Business Ethics and CSR

Session 2 – Stakeholder Analysis & Opioid Crisis

Duties and responsibilities toward Employees: Right to participate, Freedom of associations, Non-
discrimination rules, Right to health and safety, Right to privacy, Right to a reasonable remuneration,
Right to education.
Duties and responsibilities toward Customers: Customers are primary stakeholders. Companies
must prevent health risks that could result from the usage of their products (there are debatable
products such as sugar, alcohol, tobacco, and opioids). Companies must be transparent and honest
in their operations and intents and must maintain certain data and right protections. Then
companies must be involved in waste management, recycling their products.
Duties and responsibilities toward Suppliers and Competitors: Suppliers are primary stakeholders.
Competitors are secondary stakeholders. There is a fine line between competitors and suppliers,
because often suppliers can turn into competitors and vice versa. Therefore, the level of
transparency toward suppliers is often limited. Cooperation leads to benefits due to economies of
scale and better resource allocation. Suppliers that are facing high competition (e.g., due to
replaceability of their products) are under pressure to produce high quality at low price - which can
be beneficial for the main company.
Corporations bear overall responsibility over the supply chain; hence potential social and economic
scandals need to be considered.
- Social criteria: Differences in social standards in various countries need to be taken into
consideration (prevention of slavery, child labour and forced labour)
- Ecological criteria: Consideration of e.g., Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Global Reporting
Initiative
- Control of (international) production sites, ideally through third party audit provider
Duties and Responsibilities towards Financial Stakeholders: They are primary stakeholders. The
predominant interest of financial stakeholders is the financial sustainability and profitability of the
company, although there is an increasing awareness regarding the impact of ecological sustainability
on financial sustainability. Some investment funds apply a “reactive strategy” in the sense that they
will exclude companies from their portfolios that involve any of the following: Production and sales
of arms, tobacco, nuclear power, pornography, gambling, alcohol, animal testing.
Local Population, Civil Society, NGOs: Indirect/secondary stakeholders. Includes people that are
impacted by noise, waste, pollution of the firm, meaning the firm’s responsibility is to take these
consequences into account. Also includes local governments and administration, e.g., the mayor.
Municipalities benefit from taxes.
Stakeholder Analysis.
1. Identification
- One-sided relationship: Either the stakeholder influences the company, or the other way
round, often linked to a discrepancy in power between the two groups
- Two-way relationship: Both groups influence each other
2. Prioritization
- Urgency: How urgent is the demand/need of the stakeholder?
- Power: To what extent are the actors empowered to influence the situation?
- Legitimacy: Do the actors have the authority to influence the situation?
3. Engagement
Discussion
1. In which ways can a company potentially engage stakeholders?
2. Which factors need to be considered when designing an engagement strategy?
Stakeholder Engagement:
- Remain Passive: No active communication. Stakeholders may raise concerns through
protests, media, Internet
- Observation: One-way communication. Stakeholder contacts organization. Letters, reporting
- Recommendation: One-way communication. Organization to stakeholders. Outreach
through social media and lobbyism
- Information: One-way communication. Organization to stakeholders. Letters and brochures,
whitepapers, speeches, conference participation
- Settling: Limited two-way interaction, monitoring of activities based on agreements. “Public-
private partnerships”, grants, cause-related marketing
- Consultation: Limited two-way interaction, organization poses questions, stakeholders
answer. Surveys, focus groups, public meetings, workshops
- Negotiation: Limited two-way interaction, discussion of a certain topic, aiming at a
consensus. E.g., pay rate debates with unions
- Inclusion: Two-way or multi-dimensional interaction, learnings for all parties, actors remain
independent. Multi-stakeholder forums, advisory boards, participatory decision-making,
online engagement tool
- Collaboration: Two-way or multi-dimensional interaction, joint learnings, decision-making
and activities. Joint projects, partnerships, multi-stakeholder initiatives, cooperative (online)
platforms
- Empowerment: New forms of responsibility, decision-making is passed onto stakeholder.
Integration of stakeholders in the leadership of the activities and strategy of the organization
Case Study – Opioid Crisis in the USA
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4LV0tBZncI
Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOsWnVtGU10
Oxycodone, sold under brand name OxyContin among others, is an opioid medication used for
treatment of moderate to severe pain. The manufacturer was Purdue Pharma. Side effects may
include addiction, respiratory depression (a decreased effort to breathe), and low blood pressure. In
2016, it was the 54th most prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 14 million
prescriptions. Oxycodone has been a common drug of abuse. In high doses, overdoses, or in some
persons not tolerant to opioids, oxycodone can cause shallow breathing, slowed heart rate, (...), and
death.
Upon its release in 1995, OxyContin was hailed as a medical breakthrough, a long-lasting narcotic
that could help patients suffering from moderate to severe pain. The drug became a blockbuster and
has reportedly generated some 35 billion dollars in revenue for Purdue. Reformulated OxyContin is
causing some recreational users to change to heroin, which is cheaper and easier to obtain.
Oxycodone is the most widely recreationally used opioid in America. In the United States, more
than 12 million people use opioid drugs recreationally. Opioids were responsible for 49,000 of the
72,000 drug overdose deaths in the US in 2017.
Discussion
1. To what extent is Purdue Pharma acting in a sustainable/regenerative way?
2. What could they do to be more sustainable / regenerative?
Ibogaine: A possible solution to the opioid crisis?
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fvdjhLJxV4
Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in the rootbark of the Iboga shrub in
Gabon. Research indicates that it may help with drug addiction; however, there is a lack of clinical
research due to legal restrictions. Ibogaine is not currently approved for any medical uses. Various
non-scientific sources claim that one dose of the potent hallucinogen can reportedly immediately cut
cravings, especially for opioids, and keep them suppressed for weeks. Ibogaine-containing
preparations are used for medicinal and ritual purposes within African spiritual traditions of the
Bwiti.
Ibogaine treatment clinics have emerged in Mexico, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa, and New
Zealand, all operating in what has been described as a "legal gray area". Between the years 1990
and 2008 a total of 19 fatalities temporally associated with the ingestion of ibogaine were reported -
which could have been prevented through screening - according to Ibogaine providers. To produce
Ibogaine, the active substance needs to be extracted from the root bark which mainly grows in the
Gabonese rainforest - leading to illegal poaching and scarcity of the plant (potential extinction). This
leads to a scarcity for the original users of the plant - the indigenous of Gabon.
Discussion
1. What are the risks and benefits of Ibogaine?
2. Why is Ibogaine not more well-known?
3. What consequences would the legalization of Ibogaine in the USA have on various
stakeholders?
4. What can be said about Ibogaine from the business ethics perspective?
5.
Session 3 - Groupthink, Power, Discrimination

Asch Conformity Experiment  Results:

The majority of participants' responses
remained correct (63.2%), a sizable minority
of responses conformed to the actors'
(incorrect) answer (36.8 percent), only 5 %
of participants were always swayed by the
crowd, 95% of subjects defied the majority
at least once and 25 % of the sample consistently defied majority opinion, with the rest conforming
on some trials. Conclusions: Often interpreted as evidence for the power of conformity, example of
people publicly endorsing the group response despite knowing full well that they were endorsing an
incorrect response, people conform for two main reasons: ○ Because they want to fit in with the
group (normative influence) ○ Because they believe the group is better informed than they are
(informational influence) and normative influence is the willingness to conform publicly to attain
social reward and avoid social punishment.
Groupthink: Phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or
conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group
members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of
alternative viewpoints. "Ingroup" significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making and
significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the "outgroup").
Means of Prevention (a):Leaders should assign each member the role of "critical evaluator". This
allows each member to freely air objections and doubts. Leaders should not express an opinion
when assigning a task to a group. Leaders should absent themselves from many of the group
meetings to avoid excessively influencing the outcome. The organization should set up several
independent groups, working on the same problem. All effective alternatives should be examined.
Means of Prevention (b):Each member should discuss the group's ideas with trusted people outside
of the group. The group should invite outside experts into meetings. Group members should be
allowed to discuss with and question the outside experts. At least one group member should be
assigned the role of Devil's advocate. This should be a different person for each meeting.
-Experiment blue and brown eyes  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGvoXeXCoUY
Conclusions: Small cues from authority enough to start discrimination, Performance of “better”
group increases whereas that of “lower” group decreases, which aggravates the group divide, swap
doesn’t create sympathy, but revenge and demonstrates how completely “normal” people can be
influenced to act against their own principles.
In-group Favoritism: Pattern of favouring members of one's in-group over out-group members, can
be expressed in evaluation of others, in allocation of resources, and in many other ways,
evolutionary psychology explanation: Group belonging key to survival, social-identity theory: Desire
to view one's self positively is transferred onto the group, creating a tendency to view one's own
group in a positive light.
Stereotypes: Over-generalized belief about a particular category of people (an expectation about the
group's personality, preferences, or ability), one assumes that the stereotype is true for each
individual person in the category. They may or may not hold true. Explicit stereotypes are those
people who are willing to verbalize and admit while implicit stereotypes are those that lay on
individuals' subconsciousness, that they have no soci or awareness of. Stereotypes can help make
sense of the world. Form of categorization that helps to simplify and systematize information.
Milgram Experiment Conclusions: “Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the
Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?" (Milgram, 1974). 65%
(two-thirds) of participants continued to the highest level of 450 volts. All the participants continued
to 300 volts. Milgram did more than one experiment – he carried out 18 variations of his study.
Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing
an innocent human being. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the
command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVgM. Milgram’s Agency Theory: The autonomous
state – people direct their own actions, and they take responsibility for the results of those actions.
The agentic state – people allow others to direct their actions and then pass off the responsibility for
the consequences to the person giving the orders. In other words, they act as agents for another
person’s will. Milgram suggested that two things must be in place to trigger the agentic state: 1. The
person giving the orders is perceived as being qualified to direct other people’s behavior. That is,
they are seen as legitimate. 2. The person being ordered about is able to believe that the authority
will accept responsibility for what happens.
Power in Comparison to Related Concepts
- Power is the ability of one person (or group) to influence and change the attitudes or
behaviour of others, which they wouldn’t have without our intervention
- Influence corresponds to the informal aspect of power. Virtually synonymous with "power"
in American literature. We use the term of influence to emphasize the psychological, and
mostly unconscious, aspect of the relationship (pressure, seduction, politics, etc..) Authority:
The right to influence another.
- Authority is the formal aspect of power. It finds its source in rules, laws and regulations
governing the institution.
Position Power versus Personal Power
- Position Power: Legitimate (formal authority, e.g. CEO), reward (salary increases, bonuses)
and coercive (fear of consequences, e.g. lay-off)
- Personal Power: Expert (high level of expertise), information (access to specific information)
and referent (interpersonal attraction, charisma)
Effects of Power : "The Dark Side of Power:" Power promotes stereotyping, devaluing others,
selfishness, and aggression (Kipnis, 1972; Milgram, 1963; Zimbardo, 1973). Power leads individuals
to focus on goal-relevant aspects of a situation (e.g., Galinsky et al., 2008), ignore impediments to
goal attainment (Whitson et al., 2013), and minimise the size of constraints – even underestimating
the physical size of others (Yap et al., 2013). According to the social distance theory of power
(Magee & Smith, 2013), highpower individuals feel greater subjective distance from lower-power
individuals than vice versa. This experienced social distance may account for decreases in empathic
accuracy, susceptibility to social influence, and assumed similarity.
Workplace Discrimination: Preferential treatment on the grounds of some enduring human
characteristic, other than merit, that is irrelevant to the effective performance of the job in question
(e.g. gender, race). Rawls’ “Theory of Justice”: Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged
so that they are attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality and
opportunity. There are inequalities between individuals, but the reason for choosing one person
over another should be based on qualifications that in principle could be fulfilled by anyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8GDEaJtbq4  Veil of Ignorance : The "veil of ignorance" is a
method of determining the morality of issues. It asks a decision-maker to make a choice about a
social or moral issue, and assumes that they have enough information to know the consequences of
their possible decisions for everyone but would not know, or would not take into account, which
person he or she is. The theory contends that not knowing one's ultimate position in society would
lead to the creation of a just system, as the decision-maker would not want to make decisions which
benefit a certain group at the expense of another. In relation to party politics: Political parties in
most countries reflect social class and other factors, which hints at the fact that party politics does
not function from a place of “veil of ignorance”. It is linked to in-group favouritism. Workplace
Discrimination – Challenges: Sometimes difficult to determine to what extent appearance, ethnic
background, or marital status is related to one’s performance ○ Examples: Staff of Chinese
restaurant, Abercrombie Fitch staff. And Institutional discrimination: The very culture of the
organisation is prejudiced against certain groups.
Diversity in Leadership: In total, there have been just 16 black CEOs at the helm of Fortune500
companies since 1999. In the US, racial minorities make up 10% of corporate directors despite
representing 35% of population. Representation of women in boardrooms (2017) (France: 40%,
USA: 22%, Germany: 21%, India: 14%, Japan: 5%).
Institutional Discrimination in Banking: The gap in pay between men and women in banking is
huge. Old-fashioned beliefs say women get paid less because they take time out to have children
and that women just don’t perform as well as men. Barkley’s HR quote: Female employees were
childless and single because of a lack of time. As they go up the ranks they start realising that even
without a family life they will not be remunerated fairly. Talented women leave banking did so
because they saw a lack of progression and opportunity.
Sexual and Racial Harassment: Physical, verbal and emotional harassment. Workplace harassment is
a form of bullying and intimidation Sexual harassment: gender harassment, unwanted sexual
attention, and sexual coercion. Shift over time of what is socially acceptable and what constitutes
harassment, e.g. racist or sexist jokes. Poses a challenge with regards to diversity, because it may
prevent minorities from engaging with more powerful professional circles. Individuals who
experience workplace harassment often do not make formal complaints. #metoo and #timesup:
Speaking up can have unintended negative consequences.

