FALL 2008 – SPACE AVAILABLE REGISTER NOW

COURSES BEGIN 9/29 and 11/7

All courses are 1.0 credit, five-week-long courses

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BAET 30300: Giving Voice to Values (Jessica McManus Warnell)

Course meeting dates:  9/29-11/5

The Giving Voice to Values (GVV) course allows students the opportunity to develop a “toolkit” of specific steps toward ethical decision making and personal response to ethical challenges.  Building on the BAET 20300 course, the GVV elective explores the “post decision-making” stage.  Thus, after one determines the right course of action, how does he/she act on it within a given context?  The course will explore case studies and “scripts” – through individual and role-playing exercises, students will practice ethical decision making.  Students will design their own scenarios and plans to teach ethical action.  The course also includes the study of individuals who’ve contributed to society – what were their specific choices and actions?  What were their paths to leadership?  Includes a focus on relevant applications – entry level positions after graduation, job and other experiences students have already encountered or will soon encounter, and other practical contexts.  Cases developed by the students may be included in a “Notre Dame Collection” of to-be-published Giving Voice to Values cases, part of an initiative of several top business schools incorporating this cutting-edge curriculum.  Adapted in consultation with Mary Gentile (The Aspen Institute; formerly of Harvard Business School).

BAET 30500: Globalization and Corporate Responsibilities of Large and Small Companies

(Georges Enderle)

Course dates: 11/7-12/11

This elective course builds on the course “Introduction to Business Ethics” and focuses on the ethical responsibilities of large and small companies in the global context. Because globalization is mainly driven by powerful multinational corporations, we conduct several case studies of MNCs and investigate their roles and responsibilities. We also pay attention to the challenges posed by globalization to small enterprises (for instance, Grameen Bank) that make up the vast majority of companies and ask about their responsibilities. For a deeper understanding of corporate responsibility, we develop a consistent framework that ranges from the high level of principles down to the operational level. Specifically, we discuss the United Nations Global Compact with its ten principles and the Global Reporting Initiative with its metric of economic, social, and environmental performances. Finally, we explore ethical responsibility from an investor’s perspective with the help of the UNEP Principles for Responsible Investment that consider environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues.   The course will use chapter 10 and 12 of the DesJardins’s book “An Introduction to Business Ethics” (third edition, 2008) and a course packet posted on the I drive.