Llicenciatura en Administració i Direcció d'Empreses (3323)
Llicenciatura en Economia (3322)

Política d’Empresa Internacional (11884) 

Tema 1. Introduction: Why Business Ethics? (Lecture)

Presentation of the course: the objectives, methodology, content and organisation of the work are presented in detail.
Lectura
CHANDLER, Geoffrey. The global corporation: provider or parasite? Amnesty International UK Business Group.
Disponible a la web: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/action/nw/tun/tualert2/global.html.

Tema 2. Business and the Environment: Global Dumping (Video & Discussion)

Video: “Global dumping”.
The business of toxic waste exemplifies the possibility of creating business value at the expense of social and environmental values. By featuring business leaders in both developed and developing countries, regulators and local populations, this video illustrates the importance and the complexity of the business ethics issue. Building on the reading, we assess the power of international regulation to solve the issue and broaden the discussion towards the identification and classification of the multitude of stakeholders involved in the issue.
Lectura
CLAPP, J. “Seeping through Regulatory Cracks”. SAIS Review, XXII, 1. Hivern-Primavera del 2002.

Tema 3. Globalisation and Sustainable Development (Lecture & Discussion)

Globalisation of economies and societies have consequences in terms of human development and in terms of globalisation of environmental problems. The issues and challenges of globalisation and the concept of sustainable development are presented and analysed.
Lectura
UNEP. Global Environment Outlook 2000. Londres: Earthscan, 1999. Cap. 1 : “Global Perspectives”. Pàg. 2-21.
Disponible a la web: http://www.unep.org/geo2000/english/0025.htm.

Tema 4. The individual responsibility: Peter Green’s first day (Case Study)

We first discuss ethical dilemmas proposed by the students and then discuss the case of Peter Green. P. Green is a young salesman who recently joined a company. During a visit to a customer, he realises that his boss is asking him to do something that is not ethical. What should he do? What would you do?
Lectura
MATTHEWS, John; GOODPASTER, Kenneth; NASH, Laura. “Peter Green’s First Day”. A: Policies and Persons: A Casebook in Business Ethics. Nova York: McGraw-Hill, 1991. Pàg. 11, 12.

Tema 5. Philosophies of Ethics (Lecture & Discussion)

A short story first leads us to the essential question of ethics: how should I act? Building on Aristotle (virtue), Kant (idealism), and Mill (utilitarianism), we then present philosophical perspectives attempting to answer this question. Although these perspectives are useful, none seems to be sufficient to systematically guarantee an ethical behaviour. What if ethics was to remain an unanswered question?
Lectura
SHAW, William. Social and Personal Ethics. Belmont (CA): Wadsworth, 1993. Cap. 2: “Classic Theories. Happiness, Function and Virtue”. Pàg. 35-57.

Tema 6. Economics and Ethics (Lecture & Discussion)

Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman argues that the sole social responsibility of companies is to maximise profits. In this manner, Friedman summarises the view held by some economists according to which it is irrational to be ethical. How is the argument constructed? In which philosophical perspective does it take place? What are the limitations of the argument? Building on Sen, we discuss how economics and ethics have been progressively separated in the history of thought. What would be needed for a new integration of ethics and economics?
Lectura
FRIEDMAN, Milton. “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profit”. New York Times Magazine, 13 de setembre del 1970.

Tema 7. Goals, Processes and Rationality: A Parable and a Framework (Case Study with video and Lecture)

Video: “The Parable of the Sadhu” – HBR Video.
We tend to think that success lies in the attainment of goals. But sometimes, goals prevent us from success because we are prisoners of our goals. What makes us happy beyond goals? Through a case study depicting a Wall Street financial analyst facing a dilemma in mountaineering, we study how each of our behaviours combines a process and a goal. We then move to a lecture where we define ethical dilemmas and present a methodological framework to address them.
Lectura
LE MENESTREL, Marc. “Economic Rationality and Ethical Behaviour: ethical business between venality and sacrifice”. Business Ethics: A European Review, 11, 2. 2002.

Tema 8. The Business Responsibility: The Bhopal Tragedy (Video and Case Study)

Students presentation.
In the middle of the night of December 2, 1983, an accident occurred in the Union Carbide pesticide factory of Bhopal (India), releasing a poisonous cloud of toxic gases that was to kill tens of thousands of people, injuring hundreds of ones. The Bhopal tragedy is a landmark in industrial history, for the consequences it had inside and outside the industry. We use this case to identify the responsibility of business and the handling of this responsibility by Union Carbide in the subsequent, and still pending, legal procedures.
Lectura
DUTTA, Sanjib. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Hyderabad, India: ICFAI Center for Management Research, 2002.

Tema 9. Financial Markets and Fraud: ZZZZ Best and ENRON (Case Study with Video)

Students presentation.
Video: “Cooking the Books: What every accountant should know about fraud”.
Financial markets deal with companies through numbers. But do numbers really mean something? Is it possible to manipulate numbers so that they mean what we want them to mean? The case of ZZZZ Best company in the United States shows how it is possible to fool everybody through ‘cooking the numbers’. If one asks whether such a case still happen today, the ENRON case provides us with a striking answer.
Lectura
WATKINS, S. S. “Ethical Conflicts at Enron: Moral Responsibility in Corporate Capitalism”. California Management Review, 45, 4. Estiu del 2003.

