Course aims

This Ethics, Governance and Sustainability (EGS) course aims to provide you with an understanding of business in the social context and the impacts this has on management decision making, business strategy, and general business conduct. The course critically explores the topics of business ethics, sustainable business, and corporate governance. The course encourages active debate and reflection, and challenges you to examine your own values and beliefs by presenting alternate and culturally diverse narratives on the topics covered.

From the title of this course it might seem as if it’s about 3 different topics but as we progress, it will hopefully become apparent that each of the areas of ethics, governance and sustainability are inseparable in the business context. In particular, you will see how the idea of what it means for humanity to live sustainably (that is, for there to be a sustainable world) is grounded in principles of equity and justice that link directly to ethical decision making. Further, ethical and sustainable business practice is depended on good corporate governance processes being in place.

This course covers a lot of ground, and each of the 3 key areas we look at is big enough to be a course in its own right.

The main objective then is to give you enough to gain a fair understanding of the key issues and, importantly, to have take-away value from each class that you can apply in your own personal and professional lives.

Before you get started on the course material, a few comments might help.

First is that we take a critical look at the topics we cover. By this I mean we won’t just be taking things that various commentators might say on the topics areas we cover as being the way things might be in the real world, or the way things should be in the world.

Even if the views being expressed in some of the course material might toe the mainstream line, we will try and put up some alternate views to provide a broader perspective. In this sense, we try to run the course in a way that puts everything under the microscope and everything is up to critique and challenge.

This can be quite confronting at times as it can see our own values and beliefs open to this same critique but again, that’s part of what learning is all about.

The other way this can be confronting is that alternate views to mainstream thought can be seen as a bit ‘out there’ – maybe too extreme on the political right or the political left.

We will nonetheless put some of these views up for discussion and let you ponder their merits. These views find their way into the social space regardless, and this course gives us a chance to look at some of them and consider their merits and implications.

Next is that pretty well every area we cover in this course is controversial, will see different opinions show themselves, and can stimulate some quite robust debate. This is all good and is strongly encouraged. Just be respectful in your comments to others and importantly open your own views to challenge.

Remember also that although giving your opinion is encouraged, it needs to be an informed and considered opinion, not just something off the cuff based on values and beliefs that have not been open to your own self reflection.

The third point is that, in the course, we look at a number of cases and examples that are a mix of what we could term “good things happening” and “bad things happening”.

Often we can get as much value from seeing where companies have not done the right thing as we can from cases that show the positive.

Also, a couple of the cases – Interface Global for example – are used over 2 or 3 topic areas. This is done to give you time to look into these cases in a bit more detail than if we keep throwing a new case at you each week.

We will give you plenty of snap-shot practical examples along the way covering a broad set of businesses and industries so hopefully by the end of the course, there will have been a good mix of real world examples to learn from.

Finally, some people who have taken the class are not sure that the sequencing of topics is in the best order. Should Governance be first or last?...and so on. There’s no magical answer to this but hopefully the sequencing, and how we will try and link sections together, will work well for you.

So enjoy the course and feel free to drop me a message if you have any questions or comments about the course content or how the course is run.

We are always looking to improve the course so your feedback would be very welcome.

Topics

Topics 1 & 2 consider the purpose of the firm and its role in society. These two topics look at the firm from the perspective of a shareholder approach and an alternate stakeholder approach, and then in terms of a corporate social responsibility view and a triple bottom line view.

Topics 3 & 4 then consider issues of ethics and justice. We look at what it means to make ethical decisions and what it means to act justly, with particular reference to business conduct.

Topics 5, 6, 7 & 8 then consider what it means for humanity to live sustainably – that is, for there to be a sustainable world, how this links to issue of justice we covered in topic 4, and what it means for business to make a positive contribution to a sustainable world, that is, to be a sustainable business.

Finally, in topics 9 and 10, we consider the issue of corporate governance and make particular reference to the role corporate governance has in seeing a firm fulfil its purpose in society (as per the issues covered in topics 1 & 2) and ensuring the principles of ethics, justice, and sustainable business we cover in topics 2-8 are addressed in the way a firm goes about its activities.

Each topic has a set of core (required) readings - articles and the occasional book chapter.

Additional optional readings are also referenced (where possible, these are also included in the material we provide). It’s up to you whether you read some or all of these. They are provided to give some added material to help you explore the course content in a little more depth but you are not required to read any of these additional items.

You are expected to discuss the core readings as part of the course work (in the lecture room or on-line seminar room, depending on the mode of course delivery you are undertaking). Other readings are there simply to get you thinking and pose questions you may like to work through to help further your understanding of the issues being covered.