Individual Code

One individual project will be due at the beginning of class on October 12th. You are welcome initially to work in collaboration with others, but the final product must be personally completed by each student and submitted for individual assessment.

With an eye to your own business operations and the business plan that comprises your MBA coursework, you are to draft an ethics code or ethics program addressing the mission and needs of the business or organization and its employees. The code or program should be presented in summary form, followed by detailed explication and justification for each provision drafted. Actual length can vary given the nature of the product, but a typical code or program can be expected to run 1-2 typewritten or computer-generated pages, with details running an additional 5-7 pages. Further instructions about preparation and format of the project, along with sample codes and programs for review, will be presented on September 21st..

N.B.   If it happens that you cannot avoid being absent on October 12th, you should fax, email, or send via courier your project so that it reaches me by the due date and time. If you cannot accomplish submission by any of these methods, you can submit the project to me no later than the subsequent Monday morning (10:00am deadline), October 15th, subject to a 20% penalty for late submission.

Further explanation and some details about ethics codes and programs are in the attached copy of the essay by Patrick Murphy, Creating Ethical Corporate Structures. Read the essay for useful background.

In addition, I have put on limited reserve in our library one copy of the reference book, Codes of Professional Responsibility, which you may find of value as models of ethics codes for business and the professions. Ask for it at the circulation desk. Likewise, feel free to find sample codes on the Web. To do so, you can begin by following the link to IIT’s Codes of Ethics Online Project, a key site noted on my Business & Economics index page, under external links of interest at the bottom of the page (http://csep.iit.edu/codes/index.html).

With specific regard to Codes: Note that none of the codes in the reference book or on the Web follow a common pattern: some provide straightforward lists of principles or rules, while others provide narratives; some lay out simple broad principles, while others list only explicit rules; some list their principles and rules up front, followed by fuller discussion or commentary on their application, while others provide running discussion or commentary along with each principle or rule, or numbered section of principles and rules. For purposes of this class, I do not care which format you follow. Construct a code best suited to your business plan, even though it may well differ from others’ in format.

However your Code is laid out, there should exist certain elements in its construction. The elements that I do expect to find in your Code include (1) broad principles or explicit rules or both, covering your business and its operations; (2) discussion or commentary concerning practical application of those principles/rules in the context of your [projected] business operations; and (3) a narrative justification for the principles, rules and applications outlined. (That is, in the light of our readings and discussions, why are these first two elements the correct ones to place in your Code? Why can they be expected to lead your staff to do the right act at the right time when questions arise?) Consequently, to craft a worthwhile Code, begin with clarifying just who your audience will be (to whom are you writing? exactly about what?). Then compose the Code with that audience clearly at the fore.

With specific regard to Programs: This is a more difficult individual project, and there are few good samples I can share with you. (Murphy’s essay notes several companies that use programs, but you will find that useful details are sketchy.) If you remain sincerely interested in crafting a program rather than a code to accompany your business plan, arrange a face-to-face discussion with me for details and leads. Programs require crafting case studies, outlines of curricula, and narrative justifications that can be employed in seminars to lead middle- and upper-managers to become sensitive to ethical issues that arise in a business’ operations.

With regards both to Codes & Programs: If you are at the stage in your MBA coursework where you have begun building your business plan, be sure to write your Code or Program as a part of that plan. Thus, whatever business operation you envision should be covered by your project for this course.

If you have not yet begun composing a business plan, you are free to select any business operation you wish for this project. But keep in mind that you will be composing a business plan in the near future, so try to pick a business that is of interest, and into which you can plug this project for final evaluation.