BUS 329 (Business Ethics, 3 credit hours, Fall 2002) and BUS 250/REL 250 (Green Business: God, Money and Ecology, 3 credit hours, Spring 2003) are linked because they consider various moral questions and issues (social and environmental) confronted by business organizations and the people who work for them. Together, these courses will equip students with a comprehensive examination of the wide array of critical ethical issues confronting our society, and therefore, will confront our graduates who seek careers in the private sector or in fields that intersect with the role of business in a global society.
The business ethics course provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of business ethics, with an overview of ethical foundations and theories as well as illustrative treatment of a wide array of ethical issues currently facing businesses and their managers (e.g., discrimination and diversity, workforce reductions and plant closings, business in less developed countries, environmental issues). The green business course introduces students to historical foundations of environmental and ecological thought (theology, philosophy, the environmental movement) and treats a wide array of issues and strategies confronting business and society as they attempt to move toward environmental sustainability.
This course sequence will be taught with a particular emphasis on the experiential aspects of the Carmel Living Learning Center program. Most notably, each course will include a substantial out-of-classroom learning component. In the green business course, students will be engaged in a 12 week long consulting project, in which the entire class will be organized into consulting teams that will conduct a comprehensive environmental audit of a local mid-sized corporation or the city of Berea (municipal government). This multi-faceted assignment, with a student course assistant who serves as manager, involves understanding of concepts of sustainable development, data collection; interviews with managers and employees; coordination of teams, report drafting, and final presentation to corporate or municipal officers of their findings and recommendations for organizational change. The Carmel environment will enhance this intense group-work experience.
In sum, these courses, within the Carmel context, provide a more optimal environment for students to meld “theory and practice” and learn how concepts within these fields of study become embodied within the policies and practices of organizations. Students will gain extraordinary first-hand exposure to relevant practitioners in our fields and will also learn how to function effectively in teams in order to accomplish common objectives.
Courses
Business Ethics, BUS 329, 3 credit hours, Fall 2002
Taught by Dr. David Krueger
God, Money, and Ecology, BUS 250/REL 250, 3 credit hours, Spring 2003
Taught by Dr. David Krueger
275 Eastland Rd.