MBA 604 Business Ethics and Professional Conduct

This course will help prepare you to effectively handle moral dilemmas you will face during your career. Writing just under 2000 years ago the Roman orator Cicero outlined 4 types of ethical challenges individuals face:

I add a fifth dilemma to the four noted by Cicero, derived from modern economic theory:

The work of the course is to consider strategies, tools, and skills that can be used to resolve different types of moral dilemmas.

The course uses case studies, books, short readings, and ample amounts of discussion to help you develop skills in Identifying the elements of moral dilemmas, Clarifying relationships between the key elements, and Specifying a course of action to resolve the dilemma. The course requires that you apply these skills in both in-class and out-of-class settings.

I assume you are motivated and that you bring to the learning community valuable knowledge, experience, and expectations. I also assume you have a desire to relate what we do in class to your own career, and so I encourage direct and specific questions you may have about how the topics of the course relate to your career or specialty. I expect that you will come to each class session on-time, prepared, and ready to participate. My role as the instructor is much more to serve as an expert guide rather than a dispenser of information, although I will communicate how I view and have resolved issues in my own career. I have worked to construct a meaningful, challenging, and thought-provoking set of readings, cases, and exercises designed to facilitate our joint learning. For the duration of the course, the burden of learning now shifts to you—you will get out of this course as much as you put into it.

Because of the unique nature and mission of Brigham Young University, this course will attempt to follow the mandates given by Brigham Young to “teach by the Spirit of God” and Spencer W. Kimball to “bathe our teaching in the light and color of the Restored Gospel”. This too is a joint responsibility, we must all work together to create an atmosphere where the Holy Ghost can be present and be an active force to facilitate teaching, learning, and edification (c.f., D&C 50: 14-22). We must all be willing to contribute to the class, to value the diversity in our opinions and views, and to live lives of righteousness and integrity.

Grades for the course will be based on the following:

I reserve the right to adjust your grade one full mark (e.g., from an A- to a B+) up or down based on my overall assessment of your performance in the course.

CLASS PARTICIPATION is the backbone of the course; if you don’t contribute there will be no learning. As such, you need to attend each session and be committed to the work of the course. Participation grades are based on: Assessed level of preparation and analysis as evidenced in discussions; logical rigor and evidentiary support of positions; new insights that appear in your contributions; engaging others constructively and courteously. I reserve the right to test the assumptions and foundations of the positions you take in class to help you understand the nature and depth of your commitment to certain virtues. The quantity of your contribution is less important than its quality.

The ANALYSTS DILEMMA ASSIGNMENT (Due 02 March, beginning of class) invites you to resolve a moral dilemma and outline the moral reasoning you used to resolve the issue. The case for the day involves a situation where the horns of the analyst’s dilemma involve a friend and the needs of her firm. There is no right answer but you must make a decision and act. You need to write a brief letter (it could be in a memo format as well) to your friend outlining your decision (did you choose her or your firm), and outline the reasoning and motivation for your choices. You should pay attention that you identify the type of dilemma involved, the core virtues in play, and the choices those virtues imply; that you clarify consequences, the virtues, and their priority at stake; and that you specify your options, plans, and your reasoning.

The GROUP ETHICS PRACTICUM PROJECT centers on the issue of financial education and literacy among children and youth. The long term goals of the overall project are twofold: 1) to help reduce the rampant problem of financial stress and distress incurred by so many families in Utah by working with the next generation of adults, and 2) to apply the concept of ethics as virtue, which will be discussed in class. Most of business ethics education focuses on ethics as compliance where the goal is to avoid doing harm; classical notions of ethics focus on avoiding harm but also focus on ethics as virtue, the idea that the ethical individual is involved in building a better world, not just enjoying the current one.

Your MBA program groups will be responsible for completing this project. Each group should receive a one page description of their project on the first day of class. The project has three distinct deliverables, the first due on 09 March, the second on 01 April, and the third on 13 April. Each is described below.

Report I—Scheduling (due 09 March, beginning of class). Your group needs to contact the assigned community partner (except for the web team, PR plan, and Marketing plan groups) and schedule times for the financial literacy interventions. You need to make specific assignments for preparation and delivery of the material; I want to know who will be doing what when, and why you have allocated your group effort this way.

For the web, PR plan, and Marketing plan groups, you need to create a project schedule of your work. This will be based somewhat on the materials you received from the second-year students. Your group needs to identify the tasks needed to complete the deliverable and create a project schedule to accomplish these tasks, and make clear assignments regarding who will do what when, and why.