Feedback / Psychological Safety: Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk taking. It can be defined as "being able to show and employ one's self without fear
of negative consequences of self-image, status or career". In psychologically safe teams, team
members feel accepted and respected.
Feedback / Nonviolent Communication:

Reverse Discrimination: Discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, in favour

of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group. Reverse discrimination can be defined
as the unequal treatment of members of the majority groups resulting from preferential policies, as
in college admissions or employment, intended to remedy earlier discrimination against minorities.
Example India: Quotas in universities; 50% of places reserved for formerly disadvantaged casts.
Example UK: UK law draws a distinction between Equality of Provision and Equality of Outcome,
particularly in respect to disability rights. - What can be done? Affirmative action and equal
opportunity in recruitment: Actively recruit under-represented groups, Construct job criteria that are
genuinely open to all, Increased pay transparency, Clarity on career progression and bonuses,
Training programmes for discriminated minorities, Mentorship from the seniors, Technology-based
anonymous feedback.
Reflections on the Complexity of the Issue: What was first, chicken or egg? Are women genetically
more interested in social and creative professions or does early childhood education form interests?
Evolutionary psychology perspective on gender imbalance in leadership: Due to mating behaviour, it
is of smaller relevance for women to climb up hierarchies ○ According to this, it means women are
genetically less prone to put up with negative conditions in order to reach leadership position ○ If
this is the case, can organisations built in ways in which decision-making is less hierarchical? (we will
get back to this in the next class). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWu44AqF0iI.
Key Learnings: 1. Situational forces can dominate and even pervert individual dispositions and
propensities, despite our traditional beliefs that we have control and personal agency in all
situations. 2. Arbitrarily assigned roles can be accepted as personal scripts that reform - for better or
for worse. 3. Evil can be described as using power to harm others 4. Evil, as committing harm to
others, can take two forms; the evil of direct action, along with the evil of inaction, not doing the
right thing or doing nothing, when doing something could help remedy a bad situation.

Session 4/5 - Dakota Access Pipeline

Dakota access pipeline is a 1,172 mile long underground oil pipeline in US. Dakota access, controlled
by Energy Transfer Partners, started constructing the pipeline in June 2016. The pipeline become
commercially operational in 2017. Protests of the Dakota access pipeline occurred at several places
because of concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the environment and to sites sacred to
American Indians. It is placed under a river. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uugjk2J9tXs
Indigenous People in the USA: More than 570 federally recognized tribes live within the US. Since
1492, their population declined precipitously mainly due to introduced diseases as well as warfare,
including biological warfare, territorial confiscation and slavery. Today, there are over five million
Native Americans in the United States, 78% of whom live outside reservations. Indian
appropriations act of 1871 ended with the recognition of independent native nations, and started
treating them as “domestic dependent nations” subject to federal law. There was a lot of tribal
power. Fractionalisation: land ownership split by numerous individuals.
Missing and murdered indigenous women: the topic remains invisible in public life and media. In
2016 there were reported 5,712 cases of missing Native women, though the US department of
justice only reported 116 cases. Murder is the third leading cause of death among indigenous
people and these rates of violence are even higher in the area of the pipeline construction. In
Canada the homicide rate for indigenous was almost six times higher than for non-Indigenous
women. In US two-thirds of assaults or rapes against Native American women are committed by
white and other non-native American people, but prosecution is difficult because non-native men
can’t be arrested or prosecuted by tribal authorities if the assault occurs on a reservation.
Man camps: established to provide accommodations for workers who came into the area to work in
the oil industry or in related services. Men camps connected to the resource extractions are a well
know historical phenomenon. on the psychological level, men camps pose a challenges because
certain needs aren’t met (need for connection and intimacy: Maslow). Men camps are partly
responsible for the high numbers of raped and murdered women on reservations. Oil production
and the corresponding men camps have increased by 75%.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX-3jdXa46U
Dakota Access Pipeline - Sacred Sites: The key issue is that the pipeline is in some parts destroying
secret sites and in others impacting on meaningful connections between sites or running close to
sites. Several groups concerns over the thoroughness of archaeological survey. In particular 27
graves and 82 sacred sites were to be disturbed by the Cannonball river section of the pipeline. A
lot of archaeologists, museum officials and others signed a letter in support of the tribal
community, calling for further study of the area to be affected by the pipeline in south Dakota.
Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC): FPIC (free, prior and informed consent) is a specific that
pertains to indigenous peoples and is recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the rights of
the Indigenous People (UNDRIP). It allows them to give or withhold consent to a project that may
affect them or their territories. The aim FPIC is to establish bottom up participation and consultation
of an Indigenous Population prior to the beginning of a development on domestic land. Indigenous
people have a special connection to their land and resources, they inhabit 20% of the earth surface,
these areas are environmentally rich in both renewable and non-renewable resources. They have a
collective ownership style, which is the opposite than the modern global market.
UNESCO World Heritage Site: A world heritage site is an area which is chosen by the UNESCO as
having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance and is legally protected by
international treaties.
White supremacy: is the racist believe that white people are superior to people of other races and
therefore should be dominant over them. White supremacy has its roots in scientific racism. It is a
political ideology that maintains the social, political, historical or institutional domination by white
people. White supremacy is linked to colonialism -> was and remains a destruction of memory.
Lands, the source of identity, stolen. 59% of British people view the British Empire as something to
be proud of. Some people, 49%, believe that the British Empire benefited its former colonies.
Colonialism in India -> during the British rule, there was no increase in per capita income, Indian life
expectancy dropped by 20%.
Discussion
To what extend does the Dakota Access Pipeline issues link to with supremacy?
Jean Jacques Rousseau  was a Geneva philosopher and writer. He thought that the progression
of the sciences and arts has caused the corruption of virtue and morality (concepts of “noble
savage”). He assumed that human beings are basically good by nature, but were corrupted by the
complex historical events that resulted in present day civil society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81KfDXTTtXE
Emile Durkheim  was French sociologist. He wrote about capitalism, which led people to feel less
satisfied, and then it leads to more suicides. His work was concerned with how societies could
maintain their integrity and coherence in modernity, an era in which traditional social and religious
ties are no longer assumed. He wrote much about the effect of laws, religion, education and similar
forces on society and social integration. According to Durkheim, reasons for mental distress and
unhappiness in society are: rising individualism (lack to belonging to and group identity), excessive
hope (apparent opportunities increase pressure on individuals), too much freedom (burden of
responsibility linked to our choices), atheism (lack of communal side of religion) and weakening of
the nation and of the family. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9W0GQvONKc
Discussion
What are key commonalities and differences in the thinking of Rousseau and Durkheim?
How are their various assumption linked to our case study?
Wisdom Keepers for a Better Future? According to a 2016 Yoga Journal report, 36.7 million people
practise yoga in the US, up from 20.4 million in 2012. In 2017, 14.2% of US adults said that they'd
meditated in the past 12 months (Meditation improved anxiety levels 60% of the time, Meditation
can reduce the risk of being hospitalized for coronary disease by 87%). Shamanic tourism in Peru
and yoga tourism in India are booming. The World Health Assembly, the governing body of the
World Health Organization, formally approved the latest version of its influential global
compendium, which includes a chapter on traditional medicine for the first time. In the United
States, approximately 751,000 people have received Ayurvedic treatment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaXBVYr9Ij0
Fossil Fuels and Carbon Emissions: Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, primarily coal, fuel oil or natural
gas, formed from the remains of dead plants and animals ( the term fossil fuel also includes
hydrocarbon-containing natural resources that are not derived from animal or plant sources). The
utilization of fossil fuels has enabled large-scale industrial development; Even today, oil, coal, and
gas provide for about 80% of our energy needs. The burning of fossil fuels by humans is the largest
source of emissions of carbon dioxide, which is one of the greenhouse gases that allows radiative
forcing and contributes to global warming. Combustion of fossil fuels generates sulfuric, carbonic,
and nitric acids, which fall to Earth as acid rain, impacting both natural areas and the built
environment. Environmental pollutions from combusting fossil fuels impacts on the human beings
because its particles of the fossil fuel on the air cause negative health effects when inhaled by
people.
Greenhouse Gases: The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon
dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone. Without greenhouse gases, the average temperature of
Earth's surface would be about −18 °C (0 ° F), rather than the present average of 15 °C (59 °F). The
atmospheres of Venus, Mars and Titan also contain greenhouse gases. Human activities since the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution (around 1750) have produced a 45% increase in the
atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. The vast majority of anthropogenic carbon dioxide
emissions come from combustion of fossil fuels, principally coal, oil, and natural gas, with
additional contributions coming from deforestation, changes in land use, soil erosion and
agriculture (including livestock).
Climate Change & Global Warming: There is a broad scientific consensus that climate change is
occurring, and that human activities are the primary driver. Many impacts of climate change have
already been observed, including extreme weather events, glacier retreat, changes in the timing of
seasonal events (e.g., earlier flowering of plants), changes in agricultural productivity, sea level rise,
and declines in Arctic sea ice extent. The range in temperature projections partly reflects the choice
of emissions scenario, and the degree of the "climate sensitivity". Different scenarios involve varying
assumptions about future social and economic impact (e.g., economic growth, population level,
energy policies), which in turn affects projections of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 600 million
people live in areas impacted by sea level rise.
Fossil Fuels - Economic Aspects: Europe spent €406 billion on importing fossil fuels in 2011 and €545
billion in 2012. Closely linked to virtually all aspects of present society, especially for transportation
and heating for both homes and for commercial activities. 2017 global government fossil fuel
subsidies are estimated to have been $300 billion. A 2015 report studied 20 fossil fuel companies
and found that, while highly profitable, the hidden economic cost to society was also large. The
report spans the period 2008–2012 and notes that: "For all companies and all years, the economic
cost to society of their CO2 emissions was greater than their after‐tax profit, with the single
exception of ExxonMobil in 2008” ○ Externalities such as pollution and land degradation, and
sometimes less obvious, such as the costs of asthma and cancer, or the impacts of sea level rise. This
hidden or externalised cost is an implicit subsidy and accordingly represents a risk to those
companies.
Fossil Fuels - Stranded Assets: Stranded assets, which are known in relation to fossil fuel companies
as the carbon bubble, occur when the reserves of fossil fuel companies are deemed
environmentally unsustainable and so unusable and so must be written off. Currently the price of
fossil fuels companies' shares is calculated under the assumption that all of the companies' fossil
fuel reserves will be consumed, and so the true costs of carbon dioxide in intensifying global
warming is not taken into account in a company's stock market valuation. In 2013 a study by HSBC
found that between 40% and 60% of the market value of BP, Royal Dutch Shell and other European
fossil fuel companies could be wiped out because of stranded assets caused by carbon emission
regulation.

