PHI2043S 2021 Business Ethics Course Outline PDF

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UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT PHI2043S: BUSINESS ETHICS 2021 This course outline contains extremely important information, including details about assessment deadlines and plagiarism policies. In the event that these policies are breached, ignorance of them will not constitute a defence.

This course will explore various theoretical positions in the field of business ethics, and apply these positions to real-world scenarios. The course aims to increase students’ awareness of the ethical issues in business, to improve students’ ability to discuss, analyse and resolve ethical challenges, to improve students’ critical thinking and writing skills, and to expand their knowledge of both business practice and moral philosophy. Essential administrative information Course website We will be making use of Vula (https://vula.uct.ac.za) throughout the course to provide additional information, lecture notes, updates and resources. Please check this site regularly. • Go to the website https://vula.uct.ac.za • Log in with your student number and password • Go to the course tab (PHI2043S, 2021) Please note: The email address that Vula has on file for you by default is your UCT student email address. If you are unlikely to check this address regularly, you must change your Vula details. To do so, log in to Vula and click “Home”, then “My Profile” in the list on the left, then click “Edit my Profile” at the top of the screen, and change your email address to one that you check on a regular basis. If you miss emails because you don’t check your UCT email, that is entirely your responsibility.

Lecture videos and narrated lecture slides For each week of the course, a series of 2–3 lectures will be available on Vula as videos and/or narrated PowerPoint presentations. These will be available in video (mp4), audio (mp3) and/or PowerPoint (ppt) formats. When there is a PowerPoint, this will be available in the resources folder on Vula called “Narrated Lecture Slides”. The audio and video formats of the lectures can be viewed and downloaded from the “Lecture Videos” tab on Vula. In addition, PDFs of the lecture slides will be available in the resources folder on Vula called “Lecture Slides”. E-tutorials At the beginning of the semester, you will be assigned to a tutorial group. Go to Tut Sign-up on Vula and note which group you have been assigned to. If you have registered late and have not been assigned to a tutorial group, please email [email protected] and [email protected] in order to be allocated. Each tutorial group will have its own discussion forum for each week of material. The Vula forum is a place where you can discuss the course material with your peers and tutor, participate in tutorial activities, receive general advice and feedback, and share ideas and material related to the work. In order to incentivise your use of the online tutorial forums, 5% of your mark will be for participating in them. Please see the section below entitled “E-tutorial Participation” for more details.

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Administrators First port of call: Ms Lara Davison, [email protected] In case Ms Davison is unavailable: Ms Liz Gubb, [email protected] The administrators—not the lecturers—should be contacted with administrative queries. Queries of an academic nature should be addressed in the first place to tutors, and only then to lecturers. You must contact us if you are experiencing any difficulty. Please do not struggle in silence. We will do our best to assist you.

Lecturers and Co-convenors of the course  Dr George Hull, [email protected]  Ms Gabriele James, [email protected]

Philosophy Student Council

The Philosophy Department has instituted a student body, the Philosophy Student Council (PSC). The PSC discusses matters of interest to students of the Philosophy Department that are too general or too fundamental to handle via the class representative system. For example: If there are concerns about curriculum structure or content in the Department, and more importantly if there are well-founded and viable suggestions for modifications, these matters may be productively presented and considered in a council of philosophy students and staff. An elected postgraduate student chairs the PSC meetings. The staff representative is Dr Jack Ritchie. PSC members are appointed early in the first semester, and membership lasts for the year. At any time you are welcome to send any comments to your PSC representative, and your representative will be contacting you to find out whether you have any proposals or questions for the PSC’s meetings this year.

Course assessment The final mark for the whole semester will be based on the following:  The best 4 of 5 Vula quizzes (10%)  Tutorial participation (5%)  Essay 1 (15%)  An assignment (30%)*  Essay 2 (40%) * The assignment will include an essay worth 50 marks and a series of short answer questions worth 15 marks. The final marks will be a percentage on the transcript, not PA/F. Readings The prescribed text is Business Ethics & Other Paradoxes by Winfield, Hull & Fried, published by Fairest Cape Press. All registered students will be given access to the online version of this book through their UCT email addresses. To access the book students need to make sure that they are signed in to the UCT G suite using their UCT email address (instructions: http://www.icts.uct.ac.za/Google). The link shows you how to access your G suite.

