Unit information: Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in 2022/23

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Unit name	Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Unit code	MGRCM2014
Credit points	15
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Parker
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one
School/department	School of Management - Business School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Unit Information

Recent controversy surrounding such issues as environmental damage, rewards to senior managers, the exploitation of workers in developing countries and corporate fraud have made business ethics front page news. Stakeholders such as customers, shareholders and pressure groups are increasingly demanding that firms behave as good corporate citizens and take responsibility for the wider social, economic and environmental impacts of their activities. At the same time, firms recognise that a reputation for sound ethics can be good for business.

Business ethics is therefore increasingly regarded as an integral part of Management education. This unit will explore and critically examine concepts such as globalisation, sustainability, stakeholder relations and corporate social responsibility. It is not the intention of the unit to show that business is either inherently ethical or unethical, but rather to show how ideas around ethics and corporate social responsibility can be used as a way of understanding organisations and their role in global society.

Your learning on this unit

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

Identify and describe a range of issues relevant to business ethics and CSR
Explain and discuss theoretical approaches to business ethics and CSR
Analyze and appraise practice through the application of relevant theory
Critically evaluate the theory and practice of business ethics and CSR
Conduct independent research using a range of sources and gain awareness of the provenance and credibility of such sources.
Demonstrate developing essay writing skills.

How you will learn

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions including lectures, tutorials, drop-in sessions, discussion boards and other online learning opportunities.

How you will be assessed

Summative One 3000 word coursework assignment which will assess a student's ability to:

Identify and describe a range of issues relevant to business ethics and CSR
Explain and discuss theoretical approaches to business ethics and CSR
Analyze and appraise practice through the application of relevant theory
Critically evaluate the theory and practice of business ethics and CSR
Conduct independent research using a range of sources and gain awareness of the provenance and credibility of such sources.
Demonstrate developing essay writing skills.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MGRCM2014).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.

Unit and programme catalogues

Academic year

Unit information: Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in 2022/23