D8 Ethics

WEEK 1

Theme 1: What is Ethics?

Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between good and evil in the world, between right and wrong human actions, and between virtuous and non-virtuous characteristics of people. Ethics is the study of basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct.  It includes the study of universal values such as the essential equality of all men and women, human or natural rights, obedience to the law of land, concern for health and safety, and, increasingly, also for the natural environment. Similarly, business ethics is the study of how businesses and individuals define and construct values and moral behavior in the conduct of business.

Read/View:

The Business Ethics Workshop (2012) Washington, DC: The Saylor Foundation

Chapter 1: What Is Business Ethics? (pages 4-32)

· Ethical Issues, Ethical Dilemmas, & Legal Issues

Theme 2: Why Ethics Matters? 

· Culture: The Key to Corporate Governance

· Corporate culture: The second ingredient in a world-class ethics and compliance program

· The Firm's Stakeholders

Week 2: Ethical Theories/ Wall Street, Banks and Financial Fairness

Theme 1: The Importance of Ethical Theory to Making Ethical Decisions in Business

The study of concepts such as justice, good and evil behavior, moral right and wrong, values and mores have been the fodder of theologists, philosophers and legal scholars for centuries.  Understanding some of the major theories will help to answers ethical dilemmas that occur in the workplace today.

The Business Ethics Workshop (2012) Washington, DC: The Saylor Foundation

· Chapter 3: Theories of Consequence Ethics: Traditional Tools for Making Decisions in Business When the Ends Justify the Means (pages 91-125)

· Utilitarianism

The Business Ethics Workshop  (2012) Washington, DC: The Saylor Foundation

· Chapter 4: Theories Responding to the Challenge of Cultural Relativism (pages 137-176)

· Aristotle & Virtue Theory

· Kantian Ethics in a Nutshell: The Moral Philosophy of Immanuel Kant

[For additional information on ethical theories, see Course Resources under Content]

Theme 2:  Ethical Issues Surrounding Banking & Investment Activity

· The two-year Wells Fargo horror story just won't end

· Tippee Insider Trading after Newman and Salman : Why Knowledge Is Not Always Your

· U.S. Supreme Court Clarifies Standards for “Tippee” Insider Trading Liability

· 60 Minutes Flash Boys - High Frequency Trading

· Socially-Responsible Investing for Long Term Safety and Returns: Tom Van Dyck at TEDxNewWallStreet

· Why Creating Wealth Is Not Exploitative

· What’s in a Name? Regulation Best Interest v. Fiduciary

Week 3: Ethical Treatment of Employees - Workplace Culture

Theme 1:  Safety/Civility

Your Person

· OSHA’s Wall of Shame: Agency Targets ‘Severe Violators’

· The Top 10 Bizarre Workers’ Compensation Cases for 2015

Your Psyche

· Kareem Hunt faces more than baseline six-game suspension

· The silent killer of workplace happiness, productivity, and health is a lack of basic civility

· Chris Porath - "Mastering Civility: A Manifesto in the Workplace," WJLA Interview

Your Money

· Thinking About Using Payroll Debit Cards? Read This First

· New Overtime Rules Suspended for Now

· Are ESOPs Good Retirement Plans?

Theme 2:  Freedom From Discrimination

Illegal Discrimination

· The Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Supreme Court: A Legal Analysis of Young v. U nited Parcel S ervice

· Legal discrimination in four letters: BFOQ

· The strange loophole that lets Hooters hire only female servers

· Is it okay to hire cooks to match the cuisine? (part I)

· Resources Legal Alerts Newsletters Articles Blogs Mobile Apps Subject-Matter Booklets State Law Guides Newsletter PDF EEOC Settles Beef With Restaurant

Legal Discrimination

· The Hidden Obstacle to Great Corporate Culture: Unconscious Bias

· Former Hooters Waitress Awarded $250,000 in Racial Discrimination Case

· Lifestyle Discrimination: Is it Legal?

