MGMT 2130

Business Ethics and Social

Responsibility
Session #1: Introduction

There will be 5 minute break halfway through session

 Welcome!

• Why are we here?

• What will we learn in this course?

• How will we learn it?

About your instructors…

• Zachariah Brown
• US, Europe, Middle East, Asia
• Private Equity & Management
• Behavioral Economics
• Primatology & human origins
• Lived for years at sea

Mr. Peter Yip

• Born in China, raised in HK
• Joined HKUST >5 Years
• Co-author of several HKEJ articles
Why Here?
Why Here?

• Simpsons Clip

• How Accurate is this?

• Homer motivated under pressure to perform something
• Obtain personal benefit
• Does something that imposes costs on others
• Low transparency
• Costs surface – bystanders get hurt
• Retroactively addressed
• Those responsible are not held accountable
• They’ve left
• Limited liability
• Time has passed
Exercise:
• Groups of 3: (7 minutes)
• Introduce yourselves & fun fact

• Discussion Question:
1. Do you personally care about any ethics, corporate social
responsibility, or sustainability related issue? If so, what is it
and why? (individually)

2. What is the goal of a for profit company and how can its
success be measured? (group)

Finish these three sentences & 1 person prepare to submit:

“An issue all 3 of us care about is ___________”
“The purpose of a firm is to… ____________”
“The success of a company can be measured by____________”
Discussion

• Issues we care about & why?

• How can we define the ’purpose’ or ‘goal’ or a

firm?

• How measure success of a firm?

 What will we learn?
• Ethics & the Individual
(MGMT 2010)

• Business Ethics &

Social responsibility
(MGMT 2130)
MGMT2130: WHAT
• How business decisions affect different
interests from various stakeholders.

• What business decisions have

externalities

• How to identify situations where

potential conflicts arise among
prudential, legal, and ethical aspects of
behavior

• Can ethical corporate citizenship be more

profitable? When and how?

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 Economics

CSR
Society Environment
 Profit

CSR
People Planet
 Phases of CSR
• 1950–1960s
• Proposed that corporate managers should act voluntarily and philanthropically
Stewardship as public trustees and social stewards.

• 1960–1970s
• Broadened that idea to embrace legally-required corporate responses to many
Responsiveness social demands.

• 1980–1990s
• Called on businesses to develop ethical corporate cultures to support a wide
Ethics range of stakeholders and communities through social contracts

• 1990–2000s
• Urged corporations to become global citizens heeding and correcting business's
Global
Citizenship worldwide negative impacts on human societies and the natural environment

Frederick, W. C. (2016). Commentary: Corporate social responsibility: Deep roots, flourishing growth, promising future. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 129.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00129/full
The Three Dimensions of Actions

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 Course Structure
1) Introduction: What, Why, How
Foundations
2) Macro: Role of Business in Society
3) Micro: Psychology & Foundations of Corporate (Ir)responsibility

4) Business and Employees

5) Business and Customers
6) Business and Suppliers
Stakeholders
7) Business and Communities
8) Business and the Natural Environment

9) Special Applied Topic

Applications 10) Special Applied Topic

11) Applying what we've learned

Final 12) Applying what we've learned
Presentations

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5 Minute Break
MGMT 2130: How
Class Norms

• Class Discussions
• Think Pair Share
• Breakout groups
• Class Discussion

• Reading summaries each week

• Warm calls – succinct summaries

• 5 minute breaks

• Zoom à In Person?

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 Class Values

Mission Statement:

To foster a greater understanding and appreciation

for ethical corporate citizenship

Course Materials

• 12 class meetings

• Sessions 11 & 12: Group presentations

• Guest Speaker(s)

• Internet resources (links on Canvas)

• No textbook
• Class notes (downloadable) posted after class
• News, videos, articles;
 Assessment
Personal
Component Weight Reflection
(Out of 100) Online Discussion10%
Group Project
10%
33%
Group Project 33
Bi-Weekly Surveys
In-class Participation 20 12%

Professional Values 15 Prof Values

Alignment
Exercise In-Class
Alignment Exercise Participation
15%
Bi-weekly surveys 12 20%

Online discussion forum 10

Personal reflection 10

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Group Project (33%)

• Assigned teams (after week 2)

• To assume the role of business consultants

advising HKEX listed company leadership on:
• Specific Issue or
• Overall sustainability strategy

• Deliverables:
• Oral presentation with Q&A (in week 11 or 12) – 18%
• Written report (15%)

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What Should Presentation Cover?
• What is the firm’s business model? Who are its major
stakeholders?
• What are the major social and environmental challenges to
the firm’s industry?
• What are specific ethical/CSR issues faced by the firm itself?
• What has been the response to this or similar challenges in
the past?
• In what areas could the firm improve?
• What should the firm do (What ultimate recommendation
would you give to the firm, keeping in mind that it is a for-
profit company with limited resources).
• What entrepreneurial opportunity might this create and
how would you start bottom-up?
Group Project Assessment

