Ethics in Business and Technology

 

This course is about philosophical and ethical issues related to the conduct of business.  We start by focusing on corporate agency and decision making in business. We will look at the rights and responsibilities of corporations and their employees, as well as the obligations of corporations to protect the environment. We will explore the ethics of marketing and nudging, in connection with recent literature on cognitive biases.  We will finish by looking at ethical issues involving the role of technology and data in business.

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Course Text:

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Ethical Theory and Business, by Tom L. Beauchamp, Norman L. Bowie, and Denis G. Arnold (Prentice Hall)

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Assessment:

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One essay and one examination.

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Course Schedule:

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Week 1: The scope of business: Markets and their moral limits

 

Week 2: Corporate agency

 

Week 3: Managerial decision-making, cost-benefit analysis and moral theory

 

Week 4: Workplace democracy, unions and worker's rights

 

Week 5: Non-compliance and whistle blowing

 

Week 6: Environmental responsibility

 

Week 7: Marketing and cognitive biases

 

Week 8: Nudging

 

Week 9: Privacy, data ownership, and data protection

 

Week 10: Business decisions and big data

 

Week 11: Bias and machine learning

 

Week 12: Explainable artificial intelligence

 

 

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