In today’s world, society's expectations are
gradually shifting in regards to businesses engaged in global commerce and
their role as ethical actors. Global enterprises are expected to be, at a
minimum, passively ethical – by complying with laws and regulations, treating
their all their stakeholders in a just and equitable way, and not actively
harming the environments and societies they operate in – regardless of the
geographic context. However, as embodied within the UN’s Sustainable
Development Goals, there is a growing expectation that global firms should move
beyond this passive stance to create meaningful ethical contributions and drive
positive change.
Ethical skills are essential for anyone who
wishes to responsibly engage in contemporary global business. Ethical skills
can be developed through by learning the philosophical foundations of ethics
and its modern-day developments, and applying this knowledge to developing an
understanding of extant and emerging global business issues. The objective of
this course is to develop:
· A broad understanding of new and
emerging opportunities and challenges for future global ethics.
· The ability to contribute to the
moral discussion.
· The ability to deal with the
tensions of universalizable and relativistic ethics.
· An understanding of learning modes
of moral reasoning in the global community between businesses and stakeholders.
· The capability to solve moral
problems in different branches of industry, e.g., artificial intelligence and
genetic engineering.
· An understanding of the basics of
ethical leadership and the implementation of global values.
· An understanding of the mechanisms
of continuous behavioural change.
Ethical business leaders of the future will be
expected to guide innovation and economic growth in a trajectory that helps to
address the pressing challenges and wicked problems currently that currently
beset the global community today. This also requires being cognisant of
emerging threats or challenges that may emerge from technological development
and societal change induced by business activity. Overall, this course aims to
encourage students to think deeply about the complex issues underlying
contemporary business ethics problems and to develop potential well-informed,
actionable solutions.