The core of an ethics course is to confront students with ethical and responsibility dilemmas that they have to study, reflect on and discuss in small groups. Ethics is characterised by a discourse on moral values, norms and standards and the decision-making on the basis of sound argumentation. Students who have completed the course have mastered the core insights of business ethics theory and corporate responsibility.

On 29 June 2009 Bernard Madoff was convicted for fraud and sentenced to 150 years in prison. He had turned his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. As a result, Madoff’s clients lost US$ 65 billion. Madoff pleaded guilty and apologized to his victims, saying, "I have left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren. This is something I will live in for the rest of my life. I'm sorry." You do not need a cause in ethics and corporate responsibility to know that what Madoff did was wrong. You simply have a look at our legal system - or nearly every other legal system in the world - and you will find that fraud is illegal. More interesting than the obvious felony committed by Madoff are, therefore, those cases where the law is not clear, but where there might be something fishy about the actions and behaviour of a person or an organisation. We will discuss a variety of cases ranging from the Body Shop to Shell and from BP to the financial sector.

In an era where lack of ethical thinking and competences contributed to some of the major crises that have taken place in this relatively young millennium, a course in ethics does not seem an unnecessary luxury. Looking at business, but also at government, multilateral Organisations or NGOs, some basic knowledge and skills to understand and improve the relationship with society seems to be an important asset nowadays. At the end of the course there will be a symposium with participation of three international organisations like Shell, ING and KPMG.

The literature for this course consists of textbooks and academic articles. The books are:
- Buchholtz, A.K., and Carroll, A.B., Business and Society; Ethics and Stakeholder Management, Thomson, 8th edition, 2011.
- Jones, G., Cardinal, D., and Hayward, J., Moral Philosophy, a guide to ethical theory, Hodder Education, London, 2006

In addition, articles and cases will be used and distributed during the course.

In order to participate in this course, all participants should have a basic understanding of the functioning of organisations, management of and co-ordination within organisations, organisational ecology, co-ordination mechanisms in industries – such as, for example, the choice between allocation through planning or through market forces – and of an ‘economic order’.
An advanced level of English