Instructor: Daniel W. Skubik, PhD JD
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

Max L. Stackhouse, et al. (eds.), On Moral Business: classical and contemporary resources for ethics in economic life (Eerdmans, 1995) [available through our CBU campus bookstore or at Bigwords.com, using search code B-QADX]

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

Class Schedule

Assessment & Grading Scale

Individual Project = 20%	90 - 100 = A (90-94 = A-)
Group Project #1 = 25%	80 - 89 = B (80-82 = B- / 87-89 = B+)
Group Project #2 = 30%	70 - 79 = C (70-72 = C- / 77-79 = C+)
Attendance = 10%	60 - 69 = D (67-69 = D+)
Participation = 15%	0 - 59 = F

Individual Project

One individual project will be due at the beginning of class on December 17. 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 December 4.

You should understand this document to be a working draft, subject to update or revision as you interact with others in your organization. To clarify that process, you will find your and your colleagues' projects useful in completing the second group project on December 18, while in turn finding the second group project useful in reformulating portions of your individual project. To give incentive to take this virtuous circle of interaction seriously, up to 3% extra credit can be earned by submitting a revised individual project to me via email after the conclusion of our last class meeting. Your email must reach me no later than 7:00pm on Monday, December 20 (header times won't count) to be eligible for any extra credit assessment.

Group Projects

Two group projects will be conducted during the term.

Group Project #1 (December 4): You will be presented case study materials for group review and discussion, requiring you to apply the various theories we have discussed to identify and resolve any action dilemmas in an ethically or theologically justifiable manner. "Group" means two to three persons working together, pooling their knowledge and judgments, to reach one or more conclusions about what ought to be done given the circumstances of the case provided. [I prefer you self-select, but lots will be drawn if necessary to create and fill needed groups. Know too that each case will present different scenarios so no two groups will be working with the same materials.] You will be responsible as a group to write-up your analyses and conclusions, and to be prepared to present a synopsis of those analyses and conclusions to the class in an open session at the end of the day. You will have at least 3 but no more than 4 hours to complete all your group work; presentations should be timed to take 15-20 minutes each. All members of the group will share the same project grade.

Group Project #2 (December 18): You will be presented case study materials for group review and discussion, requiring you to apply the various theories we have discussed to write a code of conduct (or business code or professional ethics code) that addresses the issues and dilemmas you identify in the case study materials. The code you write is to be ethically or theologically justifiable, settling both the concerns of the particular case and setting a precedent for avoiding or managing any similar problems in the future. As above, "group" means two to three persons working together, pooling their knowledge and judgments, to reach one or more conclusions about what ought to be done and what sort of code ought to be written given the circumstances of the case provided. [Again, I prefer you self-select, but lots will be drawn if necessary to create and fill needed groups. Know too that each case will once more present different scenarios so no two groups will be working with the same materials.] You will be responsible as a group to write-up your analyses, conclusions and a code, and to be prepared to present a synopsis of those analyses, conclusions and code to the class in an open session at the end of the day. You will have at least 4 but no more than 5 hours to complete all your group work; presentations should be timed to take 20-25 minutes each. All members of the group will share the same project grade.

Attendance & Participation

Attendance: You are expected to attend all nine (9) class sessions. [Each Friday evening comprises one session; Saturday mornings and Saturday afternoons also each comprise one session.] You will earn credit when present for the whole of any session according to the following scale: 8-9 sessions = 10 points towards your final mark for the course; 6-7 sessions = 6 points; 5 sessions = 3 points; 0-4 sessions = 0 points. I appreciate that work schedules and traffic delays can occasionally interfere with (timely) arrival. You are counted present if you arrive no later than 60 minutes after the beginning of a Friday evening session or 30 minutes after the beginning of a Saturday morning or afternoon session.

Participation: Although speaking in class, publicly putting and defending a position, can be daunting, you are strongly encouraged to learn to think through your own and others' experiences and insights within the context our discussions. Especially in this small group setting, I expect you to come prepared for discussion, having done the readings before each session.

To give direct incentive to so engage, 15% of your mark for the course will be comprised of my assessment of your overall classroom participation. This includes, but is not limited to, my assessment of your participation during our sessions (e.g. making relevant comments during discussions, being prepared to respond to questioning, asking relevant questions, and following directions concerning reading assignments, and making contributions to the Web discussion forum). The point is to determine your active engagement with the material in the context of the class.

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 : if it happens that you cannot avoid being absent on December 17, 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 next morning, December 18, subject to a 20% penalty for late submission.

Group Projects : if it happens that you cannot avoid being absent for an group project period, you must negotiate and sign a contract with me to complete an individual research assignment before the project session to earn a mark.