PHIL 312: BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, 2014

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1. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Time: 3:00 - 5:00 PM on Tuesdays and 12:30 – 14:30 PM on Friday

Instructor: Hoang Anh Duy
Email: duyha@ftu.edu.vn
Dept.: Faculty of Business Administration, Foreign Trade University

2. COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is an introductory survey course. There are no prerequisites. We will study the moral rights and
responsibilities of professional people working in business. Class sessions will feature a combination
of lecture and discussion.

3. COURSE READINGS

Our readings will come from Thomas Donaldson and Patricia H. Werhane, Ethical Issues in Business: A
Philosophical Approach, 8th ed. (Pearson Prentice Hall), William H. Shaw, ed., Business Ethics, 6th ed.
(Wadsworth Cengage Learning), and Robert Audi, Business Ethics and Ethical Business (Oxford
University Press 2009). There may also be some readings on Titanium.

4. COURSE SCHEDULE (The schedule and the readings are subject to revision)

Part 1: Theories of ethics

Ethical theory

Donaldson, “Introduction to Ethical Reasoning,” pages 13-20

Donaldson, Ch. 2: “Ethical Reasoning in Practice,” pages 54-100

Donaldson, Honduran street children case, pages 21-33

Donaldson, Italian tax case, pages 54-56

Justice

Donaldson, Ch. 6: “Justice,” 222-238

Donaldson, Oil rig case, pages 221-222

Self-interest and morality

Shaw, Ch. 8: self-interest and moral obligation, pages 300-303

Shaw case 8.1, pages 305-306

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Part 2: Should businesses do more than seek profits? Do corporations have the same moral
responsibilities that people have?

Donaldson, Honduras street children case, pages 21-33

Donaldson, Friedman “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits,” pages 34-39

Donaldson, Freeman “Managing for Stakeholders,” pages 39-52

Part 3: What must businesses tell the rest of us? (whistle-blowing, bluffing, marketing, advertising)

Truth-telling

Donaldson, Worldcom case, pages 101-109

Donaldson, Kant “Ethical Duties Towards Others: ‘Truthfulness,’” pages 110-115

Donaldson, Carr “Is Business Bluffing Ethical?,” pages 136-142

Audi, pages 62-66

Marketing and advertising

Audi, Ch. 6, “Marketing,” pages 48-58

Donaldson, Fingerhut case, pages 491-503

Donaldson, Crisp “Persuasive Advertising,” pages 505-512

Shaw, Ch. 10: advertising: 370-387

Whistle-blowing

Shaw, Ch. 8: pages 295-300

Donaldson, Bok “Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility,” pages 128-135

Shaw case 8.2, pages 306-309

Part 4: How should businesses treat their customers?

Product safety and quality

Shaw, Ch. 10: pages 351-366

Pricing

Shaw, Ch. 10: pages 366-370

Part 5: What property rights do businesses have?

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Donaldson, Cancer drug case, pages 151-156

Donaldson, Blood sale case, pages 156-157

Donaldson, Locke “The Justification of Private Property,” 158-162

Donaldson, Marx “Alienated Labor,” pages 167-171

Donaldson, Carnegie “Wealth,” pages 172-176

NOTE: I WILL ASSIGN THE READINGS FOR THE REST OF THE COURSE WHEN WE GET
TO THIS STAGE

5. ASSIGNMENTS, DEADLINES, AND GRADES

Course grade. Your course grade is determined by the assignments as follows:

Daily quizzes: 40%

First in-class exam: 30%
Second in-class exam: 30%

Quizzes. There will be 12 daily quizzes (no quiz on the first day, and no quizzes on days when we have
exams), but I will drop your two lowest quiz scores.

Exams. I will give you a study guide for each exam. Your exam will include an in-class essay question. I
will evaluate your exam answers for the qualities one seeks in a paper, including but not limited to
accuracy, originality, clarity, correct grammar, typographical correctness, and organization.

Active class participation. If your course grade is on or near the border between two grades, it can be
raised by frequent and valuable contributions to class discussion.

