GENERAL OBJECTIVES:

1. To familiarize students with the appropriate conceptual tools for analyzing and resolving ethical issues that arise in business practices.
2. To identify, analyze, and prioritize the virtues that should drive the practices of a good manager.

3. To identify the characteristics that make a good manager an effective leader.
4. To develop the skill for resolving ethical conflicts that arise in specific cases.
5. To develop the skill of developing policy statements that will prevent corporations from engaging in unethical practices.
6. To develop team-building skills through the use of electronic technology.
7. To develop writing skills in students.

ACTIVITIES RELATED TO OBJECTIVES:

1. (a) Students will learn and employ the various dominant ethical systems that are used to structure ethical analyses, e.g., natural law, deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and feminist ethics. (b) Students will examine and employ the various ethical principles that are used to resolve ethical conflicts, e.g., autonomy, beneficence, and justice.

2. (a) Students will learn the meaning of "virtue" and the role of decisions in developing both a professional and private virtue life. (b) Students will identify, prioritize, and learn to apply the various virtues that are the hallmark of good managers, e.g., efficiency, loyalty, compassion, etc. and good leaders, e.g. vision, commitment, perseverance, etc.

3. (a) Students will develop the skill of conceptual analysis in examining the basic issues that arise in particular cases, e.g., ethical relativism, integrity, truth-telling, etc. (b) Students will develop the skill of identifying basic human values that are at stake in particular ethical cases, e.g., dignity, respect for persons, equality, safety, etc. Cases to be examined will include issues of fair employment practices, whistle-blowing, sexual harassment, insider trading, environmental protection, advertising, etc. (c) Students will develop a global perspective on particular cases and practices in business, e.g., off-shore employment practices, safety of consumers and citizens in foreign countries, environmental exploitation, etc.

4. Students will produce policy statements for companies as a team effort. Such policy statements will have as a goal the application of a company's mission statement and the prevention of actions that might create ethical problems for a company. Students' business experiences will be utilized in these projects.

5. Students will engage in three forms of electronic exchange as team building exercises: (1) on-line collaborative writing projects; (2) on-line threaded discussions; (3) electronic web conferences (audio chat rooms).

6. Short essays, which will be submitted electronically, will demonstrate students' individual abilities in achieving the analytic learning and communication objectives of this course.