Syllabus Professor Tom Atchison
Business Ethics Office: 320 St. John’s Hall (St. Paul Campus)
PHIL 320-01 Office hours: T 2-6,
Summer Semester 2010 Office Phone: 651-793-1493
Email: Thomas.Atchison@metrostate.edu
(Email is the best way to get a quick response.)
Course Objectives
• To introduce skills and methods that may be helpful in thinking about ethical problems. Specifically:
- how to pick out the ethical aspects or dimensions of situations and choices
- how to clearly articulate a position on an ethical issue
- how to defend and criticize ethical choices in a well-reasoned way
- how to uncover the basic assumptions that lie behind ethical choices
- how to imagine what an ethical issue looks like from the point of view of someone who disagrees with you
• To practice these critical thinking skills.
• To explore the ethical questions that can be raised about a variety of business practices and policies.
• To consider some of the ethical perspectives on business that have been developed by philosophers, economists, business leaders, sociologists, etc.
Competence Statement
Can analyze and assess a variety of business practices in light of ethical considerations and can propose courses of action which are responsive to those considerations.
Course Materials
The texts for the course are Honest Work: A Business Ethics Reader edited by Ciulla, Martin, and Solomon and Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers by Robert Jackall. They are available at the University bookstore. Any further readings will be photocopied and handed out in class or will be made available on the Internet. Some assignments for this class may require access to the Internet – Metro State provides access in its computer labs and library.
Please make sure your Metro State Netmail account is working and check regularly for class related emails
Class website: I maintain a simple website where I post course handouts and information. The URL is http://www.woldww.net/classes/
Course Description
Courses in business ethics typically introduce students to theories developed by moral philosophers about how ethical decisions ought to be made and to the work that has been done (again mostly by moral philosophers, though also by economists, lawyers and business people) to apply those theories to the moral problems that come up in business and to the moral evaluation of the business system as a whole. Much of this work is insightful and thought-provoking, but, because it ignores the social context in which business decisions are actually made, it risks being irrelevant. For example, a careful analysis of the ethical duties of businesses with regard to the disclosure of information about toxic substances in the workplace may be of little use to a manager whose boss insists that workplace hazards are important only if they affect the bottom line. A manager whose conscience is out of step with the 'corporate culture' may be regarded as foolishly stubborn rather than as admirably principled.
In an effort to avoid this kind of irrelevance, I have included Robert Jackall's Moral Mazes in this course. This book, based on extensive interviews with managers at all levels of several large corporations, provides a careful description of the actual rules prevailing in those companies and an analysis of the way the social structure of large bureaucratic business firms influences the mindset of the people who work in them. The picture is pretty bleak. Jackall describes a world where hard work does not lead reliably to success (but currying favor and projecting the right image do), where plants are 'milked' for short term profits, where transmitting 'bad news' to your superiors (no matter how accurate your information) can get you fired, where 'ethics' is a public relations ploy, and where what is 'right' is whatever your boss wants. As Jackall puts it "Within this framework, the puzzle for many managers becomes: How does one act in such a world and maintain a sense of personal integrity?" While I do not want to assume the the 'corporate climate' is so hostile to ethics at all firms (at least I hope not!) I do want to take Jackall's question seriously.
The other text is a more standard one (though also fairly pragmatic in its approach), including academic essays and case studies intended to illuminate such issues as the following:
General Issues about Ethics and Business:
1. Corporate responsibility: Do businesses have obligations other than the obligation to maximize profits for their stockholders? What are their responsibilities, if any, to their employees, their customers, and the wider community?
2. Regulation and self-regulation: To what extent can we expect business people to 'do the right thing' on their own? When and why is government regulation needed?
3. Social and economic justice: How should we assess the overall fairness of the institutions and practices of business (what is sometimes called 'the free enterprise system')? Can principles of justice be developed and rationally defended? Can our understanding of those principles make an important difference to our ethical assessments of more specific business practices (like executive compensation or the ethics of downsizing and outsourcing)?
More Specific Issues:
4. Product safety, environmental and workplace hazards: To what standard should businesses be held with regard to hazards that they may impose on employees, on customers, or on the community? Can we 'let the market decide' what risks are worth taking? Is it enough if business exercise 'due care" or should they be held 'strictly liable' for the consequences of their actions?
