EC32810 - CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS ETHICS

Module Identifier	EC32810
Module Title	CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS ETHICS
Academic Year	2001/2002
Co-ordinator	Mr Martyn Jones
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-Requisite	EC10510 or EC10120
Course delivery	Lecture	12 Hours
	Seminars / Tutorials	4 Hours
Assessment	Course work	1500 word essay	20%
	Exam	1.5 Hours	80%

Aims

Business ethics and corporate governance are highly topical issues in the modern world of business, and this is reflected in the growth of corporate codes of conduct, environmental auditing, and ethical investment. It is also reflected in the spate of recent official reports into corporate governance structures and executive remuneration, and the growing public concern about the role of owners and managers and issues concerning "stakeholder" participation. The module aims to introduce students to the importance of responsible corporate behaviour and good corporate governance.

Learning outcomes

Through lecture presentation, seminar presentation and discussion and dircted reading students should be able to:

Identify the moral context of business ethics
Show the institutional basis to responsible corporate behaviour
Describe models and theories of business ethics
Apply ethics to environmental responsibility and employee relations
Demonstrate ethical investor behaviour
Evaluate the corporate Organisation
Determine the roles of the different corporate "actors"
Determine the issue of the separation of ownership and control
Determine the importance of different mechanisms of corporate governance
Describe the involvement of employees in corporate governance
Summarise the corporate governance in its European and international context

Reading Lists

Books
Tom Cannon. (1994) Corporate Responsibility. Pitman Publishing
George Chryssides and John Kaler. (1996) Essentials of Business Ethics. McGraw Hill
Richard T De George. (1999) Business Ethics. 5th ed. Prentice Hall
W Michael Hoffman and Robert E Frederick. (1995) Business Ethics: Reading and Cases in Corporate Morality. 3rd ed. McGraw Hill
T Jenkinson and C Mayer. (1992) Corporate Governane and Corporate Control. Oxford Review of Economic Policy
R A Derwent and M E Jones. (1996) The Corporate Governance Handbook. Gee Publishing
J Charkham. (1994) Keeping Good Company: A Study of Corporate Governance in Five Countries. Oxford: Clarendon Press
K Murphy. (1997) Executive compensation and the modern industrial revolution. International Journal of Industrial Organisation, 15, 417-425
M M Blair. (1995) Ownership and Control: Rethinking Corporate Governance for the Twenty-First Century. The Brookings Institution: Washington DC