BERGAMO
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
At the end of the course students will have adequate knowledge of the main concepts related to business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. Furthermore, they will acquire basic knowledge of the main accountability tools (like sustainability reports and codes of ethics).
Therefore, they will be able to introduce and critically analyse the programs, the actions and the policies promoted by international organizations, public administrations, not for profit and private companies, including multinational ones, consistent with Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability approaches.
Specifically, students will acquire the following skills:
Knowledge and Understanding:
- Understand business ethics and the role of both companies and individuals in fostering a more sustainable and inclusive societies
- Conceive sustainability as a multidimensional and multilevel concept
- Broaden their knowledge of business administration, with particular reference to the role of the firm in society and the contribution of businesses to sustainability
- Acquire knowledge of the main tools for ethical and sustainable business management
Intellectual Skills:
- Develop critical thinking
- Evaluate complex challenges from multiple perspectives
- Demonstrate sensitivity to diversity among people and situations, as well as the ability to engage in continuous learning through reflection on practice and experience
Transferable Skills:
- Apply tools such as stakeholder analysis and ethical theories to address challenges related to sustainability and corporate social responsibility
- Identify and use tools for responsible and sustainable management of companies
Course Prerequisites
The course helps to train specific skills relating to the ethical and social responsibility issues necessary to understand and address problems connected to development cooperation, migratory flows and refugee integration which involve and structurally mark the national scenario and worldwide in recent years. Although the course approach is mainly rooted into business and management fields, in-depth prior knowledge of these disciplines is not required.
Teaching Methods
Lectures (with a participatory approach), case studies, discussions of papers.
The approach is meant to allow students with limited background in management and business administration to achieve a satisfactory knowledge about the main structure and evaluation of public and private entrepreneurial actions aimed to sustainable development.
Slides and audiovisuals will be used.
Special-topic seminars will be organized and proposed to students.
Furthermore, during the course, students may be given the opportunity to work in groups and/or to prepare individual assignments.
Course materials will be published on the e-learning platform (Moodle) when freely available.
Detailed instructions on parts to be studied of documents with copyright will be given in order to allow students who cannot attend classes to regularly keep the pace of the course.
Assessment Methods
A written exam will be composed of two open questions meant to test the degree of achievement of the course objectives in terms of the topics presented in class and further analyzed trough individual study.
Each answer will be graded with a score from 0 to 30.
Clearness, synthesis, consistency and critical judgment will be given particular merit.
Questions will be open, and students have the possibility to show their ability to master the theme assigned by showing the most critical aspects.
The final mark will be the average of the evaluation obtained for the two questions.
In the event that students will participate in structured group work, a part of the exam may be replaced by the evaluation obtained from this activity.
Results will be communicated to students through the formal platform ESSE3 or other formal University tool.
Contents
The course will introduce a brief overview of the main philosophical theories of business ethics. Then, the concept of sustainable development will be examined focusing on its three economic, social and environmental components at societal, organizational and individual level.
The module will also cover the main theories of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as well as the stakeholder theory.
Also, the concept of accountability, with the presentation of some of its main tools (ethical code, social accounting, integrated reporting, sustainability reporting, etc.) for companies and non-profit organizations will be introduced.
Finally, selected ethical dilemmas will be analyzed with specific reference to international and multinational contexts.
Online Resources
More information
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