BUS 6100 - Ethical Leadership

3 lecture hours 0 lab hours 3 credits

Course Description
This course introduces students to important ethical challenges they will face as leaders in business. The class will use two perspectives, the individual and the enterprise. The initial focus of the course will be on developing skills in ethical analyses that can assist leaders as they make both individual-level and organizational-level decisions about responsible courses of action when duties, loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. On an enterprise level the class will go on to explore the role business can play in helping to meet global societal needs, whether it involves the environment, improving health, expanding education, or eradicating poverty? Is there any responsibility on the part of business to help meet those needs? What are models of successful business engagement in this area? How should success be measured? Are there limits to what businesses can and should do, and what institutional changes will enable businesses and entrepreneurs to better succeed? This course provides students the opportunity to engage in the critical analysis of these and other questions that lay at the foundation of social impact and responsibility. Students will engage through projects, games, case studies, self-discovery, and guided class discussions with their peers. (prereq: admission to graduate program)

Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Apply ethical principles to real-world choices
Recognize behaviors, beliefs, and commitments that impact upon personal and business responsibility
Analyze the role of business in society
Demonstrate skills in ethical analyses that can assist managers as they make both individual-level and firm-level decisions about responsible courses of action

Prerequisites by Topic

None

Course Topics

Leadership
Ethical reasoning and business responsibility
Individual decision‐making and responsibility in organizations
Wearing two hats? Personal responsibility and business responsibility
Behavioral aspects of responsibility
Personal reflections on ethical/legal experiences
Speaking up
What is character?
Deciding what’s right - moral philosophy
Why we make bad decisions - psychology and corporate crime
Responsibility in diverse settings
Obligations to the truth: ethics, politics, and business

Coordinator
Dr. Paul Hudec

Announcement

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Milwaukee School of Engineering

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BUS 6100 - Ethical Leadership