BE439-6-AU-CO:
Business Ethics
2023/24
Essex Business School
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 15 December 2023
15
27 September 2023
Requisites for this module
BE410
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BSC N200 Business Management,
BSC N201 Business Management (Including Foundation Year),
BSC N202 Business Management (Including Year Abroad),
BSC N204 Business Management (Including Placement Year),
BA T7N2 Latin American Studies with Business Management,
BA T7N4 Latin American studies with Business Management (Including Foundation Year),
BSC N2N5 Management and Marketing (Including Foundation Year),
BSC NN25 Management and Marketing,
BSC NN2M Management and Marketing (Including Placement Year),
BSC NNF5 Management and Marketing (Including Year Abroad),
BA VV20 Philosophy with Business Management,
BA VV21 Philosophy with Business Management (Including Foundation Year),
BA VV22 Philosophy with Business Management (Including Placement Year),
BA VV23 Philosophy with Business Management (Including Year Abroad),
BA L933 Global Studies with Business Management,
BA L934 Global Studies with Business Management (Including Foundation Year),
BA L935 Global Studies with Business Management (Including Placement Year),
BA L936 Global Studies with Business Management (Including Year Abroad),
MMANNN35 Marketing and Management,
MMANNN36 Marketing and Management (Including Placement Year),
MMANNN37 Marketing and Management (Including Year Abroad),
BA L215 Politics with Business,
BA L216 Politics with Business (Including Placement Year),
BA L217 Politics with Business (including Year Abroad),
BSC LL25 Politics with Business,
BSC LL26 Politics with Business (Including Placement Year),
BSC LL27 Politics with Business (including Year Abroad),
BSC N260 Business and Human Resource Management,
BSC N261 Business and Human Resource Management (including Placement Year),
BSC N262 Business and Human Resource Management (including Year Abroad),
BSC N263 Business and Human Resource Management (Including Foundation Year)
This module builds upon your existing understandings of management and organisation by considering specifically the ethics of, and in, business. The emergent field of Business Ethics and associated field of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability have made particular contributions in shaping an ethical examination of business.
In this module you will be introduced to the origins, practice and theory of Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. You will be provided with the conceptual and theoretical resources to examine critically the nature of their contributions. Identifying particular assumptions that inform but also constrain the Business Ethics field the module also explores a number of wider literatures and perspectives that provide further resources for a critical examination of the ethics of business.
The aims of this module are:
- To provide an understanding of business and management as a complex and contested ethical terrain.
- To provide an appreciation of the emergent discipline of Business Ethics and enable students to identify, explore and critique its contributions.
- To develop students’ appreciation of the basis of ethical reflexivity and agency and awareness of potential inhibitors to their expression in an organised context.
- Through class discussion, reading, participation and assessment to develop students’ abilities to engage in critical argumentation that is informed by, and sensitive to, their own and others’ ethical perspectives and values.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Understand a range of ethical factors in, and perspectives, practices and critiques of, business and organisation.
- Develop greater sensitivity and awareness of implied and explicit ethical assumptions and beliefs in their own and others’ argumentation.
- Critically analyse, using appropriate ethical concepts and theory, management and business practices and the contribution of the field of Business Ethics towards enhancing ethical accountability in business.
No additional information available.
The module will be delivered via:
- A mixture of formal lectures and classes.
You are strongly advised to attend all lectures and seminars and participate fully. In the seminars you will discuss and debate empirical and theoretical research on business ethics, examine relevant influential representations of the ethics of business in film and other media, and consider examples from contemporary organisational practice. Details of the necessary reading and preparation required for the seminars will be provided on Moodle.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Bakan and Friedman Entry (Weekly Journal) |
|
|
| Coursework |
ASSESSMENT ONE - DISCUSSION JOURNAL |
|
40% |
| Coursework |
ASSESSMENT TWO - RESEARCH ESSAY |
|
60% |
Additional coursework information
- Coursework 1 (discussion journal, as combination of different entries during the term) - worth 40%
- Coursework 2 (research essay, around 2000 words) - worth 60%
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Ms Sandra Moog, email: samoog@essex.ac.uk.
Sandra Moog, Raysa Rocha, David Watson & Samantha Woodward
email: ebsugcol@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
No
Dr MARGARITA NYFOUDI
University of Birmingham
Associate Professor of Human Resource Management & Organisational Behaviour
Available via Moodle
Of 109 hours, 27 (24.8%) hours available to students:
2 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
80 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.