101 - Oil Pipelines: Once extracted, oil is transported to refineries via supertanker, train, truck, or
pipeline to be transformed into usable fuels such as gasoline, propane, kerosene, and jet fuel—as
well as products such as plastics and paint. Pipelines are generally the most economical way to
transport large quantities of oil, refined oil products or natural gas over land. In the United States,
70% of crude oil and petroleum products are shipped by pipeline. Data from 2014 gives a total of
slightly less than 2,175,000 miles (3,500,000 km) of pipeline, the US making up 65% of that.
Oil Pipelines - Environmental Consequences: Conservation groups worry about safety, and the
impacts on air, water, wildlife and farming, because of the risk of the pipeline disruption. Dakota
Access Pipeline: Missouri River might become contaminated in the event of a spill or leak,
jeopardizing a source of drinking and irrigation water that millions of people depend on for clean
water. Sunoco Logistics, the future operator of the pipeline, is responsible for at least 203 leaks
disclosed to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, with a total of 3,406 barrels
of crude oil spilled. Issue in case of spill: ensuring the company has enough money in reserve to
address any harm. Disturbance of the land, tiling, soil erosion, and soil quality.
Paris Agreement: Entered into force on 4 November 2016. The Paris Agreement for the first time
brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change. Its
aim is to keep a global temperature rise this century well below 2° Celsius above pre-industrial
levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5° Celsius. It also aims at
increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. Appropriate financial
flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework will be put in
place. There are no penalties for not meeting the targets. Issue: Lack of concrete evidence over
various factors (e.g. by how much we need to reduce carbon emissions to meet the target).
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs): Article 3 requires them to be "ambitious", "represent a
progression over time" and set "with the view to achieving the purpose of this Agreement".
Paris Agreement - Implementation and Critique: In June 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump
announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement. The earliest effective
date of withdrawal for the U.S. is November 2020, shortly before the end of President Trump's
current term (In practice, changes contrary to the Paris Agreement have already been put in place).
The negotiators of the agreement stated that the target of no more than 2 °C increase were
insufficient; instead, a target of 1.5 °C maximum increase is required. On 5 October 2016, US
President Barack Obama claimed that "Even if we meet every target ... we will only get to part of
where we need to go." As of 2017, none of the major industrialized nations were implementing the
policies they had envisioned and have not met their pledged emission reduction targets. According
to UNEP the emission cut targets in November 2016 will result in temperature rise by 3 °C above
pre-industrial levels, far above the 2 °C of the Paris climate agreement.
Regulation of Fossil Fuels and Carbon Emissions: In economic terms, pollution from fossil fuels is
regarded as a negative externality. The US Government does not have a national energy policy.
However, the oil and gas industry can be affected by tangential government energy and
environmental policies, such as automotive fuel efficiency standards. Taxation is considered one way
to make societal costs explicit, in order to 'internalize' the cost of pollution. This aims to make fossil
fuels more expensive, thereby reducing their use and the amount of pollution associated with them,
along with raising the funds necessary to counteract these factors. Depending on national laws,
regulation can take place through ownership of the resource. Market mechanisms: Competition
from renewable energy sources may lead to the loss of value of fossil fuel companies due to their
inability to compete commercially with the renewable energy sources.
Financial aspects of DAPL  Investment in Fossil Fuel & DAPL: Since 2016, immediately following
the Paris Agreement's adoption, 33 global banks have poured $1.9 trillion into financing climate-
changing projects worldwide. The top four banks that invested most heavily in fossil fuel projects
are all based in the U.S., and include JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, and Bank of America. “One
inescapable finding of this report is that JPMorgan Chase is very clearly the world’s worst banker of
climate change,” the report, titled “Banking on Climate Change,” found. “The race was not even
close: the $196 billion the bank poured into fossil fuels between 2016 and 2018 is nearly a third
higher than the second-worst bank, Wells Fargo.”. DAPL Investors: Credit Suisse; Royal Bank of
Canada; Suntrust Bank; BNP Paribas; HSBC; Citibank; Morgan Stanley; Wells Fargo, Bank of America;
and JP Morgan Chase.
Impact of DAPL on Financial Institutions: ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance. Twelve of the
banks met with the tribe, and ten banks signed a statement requesting changes to the Equator
Principles, an ESG risk management framework used by 90 banks worldwide in the aftermath of
their bad experience with DAPL. Three banks divested from DAPL: BNP Paribas, DNB, and ING. No
other event in the 21st century has done more to demonstrate that ESG investors need better social
metrics and optimal data than the Dakota Access Pipeline. This lack of data led to terrible decision-
making and loss of financial value, in addition to severe reputation damage to investors. “Social risks
can become material risks”: Energy Transfer Partners stock went down more than 60% since its
2014 highs, in large parts due to rhetoric related to DAPL.
Fossil Fuel Divestment: Is an attempt to reduce climate change by exerting social, political, and
economic pressure for the institutional divestment of assets including stocks, bonds, and other
financial instruments connected to companies involved in extracting fossil fuels. Emerged on
campuses in the United States in 2010 with students urging their administrations to turn
endowment investments in the fossil fuel industry into investments in clean energy and
communities most impacted by climate change. By September 2019, a total of 1,100 institutions and
over 58,000 individuals representing $11 trillion in assets worldwide had been divested from fossil
fuels. Aims at the stigmatisation of fossil fuel companies. According to a 2013 study by the Aperio
Group, the economic risks of disinvestment from fossil fuel companies in the Russell 3000 Index are
"statistically irrelevant". Some known universities and organisations have joined the cause:
Harvard, Stanford, the Guardian. “I think this is part of a process of delegitimising this sector and
saying these are odious profits, this is not a legitimate business model ... This is the beginning of the
kind of model that we need, and the first step is saying these profits are not acceptable and once we
collectively say that and believe that and express that in our universities, in our faith institutions, at
city council level, then we’re one step away from where we need to be, which is polluter pays.” -
Naomi Klein, author and filmmaker.
Fossil Fuel Divestment- Critical Voices: John Felmy, the chief economist of the American Petroleum
Institute, stated that the movement to divest from fossil-fuel companies "truly disgusts me" and
stated that academics and campaigners who support divestment are misinformed, uninformed or
liars. The World Coal Association has pointed out that divesting from the fossil fuel industry does not
necessarily result in a reduction of demand for fossil fuels, rather it would result in environmentally
conscious investors losing influence over the operation of those companies.
https://vimeo.com/240198973
Civil society organization: Scope: Individual, grass-roots, local, regional, national, transnational,
global. Type: Community group, campaign group, research organisation, business association,
religious group, trade union. Activities: Research, dialogue, information provision, service provision,
campaigning, partnerships. Focus: Natural environment, social issues, development, poverty
alleviation, human rights, animal welfare. Structure: Informal, formal, co-operative, professional,
entrepreneurial, network. Key role: Holding state and market sector accountable (partly for
stakeholders that down have own voice e.g. animals or vulnerable and marginalised groups).
Sectional versus Promotional Groups: Sectional  E.g. unions, professional organisations, student
bodies, neighbourhood groups. Member-based and primarily seek to represent the interest of their
members (i.e. particular “section” of society). Generally part of a particular workplace, university,
profession or geographical area. Will, above all else, pursue the interest of their members
Promotional Focussed on promoting specific causes or issues. E.g. environmental groups, anti-
smoking groups, animal welfare groups. Represent those with a common ideology. Membership
usually open to all.
How to Determine Legitimacy of CSO? Often not entirely straightforward, because any CSO may
claim to be a relevant stakeholders, but company may have different view (e.g. whether PETA is a
stakeholder of a cattle farmer). Companies cannot be expected to engage with every organisation
that decides to take issue with their policies (under consideration of the company’s resources).
Moral legitimacy may be determined by looking at how ethical the means of engagement that CSO
uses are.
CSO Tactics: Indirect actions  Research and communication about the issues, only ethical if the
facts are true and not overstated. Violent direct Actions  Violent direct action is usually illegal, but
creates high level of publicity, includes vandalism, cyber crimes, violence; Important, yet highly
controversial tactic of CSOs. Non-violent Direct Action  Various strategies: Boycotts, buycotts,
protests, letters, media campaigns, occupations, demonstrations and marches. Mostly, non-violent
actions remain legal and ethical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-nnzizoGQ4