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Once you have logged in to the G suite with your student details, you will see a square block with 9 dots in it on the left-hand side at the top of your screen. Click that block, and click on Drive, and you will see the file of the textbook which you will be able to view from there. If you register late for the course, please email [email protected] to give you access to view the file – ensure you give Lara your student number in the body of your email. Emails requesting addition via any other email address will not be entertained. Access will only be given via student email addresses. Reading the textbook is absolutely essential. All course assessments, including the quizzes, may include questions based on the readings which cannot be answered simply by attending lectures. The lecturers may also post additional readings on Vula. If any additional readings are compulsory, an announcement to that effect will be made. Vula Quizzes The Vula quizzes will be written in five weeks of the semester (see the Course Overview below). The quiz will be available on Vula, and will be released on the Wednesday of the week in question at 12h00, and be available for completion until that Friday at 23h00 (11.00pm). The quizzes will consist of ten questions in MCQ format and will test students’ knowledge of material from the weeks indicated in the Course Overview below. Note that the material tested by the quiz includes material relating to that same week’s reading, lectures and tutorials. You will have 20 minutes to complete each quiz. E-tutorial Participation In order to encourage you to make use of the Vula discussion forums, 5% of your mark will be awarded for participating in the discussion forums. You will receive 1% for making at least one substantial and meaningful post on your tutorial group’s discussion page in each of the 5 weeks listed below of the course only. This can include: • Asking a detailed question • Offering a response to a content question posed by your tutor or a peer • Posting a resource (online article, video, etc.) that is relevant to the material, with a brief explanation of why you think it is relevant In order to receive the full 5% for participation, you should therefore make a minimum of 5 such contributions to the Vula discussion forums—at least one in each of the 5 weeks listed below.

In order to receive marks for participating in the forums, you must do so within the following time frames: • • • • •

Wk. 3 (The Ethics of Economic Systems): forum participation from 16 August to 22 August Wk. 5 (Affirmative Action): forum participation from 30 August to 5 September Wk. 7(Meaningful Work): forum participation from 13 September to 19 September Wk. 9 (Employee Rights): forum participation from 4 October to 10 October Wk. 10 (Business and the Environment): forum participation from 11 October to 17 October

You may post to these forums outside these time frames, but these posts will not contribute towards your participation mark. Please ensure that you make your contributions in your tutor’s forums. Contributions posted in the incorrect tutor’s forums will not be marked.

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Essay One An essay of 1 500 – 2 000 words will be due on Monday 30 August at 10h00. The essay must be submitted electronically on Vula. Comprehensive instructions, including details of the penalties for lateness, and how to apply for an extension, will be provided with the list of essay topics, which will be posted on Vula by Friday 13 August. If an essay is submitted more than 5 days (120 hours) late, the student will be given a mark of zero. It is essential that the title of the essay document follows the following format: surname-name-2043-topic number, e.g. “james-gabriele-2043-2.doc”. You are responsible for ensuring that you upload the correct document. If you upload the incorrect document, you may receive a late penalty if the issue is not rectified immediately. A video containing advice for writing essays in this course will be posted on Vula along with the topics. You are expected to watch this video and to follow the advice. Essays will be checked automatically for plagiarism using Turnitin. To plagiarise is to use another person’s work (including the words, ideas or written structure) while presenting it as one’s own. Plagiarism is a very serious academic offence, and can be expected to lead to fines, endorsement of a student’s academic record, suspension or even expulsion from the University. More information about plagiarism will be provided during the course of the semester; and the following sites are also recommended: • http://www.philosophy.uct.ac.za/philosophy/undergraduate/firstaid/plagiarism • https://plagiarism.iu.edu/sitemap.html If you do not receive a Turnitin receipt via email when you submit an assignment, something has gone wrong. Contact Liz Gubb and Lara Davison immediately. Do not attempt to submit your essay to another class’s Vula site before you submit to the PHI2043S site, as your essay will then register a 100% overlap. Severe penalties will apply. Work already submitted for credit on another course will not be credited to you on this one. Please ensure that your work is new.