5. Employee rights: Is it really acceptable for businesses to hire and fire employees 'at will' or should employees be regarded as having a right to be treated 'fairly' or even a right to job security? Do employees have any right to privacy on the job? To participate in decision-making? To 'living wages'? To 'decent' working conditions?
6. Employee obligations: Can employers expect their employees to be 'loyal' even in the face of layoffs and 'restructurings'? Are employees betraying their employers when they 'blow the whistle' on various sorts of wrongdoing?
7. Covering up and telling the truth: Is honesty the best policy in business? Isn't bluffing a necessary tool of negotiation? How about sales and advertising? Does a seller have any obligation to look put for the interests of the buyer? Isn't it necessary to put the best possible 'spin' on your product and let the buyer look out for him or herself (caveat emptor)?
8. How about investors? What obligations do businesses (and their accountants and auditors) have to provide an accurate picture of their financial conditions?
Our first job will be simply to understand the discussions of these questions provided in the text. But I also want students to figure out what they think about these issues and to work on articulating reasoned defenses of their opinions. I also want to keep thinking about how the kind of ethical thinking exemplified in the standard textbook can be made relevant to the business world described by Jackall.
Conduct of the Course
Class time will be devoted largely to discussion, some in small groups, some all together. I will occasionally lecture, more often I will answer questions as they come up in discussion, and even more often I will try to help you figure out how to answer your questions yourself.
Much of our discussion will focus on understanding and evaluating the texts. This will work well only if you have done the assigned reading carefully -- often twice or three times -- and given it some thought. In philosophy we are interested not in the information that can be extracted from a text, nor simply in the conclusions or opinions that an author expresses; we are primarily interested in understanding and assessing the reasoning that an author uses to try to establish or support those conclusions. This requires a very careful sort of reading.
The point of reading these texts is not only to understand what some great minds have produced. A guided tour through the Museum of Great Ideas is a very good thing, but not the best thing that philosophy has to offer. Better is the opportunity to learn to think for yourself. The readings provide models of careful and/or creative thinking, challenges to our prejudices and assumptions, and starting points for our own reflections. But the only way to learn to philosophize is to enter the conversation yourself. In this way a course in philosophy is more like a course in drawing or sculpture -- a studio art course -- than like a course in art history or art appreciation. You can’t learn to draw by just watching other people draw, and you can’t learn to do ethics by just listening and reading. You have to express your views and expose them to other people’s critical reactions.
Assignments and Grading
Reading assignments
I expect you to find time (several hours) to do the reading for each class and to come prepared to discuss it. Come to class ready to say what you found interesting, what you found confusing, questionable, or just plain wrong, what seemed to you to be the most important claims made, and what arguments or justifications were offered for those claims. Expect that you will need to read the assignments more than once to understand them adequately, and plan your time accordingly.
Reading response papers
20 % of your grade will be earned by submitting brief (a page or two, typed, double-spaced) responses to the readings for each class. These must be turned in at the beginning of the class period to be counted. (If you must miss class, send in your response paper by e-mail.) They can contain questions, objections, observations and/or reactions to the reading for that class. I will not grade these, but I will reject any that do not seem to be based on a reasonably conscientious reading of the assignment for that week. You can miss one of these and still earn an ‘A’ for this part of the course work, but missing more will be penalized on the following schedule: 85% completed = A; 70% = B; 60% = C; 50% = D; less than 50% = F. I will also notice and reward particularly perceptive or thoughtful response papers.
Class discussion
Most weeks we will have guided small group discussion projects. The purpose of these projects is to open discussion and to focus it on particular issues. They are also intended to be "mini-labs" in which to practice the skills of careful reading and evaluation of reasoning. The projects are done in class in groups of 3-5 and take roughly 20-45 minutes to complete. Each group should keep notes on its discussion, sign the notes and hand them in at the end of each class session. Often groups will also report orally on their discussions.
If you miss a discussion project, you should get hold of the instructions (from my web site), write out responses to the questions on your own, and hand them in as soon as you can. 10% of your grade will be determined by the number of discussion projects you complete satisfactorily (on the same schedule as the response papers above.)
