Overview of Course

In todays’ business and organizational environments, leaders are confronted with increasingly competitive and complex challenges. With increases in competition and complexity, leaders often feel pressure to do whatever it takes to profit, succeed, and ‘win’. This blurs the line between ethical and unethical behavior. Ethics in Contemporary Organizations (BUS 220) investigates the spectrum of leadership and organizational ethics. During this semester, we will read, write, and dialogue about ethics research, scholarship, and case studies while leveraging our observations from port excursions as well as our own lived experiences to inform, analyze, and address ethical issues.
Ethics in Contemporary Organizations will emphasize the application of ethics as an instrument for ethical decision-making, development of individual and professional integrity, leadership and management of organizations, and successful business practice. We will ground our learning in contemporary events and address these challenges from a leadership lens and perspective.
Throughout the course, we will include discussions of ethical issues associated with the regions visited during our voyage. Specifically, we will explore topics that include diverse perspectives along the ethics spectrum; varying ethical theories and core concepts; ethics at the individual, organizational, and societal, and global levels; ethical decision-making practices and tactics; and the character of ethical leaders. More, we will apply learning to cases as well as our own leadership practices—as we seek to develop and apply a personal code of leadership ethics.