Tema 10. Marketing Practices: Global Marketing of Tobacco Companies (Case Study with Video)

Students presentation.
Video: “Making a Killing: Philip Morris, Kraft and Global Tobacco Addiction” – Infact.
Can we sell any product as long as someone wants to buy it? Can we advertise a product which is dangerous to health and which creates an addiction that may result in death? When some countries begin to restrict consumption and advertisement of tobacco products, should tobacco companies invest in less-developed countries to avoid regulation? The behaviour of tobacco companies has been severely criticised over the past 15 years and became an archetype of unethical business behaviour. We study the strategies tobacco companies are implementing to make profit.
Lectura
YACH, Derek; BETTCHER, Douglas. “Globalization of Tobacco Marketing, Research and Industry Influence: Perspectives, trends and impacts on human welfare”. Development, 42, 4. 1999. Pàg. 25-30.

Tema 11. International Business and national politics: Royal Dutch/Shell in Nigeria (Case Study)

Students presentation.
Suppose your company operates in an African country and that some local activists begin to criticise your activities because of their impact on the population and on the environment. Suppose moreover that these activists become closer and closer to violent action and that the government of the country arrests them. Should your company stay neutral? Should your company help the government to arrest them, even if it is a brutal military dictatorship? This is the question Shell faced in Nigeria in 1996. Ensuing dramatic consequences prompted Shell to enter in a process of questioning the way it was conducting its operations.
Lectura
BOELE, R.; FABIG, H.; WHEELER, D. “Shell, Nigeria and the Ogoni. A Study in Unsustainable Development: I. The Story of Shell, Nigeria and the Ogoni People – Environment, Economy, Relationships: Conflict and Prospects for Resolution”. Sustainable Development, 9. 2001. Pàg. 74-86.

Tema 12. Business and Global Environmental issues: The Oil Industry and Climate Change (Case Study)

Students presentation.
While an international panel of scientific experts has pointed at the threat of climate change, some companies are reluctant to acknowledge the reality of the threat and are trying to block any political action that may restrain their activity. Other companies acknowledge the threat and prefer to announce that they want to act pro-actively. Should a multinational corporation influence the politics and the science of climate change? What are the business interests at stake and the ethical dimensions lying behind? Do some oil companies act like tobacco companies, trying to conceal scientific evidence, to subvert political institutions and to manipulate public opinions? Are the other really ethical?
Lectura
LE MENESTREL, Marc; VAN DEN HOVE, Sybille; DE BETTIGNIES, Henri-Claude. “Processes and Consequences in Business Ethical Dilemmas: The Oil Industry and Climate Change”. Journal of Business Ethics, 41(3). 2002. Pàg. 251-266.

Tema 13. Global Labour Markets: Exploitation or Development? (Case Study with Video)

Students presentation.
Video: “The Big One” – Michael Moore.
It is standard business practice for companies to try to lower production costs. Multinational companies do produce a lot of their products in countries where wages are much lower than in Europe or in the United States. But is this acceptable if wages are low because children produce the goods? We study the production of soccer balls by children in Pakistan and the policy towards child labour adopted by companies of the sporting goods sector. Beyond child labour, should Nike allow the same labour rights to its factories in Indonesia than in the United States?
Lectura
CRAWFORD, Robert; CADOT, Olivier. “Soccer Balls Made for Children by Children? Child Labour in Pakistan”. INSEAD Case Study, 4865. 1999.

Tema 14. The Internet, e-ethics and International Law: Yahoo! on trial (Case Study)

Students presentation.
The Internet is emblematic of the globalisation of business. As a new means of cross-borders communication, it is not regulated by a set of rules at the international level. How should an Internet company like Yahoo! decide about which country’s law to respect? We study the issue through the example of the selling of nazi objects on the auction site of Yahoo!, an illegal practice under French law but a constitutional right in the U.S.
Lectura
LE MENESTREL, Marc; HUNTER, Marc; DE BETTIGNIES, Henri-Claude. “Internet e-ethics in Confrontation with an Activists’ Agenda: Yahoo! on Trial”. Journal of Business Ethics, 39(1). 2002. Pàg. 135-144.

Tema 15. Technological issues: Monsanto and Genetically Modified Organisms (Case Study)

Students presentation.
Technological innovations – such as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) – cannot be understood independently from their business strategic context. Often, risks associated to such technologies are potentially high but not (yet) assessed. The public is less and less prone to take corporate discourses on absence of risks for granted, and international trade institutions are not adapted to implement the precautionary principle.
Lectures
MEACHER, Michael. “Are GM crops safe? Who can say? Not Blair”. The Independent. 22 de Juny del 2003.
SINAÏ, Agnès. “New Monsanto and GMO Propaganda : Seeds of irreversible change”. Le Monde Diplomatique (English language edition). Juliol del 2001.

Tema 16. Culture and Intellectual Property Rights: Patenting the Indian Neem Tree (Discussion)

Students presentation.
The CEO of a chemical company must choose whether to patent and develop a new biopesticide based on a molecule naturally produced by Indian Neem trees. The market prospects are extremely encouraging, but the patent would impede traditional uses of the molecule by local population in India. Furthermore the Neem tree has an important spiritual value to Indians. Hence, a conflict between culture and property rights emerges. We study the case and its ramification throughout current institutional and business developments.
Lectura
UK COMMISSION ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (CIPR). Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy. Londres: CIPR Report. Setembre del 2002. Cap. 4: “Traditional knowledge and Geographical Indications”. Pàg. 73-94.

Tema 17. Free subject

Students presentation.

Tema 18. Concluding session (Discussion)

This session will summarise the key messages of the course.