Session 6 - Working Conditions - White Collar Perspective

Employees rights and duties: Rights: Entitlement of workers with respect to their employer, based
on a general understanding of human rights and often codified in employment law. Duties:
Obligations of workers towards their employer, based on individual contracts and wider
employment laws.
Employees, Workers, Volunteers,...: When evaluating the stakeholders group “employees” it is
important to keep in mind that not everyone who works for a firm is an employee . Especially NGOs /
NPOs are run (partly) by volunteers. In many cases, interns are not part of paid workforce. Often,
people work for many years at an organization, but are actually employed by sub-contractor
(example: cleaning staff). Some people who are working for the company are also owners (e.g.
cooperatives and founder-CEOs).
Dehumanised Workplaces: Alienation since the era of industrialised mass production. Impact of
technology, rationalised workplaces and the division of labour has meant many employees simply
repeat the same monotonous and stupefying actions over and over again. Little meaning and
satisfaction in their lives. Cubicle dwellers: Endless repetitive tasks on computer.
Jean-Paul Sartre: (21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist,
screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. One of the key figures in the philosophy
of existentialism and phenomenology, and one of the leading figures in 20th-century French
philosophy. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi,
literally, "bad faith") and an "authentic" way of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's
early work. Sartre's primary idea is that people, as humans, are "condemned to be free". Important
is also the concept of "existence precedes essence".

Discussion
1. To what extent are companies ethically responsible to create stimulating workplaces?
2. What could be incentives for them?
3. Please give examples of companies that are doing a good/bad job in this regard and explain
your choice.
Unethical, Pro-organisational Behaviour: Definition: Unethical pro-organisational behaviors are
„...actions that are intended to promote the effective functioning of the organization or its members
(e.g., leaders) and violate core societal values, mores, laws, or standards of proper conduct.
Examples 1: When there’s a slow-down I may lie to protect the company image by telling the
passengers that we’re waiting on bags rather than that the mechanic is taking his own sweet time.
Example 2: I would make excuses to protect the company, like if the cabin was filthy, I’d say, “I’m
sorry it’s dirty. We contracted out our services.” I did that more times than I can remember, to
protect the company’s image.
Discussion
1. How is workplace deviance related to ethics?
2. How can deviant behaviour be explained?
 3. Have you experienced deviant behaviour in one of your internships? Please provide examples
and critically analyse the dynamic
Theoretical Explanation for Deviant Behaviour  Psychological Contract: The perceptions of both
parties to the employment relationship, organization and individual, of the reciprocal promises and
obligations implied in that relationship. Psychological Contract Breach: Perception that duties of
employer are not met, Perception of mistreatment. A form of negative reciprocity.

Monitoring of Employees: Surveillance and control of workers has a long legacy in management
practice. Rise of electronic communication added a new level of complexity to the issue of privacy.
Companies can trace every detail of the employees conduct at work (e.g. by accessing data and
usage of CCTV). Invasion of privacy is based on the threat of potential harm rather than actual
harm. Similar ethical issues as pre-crime interventions: Pre-crime intervenes to punish, disrupt,
incapacitate or restrict those deemed to embody future crime threats (related to Orwell 1984
“thoughtcrime”)Example: Criminal psychology and free will. Health and drug testing criticism:
Makes more data available than employer actually needs. Are employers entitled to acceptable level
of performance or optimal performance?
Hawthorne Effect: A type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in
response to their awareness of being observed. The Hawthorne Works had commissioned a study
to see if its workers would become more productive in higher or lower levels of light. The workers'
productivity seemed to improve when changes were made, and slumped when the study ended. It
was suggested that the productivity gain occurred as a result of the motivational effect on the
workers of the interest being shown in them. Conclusions: Change of behavior in the presence of
observer.
Reference to the Panopticon: Panopticon derives from the Greek word for "all seeing" – panoptes.
System of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the
18th century. Concept of the design is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a
single security guard, without the inmates being able to tell whether they are being watched . The
fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means that they are motivated to
act as though they are being watched at all times. Thus, the inmates are effectively compelled to
regulate their own behaviour. In real life, the application of similar architecture in prisons led to
mental disease. Libertarian thinkers began to regard Bentham's entire philosophy as having paved
the way for totalitarian states. Mechanism of surveillance as a tool of oppression and social
control. Bentham's fear of instability caused him to advocate ruthless social engineering and a
society in which there could be no privacy or tolerance for the deviant. Foucault used the
panopticon as metaphor for the modern disciplinary society. Information panopticon: each
employee's contribution to the production process is translated into objective data, it becomes
more important for managers to be able to analyze the work rather than analyze the people. Key
difference: Watchtower in Panopticon visible to inmates, whereas controlling mechanisms of
technology invisible to user.
Whistleblowing: Could be framed as “ethical, counter-organisational behaviour”. Whistleblowing is
‘‘the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate
practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to
effect action.’’ (Near and Miceli, 1985, p. 4). Whistleblower reports of wrongdoing are frequently
buried or ignored (Miceli et al., 1991). Whistle-blowing brings two moral values, fairness and
loyalty, into conflict. Many whistleblowers feel they have the most to lose, at least in the first
instance. The act of whistleblowing can cause a conflict of interest between the personal,
organisational and societal spheres.
- Internal whistleblowing: The whistleblower reports misconduct to another person within
the organization
- External whistleblowing: he whistleblower reports misconduct to a person outside the
organization, such as law enforcement or the media.
Research suggests that nearly all whistleblowers initially attempt to report wrongdoing via internal
channels before utilizing (or in lieu of) external channels (Miceli and Near, 1992, 2002).
Edward Snowden: (born June 21, 1983), American whistleblower who copied and leaked highly
classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013. In 2013, Snowden was
hired by an NSA contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton, after previous employment with Dell and the CIA.
Snowden became disillusioned with the programs with which he was involved and that he tried to
raise his ethical concerns through internal channels but was ignored. His disclosures revealed
numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA with the cooperation of
telecommunication companies and European governments, and prompted a cultural discussion
about national security and individual privacy. Today, he lives in Russia in asylum which was
granted to him until 2020.
Greta Thunberg & Fridays for Future: (born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist on
climate change whose campaigning has gained international recognition. Thunberg first became
known for her activism in August 2018 when, at age 15, she began spending her school days outside
the Swedish parliament to call for stronger action on global warming by holding up a sign saying (in
Swedish) "School strike for climate". Likely the largest climate strikes in world history, the 20
September strikes gathered roughly 4 million protesters, many of them schoolchildren, including 1.4
million people on strike in Germany.
Rosa Parks: (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights
movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott; its success launched
nationwide efforts to end racial segregation of public facilities. On December 1, 1955, in
Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to relinquish her seat in
the "colored section" to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled. Parks' act of
defiance and the Montgomery bus boycott became important symbols of the movement. When
being arrested, she asked, "Why do you push us around?" She remembered the policeman saying, "I
don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest." “You must never be fearful about
what you are doing when it is right.” (Rosa Parks)
Reflection on time: Number of working hours somewhat arbitrary (35h / 40h week). Time as a
commodity: For many jobs there is a direct link between working-hours and pay: Problematic with
regards to advancements in technology and automation. No direct correlation between working
hours and productivity: Workers may be more productive when they work fewer hours. Link
between spare time and spending: spare time may boost economy. Supposed link between working
hours, numbers of workers and unemployment rates often less straightforward in practice: A job
can’t simply be divided into 2x half the amount of hours. Example of time overall demonstrates
employer’s power over employees’ well-being, whilst being limited by the standards of the market.
21h work-week: Based on research by London-based think tank New Economics Foundation.
Founded in 1986 with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth creation, based on equality,
diversity and economic stability”. Also introduced Happy Planet Index (HPI) in 2006, an index of
human well-being and environmental impact. Challenging well-established indices of countries’
development, such as the gross domestic product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI),
which are seen as not taking sustainability into account. In particular, GDP is seen as inappropriate,
as the usual ultimate aim of most people is not to be rich, but to be happy and healthy.
Bhutan and Gross National Happiness (GNH): GNH: a philosophy that guides the government of
Bhutan. It includes an index which is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of a
population. In 2011, The UN General Assembly passed Resolution "Happiness: towards a holistic
approach to development" urging member nations to follow the example of Bhutan and measure
happiness and well-being and calling happiness a "fundamental human goal." The four pillars of GNH
are (Sustainable and equitable socio-economic development, Environmental conservation,
Preservation and promotion of culture, Good governance).

