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Instructors: Prof. Dr. Dirk Ulrich Gilbert; Stefanie Remmer
Event type:
Lecture + practical course
Displayed in timetable as:
Intro. CSR
Hours per week:
3
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
German
Min. | Max. participants:
- | -
Comments/contents:
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to core theoretical concepts of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). After discussing the relevance of business ethics for theory and practice this course proceeds by elaborating on key theoretical concepts of business ethics and corporate responsibility. This includes understanding the relation between business and ethics, defining relevant terms and constructs as well as distinguishing between multiple levels of analysis in an international context. Next, the course focuses on a critical discussion of several theoretical approaches to business ethics and corporate responsibility. Since business ethics ultimately aims at influencing business practice, the course then focuses on the practical implementation of CSR in multinational corporations.
In detail, the following topics will be discussed in the lecture:
1. Relevance of business ethics and corporate responsibility for theory and practice
2. Core theoretical concepts of business ethics and corporate social responsibility
2.1 Relation between business and ethics
2.2 History of business ethics and corporate social responsibility
2.3 Explanation of relevant terms
2.4 Distinction between multiple levels of analysis
2.5 The cross-cultural dilemma as a core issue of business ethics in an international context
3. Theoretical approaches to business ethics and corporate social responsibility
3.1 Philosophical approaches
3.2 Integrative Business Ethics
3.3 The Shared Value approach according to Porter & Kramer
3.4 The Stakeholder approach
3.5 Political CSR
4. Selected approaches to implementing business ethics and corporate social responsibility in practice
4.1 Implementation in corporations
4.2 National and international initiatives
Learning objectives:
This course aims at providing students with a nuanced overview of the current state of research in business ethics and corporate social responsibility. In addition, students learn to critically reflect the ethical conduct of corporations, to deal with ethical dimensions of international business as well as to apply theoretical concepts to practical challenges.
Didactic concept:
The course is composed of a lecture and a tutorial. The lecture and tutorial will be in German and will explain the basic concepts and theories of business ethics and corporate social responsibility, including their application in practice.
For the winter semester 2021/22, the Universität Hamburg as well as the chair of Prof. Gilbert are aiming for face-to-face teaching as far as possible. However, since it is unsure which possibilities for face-to-face teaching will actually exist, we cannot make any concrete statements at this point. For up-to-date information on the implementation of teaching under pandemic conditions, please refer to the course description, which you can download below (please note the status of the course description, there may be regular updates).
Methodically, PowerPoint slides are used to work on the topics to be discussed. These slides will be available in German and English. The course participants can download them in STiNE. The slides rather serve as a visual “stimulation” and are not equivalent to a comprehensive script. Therefore, students are urgently advised to complement by their own notes.
The tutorials broaden and deepen the topics discussed in the lectures and prepare students for their final written exam. Furthermore, tutorials shall train students in essential scientific skills including sensitizing them to topics of business ethics and corporate social responsibility, enhancing their ability to give and receive criticism as well as to argue and critically reflect on topics, improving their general text comprehension skills and fostering their understanding of differences between theory and practice. In contrast to the lectures, students must work actively in two out of six tutorials, thus creating particular space for independently reflecting and working on topics discussed.
Literature:
Relevant literature will be provided during the lecture and tutorials.
Additional examination information:
Information on the exam will be provided in the lectures.
Take Home Exam:
Time to process the exam: 90 min
Time frame in which the exam can be completed:
1. Exam: from 3 February 2022, 03:30 pm to 6 February 2022, 11:59 pm (UTC+1, Hamburg).
2. Exam: from 25 March 2022, 03:30 pm to 28 March 2022, 11:59 pm (UTC+1, Hamburg).
The examiner of your course will provide information about the hand out of examination tasks / assignments and their submission during the course of this semester, at the earliest after the STiNE Changes and Corrections Period.
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