6. MISCELLANEOUS COURSE POLICIES

Changes to the syllabus and the course. I reserve the right to change the reading assignments, deadlines,
course policies, assignments, grading policies, and course design as needed. Any changes will be
announced, and will not be effective until they have been announced.

Copies of assignments. You are required to keep a copy of each assignment, either as a computer file or as
a hard copy, in case I lose the copy you turn in. If I do manage to lose it, you're not late—obviously—but
you have to keep a copy to avoid being considered late under these circumstances.

Disruptive conduct. If you talk in class, make sure you do so as part of class participation; conversations
with the person sitting next to you about something other than the course topics are distracting to others.
Please turn your cell phone off before you come into the classroom. Please don’t read the newspaper, read
for other classes, surf the web, text on your phone, or check email on your computer during class. Your
computer and all other electronic devices must be turned off and put away during class.

Email. I will communicate mainly through email, and I use the email address you have in the Titanium
website for this course. Be sure to check that email account every day.
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Extra credit. There are no extra credit assignments in this course.

Getting assignments back after the semester is over. I don't keep exams, papers, discussion notes, or other
assignments or materials longer than two weeks after the last class day, so if you want such things back,
please be sure to ask for them before then.

Late assignments. Your exam grade will be lowered by one grade step (from B to B-, or C- to D+, for
example, if a grade step) for each day it is late, unless I give you an extension of time to turn it in. I grant
extensions for any student who has a written excuse from a licensed physician, registered nurse, or your
Dean. Other extensions are given only at my discretion.

Makeup policy. If you are absent or not able to stay for an in-class assignment (if any are required for this
course), I will provide an opportunity to make up the in-class assignment only if you have a written excuse
from a licensed physician or registered nurse, or your Dean—and the documentation says you were unable
for health reasons to be present at that time.

Plagiarism and cheating. Any instance of plagiarism or cheating, however small, may, at the teacher's
discretion, result either in a lowered grade for an assignment, a lowered course grade, or (in more serious
cases) an F for the course. Plagiarism is defined as set forth in the in the website for CSUF Judicial
Affairs, available online at http://www.fullerton.edu/senate/PDF/300/UPS300-021.pdf

“Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating on examinations or

assignments, unauthorized collaboration, plagiarism, falsification/fabrication of university
documents, any act designed to give unfair academic advantage to the student (such as, but
not limited to submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses
without the prior permission of the instructor), assisting or allowing any of these acts, or the
attempt to commit such acts.

Cheating is defined as the act of obtaining or attempting to obtain credit for work by the
use of any dishonest, deceptive, fraudulent, or unauthorized means. Examples of cheating
include, but are not limited to, the following: using notes or aids (include electronic
devices) or the help of other students on tests and examinations in ways other than those
expressly permitted by the instructor, or any acts which defeat the intent of an examination,
plagiarism as defined below, and collaborating with others on any assignment where such
collaboration is expressly forbidden by an instructor. Violation of this prohibition of
collaboration shall be deemed an offense for the person or persons collaborating on the
work, in addition to the person submitting the work. Documentary falsification includes
forgery, altering of campus documents or records, tampering with grading procedures
(including submitting altered work for re-grading), fabricating lab assignments, or altering
or falsifying medical excuses or letters of recommendation.

Plagiarism is defined as the act of taking the work (words, ideas, concepts, data, graphs,
artistic creation) of another whether that work is paraphrased or copied in verbatim or near
verbatim form and offering it one’s own without giving credit to that source. When
sources are used in a paper, acknowledgment of the original author or source must be made
through appropriate citation/attribution and, if directly quoted, quotation marks or
indentations must be used. Improper acknowledgment of sources in essays, papers, or
presentations is prohibited.”

Copying text, including but not limited to pasting text from the internet, counts as cheating even if the
source is listed, unless the material is put in quote marks or set out as a blocked quote indented on each
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margin from the rest of the text, with the citation appearing in parentheses next to the quote or in a footnote
appended to that text. (In other words, merely listing the source in a bibliography will not save you.)
Copying text counts as cheating even if you claim to have pasted it in by accident from another document,
or claim to have forgotten to cite it.