, Alienated Labour, 133-138. 
Mon 2/28:  Carnegie, Wealth, 142-147.
Wed 3/1: Exam
Fri 3/3: Case Study, Merck & Co., Inc., 148-153. Friedman, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits, 154-158. 
Mon 3/6: Frank, Can Socially Responsible Firms Survive in a Competitive Environment? 159-174.
Wed 3/8: First Case Study Due Bird and Waters, The Moral Muteness of Managers, 175-188. 
Fri 3/10: No Class
3/13 - 3/17: No Class: Spring Break
Stakeholders  
Mon 3/20: Case Study, H. B. Fuller in Honduras, 234-246. Freeman, Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation, 247-256. 
Wed 3/22: Goodpaster, Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysis, 257-270.
Fri 3/24:  McCoy, The Parable of the Sadhu, 278-284.
Multinationals  
Mon 3/27: Case Study, What Price Safety? 377-379. Bowie, Relativism, Cultural and Moral, 380-384. 
Wed 3/29:  Case Study, Just When is a Tip ONLY Another Means to Insure Promptness? 389-391. De George, International Business Ethics and Incipient Capitalism: A Double Standard, 418-430. 
Fri 3/31:  Case Study, Levi-Strauss & Co.: Global Sourcing, 392-417. Donaldson, Values in Tension: Ethics away from Home, 431-441. 
Mon 4/3: Exam
Advertising  
Wed 4/5: Case Study, Joe Camel: The Cartoon Character Who Sells Cigarettes, 446-447. Crisp, Persuasive Advertising, Autonomy and the Creation of Desire, 448-455. 
Fri 4/7: Second Case Study Due Singer et al. The Case of Framing by Framing, 456-465. 
Mon 4/10: Brenkert, Marketing to Inner-City Blacks: PowerMaster and Moral Responsibility, 466-478.
Nature  
Wed 4/12: Case Study, Shell and Nigerian Oil, 539-564. Simon, Scarcity or Abundance, 565-573. Partridge, Holes in the Cornucopia, 574-591. 
Fri 4/14: No Class
Mon 4/17: No Class
Wed 4/19: Kelman, Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Ethical Critique, 595-602. Hellman, Integrating the Environment into Business Planning, 592-594. 
4/21-4/24 No Class: Easter Break
Diversity  
Wed 4/26: Schwartz, Management Women and the New Facts of Life, 340-350.
Fri 4/28: McIntosh, White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies, 351-359.
Mon 5/1: Dodds et al. Sexual Harassment, 360-372.
Whistleblowing  
Wed 5/3: Case Study, The Aircraft Brake Scandal, 285-296. Bok, Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility, 297-303. 
Fri 5/5: Third Case Study Due Bok continued 
Strategy  
Mon 5/8: Senge, The Leader's New Work: Building Learning Organizations, 497-518.
Wed 5/10:  Newton, The Many Faces of the Corporate Code, 519-525.
Fri 5/12: Paine, Managing for Organizational Integrity, 526-538.
May 15: Final Exams Begin, Date of Final to be Determined

Comment: Due to possible unforeseen circumstances and the direction the class naturally takes, it is possible that some topics might not be covered, some might be added, or the order of topics be changed. The instructor reserves the right to change topics or homework assignments as he sees fit. Test dates, paper due-dates and any grading procedure (with the exception of the possible introduction of reading quizzes) will only be changed with the approval of the class.