· 8 Ways Employers Can Discriminate Against Workers - Legally

· Anne Arundel Medical Center Won't Hire Smokers In The Future

· Pay Transparency Is The Solution To The Pay Gap: Here's One Company's Success Story

· If a Law Bars Asking Your Past Salary, Does It Help or Hurt?

· Employers Must Use Caution When Basing Pay Decisions On Prior Salary History

· Schumpeter: ESOP - When Workers Are Owners

· Employee Rights When Working for Multinational Employers

· EU to push for 40% quota for women on company boards

· EU workplace headscarf ban 'can be legal', says ECJ

Week 4:  Patents and the Pharmaceutical Industry, Products of Liability & the Role of Whistleblowers

Theme 1:  Pharmaceutical Industry

· The Importance of Patents: It Pays to Know Patent Rules

· Why Patent Protection In The Drug Industry Is Out Of Control

· Is a Patent a Monopoly? —Antitrust Considerations

· First-To-File Patent Law Is Imminent, But What Will It Mean?

Theme 2: Products of Liability

· The Danger Of Loosely Regulated Supplements

· Unregulated supplements send thousands to hospital each year

· The ethics of global clinical trials In developing countries, participation in clinical trials is sometimes the only way to access medical treatment. What should be done to avoid exploitation of disad

· IRB Considerations for Investigator - Initiated Research

· Supreme Court lets pay-to-delay ruling against pharma stand

· Appendix K Antibiotics In Animal Feeds

· Ethical dimensions of the prescription opioid abuse crisis

· The War on Opioids: An Ethical Perspective

Theme 3:  Whistleblowing

· What's Ethical About Whistleblowing?

· 5 famous whistleblowers who risked everything

· Our Successful Whistleblower Cases

Week 5: Marketing, Brand Protection, Food Production, Agribusiness & Obesity

Theme 1: Ethical Issues Related to Marketing

The Business Ethics Workshop (2012) Washington, DC: The Saylor Foundation

Chapter 12: The Selling Office: Advertising and Consumer Protection (pages 529-566)

Offensive/Exploitive/Insensitive/Violent—short of illegal

· The Most Offensive Urban Outfitters Products to Ever Exist

· Sorry About That: Wells Fargo to End Ads Suggesting Science Over Arts

· Update: Hyundai Apologizes For Car Ad Depicting Attempted Suicide

· Ikea apologises over removal of women from Saudi Arabia catalogue

False Claims to Making One Healthier, Richer, Younger--illegal

· 14 False Advertising Scandals That Cost Brands Millions

· Controversial Lollipop Ad Goes Up in Times Square

· FTC to Crack Down on Deceptive Weight-Loss Ads

· The fall of “anti-aging” skin care

· FTC Action Puts Deceptive Marketer Out of the Debt Relief Business

· Federal Trade Commission Act Section 5: Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices

Exploitive/Dangerous to Children & Vulnerable Populations

· Exploitative Advertising Campaigns are Targeting our Children

· Monster drinks: Are the energy drinks marketed to children?

· E-Cigarette Ads Target Millions of Kids, CDC Says

· Study eyes candy-flavored e-cigarette ads targeted to kids

Stealth Advertising/Conflicts of Interest/Biased Reviewers

· Astroturfing: Government shills are flooding the web

· The Never-Ending War on Fake Reviews

· The Real Problem with Mommy Bloggers

Theme 2:  Ethical Issues Related to Brand Protection

Controversial Ingredients and Testing of Ingredients

· Controversial caffeinated products

· 5 Lessons Learned From Mattel's Lead Paint Crisis

· Doing Well By Doing Good

· Choking Hazards: Are Current Product Testing Methods for Small Parts Adequate?

