LV EN RU DE FR

Corporate Culture and Human Resource Development

Course abstract

The course provides students with the understanding on the essence of business ethics and on the ethical challenges connected with environmental, economic, labour and social issues faced by businesses in their everyday operations. The students will acquire knowledge on the best known ethical theories, analysis skills and critical thinking skills for the study of ethical dilemmas and for fostering ethical leadership and social responsibility within a business organisation. The course develops knowledge about human resources development, fundamentals of communication in the organisation and its use in practice, professional communication, and different communication styles, role behaviour and conflict resolution. Students will get hand on experience in analysing and trying to find ethical solutions for problems connected with agricultural and food production and biotechnologies.

Learning outcomes and their assessment

Knowledge – students will be able to:
• Demonstrate knowledge of contemporary theory and techniques of economics and business administration - Individual tasks, group work, exam
Skills- students will be able to:
• Analyse ethical issues in business organisations ¬- Individual tasks, group work
• Build human resource management framework in compliance with the strategic goals of the organisation - Individual tasks, group work
• Foster ethical decision making and leadership in a business organisation - group work
• Analyse the ethical issues connected with current development in food sector, agriculture and green economy - group work
Competences –
• Ability to understand the essence of business ethics and on the ethical challenges connected with environmental, economic, labour and social issues faced by businesses in their everyday operations -exam

Course Content(Calendar)

1. Definition and main concepts of ethics, morality, social responsibility.
2. Ethical thinking models.
3. Essence and importance of business ethics.
4. Main ethical problems of contemporary capitalism.
5. Ethical problems connected with current agricultural and food production.
6. Potential impacts of biotechnological innovations.
7. Corporate social responsibility: ethics of management, marketing and advertising ethics, financial ethics, IT-ethics, ethics in work relations, ethics in customer relations, environmental ethics.
8. Organisational culture and ethics.
9. Ethical decision-making and ethical leadership.
10. Solutions for ethical problems.
11. The personnel management and development.
12. The nature and structure of the organisation.
13. Management style.
14. The personality and organisation.
15. People's attitudes and values.
16. Communication and roles.
17. Different styles of communication.
18. Conflicts and conflicts management.
19. Formal communication.
20. Groups within the organisation, and communication between them.

Requirements for awarding credit points

2 individual works
2 group works
Exam

Description of the organization and tasks of students’ independent work

Individual task on ethical thinking
Group task on ethical dilemma
Groups task on business negotiations
Individual task on conflict management

Criteria for Evaluating Learning Outcomes

Individual task on ethical thinking -0.1
Group task on ethical dilemma -0.2
Groups task on business negotiations -0.2
Individual task on conflict management -0.1
Final exam -0.4

Compulsory reading

1. Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., Ferrell, L. (2010). Business Ethics, Ethical Decision Making & Cases. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Prentice Hall.
2. Griseri, P., Seppala, N. (2010). Business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Andover : South-Western Cengage Learning.
3. Velasquez, M. G (2002). Business ethics: concepts and cases. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
4. Harvard Business School Faculty Seminar Series (Harvard FSS) – available via EBSCO Database
5. Human resource management / Gary Dessler. – 14th ed. – Boston [etc.] : Pearson, c2015

Further reading

1. Brown, M. E., L. K. Treviño. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 17 (6): 595-616.
2. Tenbrunsel, A. E., Smith-Crowe, K. (2008). Ethical decision making: Where we’ve been and where
3. we’re going. The Academy of Management Annals 2(1):545-607
4. Organizational behavior: integrating individuals, groups, and organizations / Joseph E. Champoux. – 4th ed. – New York ; London : Routledge, 2011.
5. Negotiation Genius / Malhotra, D. & M. Bazerman, NY, NY: Bantam Dell, 2008

Periodicals and other sources

1. Journal of Business Ethics
2. Business Ethics Quarterly
3. The Journal of Human Resources