10% of your grade will also be determined by my evaluation of the quality of your participation in class discussions. Just showing up and paying attention earns a C for this component; occasionally making helpful contributions earns a B; regularly making helpful contributions earns an A. Helpful contributions include: asking pertinent questions, answering questions asked by the instructor or by other students, expressing your views about the texts or topics we are discussing, responding (relevantly and respectfully) to the views expressed by others.
Groundrules for class discussion
In my view, high quality class discussion is informed by careful reading of assigned texts, respectful of the other participants, relevant to the issues we are trying to discuss and thoughtful in that points are made or questions are raised that help us move toward greater understanding. I believe the following guidelines help foster this kind of discussion:
Position Papers
You will be asked to write 2 short (3-5 pages) papers explaining and supporting your position on an ethical issue or question. Each position paper will count for 15% of your grade. Please keep copies of all the work you hand in.
Exams
We will have two one-hour, in-class exams, one in the middle and one at the end of the semester. Each exam will count for 15% of your grade.
Note: I try hard to base my evaluation of your work on your understanding of the reading, the quality of your reasoning and questioning, and the clarity and effectiveness of your expression of your thoughts, not on whether I agree with your ethical theories, ideas, or opinions.
Time commitment outside of class
In accordance with Metropolitan State University guidelines, I've designed this course with the expectation that students will do 2-3 hours of course-related work outside of class for every hour spent in class. In other words, you should expect to spend 6-9 hours a week outside of class working on this course.
Needed reading and writing skills
Although there are no prerequisites for this course, it is an upper-division course. This means I assume you have the following reading and writing skills, and assignments are made with this expectation in mind:
Disability Services
Metropolitan State University offers reasonable accommodations to qualified students with documented disabilities. If you have a disability that may require accommodations it is essential that you be registered with the Disability Services Office. You may contact the Disability Services Office, at Founders Hall, Room 221, St. Paul Campus or (651) 793-1549, or email Disability.Services@metrostate.edu For additional information on Disability Services, please visit: http://www.metrostate.edu/msweb/pathway/academic_success/disability/index.html
Attendance
I do not require attendance per se, but part of your grade is determined by discussion projects and general class discussion. So, when you are in class, contribute to the discussion and please be sure your name is on your small group's discussion report and that the report gets turned in. When you miss a class, get the instructions for the discussion project, write out answers on your own and turn them in. I strongly advise regular attendance (and prompt completion of missed discussion projects), because the material in this course is relatively difficult and confusing, and few students are able to do well on the exams and papers without the explanations and practice provided in class.
Late work
Response papers must be turned in at (or before) the beginning of class to receive full credit. Late response papers will receive half credit. In fairness to students who turn their position papers in on time, I will subtract one grade (e.g., B+ to B) for each day that a postion paper is late.
Incompletes
I will give incomplete grades only to students who have satisfactorily completed most of the course work and who are unable to finish on time because of circumstances beyond their control.
Plagiarism
All work submitted for this course must be your own. Plagiarism is the academic ‘sin’ of presenting someone else’s work as your own. It is plagiarism if you copy something verbatim (word for word) from a published source, from the Internet, or from another student. It is still plagiarism if you rearrange, paraphrase, condense, or summarize someone else’s work without making clear to your reader what is your contribution and what is taken from your source. If the exact wording comes from your source, then use quotation marks. If the idea comes from someone else, give him or her credit for it. The way to do this is to cite your sources. There is a clear and detailed explanation of various forms of plagiarism and of proper citation practices at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/02-1/plagiarism.html. I will give a grade of ‘F’ to any student who submits plagiarized work for this course.
New University policy:
Be aware: New academic standing standards went into effect fall semester, 2008. To remain in good academic standing at Metropolitan State University students must meet two criteria: maintain a cumulative Metropolitan State GPA of at least 2.0; and successfully complete at least 66.66% of the cumulative Metropolitan State University credits attempted. Students who do not meet these standards will be put on academic probation. A student who continues to fall below standards will be dismissed for academic reasons.
Withdrawing from courses after the drop deadline (May 16) will result in a ‘W’ on your record and may bring your completion rate below this new standard. My advice is to determine quickly whether or not this is the right course for you and to drop before that deadline (just a few days away) if it is not. Again: If you drop before May 16, this class will not be counted in determining your completion rate. If you withdraw after that date, it will.