Assignment The assignment will consist of a selection of short answer questions and an essay of no more than 1200 words. It will be made available on 6 September and is due on Monday 27 September at 10h00. The assignment will include short questions based on weeks 1-4 of the course material, and you will have a choice of essay topics from weeks 5 and 7 (affirmative action and meaningful work). It is essential that the title of the assignment document follows the following format: surname-name-2043assignment, e.g. “james-gabriele-2043-assignment.doc”. You are responsible for ensuring that you upload the correct document. If you upload the incorrect document, you may receive a late penalty if the issue is not rectified immediately. Assignments will be checked automatically for plagiarism using Turnitin. To plagiarise is to use another person’s work (including the words, ideas or written structure) while presenting it as one’s own. Plagiarism is a very serious academic offence, and can be expected to lead to fines, endorsement of a student’s academic record, suspension or even expulsion from the University. More information about plagiarism will be provided during the course of the semester; and the following sites are also recommended: • http://www.philosophy.uct.ac.za/philosophy/undergraduate/firstaid/plagiarism • https://plagiarism.iu.edu/sitemap.html

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If you do not receive a Turnitin receipt via email when you submit an assignment, something has gone wrong. Contact Liz Gubb and Lara Davison immediately. Do not attempt to submit your assignment to another class’s Vula site before you submit to the PHI2043S site, as your essay will then register a 100% overlap. Severe penalties will apply. Work already submitted for credit on another course will not be credited to you on this one. Please ensure that your work is new. Essay 2 An essay of 1 500–2 000 words will be due on Monday 1 November at 10h00. The essay must be submitted electronically on Vula. Comprehensive instructions, including details of the penalties for lateness, and how to apply for an extension, will be provided with the list of essay topics, which will be posted on Vula by Friday 8 October. If an essay is submitted more than 5 days (120 hours) late, the student will be given a mark of zero. It is essential that the title of the essay document follows the following format: surname-name-2043- topic number, for e.g. “james-gabriele-2043-2.doc”. You are responsible for ensuring that you upload the correct document. If you upload the incorrect document you may receive a late penalty, if the issue is not rectified immediately. A video containing advice for writing essays in this course will be posted on Vula along with the topics. You are expected to watch this video and to follow the advice. Essays will be checked automatically for plagiarism using Turnitin. To plagiarise is to use another person’s work (including the words, ideas or written structure) while presenting it as one’s own. Plagiarism is a very serious academic offence, and can be expected to lead to fines, endorsement of a student’s academic record, and suspension or even expulsion from the University. More information about plagiarism will be provided during the course of the semester; and the following sites are also recommended: • http://www.philosophy.uct.ac.za/philosophy/undergraduate/firstaid/plagiarism • https://plagiarism.iu.edu/sitemap.html If you do not receive a Turnitin receipt via email when you submit an assignment, something has gone wrong. Contact Liz Gubb and Lara Davison immediately. Do not attempt to submit your essay to another class’s Vula site before you submit to the PHI2043S site, as your essay will then register a 100% overlap. Severe penalties will apply. Work already submitted for credit on another course will not be credited to you on this one. Please ensure that your work is new. Extension Policy The Department is willing to grant an extension if you have an excellent reason for requesting it, such as a physical or psychological condition documented with a medical certificate that covers your absence. Other circumstances counting as excellent reasons are a family emergency or other important occasion that requires your absence, including a wedding, a funeral, or a role in a major cultural or sporting event. Appropriate documented evidence will be required unless it clearly cannot be provided, and you will be expected to apply for an extension before the deadline unless it is apparent why it was not viable for you to do so. Excellent reasons for extensions exclude the predictable demands of other courses or extra-murals, as we assume that you will be scheduling time beforehand to meet the requirements for this course.

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In cases that are not explicitly covered here, or that require a choice about the scope of a general formulation, it is at the course convenor’s discretion to decide whether a motivation amounts to an excellent reason for an extension. To apply for an essay extension, please complete the essay extension request form, from Vula’s Resources. Send the completed form to [email protected] and [email protected]. You will be informed of the decision via the email address you provide on the extension form. .

Course Overview

Week of

Topic

Forum participation No No

Quiz covers

Chapters

No quiz Weeks 1 & 2

1&2 3&4 5 6 10 Lecture notes and Ch. 8 9 7 11 14 13 15 -

2 Aug 9 Aug

Introduction to Business Ethics Critical Thinking

16 Aug 23 Aug 30 Aug 6 Sept

The Ethics of Economic Systems In Whose Interests Should Businesses Act? Affirmative action The Ethics of Advertising

Yes No Yes No

No quiz Weeks 3 & 4 No quiz Weeks 5 & 6

13 Sept 20 Sept 27 Sept 4 Oct 11 Oct 18 Oct 25 Oct 1 Nov

Meaningful Work Mid-semester vacation Product Safety and Liability Employee Rights Global Business Ethics Business and the Environment Behavioural Ethics Final essay due 1 Nov

Yes No Yes Yes No No No

No quiz Weeks 7 & 8 No quiz Weeks 9 & 10 No quiz No quiz No quiz

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