Instructor: Daniel W. Skubik, PhD JD MDiv
Voice: 909.343.4288 / Fax: 909.343.4437
E-Mail: dskubik@calbaptist.edu

Business Ethics

This course in business ethics is not primarily about how to stay out of jail, although legal concerns will be given some coverage. Neither is it devoted to simple functional calculations of how to take the moral and other values of your potential customers or employers/employees into account for marketing purposes, although some of these considerations will be touched upon, as well. The import of the course is to cover what it means to say that businesses and professionals ought to engage or not engage in particular activities with reference to value claims other than the ledger's bottom line. Students will thus come to comprehend the various bases from traditional philosophical and theological sources for discerning professional, ethical practices. Application of these studies will follow, with individual and team-oriented case studies that highlight contemporary ethical conundrums in business and technology settings, nationally and globally.

Required Texts

Thomas Donaldson & Patricia Werhane (eds.), Ethical Issues in Business: a philosophical approach, 6th ed. (Prentice-Hall, 1999) ISBN 0-13-290628-7

Various handouts and Web pages will be referenced throughout the term, for which you also will be responsible.

Class Schedule

Assessment & Grading Scale

Individual Code = 28%	90 - 100 = A (90-94 = A-)
Case Studies = 42% (14 x 3% each)	80 - 89 = B (80-82 = B- / 87-89 = B+)
F2F Attendance = cancelled	70 - 79 = C (70-72 = C- / 77-79 = C+)
Web Participation = 30%	60 - 69 = D (67-69 = D+)
	0 - 59 = F

Individual Code

One individual project will be due via email to me no later than midnight, Saturday, August 26th. Submissions received at 12:01am, August 27th, or later that day will be counted late and subject to 25% penalty. Submissions will not be accepted after midnight of the 27th.

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 provided on June 24th.

Unlike the case studies, I will review and critique drafts of your individual project through Wednesday, August 16th, so you will have time to take my comments into account before submitting your final paper for marking. Also, because of the sophisticated nature of this submission, I encourage you to offer your work as an email attachment (MS Word preferred), rather than as plain text in the body of the email.

So you can see what others have done, and so learn from their work, I will post on the website up to four of the best projects tendered. But do remember that student work is also copyrighted material, and should not be copied or used without the permission of the author. (If you object to my sharing your work on the website for others to see, indicate that reservation with your submission.)

Case Studies

There are 14 case study scenarios (actually, one introductory article by Sen plus 13 cases) associated with the various sections of topical readings. You are to read the case for each section along with the topical materials, and then respond to a question I will put up on the website for that case. The actual length and complexity of your response will depend on the details of the case and the type of question asked. Requirements for your response will be outlined with each question, but you can expect each response to require you to apply the section readings to the associated case, and that your response will run the equivalent of 1-2 pages of standard text (~500-1000 words). (In the sections where two cases are presented, I will post one question for each case, but you need respond to only one question for one case; your choice.)

Each case's question will appear at the beginning of each academic week (usually early each Saturday morning), and will be replaced by a new question for the subsequent case at the beginning of the following week. [Note that our academic week runs from Saturday-to-Friday; not the usual calendar week.] You are to respond via email to me no later than the end of the academic week that section is assigned. Specifically, you are to send an email responsive to the question that will receive a date/time stamp on my receipt no later than midnight of the last day of that academic week. In addition, I will not accept submissions for a case beyond 24 hours after that academic week's assignment is closed. You will simply receive 0 points for that case.

Example: May 13-19 has the section on Truth Telling assigned. I will post a question early on Saturday, May 13 for the case on Italian Tax Mores. You must email a response to my case study question no later than midnight on Friday, May 19. And don't wait until the last moment to send it. If your email receives a date/time stamp for 12:01am or later on Saturday, May 20th, your submission will be counted late and you will automatically lose 10% of your potential score. In addition, any date/time stamp that shows receipt in my email box after May 20 will not be accepted. N.B.: The date/time stamp is the one applied by my machine when the message is received, not by your ISP when you send it. I do not accept sending stamps because they can be hacked. So take conservative measures to ensure timeliness of your submissions.