• Presentation assessed on:

• Understanding/description of company & issue
• Application of course concepts
• Depth of analysis
• Conclusion and recommendations
• Presentation style and teamwork
• Classmate evaluation

• Paper assessed additionally on

• Responding to questions/comments from presentation
• Effort/process of collection and information used

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Class Participation (20%)

• Get attendance/participation grade for each class

• Evaluated on:
• Thoughtful engagement
• Respect for classmates
• Keeping cameras on, entering/exiting breakout rooms
• Virtual backgrounds are good

• Other
• Pronounce name, change name on zoom
• Chatboxes not counted, No private messages
• Message TA after if want to confirm your participation (within
3 days, include your name & cohort)
• Absences & lateness -
Professional Values Alignment (15%)

Pt 1: Session 5:
• Identify values
• Create values hierarchy map with 6-8 values
• Submit values over Qualtrics

Pt 2: Session 7:
• Meet with assigned partner and discuss
• Pick two companies of interest
• Research company values, mission, culture, etc
• Submit paper comparing your values to those of company
• 2-4 pages double spaced
• Submit values hierarchy (pdf)
• Submit values over Qualtrics (2nd time)
Personal Reflection Exercise (10%)
• One most thought-provoking idea from Session 2 through 8
• Two pages, double spaced (400-500 words), TNR

• “Explain the idea (brief but clear):

• Why is it thought provoking for you?
• Do you agree or disagree with it and why?
• How might this idea relate to or affect you in your personal life or
future career?
• Please be sure to link your reflection to your personal experiences,
decisions, or feelings.”

• Grading:
• Answering the above questions
• Connecting class concepts to personal experience
• Originality and personal touch
Online discussion (10%)

• Each Week –
• starting AFTER 2nd class - 9 in total
• None for final two classes

• Thoughtful contributions
• Insightful commentary, analogies, critiques of class comment
• Explaining ‘why’
• Articles/social media posts with commentary (provide links)
• Points of disagreement, devils advocate arguments

• Length
• Few sentences is fine
• Don’t do long research

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Surveys (12%)
• Up to 6–
• Topics: background, interests, opinions, scenarios

• Attention of material covered in class:

• “which one of the following was not discussed in class this past
week”
• “What are the two major factors we discussed in class that
determine if we can expect to see higher CSR in a given
environment?”
• “are you dead right now?”

• Grading: full credit if answer all questions on time &

seriously

• Your personal responses will never be shared (or seen by

anyone but me)
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 Date # Topic Assignment Due
Feb 4 L5/L6 No Class
Feb 10 L7/L8
Feb 11 L5/L6 1 Introduction
Feb 17 L7/L8
Feb 18 L5/L6 2 Role of Business in Society Survey 1 (due Tuesday)
Feb 24 L7/L8
Feb 25 L5/L6 3 The Psychology of Corporate (Ir)responsibility Teams formed
Mar 3 L7/L8
Mar 4 L5/L6 4 Business and Employees Survey 2 (due Tuesday)
Mar 10 L7/L8
Mar 11 L5/L6 5 Business and Customers PVA pt 1
Group Project topics due
Mar 17 L7/L8
Mar 18 L5/L6 6 Business and Suppliers Survey 3 (due Tuesday)
Mar 24 L7/L8
Mar 25 L5/L6 7 Business and Communities PVA pt. 2
Mar 31 L7/L8
Apr 1 L5/L6 8 Business and the Natural Environment Survey 4 (due Tuesday)
Apr 7 L7/L8
Apr 8 L5/L6 9 Special Topic 1
Apr 14 L7/L8
Apr 15 L5/L6 No class
Apr 21 L7/L8
Apr 22 L5/L6 10 Special Topic 2 Survey 5 (due Tuesday)
Personal reflection due
Apr 28 L7/L8
Apr 29 L5/L6 11 Group Presentations
May 5 L7/L8
May 6 L5/L6 12 Group Presentations
May 12 L7/L8
May 13 L5/L6 L7 / L8 Written Assignment
L5 / L6 Written Assignment
May 11
Survey 6 due
Other

• End of Class Questions

• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFMlOvPp_b3U4-0LkKyabqANEEjFYRwJlYnlDOl-
0NAIr7AA/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0

• Lunches

• Job Search Resources

• Linkedin
• glassdoor

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Between Now and Next Class

• Read the syllabus thoroughly

• Homework (See Canvas)

• The social responsibility of a business is to increase its
profits (Friedman)
• Watch 2 videos on Stakeholder Theory
• Optional readings
• Survey #1 due next Tuesday (link released tonight)

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