This course is designed to provide a reflection on the responsibilities of business organisations in society and on the role of managers and professionals in clarifying, discussing, and implementing these responsibilities. The course aims to:
* Provide a deeper understanding of the role and conduct of business in society,
* Explain concepts of ethics, responsibility, sustainability, leadership, and social entrepreneurship,
* Discuss with fellow students the ins and outs of these relevant concepts,
* Apply the accumulated knowledge in practical case studies and through personal reflection.

You can watch hours of popular movies – on financial crises, business scandals, rogue business leaders, and so forth – and get the idea that there is much to improve in business. And that is true, although it is not all bad. On the contrary. Businesses, however, do face numerous challenges on a daily basis – from financial to commercial and from operational to societal or ethical. What do you do when a contract is very lucrative, but your business partner makes use of child labour on a significant scale? Do you accept the deal unconditionally? Do you specify some restraints that have to be overcome before the deal can go through? Or do you simply walk away from the opportunity. Same counts for substantial environmental pollution, human rights violations or corruption. Or what do you think of fiddling with the numbers or not telling the whole truth in business transactions. Would you disclose information about product deficiencies that may significantly hurt people’s health, or the environment, if that may cost you the deal? Even though you might intuitively have an idea what the best course of action would be, the question is whether your gut feeling can be trusted. Often, there is more to say about the ins and outs of the issue and what an informed decision-making process might look like.

The course is light on theory and allows you to explore all kinds of resources yourself to dive into and discuss issues of ethics, responsibility and sustainability with fellow students. Yes, you will read basic theories on ethics and responsibility, but you will be challenged to find out what they mean in practice – using numerous cases and everyday challenges. We will use all kinds of work forms, from a regular presentation to an interview, to a panel, a battle or a ‘yarning circle’. Major course themes deal with AI, responsibility in supply chains, the stakeholder economy, or impact and investing.

The literature includes, among others:
* Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on justice, consequentialism, deontology, and virtues ethics.
* Michael Sandel (2013), Market Reasoning as Moral Reasoning, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Volume 27, Number 4—Fall 2013—Pages 121–14
* Bovens, M. (1998). The Quest for Responsibility. Cambridge University Press, 22-42 & 106-134
* Friedman, M. (1970). The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. The New York Times Magazine, 1-5
* Ton Donaldson & Thomas Dunfee’s (1999) When Ethics Travels, California Management Review, Vol. 41 No. 4, Summer, p. 45-63.

* To participate participants should have a basic understanding of the functioning of organisations, management of and co-ordination within organisations, organisational ecology, co-ordination
* An advanced level of English