Watch this with a 10-15 minute audiotrack at http://vimeo.com/novusprogram/lesson17 The goal of this lesson is to provide an overview of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. It defines both topics, then provides examples of how ethical decisions can impact the way a business interacts with its various constituencies. The lesson provides the case for and against corporate social responsibility, the complexities of business ethics, and how cultural standards change what is considered ethical for a business. The Novus project is a combination of video tutorials designed to be used in conjunction with a free business simulation software program. The Novus Business and IT Program contains 36 business and IT training videos, covering basic finance, accounting, marketing, economics, business strategy, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Users will have an opportunity to apply the lessons in the Novus Business Simulator. Over six rounds, the user or teams will have to make decisions on capital purchases, financing, production, financing, and human resources for a microbrewery. This channel has arranged the 36 video lessons into the order in which they are meant to be used with the simulator. To watch this slideshow as a video, please go to our Vimeo page at: https://vimeo.com/novusprogram. To download our free business simulation software, please go to our SourceForge page at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/novus/.

1. Ethics & Corporate Social
Responsibility
Objective: To understand the field of study called business ethics, how it
varies, and its helpfulness to businesses
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2. Introduction
Ethics: What is the correct thing to do?
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3. What is Business Ethics?
• Decisions a business makes between right and
wrong
– Includes actions of employees and organizations
• Reflects the philosophy of business
• Corporate social responsibility: businesses act as
responsible citizens in their communities
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4. History of Business Ethics
• Relatively new field of study
• Has not spread equally around the world
• Ethics change over time
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5. Examples of Ethics in Business
• Accounting:
misrepresenting the truth
• Human Resources: hiring
relatives
• Marketing: selling
unhealthy products to
youth
• IT: using illegal copies of
software
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6. International Views & Ethics
• Ethics is interpreted differently around the
world
– Bribes
– Minimum working age
– Safe workplaces
– Copyright protection
– Nepotism
• Religion also plays a big role in shaping ethics
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7. Corporate Social Responsibility
• Popular way for businesses to address ethics
• Goal is a positive impact on people and things a
business works with
• Several ways to be socially responsible:
– Philanthropy
– Responsible business model
– Create shared value
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8. Benefits of Corporate Social
Responsibility
• Human Resources – attractive to potential hires
• Risk Management – keeps customers happy
• Unique Brand – stand out from the crowd
• New Customers – reach new people with your
products by helping them
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9. Arguments Against Corporate Social
Responsibility
• Benefits are hard to measure
• Does not have a big impact on success
• How genuine are companies’ efforts?
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10. Negative Impact of Unethical Behavior
• Unethical actions hurt many to benefit a few
• Examples
– Media company: unfair competition
– Airline: poor treatment of others
– Gold mining company: destroys homes and
environment
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11. The Role of Trust in Ethics
• Trust can promote ethics
• Important with customers AND employees
• Transparency creates trust
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12. The Gray Area
• Ethics is very complicated
• Sometimes right and wrong aren’t clear
• Ethics depends on our idea of business
• We must try our best to behave ethically
• Competition should never compromise ethics
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13. Summary
• Business ethics is a new but popular field
• The study of right and wrong in business
• Ethics change with time and culture
• There are benefits for ethical behavior, but not
necessarily added success for a company
• Society suffers when businesses act unethically
• Difficult to know sometimes what is right
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