Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics (5cr)

Evaluation scale

H-5

Objective

The course explores the many perspectives of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics. It gives an overview of the most important CSR/ethical concepts and theories, as well as analyzes the connections to consumption practices, strategic thinking and sustainable business. This includes organizations' human and nonhuman relations through an ethical frame.

After completion of the course the student is able to
- critically examine the way corporate social responsibility is theorized and practiced
- analyze the relationship between moral philosophy and the notion of responsible business
- critically evaluate the strategic nature of corporate social responsibility for achieving business, societal and environmental goals
- discuss stakeholder theory that include human and nonhuman responsibility
- explain how consumption practices relate to corporate responsibility and sustainability
- apply practical models and tools for the development of responsible business strategies.

Execution methods

Teaching profile: FACE-TO-FACE.
Lectures, classroom discussions and workshops, independent work.

Accomplishment methods

Active participation in class. Individual and group assignments.

Content

Corporate social responsibility, sustainable business, social/environmental management systems, animal organization studies, human-nonhuman ethics, sustainable consumption, stakeholder theory, business ethics, moral philosophy, ethical decision-making.

Location and time

On-campus FACE-TO-FACE lectures/workshops 6.10, 7.10, 8.10, 9.10, 10.10

Materials

The literature will be available on Moodle at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

This course is offered FACE-TO-FACE on-campus with 20h on-campus lectures/workshops
To pass the course you must successfully complete a learning diary of your in-class group tasks and lecture and reading material as well as an individual essay. The course also includes active attendance in class.

Exam schedules

The deadlines of the assignments of the course will be announced at the start of the course.

Student workload

The course is 5 ECTS = total 135 hours
This includes 20h in-class activities (lectures/workshops) and 115h individual study (reading literature, completing assignments)

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

Fail (0): There are highly deficient or erroneous points regarding CSR/ethics in the assignment. The work may be based on serious misunderstandings or missing large parts of the assignment. There are poor academic writing skills.

Sufficient (1): The student includes some CSR/ethics theories and concepts, but the work shows limited understanding of them. The work may contain errors or obscurities. There is no/limited critical thinking included.

Satisfactory (2): The student discusses some CSR/ethics theories and concepts in a satisfactory manner, but does so out of context or in a superficial, one-sided way. The work may contain errors or obscurities. There is an attempt at critical thinking.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

Good (3): The student analyzes CSR/ethics in theory and practice in a good manner and is able to justify many points. The is good critical thinking and the text is well put together with links to the literature. There are only very minor deficiencies.

Very good (4): The student discusses in a very good manner CSR/ethics in relation to theory and practice. There are clear justifications for most points and links to literature. There is a very good level of comprehension and demonstrates critical thinking. There are no clear deficiencies.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

Excellent (5): The student applies CSR/ethics knowledge in a multifaceted way or places it in various contexts. The work demonstrates independent insights which involves justified thinking and deep critical contemplation on the topics. The work is very well written in a fluent manner.

Further information

Reflections/feedback on the course will be discussed in the last lecture. Anonymous feedback will be collected in Moodle at the end of the course.
Feedback on assignment includes a grade.