The Task
Your assessment will take the form of a 3,000-word (you are allowed to go over by 10% making it a maximum of 3,300 words) submission consisting of three parts in total.
You will be expected to show that you understand the importance of individual and organisational ethical thinking and practice and that you can apply ethical decision making. You will also need to show that you can think critically about the role of business in society. Further, you will need to show that you have understood the way in which theory can underpin how ethical issues are viewed.
It is also expected that you have gained and can show an understanding that theory offers a guide, but not necessarily the answer, to practice.
The assessment also requires you to show that you have reflected on what makes an ethical leader and manager and what that means in the context of organisational culture.
An extensive rubric is provided which will show you how the work is marked and what is required to achieve high marks.
Your assessment into 2 parts with part 1 being further split into two. Read the requirements below and attempt all three parts. You will submit all three parts together in the same submission.
Literature required to be used:
Crane, A. & Matten, D. (2016) Business Ethics (4th Ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Robinson, S. & Dowson, P. (2012) Business Ethics in Practice. London: CIPD
Supplementary literature:
Fisher, C; Lovell, A, and Néstor, V. (2013) Business ethics and values: individual, corporate and international perspectives 4th ed.
Harlow: Prentice Hall
Fryer, Mick (2015) Ethics Theory and Business Practice. London: Sage
Sandel, M.J., (2009) Justice. London: Penguin Books
Assessment Brief
Your assessment into two parts with part 1 being further split into two. Read the requirements below and attempt all three parts:
Part 1
a) You are now required to write a brief report to senior managers at the company of your choice (For example EA or another games /app developer/company) from the perspective of an employee who has been asked to write a report for senior managers outlining the ethical issue involved in having loot boxes as part of your business model .
You will need to explore and write about a number of factors including – Why should the company be looking at this issue from an ethical perspective of ethics? How might this issue influence the public image of the company? What alternatives ways are there to think about a business’ role in society? Who/what are the stakeholders impacted in the scenario you are reporting on and how are they impacted on? Are there examples of business that act responsibly and ones that do not? You should illustrate this by including research you can find e.g., where is there research that shows good choices benefit companies and bad choices have a negative impact? Finally you should conclude with some recommendations for what the company should do (here you may want to look at the reports noted above on ‘understanding your organisation’s gender pay gap’ and ‘Actions to close the gap’.
This part of your assessment should be written as a report, but should be referenced in the normal academic way using Harvard citations and referencing.
b) For this part you should again use the case study – but this time choose TWO ethical theories and demonstrate that you can apply these to the case to show how your chosen theories lead you to a view on the ethics of the case. For example, if you applied utilitarian thinking to the idea of selling loot boxes to children, what would you need to consider and how might the issue look from that perspective? Or, what if you apply Kant’s thinking here? NOTE – you do NOT have to use ‘opposing’ ideas, we are interested most in how you use theory, if, when you apply two theories they seem to give the same answer that is fine, if they seem to give different outcomes that is fine too. This section is written in a more academic style than the report.
Part 2
Part 2 is NOT related to the case study. This section requires you to discuss what makes an ethical leader and how you would, as an ethical manager, manage your business and/or others to a high ethical standard.
You will need to think about personal ethics, about the conditions that bring about unethical organisations and practices, about organisational values and methods of compliance. This part can be written in a more reflective style, where the first person can be used.