The deliverable for this phase is a written document that covers the areas noted above.

Report II—Interim Project Report (due 01 April, beginning of class). During the month of March you will be presenting the financial literacy modules in local schools. For this report you need to provide a brief summary of what your group did and the overall experience you had. Then you need to provide a detailed critique of what seemed to work and what did not work. You should include the pre-test and post-test scores in your initial report to bolster your analysis. Your analysis should be fairly broad and could include answers to questions such as: What worked well from an administrative standpoint? What did the kids enjoy the most? What did they enjoy the least? Which elements of the modules were difficult or complicated to execute? Which learning points were best remembered by students? Which presentation styles (e.g., lecture, worksheet, interactive) were most (or least) effective?

Based on your analysis, you need to refine the modules you were given. If you suggest creating a new worksheet then create one. If you want to do more electronically interactive work, you do not need to complete the new product; however, you must specify what such a tool should provide (both the instructor and the student) and create a mock-up or story-board version of the intervention so that it can be designed and produced by others. Simply put, your job is to make the intervention more effective and better, based on your experience.

For the web team, the PR plan team, and the Marketing plan team your Report II should be viewed as an interim report on your progress to date and a report that invites discussion, critique, and refinement.

The deliverable for this phase is flexible. It could be a traditional paper report or it could be a PowerPoint presentation that identifies and provides detail about the key elements. You may create a map or graphic that helps me understand what you are thinking. This deliverable should be viewed as a working paper or as a work in progress. What is important is that you communicate your analysis, synthesis, and alternative-generation-work in a level of detail that facilitates a good working discussion of where to go next.

On 05, 06, and 07 April I will meet with each group for about 30 minutes to work with you and explore options and alternatives for further work and development of the materials you have tested.

Phase III—Final Revisions and Documents (due 13 April, 5 p.m.). This report should be a polished version of Report II that incorporates the feedback received during the team meeting with me and other work you have done. You need to include in your final report a history of what your group did, your detailed analysis of the effectiveness of the modules, and the complete new modules (including those parts you redesigned). This material will be given to the next group of students to teach in the schools and to continue to improve.

The deliverable for this phase of the project will be a printed and electronic version of your final work as described above.

As a part of the group practicum project you will be asked to assess the contribution and effort level of your fellow group members. These peer evaluations are designed to detect both excellent and poor contributions on the part of group members; they include both a qualitative and quantitative ranking. Differences in group peer evaluation scores may lead to different individual grades for the group practicum project.

The PRACTICUM REFLECTIVE ESSAY (Due 19 April at 8 a.m.) is a critical part of the practicum project as it helps you summarize and capture your key personal learning from involvement in the project. One meaning of reflect is “to think back”: What did you learn? What assumptions did you have going into the project, about the people, or the nature of the work? Were these assumptions violated or upheld? How are you different because you did this project? Another meaning of reflect is “to look forward.” I would like you to consider what you will change and how your professional life will be different now that you have done the project. How will your personal or family life be different?

The format of this assignment is up to you. You may choose to write a traditional essay (3-5 single spaced pages), or you may keep a journal throughout the project that records your learning and impressions. You may also consider a PowerPoint presentation, collage, painting, photography, video, short film, internet website, music, mission statement, sculpture, or tape-recorded speech.

The SHORT QUIZZES are designed to make sure that you have captured the important elements of the cases and the readings. These quizzes will be “pop quizzes” and given without advance notification. The best way to prepare for these quizzes is to have read the material and prepared for the discussion by working through the questions included in the session introductions. Filling out the electronic course evaluation form at the end of the semester will count as one quiz.

Course readings packet.

Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Preventing Sexual Harassment

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination against any participant in an educational program or activity that receives federal funds. The act is intended to eliminate sex discrimination in education. Title IX covers discrimination in programs, admissions, activities, and student-to-student sexual harassment. BYU’s policy against sexual harassment extends not only to employees of the university but to students as well. If you encounter unlawful sexual harassment or gender based discrimination, please talk to your professor; contact the Equal Employment Office at 378-5895 or 367-5689 (24-hours); or contact the Honor Code Office at 378-2847.

Students with disabilities

Brigham Young University is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere which reasonable accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have any disability which may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, please contact the Services for Students with Disabilities Office (378-2767). Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with the student and instructor by the SSD Office. If you need assistance or if you feel you have been unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of disability, you may seek resolution through established grievance policy and procedures. You should contact the Equal Employment Office at 378-5895, D-282 ASB.