You may send your submission via plain text as part of your email message (preferred), or as an attached file. If you send your submission as an attached file, please indicate in the body of your message which wordprocessor and file format you used; for example, that you used Microsoft Word version 6 or Lotus WordPro version 4 to produce your document. Do not bother to embed fancy format options like macros in your documents--I do not enable special features when I read submissions.

You may send your submission as early in the academic week as you wish. But only one submission per case per week will be accepted for marking. I will not critique drafts, though I will answer questions in as timely a manner as possible. In all cases, I will do my best to email my comments and a grade within 3 days so you will have some feedback before preparing a response to the subsequent case.

You are encouraged to work with one another, whether in pairs or small groups, while you prepare your responses to these cases. If you wish to send a single submission for two or more people, that is fine, as well--just list the contributors at the head of the submission so I know who is to receive the grade. Everyone listed will then share the same grade for that submission. Feel free to form different groups for different cases; you need not always work with the same people for all cases, or submit group work all the time. But each of you is ultimately responsibility for submissions that generate your own grades. So keep track of who is doing what with whom for which, and feel free to check with me periodically about your personal record so any questions can be researched sooner rather than later.

Attendance & Participation

Attendance: Formal Face-to-Face (F2F) meetings have been cancelled. Feel free to make arrangements to meet with me, either individually or in small groups. I will make myself available as much as possible. Please call or email at least 24 hours ahead of time to arrange an appointment.

Participation: There will be a variety of avenues for you to participate during this course to earn the 30% assigned to this component. The principal method will be through the students' bulletin board, where you are encouraged to carry on dialogues with your classmates about the material covered in the course. In addition, a second bulletin board will be maintained where I will post comments and links to notes for all to read, and where you can respond or post questions relevant to all for my response.

I expect you to use the bulletin board sites at least once each week, to lurk and read if not to post a message of your own. When you do post, use your real name -- no nicknames or "handles" should appear in the signature line, and please keep your contributions brief and concise. A fair rule of thumb is to add no more than one screen-full of type per message on a single topic or issue (that's about 25 lines of 60-80 characters per line, or approximately 250-300 words maximum). Shorter contributions are quite welcome. Contribute enough to ask your question or make your point, and then leave time and space for others to respond.

I expect your input to be academically rigorous, but without rancor. In short, no flaming or abusive language. I expect you to disagree agreeably with one another (or with me, though you should not expect me to take any particular position regarding these ethics issues), using reasoned argument to make your points and observations about theoretical and real-world business ethics.

Of course, there is the more private method of corresponding directly with me via email. I try to respond to all email within 48 hours. I will also make myself available from time to time for F2F meetings. But do note that I will be out of the country from time to time, and will be managing the course and website from my laptop while on the road. So don't presume I will be available for immediate email responses, or that I will be on campus. So call ahead or email a note to arrange an appointment.

In any case, make it easy for me to recognize your level of input during the course. We have 17 weeks together, equivalent to a full semester of study time. I would expect your contributions overall to show regular involvement during this period, comprising a mix of public and private submissions that demonstrate your attempts to grapple with this subject matter. Hence, it is not unreasonable that you will contribute on at least eight separate occasions to ongoing conversations during these weeks, not simply sit quietly in the background to lurk. Of course, quality counts alongside quantity. A few short but quality contributions will earn more points than numerous poorly structured ones.

Caveat

This syllabus is composed in good faith, with a schedule of readings, etc. which will guide us throughout the term. Still, the instructor reserves the right to make adjustments to this schedule as deemed necessary for the overall enterprise of the class. Any changes will be communicated as far in advance as feasible, and you are responsible for knowing if and when any changes have been made. Always check the Web site if you have questions about readings, assignments or meeting dates and times.

Make-Ups

Individual Project / Case Studies / Participation : cannot be made-up.

I recognize that "life happens" and can present setbacks and problems for each of us. But barring significant occurrences like death of a close relation or serious personal illness or injury, note that we are embarking together on a course of directed study that permits great latitude for personal study arrangements and time management, with few time-sensitive requirements. In fairness to all, requirements laid out in this syllabus will thus be strictly enforced. Should a significant interruption occur, contact me as soon as practicable to determine whether alternative arrangements are possible for completing the course.