· Animal Antibiotics

Assembly & Manufacturing Problems

· An Empirical Examination of a Multinational Ethical Dilemma: The Issue of Child Labor

· Ethical diamonds: What Conscientious Consumers Need to Know

· Conflict Minerals and Firms’ Ignorance Over Their Supply Chains

Consumer Privacy

· Tim Cook to talk consumer privacy and data ethics at European data protection conference later this month

Pricing

· Uber’s Surge Pricing: Is it Ethical?

Theme 3:  Ethical Issues Related to Food & Drink Production

· At sentencing, cantaloupe growers apologize for deadly listeria outbreak

· For first time, company owner faces life sentence for food poisoning outbreak

· Business Ethics Alive: Blue Bell vs Peanut Corporation of America

· 2.5 million pounds of taquitos recalled for salmonella, listeria concerns

Week 6: Emerging Technologies, Data Protection & Privacy 

Theme 1:  Emerging Technology

· Jennifer Golbeck The curly fry conundrum Why social media likes say more than you might think

· Bias already exists in search engine results, and it’s only going to get worse

· Facebook has revealed the hyper-specific internal rules it uses to police content

· Net neutrality rules are likely doomed, but the debate isn't going away

· California is on the verge of passing a sweeping new online privacy law targeting Facebook, Google and other tech giants

Theme 2:  Data Protection

· The Complicated Ethics of Data-Breach Disclosure

· Equifax Breach Exposed More Consumer Data Than First Disclosed

· The cost of data security: Are cybersecurity investments worth it?

· The ethics of Hacking 101

· US v Europe - a cultural gap on the right to be forgotten

· Tracking The Trackers

· What happens to your digital assets when you die?

Theme 3:  Privacy

· Technology as a Threat to Privacy: Ethical Challenges to the Information Profession

· FDA medical device plan zeros in on cybersecurity, public-private partnership

· Ethics and advanced medical devices: Do we need a new approach?

Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights---not the law

· European Union hits Google with record $5 billion fine in Android antitrust case

· The 10 Largest Data Security Breaches of 2018 (So Far)

Week 7:  Environmental Issues

Theme 1:  Ethical Issues Related to the Environment

The Business Ethics Workshop (2012) Washington, DC: The Saylor Foundation

· Chapter 14: The Green Office: Economics and the Environment (pages 627-664)

· What is Environmental History

· Environmental Ethics?

· Perdue Farms Changes Rules for Chicken Care

· When some US firms move production overseas, they also offshore their pollution

· Fracking Is Dangerous To Your Health -- Here's Why

· Global Scarcity: Scramble for Dwindling Natural Resources

· The Needs of 7 Billion People

· Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects

· Environmental Racism

Theme 2:  Sustainable Business Practices

· Stepping Towards Sustainable Business: An Evaluation of Waste Minimization Practices in US Manufacturing

· A Corporate Model of Sustainable Business Practices

· Environmental Sustainability in Business

Week 8:  Global Business Issues

Theme 1: Global Business Ethics

· Global Business Ethics

Theme 2: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

· US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Summary

· US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Full Text

· The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: An Overview

Sub Theme 1:  Operating in China

· The Ten Principles For Doing Business In China

· A Pocket Guide to Doing Business in China

· The Compromises That Companies Make to Do Business in China

Sub Theme 2:  Operating in India

· Doing Business in India

· How To Do Business In India

· 20 Essential Tips for Doing Business with India

Sub Theme 3:  Operating in Latin America

· Doing Business in Latin America

· What are the top risks to doing business in Latin America?

· Doing Business in Latin America Handbook

Sub Theme 4:  Operating in Russia

· Comparing Business Ethics in Russia to the US

· Navigating the Complexities of Doing Business in Russia

· Overseas Business Risk - Russia

Sub Theme 5:  Operating in Africa

· 16 Challenges of Doing Business in Africa… Oh Man!

· Ethical challenges for South African business - Mark Lamberti

· Business in Africa: The risks, rewards And challenges

· Role of Government in Regulating Business Ethics

· The Ethics of Redistribution