Ethics in Business 2600-IADzEBkf

The course "Business Ethics" offers an interdisciplinary perspective on ethical issues in management, combining the foundations of philosophy with business practice. Its aim is to develop the skills of critical thinking and ethical analysis in the business decision-making process and to emphasise the importance of a responsible and sustainable approach to management.
The course programme covers both the theoretical foundations of business ethics and their practical applications in organisations. Students will become familiar with the concepts of descriptive and normative ethics and with a variety of approaches to ethics in business, including cognitivism and non-cognitivism, utilitarianism, Kantianism and relativism. Particular emphasis will be placed on the relationship between the free market and justice, between profit-making and the ethics of capitalism, as well as on an ethical approach to management.
The course also covers the practical aspects of business ethics, such as codes of ethics, anti-corruption programmes and ethical investing. Over a cycle of seven lectures, both the environmental aspects of ethical management, in the form of the impact of sustainable development and ecology on business strategies and activities, and the social aspects, in the form of ways of counteracting problems such as corruption, mobbing and discrimination in the workplace, will be analysed.

1. Introduction to business ethics
The course begins with a discussion of the fundamental issues related to business ethics and its place in management. Students become familiar with the relationship between ethics, philosophy and business, and with the distinction between descriptive and prescriptive ethics. The module also covers issues of morality, moral judgement and various theories of morality, such as cognitivism, non-cognitivism, consequentialism and non-consequentialism. The relationship between ethics and religion will also be presented, together with selected ethical currents, including utilitarianism, Kantianism and ethical relativism.

2. The market, business and justice
The module focuses on the analysis of the relationship between ethics and profit and on the ethical aspects of economic activity. Students become familiar with John Rawls's theory of justice, Milton Friedman's approach and R.E. Freeman's stakeholder theory. The module also discusses various visions of capitalism in an ethical context, including the unitarian, separatist and integrative visions. In addition, the issues of employee rights, mobbing and discrimination, as well as the protection of the natural environment as an element of responsible management, will be addressed.

3. Good practices, codes and ethics programmes
The module focuses on value systems in organisations and the role of codes of ethics in shaping responsible business. Students learn about the various types of codes, their structure and content, and the process of designing and implementing ethics programmes in companies. Issues concerning values and value systems in organisations will also be discussed, as well as the importance of non-financial reporting in the context of business transparency and accountability.

4. Globalisation and sustainable development in an ethical context
This module concerns the impact of globalisation and sustainable development on business ethics. Issues related to environmental ethics are discussed, including eco-ethics, ecology and environmental protection, the deep ecology of Arne Naess, the ecological humanism of Henryk Skolimowski and the social ecology of Florian Znaniecki. Students analyse the consequences of globalisation for ethical challenges in business, the concept of sustainable development, the circular economy, and environmental and social awareness.

5. Financial markets and ethics
In this module, students learn about the ethical aspects of investing and the development of the concept of socially responsible investment (SRI). The course includes an analysis of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) factors, green investing and investments based on religious systems. Students also become familiar with the functioning of socially responsible stock market indices.

6. Corporate social irresponsibility and whistleblowing
The module discusses the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its opposite, corporate social irresponsibility. Students analyse examples of unethical business practices, including child labour, twenty-first-century slavery and violations of employee rights. An important topic in the module is whistleblowing, that is, the role of whistleblowers in exposing irregularities and corruption in organisations.

7. Corruption and management by values
The final module of the course is devoted to the issues of corruption and financial fraud in business. Students learn about corruption mechanisms, anti-corruption programmes and the difficulties encountered in tendering procedures. Financial pyramids and money laundering are also discussed, including counteraction schemes and the activities of supervisory organisations such as the UN, the EU and the Financial Action Task Force. Finally, students become familiar with the concept of management by values and the challenges of building a responsible organisational culture.