Session 7 - Gig Economy, Migrant Workers, Modern Slavery

Gig and Sharing Economy: Temporary work (or gigs) refers to an employment situation where the
working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time based on the needs of the employing
organization. Temporary employees are sometimes called "contractual", "freelance"; or the word
may be shortened to "temps". Hired for a particular tasks rather than being employed . Subject to
increased economic risk and uncertainty, and lack the social welfare structures (pensions, holiday
entitlements).  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYvCe_PEx_0
UBER: Uber is an American multinational transportation network company (TNC) offering services
that include peer-to-peer ridesharing, ride service hailing, and food delivery. Uber drivers use their
own cars although drivers can rent or lease a car to drive with Uber. The taxi industry has claimed
that TNCs skirt regulations that apply to passenger transport and TNCs are therefore illegal taxicab
operations. Most drivers are independent contractors and not employees. This designation may
affect taxation, work hours, and overtime benefits and lawsuits have been filed by drivers alleging
that they are entitled to the rights of being considered "employees" under employment law. TNCs
say they provide "flexible and independent jobs" for drivers. Drivers have complained that in some
cases, after expenses, they earn less than minimum wage.
Race to the Bottom: Apart from not adapting to existing employment standards in foreign countries,
some authors argue that MNCs are changing standards to the negative. MNCs choose suppliers in
countries that offer most “preferable” conditions, meaning the least costly and, hence, lowest level
of regulation and social provision for employees. This can lead to a downward spiral, also called
“race to the bottom” in environmental and social standards. The rise of digital technologies and
activism make it harder to cover up bad labour conditions and put pressure on MNCs to improve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRiRG8deJvw
Migrant Labour: Migrant labour often puts the corporations in a position to provide social
infrastructure: housing, transport, healthcare and education . Two vastly different types of
contracts: expatriates and migrant workers. Expatriates being skilled employees that enjoy lots of
benefits when taking up position abroad (and poses issues related to fair pay). Migrant workers
being from poor countries being employed to conduct low-salary jobs. Due to bad economic
circumstances in their home country, migrant workers may be willing to work in otherwise
unacceptable work conditions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxYijPfD-K0
Migrant Workers in the Middle East and Gulf: Migrant workers in a particularly vulnerable situation
due to distance to family and social circles, language barriers and legal status. In Qatar and the UAE,
more than 80% of the population consists of non-nationals, most of which are contractors. In Qatar
specifically, 1.4 million migrant workers represent 94% of workforce. The country of origin of most
of these workers is India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Recruitment agents: Workers pay a fee to agent that creates a dependency through the debt, low
wages make it impossible to repay loans. Thousands of construction workers from India and Nepal
reportedly have died from poor working conditions in extreme heat, 12h shifts and limited access
to water. Average migrant worker earns 300 USD a month, whilst per capita GDP is 80.000 USD
from oil and natural gas. Only Qatari nationals are permitted to form trade unions.

Modern Slavery - Definition Includes people who are: 1. Forced to work through threat 2. Owned or
controlled by an “employer” particularly through mental, physical, or threatened abuse 3.
Dehumanised and threatened as a resource 4. Physically constraint or restricted in freedom of
movement 5. Subject to economic exploitation through underpayment.
Affects 40 million people worldwide. Children make up 25% and account for 10 million of all the
slaves worldwide. More than half of the 40.3 million victims (24.9 million) are in forced labour, which
means they are working against their will and under threat, intimidation or coercion. An additional
15.4 million people are estimated to be living in forced marriages. Of the 24.9 million people
trapped in forced labour, the majority (16 million) work in the private sector. Another 4.8 million
people working in forced labour are estimated to be sexually exploited, while roughly 4.1 million
people are in state-sanctioned forced labour. Women and girls bear the brunt of these statistics,
comprising 99% of all victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors.
Migrant Workers & Modern Slavery in Europe: Due to colonial ties, Western Europe has long been
a major destination for migrant workers. UK experienced net migration of 2.5 million people from
2000-2010 ○ Implications on politics and Brexit campaigns. First-generation immigrants face
considerably higher levels of unemployment compared to native borns. 13,000 enslaved in the UK
(2014), which includes women forced into prostitution, domestic staff, and workers in fields,
factories and fishing. Many victims are foreign nationals from countries such as Romania, Poland,
Albania and Nigeria, but vulnerable British adults and children are also systematically preyed upon
by traffickers and slave drivers.
Fair Pay: The right to fair pay is to some extent protected through regulation in many countries.
Widening debate around “living wage”, e.g. in the fast food industry. Employee benefits: In 1985,
almost all Fortune100 companies in the US offered a pension plan, in 2012 the number was down to
11 companies. “Equal pay for equal work”: the right for men and women to be paid the same when
doing the same, or equivalent, work. Nevertheless, significant pay difference between male and
female employees still exists.
Example (1) Mining workers versus Cristiano Ronaldo: How to justify 19 Million GBP income versus
payments below the poverty line?.
Example (2) Expatriates versus local staff: Creation of two parallel economies.
Session 8 – Digitalization
Product sharing: New era started with “sharing economy”: An economic system built around the
sharing of human and physical resources through peer-to-peer networks (Airbnb, DriveNow,
bikesharing). Original mission: mitigate hyper-consumption and truly build community connections.
Focus has shifted towards convenience, price and transactional efficiency: “community” as
commodity. Growing risk of “sharewashing”: companies latching onto the term because it sounds
enticing, not because there is actual sharing involved. Trust rating is fundamental in this concept.
China Social Credit System: National reputation system being developed by the Chinese
government (However, there is no single, nationally coordinated system). Standardizes the
assessment of citizens' and businesses' economic and social reputation. There will be a single
system-wide social credit score for each citizen and business. Considered a form of mass
surveillance which uses big data analysis technology. Caught jaywalking, don't pay a court bill, play
your music too loud on the train — you could lose certain rights, such as booking a flight or train
ticket. Related systems in Western countries: credit ratings, UBER, eBay. A lot of data being collected
with little protection, and no algorithmic transparency about how it's analyzed to spit out a score or
ranking. System could further divide society, creating classes of people depending on their social
credit.
Discussion
1. How do you feel about rating & being rated when you use sharing economy services?
2. What is your view on the role of the sharing economy as a solution to over-consumption?
3. How do you feel about legal challenges of companies like Airbnb and UBER? Is the law simply
lagging behind or is there important legislation that actually benefits citizens?
Trust  Interpersonal trust: Defined as the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of
another based on assessments about the characteristics of the trustee such as ability, benevolence
and integrity. System trust: Reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a system (such as the
government).

Informed consent: Process for getting permission before conducting a (healthcare) intervention on a
person, or for disclosing personal information. It can be said to have been given based upon a clear
appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications, and consequences of an action. To give
informed consent, the individual concerned must have adequate reasoning faculties and be in
possession of all relevant facts. Most terms & conditions too long and complex to give an actual
informed consent.
Cambridge Analytica Case Study: Was a British political consulting firm which combined data
mining, data brokerage, and data analysis with strategic communication during the electoral
processes. Closed operations in 2018 in the course of the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data
scandal, although related firms still exist. In 2016, CA worked for Donald Trump's presidential
campaign as well as for Leave.EU. CA's role in those campaigns has been controversial and is the
subject of ongoing criminal investigations in both countries.
VIDEO 12-13-14 slide
Psychometrics: Field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological
measurement. It refers to the field in psychology and education that is devoted to testing,
measurement, assessment, and related activities. Concerned with the objective measurement of
skills and knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational achievement . Many
psychometric researchers focus on the construction and validation of assessment instruments such
as questionnaires, tests, raters' judgments, and personality tests. Frequently used in HR application
processes.
My personality app: Popular Facebook application created by David Stillwell in 2007 that allowed
users to take real psychometric tests and obtain their results instantly. Around 40% of the
respondents also opted in to share data from their Facebook profile, resulting in one of the largest
social science research databases in history. The application was active until 2012 and collected data
from over 6 million volunteers during this time; This data was anonymised and samples of it were
shared with registered academic collaborators around the world through the myPersonality project,
resulting in over 45 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals.
BIG 5 MODEL

VIDEO 20 slide
Micro-targeting: Microtargeting, often used by political parties and election campaigns includes
direct marketing data mining techniques that involve predictive market segmentation. Uses various
means of communication such as direct mail, phone calls, home visits, television, radio,...
Microtargeting tactics rely on transmitting a tailored message to a subgroup of the electorate on
the basis of unique information about that subgroup. The combination of microtargeting,
psychometrics and online advertising is a paradigm shift in advertising broadly and election
campaigning.
VIDEO 23 slide
Discussion
1. To what extent do you find it OK for companies to use micro-targeting? Does this differ
depending on the sector? (e.g. insurances, tobacco, dietary products?)
2. How do you feel about this as a consumer? How would you feel about this as a marketing
employee of a company in a competitive market?
3. Log into your Facebook and consciously reflect on the contents you see (and don’t see). What
do you think Facebook thinks about you (ie. what personality type)?
4. Please go online and google “politics”, take a screenshot of top results and then let’s see if
we get the same results!
Ethics of Algorithms / Machine Learning / AI: Algorithmic decision making to support humans, not
to replace them (e.g. help doctors to sort through differentials) ->For better & quicker human
decision-making. Media focus often on social media and search engine, whereas much of machine
learning is focused on technical support (e.g. call centres, supply chain, banking). Automated
weapons pose a threat. Danger of over-reliance on algorithmic decision-making.Algorithm never
fully “neutral” but shaped by decisions made by the programmer (e.g. chosen data sets to work on)
->In many cases mistakes due to lack of basic social scientific assumptions around sample selection
(e.g. Twitter data used as generalisable data). Even true for non-human data sets (e.g. climate data
sensor selection).
Session 9/10 – Consumers
Discussion: Which companies / industries can you think of that have major ethical dilemmas with
regards to consumers?
Consumer-related Issues in Key Industries.

Consumer Rights are inalienable entitlements to fair treatment when entering exchanges with
sellers. UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection; example “right to truthful information”. Not always
easy to implement, as claims made by manufacturer may not be factually untrue, but still might end
up misleading consumers.
Product Policies. Obliged to provide products and services that are safe, efficacious, and fit for
purpose. Linked to companies’ interest in relation to competitiveness. What lengths should
producers of goods and services go to make them safe for use? To what extent are producers
responsible for the consequences of their consumers’ use of their products? Principle of “due care”:
Take all reasonable steps to ensure that products are free from defects and safe to use. Some
products are inherently risky: Tobacco and unhealthy foods. It is the Company’s responsibility of
ensuring that consumers properly understand the risks involved in consuming their products.
Promotion. Marketing communication / promotion normally serves two purposes:
- To inform consumers about goods and services
- To persuade consumers to purchase goods and services
Promotions are intrusive and unavoidable. They create artificial wants. They reinforce materialism
and consumerism (an attitude that makes consumption the center of meaning and identity
construction). They create insecurity and perpetual dissatisfaction, as well as social stereotypes.
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0
Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24L7r7SoK_Y
Discussion
1. What is your view on the various advertising strategies?
2. Do you think it’s OK for companies to use social issues to embed them in their advertising?
3. Do you agree with the “positive materialism” perspective?
Fair Pricing. Central idea: Products and services should be offered at a fair price. Neoclassical
economics assumption: Prices will set at a market equilibrium. Assumption: Buyers and sellers can
leave the market any time. Only valid when there are number of competing offerings. Information
asymmetries. In many countries regulated through cartel offices.
Consumer Vulnerability. The state of being unable to make informed, reasoned decisions about a
product purchase.
1. Lack of sufficient education
2. Consumers who are easily confused or manipulated due to old age or senility
3. Consumers who are in exceptional physical or emotional need due to illness, bereavement,
or some unfortunate circumstance
a. Example: Targeting people who are sick and in need
4. People who lack the necessary income
5. People who are too young to make competent independent decisions
a. Example: Advertising of unhealthy food targeting children
Consumer Exclusion. Certain groups of consumers may be discriminated against and excluded from
being able to gain access to products that are necessary for them to achieve a reasonable quality of
life.

