Empower your team with knowledge and skills on Business Ethics

In a Forbes article titled “Doing the Right Thing Is Just Profitable”, business author Peter Georgescu describes how recent studies have shown “the most ethical and enlightened companies in the United States consistently outperform their competitors.”

In this course, your team will learn about business ethics, including examples of real companies achieving business success and profiting by making ethical decisions. From the course:

Stakeholders, including many investors, typically value a leadership team that chooses the ethical way to accomplish the company’s legitimate for-profit goals. For example, the Patagonia company donates 1 percent of all sales to help save the planet. In part because of this program, Patagonia has become a market leader in outdoor gear.

What Happens in the Business Ethics Certificate Course

The Business Ethics Certificate Course is an online learning program with recommended readings from the textbook (Introduction to Business Ethics). This course is self-directed, which means your team may study and complete assignments at times that are most convenient.

The part-time Business Ethics Certificate Course has a recommended completion date of 6 weeks from the start of the program. However, your team may choose to complete the course in as little as 4 weeks or as long as 12 weeks, depending on their schedule.

The Business Ethics Certificate Course has been created to allow your team to complete it without teaching assistance. However, if your team has questions or needs assistance, they can receive help from a Faculty Member throughout the 6 weeks of the course. The Faculty Member is a valuable resource person who can provide personal teaching assistance to help your team succeed in the course.

Course Topics

The Business Ethics Certificate Course has been developed to meet high academic standards and teach real-world lessons for your team’s success.

Why Ethics Matter

• Being a Professional of Integrity
• Ethics and Profitability
• Multiple versus Single Ethical Standards

Ethics from Antiquity to the Present

• The Concept of Ethical Business in Ancient Athens
• Ethical Advice for Nobles and Civil Servants in Ancient China
• Comparing the Virtue Ethics of East and West
• Utilitarianism: The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number
• Deontology: Ethics as Duty
• A Theory of Justice

Defining and Prioritizing Stakeholders

• Adopting a Stakeholder Orientation
• Weighing Stakeholder Claims
• Ethical Decision-Making and Prioritizing Stakeholders
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Three Special Stakeholders: Society, the Environment, and Government

• Corporate Law and Corporate Responsibility
• Sustainability; Business and the Environment
• Government and the Private Sector

The Impact of Culture and Time on Business Ethics

• The Relationship between Business Ethics and Culture
• Business Ethics over Time
• The Influence of Geography and Religion
• Are the Values Central to Business Ethics Universal?

What Employers Owe Employees

• The Workplace Environment and Working Conditions
• What Constitutes a Fair Wage?
• An Organized Workforce
• Privacy in the Workplace

What Employees Owe Employers

• Loyalty to the Company?
• Loyalty to the Brand and to Customers
• Contributing to a Positive Work Atmosphere
• Financial Integrity?
• Criticism of the Company and Whistleblowing

Recognizing and Respecting the Rights of All

• Diversity and inclusion in the Workforce
• Accommodating Different Abilities and Faiths
• Sexual Identification and Orientation
• Income Inequalities
• Animal Rights and the Implications for Business

Professions under the Microscope

• Entrepreneurship and Start-Up Culture
• The Influence of Advertising
• The Insurance Industry
• Ethical Issues in the Provision of Health Care

Changing Work Environments and Future Trends

• More Telecommuting or Less?
• Workplace Campuses
• Alternatives to Traditional Patterns of Work
• Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and the Workplace of the Future

Why Ethics Still Matter

• Business Ethics in and Evolving Environment
• Committing to an Ethical View
• Becoming an Ethical Professional
• Making a Difference in the Business World

Bonus Information

• A Succinct Theory of Business Ethics
• The Lives of Ethical Philosophers
• Profiles in Business Ethics: Contemporary Thought Leaders

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