Part 1: Business ethics and Sustainability

Welcome to the first part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) course. It should take you approximately 3 hours to complete all the assignments from this part. The estimated time you will need to complete each task is indicated next to the name of each resource or task.

Before we skip to the core topic, let us introduce you to the very basic concepts in business and ethics. This will enable you to understand the foundations of the CSR concept.

Let's start with the the following question: "What actually is business about?" 

Let's check it in the section below.

/ca. 45 minutes/

When you finish: Now we know that CSR rests upon business ethics, as many business decisions are also moral in nature. Therefore, the way of reasoning we choose to follow while taking business decisions determines our ability to implement CSR in practice. 

Let us here remind you the basic concepts of ethical reasoning in business by answering the question: "How do we take ethical decisions?"

/ca. 25 minutes/

When you finish: Business is about purpose - this is what we've learned from Edward R. Freeman. It is easy to say, yet, not everybody accepts this notion, sometimes even rejecting the idea of CSR. Currently, businesses are facing lot of challenges resulting from the complex nature of the social, environmental and economic aspects of business activities. In fact, there is a heated debate around the question to what extent businesses should undertake social reponsibilities. Let's try to understand the core critiques raising arguments against CSR so as to be able to become more sensitive to good and bad practices in this field. Let's check Task 3: Business Ethics in Practice. 

/ca. 20 minutes/

When you finish: Ok, now we know that business ethics might be tricky and that different ways of reasoning may lead us to different assumptions. In business, the main assumption people often make is that "the business of business is business", as Milton Friedman states in his writings. By simply translating this assumption into practical guidelines, we start to think that "business is aimed at generating profit". However, what if we changed this common understanding of business activity and asked once again how we understand profit? Check out the section below and take part in the discussion.

/ca. 1 hour/