Globalization and Consumers. Level of consumer protection varies greatly amongst different
countries. Offers companies the opportunity to exploit these differences. Higher standards of
protection in developed markets can be seen as an added cost burden. Companies are not only
exporting products, but ultimately exporting a whole set of cultural values; Known as cultural
homogenization, hegemonic influence of global brands on local markets
Discussion. To what extent should companies be held accountable for their impact on countries’
culture?
Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (BOP) Concept. Idea to tap into the “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid”.
Innovative products and services offered to the poorest people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Partly positive developments and appreciated by the UN as “inclusive markets” (Launch of high-
nutrition yoghurt by Danone; Low-cost laptop for school children). Important criticism: Profit
opportunities limited. Poverty can only be reduced by raising income, not by selling cheap products.
Consumer Sovereignty. Key concept in neoclassical economics: Under perfect market condition,
consumers drive the market; they express their needs and desires as a demand, which firms
respond to by supplying them with the goods and services they require. Real markets:
- Consumers may not know enough about competing offers to find the best deal
- Companies take advantage of monopolies
- Hence consumers do not take an informed choice and their sovereignty is limited
Discussion
1. Please evaluate the level of sovereignty (on a scale 1-10) of the following products/services
and justify your decision:
- Apple MacBook
- WhatsApp messenger
- Ham pizza at Vapiano restaurant
- BVG bus ticket/ride
- Emergency treatment at Vivantes hospital
2. In your view, what are the choices where consumers’ choices have the biggest impact on
environmental and social consequences?
3. Do you take any concrete actions to limit your environmental / social footprint? Which? Why
(not)?
Ethical Consumption.
- Boycott: Act of avoiding certain products and services (e.g., not buying from Burberry due to
their policies around fur)
- Buycott: Supporting companies by buying explicitly from those that have good policies (e.g.,
coffee with fair-trade labels)
- Attitude-behavior gap (also known as value-action gap): space that occurs when the values
(personal and cultural) or attitudes of an individual do not correlate to their actions. More
generally, it is the difference between what people say and what people do
- “Political form of consumerism” is a keyway how citizens shape the economic landscape,
second to voting
- Threat to democracy: The “rich” have way more “voting right” than the poor
- Motivation of company remains profit
- Minority interests remain ignored
Emmanuel Kant. Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsgAsw4XGvU, was an influential
Prussian German philosopher in the Age of Enlightenment. Kant believed that reason is the source
of morality, and that aesthetics arise from a faculty of disinterested judgment. Kant was an
exponent of the idea that perpetual peace could be secured through universal democracy and
international cooperation. Categorical imperative:
- Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should
become a universal law
- Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of
any other, never merely to an end, but always at the same time as an end
Discussion
 1. What are the key similarities and differences between Rousseau, Sartre, Durkheim, and
Kant?
2. How can Kant’s first categorical imperative be applied to ethical consumption?
3. What is the link between Kant’s second categorical imperative and business ethics?
4. What do you think of Kant’s approach to ethics?
Sustainable Consumption. Consumption is ultimately the reason why anything gets produced.
Consumer society built on 2 problematic assumptions: 1) Consumption can increase because there
are no finite resources. 2) By-products and wastes created by consumption can be disposed
indefinitely.
Marketers need to adopt a long-term vision. Sustainable consumption is the consumer behavior that
enhances quality of life and minimizes or eliminates social and environmental harms throughout a
products lifecycle. Notion of ensuring that the satisfaction of needs does not compromise on the
satisfaction of future generations’ needs extremely problematic if the “needs” of contemporary
generation are linked to self-image, identity, relationships, culture, and enjoyment. Need to
introduce alternative meanings of growth into society, so that we can learn to cultivate deeper, non-
material sources of fulfilment.
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhR_zKUn6jc
Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Fh2EVKpl4
Electric Cars - Human Rights Abuses. Human rights abuses, including the use of child labor, in the
extraction of minerals, happening to make the batteries that power electric vehicles. Amnesty’s
Secretary General: “Climate change should not be tackled at the expense of human rights”. Miners
as young as seven were seen by researchers. Miners, the youngest of whom were earning as little as
$1 a day, reported suffering chronic lung disease from exposure to cobalt dust. No country has laws
requiring producers to report on their supply chains. Battery manufacture now accounts for 60% of
the 125,000 tons of cobalt mined globally each year. Recycling challenge: Eleven million tons of
lithium-ion batteries forecast to be discarded by 2030, with few systems in place to enable reuse and
recycling in a circular economy for batteries.
Electric Cars - Environmental Issues
- Recycling challenge: Eleven million tons of lithium-ion batteries forecast to be discarded by
2030, with few systems in place to enable reuse and recycling in a circular economy for
batteries
- The carbon footprint of batteries in electric vehicles: electric vehicles can generate more
carbon emissions over their lifecycle – from procurement of raw materials to manufacturing,
use and recycling – than petrol or diesel cars (due to production, electricity usage, mileage)
- Pollution beyond carbon emissions: Cobalt & nickel mining, toxic spills, water shortages

Session 11 – Financial Stakeholders

Asset Management & Greenwashing - The Case of Blackrock
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfk3FV6iHtA
Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4foal20UTA
Link 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTcinPbG5qY
Greenwashing: hotels (towels and air condition)
Asset Management, BlackRock, and Sustainability. “Society is demanding that companies, both
public and private, serve a social purpose. To prosper over time, every company must not only
deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.
Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and
the communities in which they operate.”
“To sustain that performance, however, you must also understand the societal impact of your
business as well as the ways that broad, structural trends - from slow wage growth to rising
automation to climate change - affect your potential for growth.”
BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager with $6.84 trillion in assets under management as of
June 2019, more than twice the size of France’s GDP (Global wealth was $317 trillion in in 2018).
BlackRock is the largest investor in both new coal plant development and existing coal reserves
worldwide. Coal is the biggest cause of climate pollution. It is one of the world's largest investors in
oil and gas companies. It is the largest investor in rainforest destruction, including in the Amazon.
Deforestation is the second biggest driver of climate change after fossil fuels. On one hand they are
talking about sustainability and on the other they invest in companies which destruct rainforest (one
of the main driver of climate change).
Since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed global banks have pumped $1.9 Trillion of new money
into fossil fuel development. The business model of the fossil fuel industry in on track to create a
world with 4-degree temperature rise. BlackRock’s wields incredible shareholder influence. As of
2016 it owned more than 5 percent of over 2,600 companies and over 10 percent of 375 companies.
This makes it a potential powerhouse when it comes to proxy voting and other matters of corporate
governance.
Discussion
1. How do you feel when you are faced with contradicting information about a company as in
this specific example? Who do you trust? The company? The activists?
2. Can you recall cases of greenwashing that you encountered as a consumer / client? How did
you react? How did it make you feel?
3. How much responsibility do consumers have to fact check statements of companies?
Impact of Ownership on Organizational Purpose
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Uy_ODDiZo
“Absentee owners” Strategy, operational decisions, and culture are decided by people sitting
thousands of miles away. They do not know what it means to an organization or community when
they lay off employees in bulk. What if companies were never sold? What if instead ownership were
passed on to mission-aligned people within organizations? What if we understood and legally
defined ownership as a responsibility rather than an investment? What if companies were no longer
legally defined as “things,” but instead coupled with the responsibility of entrepreneurship and a
duty to fulfill their intended missions?
Steward Ownership Model is an alternative to conventional ownership that permanently secures a
company’s mission and independence in its legal DNA. Two key principles:
- Profits serve purpose: For steward-owned companies, profits are a means to an end, not an
end in and of themselves. All the profits generated by the company are either reinvested in
the business, used to repay investors, shared with stakeholders, or donated to charity.
 - Self-governance: For-profit businesses are often beholden to the interests of shareholders
who aren’t involved in the operation or management of the business. Steward- ownership
structures keep control with the people who are actively engaged in or connected to the
business. Voting shares can only be held by stewards, i.e., people in or close the business,
and the business itself can never be sold.
These principles enable companies to remain independent, purpose-driven, and values-led over the
long-term.
Not only do they outperform traditional for-profit companies in long-term profit margins, but they
are also more resilient to financial and political crises and offer significantly fewer volatile returns.
Compared to conventionally owned companies, steward-owned companies also pay employees
higher wages with better benefits, attract, and retain talent more effectively, and are less likely to
reduce staff during financial downturns. What all steward-owned companies have in common is the
belief that profits aren’t the primary goal, but rather how their purpose can be furthered.
“Ownership” in these organizations represents responsibility and the freedom to determine what’s
best for the long-term survival of a company’s purpose. Such companies are not up for sale; instead,
they are deliberately passed on to capable and value-aligned successors.
One of the first modern examples of steward-ownership is the German optics manufacturing
company Zeiss, founded in 1846 by Carl Zeiss. The highest salary of any Zeiss employee does not
exceed more than 12 times the salary the lowest paid worker receives after being at the company
for two years. Today Zeiss is a successful, innovative company with over €7 billion in annual revenue.
Through its charitable donations, Zeiss supports local and global initiatives to promote health care
and improve science education and research. The most well-known of these companies include the
German electronics company Bosch, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, British
department store chain John Lewis, and the American internet pioneer Mozilla.
Discussion
1. What is your spontaneous reaction to the steward ownership model? What are the pros and
cons that stand out for you?
2. Think back to your own internship experiences. How were the companies you worked for
owned? How did the ownership affect the company culture and the decision-making in the
company?
Impact of Ownership on Democracy. https://soundcloud.com/upstreampodcast/worker-
cooperatives-pt1#t=7:10
A worker cooperative is a cooperative that is owned and self-managed by its workers. This control
may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic
fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by every worker-owner who each
have one vote. There are more than 25,000 worker cooperatives in Italy, several thousand in Spain,
some 2,000 in France, and hundreds in many countries around the world. Worker cooperatives are
found in most industries, including very capital-intensive ones as well as services, and traditional as
well as high-technology sectors. The largest cooperative group employs some 85,000 people around
the world.
Worker cooperatives have often operated for considerably longer than a century, and several firms
created in the late nineteenth century are still trading today. This descriptive evidence alone would
suggest that workers’ cooperatives can perform reasonably well in market economies. Giving every
worker a say can also slow thing down. Financing is an especially difficult proposition for worker
cooperatives. Every worker-owner has an equal vote and gets an equal share of profits. This is not
appealing to investors who would choose a company because they want to get a big return on their
investment or because they want to take control. Regardless of the sector they belong to or the
types of cooperatives they represent, cooperatives are generally considered powerful vehicles of
social inclusion and political and economic empowerment of their members. Cooperative
membership brings with it not only economic benefits, but also voice.
Discussion
1. How do you feel about the statement in the podcast which says that companies undermine
democracy? Do you agree?
2. How would you personally feel about working for a cooperative? Do you find the approach
rather inspiring, or does it put you off? Why?
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X05avha47ho
Financing outside of classical (for-profit) investment landscape
Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who
typically lack collateral, steady employment, or a verifiable credit history. It is designed to support
entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to
complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people
held microloans that totaled US$38 billion. Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are
between 95 and 98 percent. In some cases, only provided to women. Microcredit is a tool that can
be helpful to possibly reduce feminization of poverty in developing countries. Critics argue that
microcredit has not had a positive impact on gender relationships, does not alleviate poverty, has led
many borrowers into a debt trap and constitutes a "privatization of welfare".
Impact Investing. Term emerged around 2007 and it refers to investments "made into companies,
organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or
environmental impact alongside a financial return”. Impact investments provide capital to address
social and/or environmental issues. Impact investors actively seek to place capital in businesses,
nonprofits, and funds in industries such as renewable energy, basic services including housing,
healthcare, and education, micro-finance, and sustainable agriculture. Impact investing occurs across
asset classes. Only a small market when compared to the global equity market (estimated at US$61
trillion). Impact investors managed USD 114 billion in impact investing assets.
Effective Altruism. A philosophy and social movement that uses evidence and reasoning to
determine the most effective ways to benefit others. Encourages individuals to consider all causes
and actions and to act in the way that brings about the greatest positive impact, based upon their
values. Its evidence-based and cause-neutral approach that distinguishes effective altruism from
traditional altruism or charity. Effective altruists reject the view that some lives are intrinsically more
valuable than others. For example, they believe that a person in a developing country has equal
value to a person in one's own community. Effective altruists think that future generations have
equal moral value to currently existing people and focus on reducing existential risks to humanity.
They seek to identify charities that are highly cost-effective, meaning that they achieve a large
benefit for a given amount of money.

