HR9795 - Ethical Arguments in Business

This module will require serious thinking and serious talking in a research rich intellectual environment. Lectures on key topics will supplement weekly required readings and their subject matter will be put to use in seminars through debate, role-play, facilitated discussion and simulations making extensive use of online resources. We will make particular use of dramatic narratives that have focussed attention on ethical issues in the workplace by considering plays, novels and films that exemplify conceptual and theoretical material.



The module design is informed by an understanding of ethical education as being developmental; it is not a pick and mix, hence the order in which material is presented is important for your learning. The module is structured around distinct and conflicting philosophical positions to conflicts about ethics in business and thereby involves a deep dive into their structure, presuppositions, theses, arguments, use of evidence, priorities and modes of argumentation. Because of this, attendance is absolutely critical to the achievement of your learning outcomes. The summative assessment is a 3500 word assignment on a workplace ethical issue. You will use the structural, conceptual and theoretical material considered during the module in doing this and the assignment thereby provides a significant opportunity for enhancing your learning.

Your learning is supported by a Teaching and Learning Plan that includes directed learning and outlines the content of weekly lectures and seminars. All readings and other supporting materials are provided through the Blackboard E-Learning portal and tutors will engage with you through the discussion board in addition to weekly lectures and seminars. Your independent learning should combine deeper and broader reading in areas of particular relevance to the subject of your assignment. The weekly readings will be supplemented by guidance on further reading to facilitate this.



Lectures will be recorded to enable you to revisit earlier material in light of the wider appreciation you will have developed later on and these are supplemented by short podcasts on the key concepts and theories we will be considering. The Blackboard E-Learning Portal will store all materials needed for lectures, seminars, directed learning and independent study.



Seminars will not be recorded to protect privacy and to enable ‘Chatham House rules’ discussion. Tutors will provide ongoing formative feedback in seminars, especially in relation to your understanding of conceptual and theoretical material. Seminars will require you to engage in ethical debate which may become animated and expose significant differences in ethical commitments between participants. The role of the tutor in this context is to encourage understanding of both the presuppositions that inform such disputes and empirical evidence relevant to them. Tutors will not enter the disputes or encourage any particular view.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:

Evaluate ethical concepts and theories in the context of business and management [MLO1]



Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

Appraise presuppositions in ethical claims and evaluations [MLO2]

Critically assess the conditional structure of an ethical argument [MLO3]

Ability to anticipate the principal arguments and issues that will attend particular business contexts [MLO4]



Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

A demonstrable commitment to moral coherence and accountability for decisions and stances [MLO5]

Formative assessment will occur within the context of seminars in a dialogical form i.e. tutors will question students’ theses, arguments, use of evidence, presuppositions and interpretations in order to test their coherence and boundaries. This ongoing Socratic dialogue will train students in ethical reasoning in the context of business alongside their emerging understanding of ethical stances, theories and concepts.



Summative assessment provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning in a context of their choice. A 3500 word assignment will students to identify and explain an ethical issue for business which requires a response (from an individual manager, the business itself, the sector, government) and for which different options are available. The issue may be current or from the recent past (not more than 5 years) and information must be in the public domain. Students will outline realistic alternative options for addressing the issue, provide a rationale for each option identifying the ethical presuppositions that inform them and justify their preferred option using ethical theory. [MLO 1, 2, 3, 4]

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Ethical judgments pervade business - whether praise for philanthropy, condemnation of environmental impact or debate about diversity. This module focuses on the underlying structures of such ethical dialogue. The module will apply two or three distinct and conflicting philosophical positions to conflicts about ethics in business and thereby involve a deep dive into their structure, presuppositions, theses, arguments, use of evidence, priorities and modes of argumentation. The module is research rich in its use of classic approaches to ethics in the context of contemporary debates and is supported by a comprehensive electronic learning platform. It has been designed by a world top 50 university for business ethics and your participation will enhance your ability to engage in policy level debate and hence your employability.