MPH_ETPO Business and Environmental Ethics

Faculty of Economics and Administration
Spring 2012
Extent and Intensity
1/1. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Ing. Josef Šmajs, CSc. (lecturer)
PhDr. Ivo Rolný, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Božena Šmajsová Buchtová, CSc.
Department of Business Management – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Contact Person: Vlasta Radová
Supplier department: Department of Business Management – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Timetable
Mon 9:20–10:05 P201
  • Timetable of Seminar Groups:
MPH_ETPO/01: Mon 10:15–11:00 P201
Prerequisites (in Czech)
! PHETPO Business Ethics
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 60 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/60, only registered: 0/60, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/60
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The contents of the course are divided into three thematic units, the first of which deals with ontological basis of environmental and business ethics and general characteristics of traditional and applied ethics as established in the course of philosophy in the first year of study. The next two thematic units consist of philosophical analysis of labour and business ethics. Human work, which is closely linked to human nature and human offensive adaptive strategies as a species, is assessed in terms of its biological, technological, cultural and anthropological contents. Business ethics are firstly characterized in general terms, i.e. its subject, functions and role in corporate strategies are specified. The last part looks closely at business ethics in business practice. Social enactment of the company is considered as well as its social, moral and ecological responsibility. Students concentrate on ethics of managerial work, on marketing and advertising ethics. All three parts point out in a comprehensive way how traditional ethics differ from applied emerging ethics and what the limits of the effect of the applied ethics on humans, nature and society are.

The main objectives of the course:
- to adopt the traditional issues of ethics and their importance for the emergence of applied ethics
- to master the theory of environmental ethics, including the world view of understanding the relationship between a man, nature and culture
- to understand the history and structure of business ethics, including ethics in employment relations and the work of managers
- to enhance students understanding of the importance of thinking ethically
Syllabus
  • Lecture plan:
  • 1. The concept of conflict between culture and nature as the new paradigm of philosophy, axiology, ethics and also of natural and social sciences. The position and the role of culture in nature, relationship between nature and cultural evolution. The concept of earthly nature and ecologically threatened culture.
  • 2. Naturalization of culture as the system with internal information, problem of acceptation of biofil socio-cultural information by the cultural system. Naturalization of technique and material culture, naturalization of science and education.
  • 3. Humans, individuality of human phylogenetics. Specifics of human ontogenesis, natural and cultural factors of formation of human personality. Main social and cultural factors: technique, science, moral, law and policy.
  • 4. Terms and definition of moral and ethics, subject and social function of ethics. Difference between moral and law. Traditional ethics and applied ethics. Advantages and disadvantages of moral regulation.
  • 5. Environmental ethics and its subject and social role. Anthropocentric and biocentric concepts of eco-ethics. Ethics of the Earth by A. Leopold, deep ecology by A. Naesse. Evolutionary ontology as the background of new axiology, ethics and policy.
  • 6. Human work as a mean of aggressive adaptive strategy. Changes in technological and social contents of work. Work in the context of biotic line of technical development. Work in the context of abiotic line of technical development: instrumentalization, mechanization, automatization.
  • 7. Work and human nature, biological, ethical and personal cultivation potential of work. Problems arising from involuntary loss of work, the matter of human self-fulfilement in technotronic consumer society.
  • 8. Business ethics, subject, definition, origin, development, structure, possibilities and function. Problem of integration of ethics into the business area.
  • 9. Social, moral and ecological responsibility of business, the question of effectiveness of ethics in business. Ethical dimension of production and consumption.
  • 10. Business ethics in company practice, competence and limitation.
  • 11. Ethics in working relations, discrimination, job losses and communication at work place.
  • 12. Ethics in managerial work. Manager as a leader of a corporate strategy. Managerial attitude to ethics, managerial styles of ethics: integrative, obliging, dominant, evasive, compromising. Ethical misconduct of managers.
  • 13. Ethical programmes of organization, ethical codes.
Literature
    required literature
  • ŠMAJS, Josef. Podnikatelská a environmentální etika. 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2008, 184 s. ISBN 9788021045644. info
    recommended literature
  • ŠMAJS, Josef. Základy systematické filosofie (The Basics of Systematic Philosophy). 1st ed. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2005, 255 pp. Masarykova univerzita, 1. ISBN 80-210-3871-3. info
  • ŠMAJS, Josef. Filosofie psaná kurzívou. Rozhlasové ekologické eseje (Philosophy written in italic. Broadcast ecological essays). první. Brno: Jan Šabata, Doplněk, 2003, 117 pp. ISBN 80-7239-152-6. URL info
  • HAWKEN, Paul, Amory B. LOVINS and L. Hunter LOVINS. Přírodní kapitalismus : jak se rodí další průmyslová revoluce. Vyd. 1. Praha: Mladá fronta, 2003, 476 s. ISBN 8020410783. info
  • ROLNÝ, Ivo. Etika v podnikové strategii : metodologické postupy integrace etiky do podnikové strategie. Vyd. 1. Boskovice: Albert, 1998, 119 s. ISBN 8085834000. info
  • REMIŠOVÁ, Anna. Úvod do podnikateĺskej etiky. Vyd. 1. Bratislava: Ekonóm, 1996, 205 s. ISBN 80-225-0745-8. info
  • LUKNIČ, Arnold. Štvrtý rozmer podnikania - etika :pre manažérov, pre školy, pre každého. 1. vyd. Bratislava: Slovak Academic Press, 1994, 342 s. ISBN 80-85665-30-1. info
Teaching methods
The class consists of lectures joined with discussions and seminars. Students are obliged to hand in one assignmnet during a semester.
Assessment methods
Students work out one seminar work during the semester. The work has to be delivered to the tutor one week before sitting the exam. Elaboration of the seminar work is a necessary condition allowing students to take the final test. Final exam / test consists of writing free answers to three questions in the time limit of half an hour. The test is evaluated on scale from A to F and the condition of a pass is that no question is classified with F.
If a student commits a prohibited act, such as using various forbidden tools (e.g. cheat sheets), cribbing, taking out any part of the credit test or any other form of cheating, the teacher is allowed to interrupt the test and to grade the student with F, FF or even FFF, according to the seriousness of the offence. The described procedure applies to all the activities that are included in the final evaluation of the course (seminar work).
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
General note: Nezapisují si studenti, kteří absolvovali předmět PHETPO.
Information on course enrolment limitations: 10 pouze přednáška
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2012, recent)
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