Session 12 - Sustainability & Regenerative Business

Journal article on Degrowth MISSING
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a Collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations
General Assembly in 2015 for the year 2030. The SDGs are part of Resolution 70/1 of the United
Nations General Assembly, the 2030 Agenda. The overall agenda has 92 paragraphs. Paragraph 51
outlines the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the associated 169 targets and 232 indicators.
The goals are broad based and interdependent. The 17 sustainable development goals each have a
list of targets which are measured with indicators. Ban Ki-moon, former United Nations Secretary-
General has stated that: "We don’t have plan B because there is no planet B." This thought has
guided the development of the SDGs.
SDGs - Implementation and Critique. Implementation started in 2016. All over the planet, individual
people, universities, governments and institutions and organizations of all kinds work on several
goals at the same time. In each country, governments must translate the goals into national
legislation, develop a plan of action, establish budgets and at the same time be open to and actively
search for partners. Poor countries need the support of rich countries and coordination at the
international level is crucial. While "nearly all African countries demonstrated improvements for
children under 5 years old for stunting, wasting, and underweight... much, if not all of the continents
will fail to end malnutrition by 2030". USA: The UN reported minimal progress after three years
within the 15-year timetable of this project. Funding remains trillions of dollars short. The United
States stand last among the G20 nations to attain these Sustainable Development Goals and 36th
worldwide.
SDGs - Impossible Goals? Based on the article of the Guardian. Given our existing economic model,
poverty eradication can’t happen. Not that it probably won’t happen, but that it physically can’t. It’s
a structural impossibility. The fasted income growth ever experienced by the poorest 10% of the
world was 1.29% each year (between 1993 and 2008) - even at this rate, it would take 100 years to
eradicate poverty. That’s what it will require to bring the world’s poorest above the standard
poverty line of $1.25/day. A growing number of scholars are beginning to point out that $1.25/day –
which is the official poverty line of the SDGs – is not adequate for people to survive on. People need
closer to $5/day. How long would it take to eradicate poverty at this more accurate line? 207 years.
Progress is woefully slow because to date the only strategy for reducing poverty is to increase
global GDP growth.
Criticism of SDGs Goal “Eradication of Poverty”. Of all the income generated by global GDP growth
between 1999 and 2008, the poorest 60% of humanity received only 5% of it. The richest 40%, by
contrast, received the rest – a whopping 95%. So much for the trickle-down effect. To eradicate
poverty global GDP will have to increase to 175 times its present size if we go with $5/day. If we
want to eradicate poverty with our current model of economic development, we need to extract,
produce, and consume 175 times more commodities than we presently do. But it is in fact possible
to eradicate poverty in fewer than 207 years, and to do so without destroying our ability to inhabit
this planet. We need to abolish debts owed by developing countries, close the tax havens, install a
global minimum wage, place a moratorium on land grabs, and put an end to the structural
adjustment programs that allow rich countries to control the fates of poor countries. Moreover, we
need to dethrone the GDP measure and replace it with something more rational – like the Genuine
Progress Indicator or the Happy Planet Index.
Poverty, Wages & Colonialism. The best way to reduce poverty isn’t more exploitation, but more
economic justice: the South should receive fair prices for the labor and resources they render to the
global economy. No one would ever suggest that an American company paying American workers $2
a day is a good way to reduce poverty in America; we would insist that reducing poverty requires
paying a living wage. But for some reason this logic is not applied to workers in the South. High-
income nations maintain high levels of income and consumption through an ongoing process of net
appropriation (of land, labor, resources, and energy) from the South, through unequal exchange: in
other words, they seek to depress the prices of labor and resources to below the global average
price. This is a continuation of the basic tenets of the colonial relationship, although (in most cases)
without the occupation.
Discussion
1. What arises for you in relation to the SDGs? Are they a framework that you find useful? 2
2. How do you feel about the criticism? Do you agree?
Degrowth
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBJxBWwdQ2E
Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H0B1QsTpuE
Human civilization is overshooting several critical planetary boundaries and faces a crisis of
ecological breakdown, including climate change, ocean acidification, deforestation, and biodiversity
collapse. Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the
economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves
human well-being. This crisis is not being caused by human beings as such, but by a particular
economic system: a system that is predicated on perpetual expansion, disproportionately to the
benefit of a small minority of rich people.
Is Green Growth Possible? The relationship between economic growth and ecological breakdown
is now well demonstrated in the empirical record. In mainstream economics, the dominant claim is
that we must continue to pursue perpetual growth and therefore must seek to decouple GDP from
ecological impacts and make growth ‘green’.
Unfortunately, green growth hopes have little grounding. There is no historical evidence of long-
term absolute decoupling of GDP from resource use. Absolute decoupling of GDP from emissions can
be achieved simply by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy; but this cannot be done quickly
enough to respect carbon budgets for 1.5°C and 2°C if the economy continues to grow at usual rates.
In the absence of speculative negative-emissions technologies, the only feasible way to remain
within safe carbon budgets is for high-income nations to actively slow down the pace of material
production and consumption. Degrowth is not about reducing GDP, but rather about reducing
throughput. The word ‘growth’ has become a kind of propaganda term. What is going on is a
process of elite accumulation, the commodification of commons, and the appropriation of human
labor and natural resources – a process that is quite often colonial in character. This process, which
is generally destructive to human communities and to ecology, is glossed as growth.
De-Growth in the Global South? Degrowth is focused on reducing excess resource and energy use, it
does not apply to economies that are not characterized by excess resource and energy use. The
vast majority of ecological breakdown is being driven by excess consumption in the global North,
and yet has consequences that disproportionately damage the South.
- The North is responsible for 92% of global CO2 emissions more than the safe planetary
boundary and yet the South suffers most of the climate change- related damages
 - High-income countries rely on a large net appropriation of resources from the rest of the
world (equivalent to 50% of their total consumption). In other words, resource consumption
in the North has an ecological impact that registers largely in the South
From this perspective, degrowth in the North represents a process of decolonization in the South, to
the extent that it releases communities in the South from the pressures of atmospheric colonization
and material extractivism.
Discussion
1. Did you know the concept of degrowth before? (e.g., from economics classes?)
2. When you compare this perspective with more mainstream perspectives on growth, which
one resonates more with you? Why?
3. Do you think degrowth is realistic?
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE
Regenerative Design / Development. “Whereas the highest aim of sustainable development is to
satisfy fundamental human needs today without compromising the possibility of future generations
to satisfy theirs, the goal of regenerative design is to develop restorative systems that are dynamic
and emergent and are beneficial for humans and other species.”
Regenerative Agriculture. Data from farming and grazing studies show the power of regenerative
systems that, if achieved globally, would drawdown more than 100% of current annual CO2
emissions. Regenerative agriculture has the potential to repair that damage and reverse some of the
threatening impacts of our climate crisis. A transformation of current widespread agricultural
practices—which now contribute indirectly and directly to the climate crisis— can be rolled out
tomorrow providing multiple benefits beyond climate stabilization. Regenerative agriculture
represents "a system of farming principles that rehabilitates the entire ecosystem and enhances
natural resources, rather than depleting them”. Actual yields in well-designed regenerative organic
systems, rather than agglomerated averages, have been shown to outcompete conventional yields
for almost all food crops including corn, wheat, rice, soybean, and sunflower.
Discussion
1. When we think of innovation, we usually think of technology. To what extent can
regenerative design be viewed as innovation?
2. Food production & agriculture has a major impact on sustainability & our future on this
planet. What is your view on the “sexiness” of this sector? Would you consider working in
this field?
Indigenous Perspectives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gWGP34-4tY
While the world’s indigenous peoples make up less than five percent of the total human population,
they manage or hold tenure over 25 percent of the world’s land surface and support about 80
percent of the global biodiversity. The indigenous peoples of the Amazon have proven to be the best
guardians of their traditional territories. The fact that the Amazon ecosystems are as rich as they are
today proof of how successful these cultures have been, in living in balance with their environment.
Governments continues to view these peoples as an obstacle to economic growth, pushing for oil
development in the region by auctioning off blocks of the indigenous land that it considers under-
populated and under-utilized wilderness that must be tamed. It is time to acknowledge the role of
the indigenous peoples in relation to biodiversity loss and climate change.
Animism. Animism (from Latin: anima, 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and
creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Although each culture has its own different
mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of
indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. Although each culture has its own
different mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread
of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. Religious studies scholar Graham
Harvey defined animism as the belief "that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are
human, and that life is always lived in relationship with others." He added that it is therefore
"concerned with learning how to be a good person in respectful relationships with other persons”.
Discussion
1. What is your view on the video’s perspective on animism as a potential solution to modern
day problems?
2. What is your view on the idea of giving nature legal rights such as a company or a person?
3. How may these shift in perspective impact the way corporations deal with nature?
Session 13 - Case Study COVID-19
Link 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOifDOmkMB0&feature=youtu.be
Link 2
Corona-related Unemployment & Consequences. As entire industries such as travel, hospitality,
sports, and entertainment were shut down by COVID-19, tens of millions of people in the U.S. alone
filed new unemployment claims in early 2020. Individuals who are unemployed may experience a
range of stress-related consequences including depression, anxiety, and physical ailments.
Employment provides both manifest (e.g., income) and latent (e.g., time structure, social contact,
sharing of common goals, status, and activity) benefits. In addition to the consequences of
unemployment for individuals, there are negative spillover effects for those who remain employed.
Prior research shows that when firms reduce overall staffing levels, there tends to be
correspondingly lower levels of organizational commitment, job involvement, and greater stress
among survivors. Among those continuing to work in the wake of COVID-19, there is likely to be
growth in presenteeism (i.e., people going to work when ill).
Discussion: What is your view on the trade-off between public health interventions and impact on
the economy?
Impacts on the Workplace. As the pandemic hit, employees fell into one of the following groups:
“work from home” employees, “essential” or “life-sustaining” workers (e.g., emergency room
medical personnel and supermarket staff), furloughed or laid-off employees seeking the nation-
specific equivalent of unemployment benefits.
Emergent Changes in Work Practices. Acceleration of trends that were already underway involving
the migration of work to online or virtual environments. Approximately one-half of the companies
had more than 80% of their employees working from home during early stages of the COVID-19
pandemic. Fundamental issues:
- Not having space in one's home to attend to work
- Employees who live with others also face a larger set of challenges than those who live alone
since they need to navigate others' space as well
- Employees often find it challenging to maintain boundaries between work and non-work
- Absence of separation between one’s work and home – and the lack of commutes to
provide a transition between the two domains – can become a burden too
- How do our work and non-work identities interact when they unfold at home?
Working from Home and Surveillance. The reluctance of many employers to adopt WFH before
COVID-19 stemmed from a perceived lack of control that employers would have over employees
who were out-of-sight and –reach. There is ample reason to expect that new modes of surveillance
will accompany various WFH arrangements. Even before COVID-19, employers were adopting and
developing technologies to monitor employees’ whereabouts (e.g., with sociometric sensors).
Although managing-by-walking-around is not feasible when people are working remotely, the rapidly
expanded usage of videoconferencing has allowed for virtual sightlines. Yet these virtual sightlines
are fraught with a risk: they can increase perceived stress through continuous monitoring and
feelings of privacy invasion.
Virtual Teamwork, Leadership & Assessment. Virtual teamwork tends to lack the communication
richness available to face-to-face teams. Traditional teamwork problems such as conflict and
coordination can escalate quickly in virtual teams. Building structural scaffolds to mitigate conflicts,
align teams, and ensure safe and thorough information processing are key recommendations for
virtual teams. Without being able to directly monitor subordinates in the way that office settings
allow, there may be a shift to results-focused assessment. Working remotely may reduce the
opportunities for subordinates to gain feedback from leaders and prior research suggests that a lack
of learning opportunities is associated with lower organizational commitment and higher risk of
turnover.
Discussion
1. What is your own experience of “work from home” and the related positive and negative
consequences?
2. How do you feel about a future in which “work from home” is the norm?
3. What is your perspective on the aspect of surveillance in relation to remote work?
The Coronation by Charles Eisenstein
Charles Eisenstein (born 1967) is an American public speaker and author. His work covers a wide
range of topics, including the history of human civilization, economics, spirituality, and the ecology
movement. According to Eisenstein, global culture is immersed in a destructive "story of separation",
and one of the main goals of his work is to present an alternative "story of interbeing". An advocate
of the gift economy, he makes much of his work available for free on his website.
None of the world’s problems are technically difficult to solve; they originate in human
disagreement. Covid demonstrates the power of our collective will when we agree on what is
important. What else might we achieve, in coherency?
While all the above {referring to Corona measures} are, in the short term, justified on the grounds of
flattening the curve (the epidemiological growth curve), we are also hearing a lot about a “new
normal”; that is to say, the changes may not be temporary at all. Since the threat of infectious
disease, like the threat of terrorism, never goes away, control measures can easily become
permanent. It is not hard to imagine that emergency measures will become normal (to forestall the
possibility of another outbreak), just as the state of emergency declared after 9/11 is still in effect
today. That means that the temporary changes in our way of life may become permanent.

