Module overview
Some of the key ethical challenges that arise in business - locally, nationally, and globally - stem from the fact that businesses are organisations, structured social arrangements of multiple individuals. For example, how can individuals hope to act ethically within an organisation, when their actions necessarily have consequences that are beyond their knowledge and control, and are bound by rules and roles which they often do not choose for themselves? Can organisations manage their workforce so as to make them behave morally? What then of the role of autonomy in moral action? We also often talk of organisations as themselves behaving ethically or unethically. But how can we hold organisations responsible? Can we make sense of ideas of collective action and collective responsibility? This module will explore some of these challenging issues, which are utterly widespread given that working lives are inevitably organised lives.