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Business Ethics and Social

Responsibility

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 Course Plan
Program: BBA (7th Semester)
Course No: MGT 209 Credit hours: 3
Course: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Year: 2024

Course Objective:
The course aims to develop an understanding of the underlying concepts of business
ethics and Corporate Governance, which are relevant to make decisions in the
contemporary business environment. The course further aims to develop a students’
ability to critically analyze ethical issues and relevancy of social responsibility in
business. This course reviews different regulatory processes essential to the
understanding of the ethical standards and corporate social responsibility in Nepal.
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 Course Details
Unit 1: Introduction LH 7
Concept of business ethics, the importance of ethics in business, myths about
business ethics, morale reasoning, the morality of profit motive, ethics and
philosophy, ethics and morality, benefits of business ethics, code of conducts;
meaning and importance of social responsibility, the evolution of CSR, a morale
argument of CSR, increasing relevancy of CSR, social responsibility and ethics, CSR
domains.
Unit 2: Ethical Issues and Dilemmas LH 7
The problem of just wage, sexual harassment, gift-giving and bribery, the morality
of advertising, office romance, the problem of fair pricing, trade secrets and
corporate disclosure, product misinterpretation and Caveat Emptor, the morality
of labor strikes, whistle-blowing, unfair competition, money laundering, conflict of
interest, insider trading, privacy issues, discrimination and corporate intelligence.
Unit 3: Ethical Theories LH 8
Scholastic philosophy, the Kantian ethics, the Machiavellian principle, utilitarianism of
Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill, the morale positivism of Thomos Hobbes, Divine
command ethics, virtue ethics.

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Unit 4: Application of Ethical Standards LH 13
Manufacturing- duties of manufacturer, consumer rights, informed
consumer, consumer politics, consumer privacy, ethical consumption,
classification of unethical behavior, legal versus morale and ethics business
ethics; in the market place- Product positioning and competing, pricing
and its consequences, packaging and labeling, brand management and
imperatives, advertising and communication, exploitative nature of
advertising; finance and value- Financial accounting and standards,
responsibilities of financial institutions, capital market and its regulator.

Unit 5: Strategic Context of CSR LH 6

Strategic CSR Firms’ environmental context, the five driving forces of CSR-
growing affluence, sustainability, globalization, free flow of information,
development of corporate conscience and morale principle of CSR.

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Unit 6: Business Ethics and CSR in Nepal LH 7
Business ethics of Nepalese firms, ethical standards, Ethical issues and
dilemmas in Nepalese business organizations, Business Code of
Conduct of FNCCI 2061, Consumer Protection of Nepal-unfair trading
practices, Consumer Protection Council's function and duties,
protection and promotion of consumer rights, prohibition to influence
demand, supply and price, power to systematize and control supply of
consumer goods and services, CSR in Nepal- history, Institutional
arrangements, FNCCI/ NBI, types of CSR, outcomes of CSR activities;
Business ethics approved by FNCCI, NBIs CSR Paper. CSR problems and
prospects in Nepal.

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 Text Books

• Roa, F. Fr. Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, Rex Book Store
• Schwartz, M. S., Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach,
Broadnew Press.
• Chatterji, M., Corporate Social Responsibility, Oxford University Press.
• Werther, W.B. Jr. and Chandler, D., Strategic Corporate Social
Responsibility, SAGE.
• Ferrell, O.C. , Fraedrich, J. Ferrell, L., Business Ethics: Ethical Decision
Making and Cases, South-Western CEGAGE Learning.
• Fernando, A.C., Business Ethics: An Indian Perspective, Pearson
Education India.
• Publications from FNCCI/ Nepal.
• Publications from NBI/ Nepal.
• Consumer Protection Act 1998.
• FNCCI Business Code of Conduct 2061.

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• Major Teaching Pedagogy:
– Class lecture, class work and presentation, case
study, group assignments, and participation

• Teaching Materials:
– Basic / Reference books and other general
materials.

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• Evaluation:

Internal Evaluation 40

T U board Exam 60

Total 100

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 Unit 1
Introduction

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Ethics and Business Ethics

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Business Ethics - Myths

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 Moral Reasoning

• It is the mental process of preparing a human mind for a

certain behavior and deciding about what is right or
wrong.
• Judgment about right or wrong.
• Depends on the person’s values, learning, experiences,
knowledge and mostly on a person’s psychology.
• It is important for moral development and moral values.
• Moral reasoning is concerned with:
• Moral creativity
• Moral sensitivity
• Perseverance
• Moral judgment
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 Moral Reasoning

• Moral reasoning is needed:

• To cover the aspects that are not covered by laws
• To handle complex issues by managers
• For fairness and justices
• The principles of moral reasoning are:
• Deontological reasoning
• Teleological reasoning
• Ontological reasoning
• Criteria in moral reasoning:
• Logical
• Factual
• No multiple standards
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 The Morality of Profit Motive

• Profit motive is an underlying motive of business to make

more profit.
• Profit and monetary motives are associated with selfishness
and greed.
• Thus, it is often the subject of criticism or debate.
• The good sides of profit motive are:
• Motivates people for a goal
• Promotes business activities
• Increases productivity
• Promotes capital formation
• Effective use of resources
• Innovation and inventions

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 The Morality of Profit Motive

• The bad sides of profit motives are:

• Promotes rivalry among competitors
• Less focus on needs and wants
• Selfishness and greed
• Unethical business practices
• Overconsumption and exploitation of resources
• However, the society as a whole benefits from the profits
gained which finally shows positive impact in the
economic growth of the country it self.
• Thus, the moral and reasonable profit is the inspiration to
business activities.

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 Ethics and Philosophy

Philosophy
• The rational investigation of questions about
existence, knowledge and ethics.
• The areas of philosophy are:
• Metaphysics
• Epistemology
• Logic
• Ethics
• Politics
• Esthetic
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 Ethics and Philosophy

Ethics
• A branch of philosophy focused on defining the
concept of right or wrong.
• It investigates on the questions “what is the best way
for people to live”.
• Thus, ethics is a branch of philosophy that defines the
concept of right or wrong.
• The areas of ethics are:
• Meta-ethics
• Normative ethics
• Applied ethics
• Descriptive ethics

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 Code of Conduct

• Code of conduct is a set of rules around

behavior for the employees to follow within
an organization.
• Often mixed up with code of ethics.
• The code of conduct refers specially to
behavior.
• The code of ethics provides guidance on the
decision making skills required to employees
in an organization.

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Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

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The Evolution of CSR

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 Arguments for CSR

• Moral arguments for CSR

• The externalities argument
• The power argument
• The dependency argument
• Rational argument for CSR
• Economic arguments for CSR
• Shared value argument for CSR

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 Increasing Relevance of CSR

• Growing affluence
• Ecological sustainability
• Globalization
• The free flow of information
• Brands /Powerful brands

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CSR Domains

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The End

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