Session 14 - Activism & Social Entrepreneurship

Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffNtydjlgZY
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social, political, economic, or
environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good.
Forms of activism range from mandate building in the community, petitioning elected officials,
running, or contributing to a political campaign, boycott of businesses, and demonstrative forms of
activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes. Activism may be performed on
a day-to-day basis in a wide variety of ways, including through the creation of art (artivism),
computer hacking (hacktivism), or simply in how one chooses to spend their money (economic
activism). The most highly visible and impactful activism often comes in the form of collective action,
in which numerous individuals coordinate an act of protest together to make a bigger impact.
Collective action that is purposeful, organized, and sustained over a period becomes known as a
social movement.
A century ago, nearly all activist groups operated face-to-face, with coordination between groups via
visits, the postal system, and public notices. The telephone allowed rapid coordination across
greater distances and the Internet has made it much easier to coordinate globally. Many small
activist groups are made up entirely of volunteers. Large groups often have some paid staff plus
many volunteers. International activist organizations like Amnesty International or Friends of the
Earth are made up of numerous local groups, with some paid staff in national or international
offices. Boundaries of what is called activism are blurry. Someone working on a campaign might
spend time listening to the news, reading, and sending e-mails, phoning others, participating in a
meeting, and writing a grant proposal. None of this is out in public, such as joining a rally or
blockade, but it is all an essential part of what makes such public events possible. On the other hand,
some people who act do not think of themselves as activists: in their minds, they are simply doing
what is necessary to address a pressing problem.
Types of Activism:
- Past-oriented or reactionary activism seeks to protect the interests of those with more
power, often at the expense of those who are weaker. Examples are men who assault gays,
vigilantes against illegal immigration, and campaigners for aggressive wars.
- Present-oriented activism is aimed at changing policies. This is also called reformism.
Examples are campaigns for laws and regulations, such as on election financing, gun control,
or whistleblower protection.
- Future-oriented activism - also called "activism!" with an exclamation point - is about
changing social relations, not just policies. Examples are greater equality in the family,
worker participation in decision making, and treating non-human animals as valuable in
themselves
Traditionally, most activism focused on humans. The animal rights and environmental movements
have broadened the area of concern beyond humans to other forms of life and even to inorganic
nature.
Political stance of Activism. The idea of the political left and right is often used to classify activism. It
is most appropriate applied to labor (left) versus capital (right) but does not work so well as a way of
classifying positions on other issues. The so-called new social movements - student, feminist,
environmental, and others - that developed in the 1960s and thereafter do not comfortably fit
within the left-right classification system. Those on the left are often called progressives or radicals
and those on the right conservatives or reactionaries. But if conservative means maintaining the
status quo and reactionary means harking back to an earlier age, then movements do not always line
up in a predictable way. For example, environmentalists campaigning against a waste dump or
chemical factory are seeking to maintain the status quo in the face of industries trying to change it.
Leadership and Activism. Leaders play an important role in activist groups and movements. They can
play a variety of roles, for example as figureheads, spokespeople, role models, strategists, and
theorists. Probably the two most famous activist leaders are Mohandas Gandhi, leader of the Indian
independence movement from 1915 until independence in 1947, and Martin Luther King, Jr., leader
of the US civil rights movement. Leaders often come under attack by opposition forces: discrediting a
leader is a way of discrediting an entire movement. Nevertheless, focusing on leaders can be
somewhat misleading because most activism is a collective activity. Leaders would not exist except
for the quiet, unheralded efforts of hundreds of ordinary activists. Most activist movements contain
a combination of formal structure and egalitarian dynamics. In writings about activist movements, it
is worth remembering that there is usually much more attention to formal structures and leaders
than to ordinary activists and everyday activities.
Corporates and Activism. “Getting involved” can be risky for businesses who have never stepped into
the minefield of activism, where any gesture, regardless of its intention, can be misunderstood. Even
a progressive brand like Starbucks was forced to revise a policy prohibiting associates from wearing
Black Lives Matter slogans to work after pressure from activists. 68% of the interviewed PR
professionals said they’re not fully prepared to deal with activist groups, primarily because they have
no previous experience doing so and perceive them more as troublemakers than problem solvers.
Only 29% of interviewees report that their corporations have policies regarding employee activism.
And over half admit they don’t know if their companies support employee involvement in activist
activities or not. This lack of clarity raises complicated questions. What if a passionate staffer posts
something inflammatory on Instagram? What if a long-term employee is arrested during a protest?
What if an office worker wears a T-shirt to work featuring a controversial slogan?
Discussion
1. What associations come up for you when you hear the term activism?
2. What is the common relationship that you observe between corporates and activists? What
would be an ideal relationship from your perspective?
Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWSxzjyMNpU
Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqGQ1IRhdzg
Link 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz2pGZ-eLO4
Link 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K_qomU3WI4
Social Entrepreneurship. No firm consensus on the definition of social entrepreneurship and no
fixed legal organizational form. Approach by start-up companies and entrepreneurs, in which they
develop, fund, and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. Either non-
profits, or they blend for-profit goals with generating a positive "return to society". Focused on areas
such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development. Often using the sustainable
development goals as guiding principles.
- The Entrepreneurial Non-profit Model (ENP): Non-profit organizations that develop forms
of earned-income business in support of their social mission
- The Social Cooperative (SC) Model: Mutual interest enterprises, owned and democratically
controlled by members for non-capitalist interest
 - The Social Business (SB) Model: Mission-driven businesses using business methods to
address social problems
- The Public Sector Social Enterprise (PSE) Model: Public policies are transferred to private
entities; social enterprises emerge as “public-sector spin-offs”.

Discussion
1. To what extent would you feel drawn to be involved in a social enterprise? What are positive
association you hold, what are negative associations?
2. What are the main ethical challenges of social enterprises that you can see?
3. Do you think social enterprises could trigger a major social change?

Session 15 – Developmental Models

Link 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j800SVeiS5I
Discussion
1. What are some themes from the CSR course and the video that overlap?
2. Please list 3 key learnings that you are taking away from the business ethics course. These
can be anything from facts you didn’t know previously or personal reflections to insights
about society at large.
3. Please set one intention of an ethical behaviour you want to adopt in your professional
and/or personal life