Second Term Tutorial Assignments

SOSC 2340/49 6.0

F/W 2021-2022

(Weight: 5% in each term)

OBJECTIVES:
This assignment requires you to write a 600 word evaluation or analysis of a reading or group of
readings in the course based on a list of questions given below. Each student will be required to
write two such reading analyses over the course of the entire year, one in each term. Each week,
two students will be responsible for writing on one of the assigned questions for the week. Each
will participate in an oral presentation of their response to the question in the online tutorial held
during the week in which the assignment is due.

WRITTEN COMPONENT:
Your reading analysis will take the form of a response to one of the questions listed below. You
will be evaluated on how well you deal with the key issues, problems or questions that the author
is trying to address. Some of the reading analysis questions require you to explain why you agree
or disagree with the author. All of the topics are designed to get you to think about how (or
whether) the author or authors have enhanced our understanding of some subject matter or
problem related to business and society. If there is more than one reading for the same topic in
the same week, you may refer to both readings even if it is not the one to which you are
primarily assigned.

ORAL COMPONENT:
For each reading one student will be responsible for presenting their response to the reading
analysis question in an oral presentation of no longer than five minutes. These will take place in
the tutorial that is held during the week when the reading analysis is due. The other student
assigned to the same reading will be expected to respond to the first presentation (they may refer
to material from their own written analysis in their response). The respondent’s comments should
be no longer than three minutes. Each student will perform each role (main presenter and
respondent) only once during the year.

READING ANALYSIS QUESTIONS:

Week 13 - January 10

1. Are there some actions that can be ethically justified in the context of business that would not
be justified in other contexts? Refer to one or more of the ethical principles or perspectives
discussed in the readings to explain your answer.
2. If you worked for a firm in which employees working remotely were complaining about
unreasonable invasions of their privacy how would you use material from chapter 14 of Business
and Society: A Critical Introduction to help senior management to deal with that issue.

1
Week 14 – January 17

3. The so called “trolley problem” is often used to illustrate the challenges of certain forms of
ethical reasoning and moral decision-making. Can it help us understand the issues related to self-
driving cars?
4. Pick one of the cases (not covered in question #3 above) and say how it might potentially involve a
conflict between two different ethical principles
Week 15 – January 24
5. What are some of the key reasons why Elkins and Zenghelis do not see decarbonization as necessarily
threatening economic growth.
Week 16 – January 31
6. What does “cutting with both ends of the scissors” mean and how does it help us attempt to deal with
some of the potential obstacles to dealing with climate change?
Week 17 – February 7
7. Should we worry about restraining or regulating platform businesses when so many of the services
provided by them are free or are responsible for bringing such high levels of choice and convenience into
our lives? How do one or more of the readings for week 17 help us address this question?
Week 18 – February 14
8. The readings by Fukuyama and Rahman and Teachout both deal with the threats to democracy posed
by digital platforms. Briefly explain the nature of that threat and evaluate the merits (or shortcomings) of
one of the solutions they discuss in their articles.
Week 19 – February 28
9. How does Weil’s idea of the “fissured workplace” shed light on the phenomenon of increasing wage
inequality?
Week 20 – March 7
10. What do you think are the most important challenges for gender quality in the digital economy
identified by Howcraft and Rubery? Does their analysis offer any helpful suggestions to address these
challenges?
11. What issues and problems are Vallas and Schor able to highlight by conceptualizing work related
platforms as “permissive potentates.”
Week 21 – March 14
12. How relevant are traditional institutions like collective bargaining and unions to the task of solving
the problems workers face in the digital era or the “platform economy.” Refer to at least two of the
readings assigned for week 21.
Week 22 – March 21
13. Based on any or all of the readings assigned for this week, identify some of the key reasons for
exclusion in business and what you think might be done to begin to address them?

2
Week 23 – March 28
14. The readings by both Stanford and Martin each offer a critical alternative to more optimistic
perspectives on globalization and its impact. Choose one of these readings and say whether – and to what
degree – you think the critical perspective the author develops is convincing.
Week 24 – April 3
15. Ruggie observes that globalization creates a “governance gap” that amplifies the power of
corporations and their ability to elude regulation. What is the role of CSR (if any) in this context? Use the
reading by Sherer and Pallazzo or Ruggie to answer this question?