Course Code : MGMT2010 (L4, L5 & L6)

Course Title : Business Ethics & the Individual

Instructor : Prof Mitya New

Email: [email protected]
Course Credit: 2-credit
Course Grading: Letter Grade in accordance with HKUST guidelines criterion-referenced grading
Teaching Assistant: Michael Chan [email protected].

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course focuses on one of the most challenging aspects of leadership – your individual ability to take
decisions that are ethical and responsible and not just profitable or selfish. In the course of your future
careers as leaders of teams, businesses and organizations you will undoubtedly face situations when it
will be easy to take the decision that maximizes short-term profitability or your own personal or the
organization’s interests, but it will be much harder to recognize and then take the ethical and
responsible decision.

However, there will often be many people around you, both within your organization and on the outside
such as clients, community and society, who will be looking to you not only to take a more balanced
view between business performance or personal interest and wider social responsibility, but also to take
the lead and give guidance on challenging and difficult questions. As leaders you will face moments
when you will need, often under great pressure, to take decisions which will boost rather than destroy
the trust employees, customers, investors and other stakeholders place in you, your organization and
your brand.

The truly great leaders are those who can see beyond the every-day pressures of budgets and P&L and
recognize that leadership is about recognizing and then taking the right decision.

The course will help you define what we mean by responsible leadership, the right vs right dilemma that
all managers and leaders must be prepared for, how a leader’s responsibility today extends to
workplace health, corporate social responsibility and social impact investing, the important role of
whistleblowers (such as at Olympus in Japan in 2011), the ethical questions that are cropping up as
artificial intelligence enters more deeply into our lives and how to implement a culture of responsible
leadership across an organization.

Throughout the course we will use topical and relevant case studies including BP and the Deep Water
Horizon disaster, Facebook and fake news, Apple and the backdoor into the iPhone, mental health issues
 at France Telecom, bullying and harassment (including #MeToo) at many other organizations, the
growth of strategic CSR and social impact investing, how organizations are struggling to define the
appropriate ethical guidance for robots and AI and creating an ethical and responsible culture at
Siemens. Interestingly, the Covid-19 crisis that we are have all been living through over the past two
years is a perfect test case for leadership and ethical decision making.

COURSE OBJECTIVES / LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course will give you:

o an understanding of an area of management and leadership theory known as ethical and
responsible leadership
o an examination of your own beliefs and understanding of the role of a leader
o opportunities to debate and reflect on very current ethical challenges faced by a number of global
companies and to consider how they are addressing these challenges
o the facility to come to your own independent conclusions about the right course of action to take

COURSE OUTLINE

Class 1: What is Responsible Leadership – introduction

o Case Study - BP, Deep Water Horizon and responsible leadership
o Responsible Leadership in a stakeholder world

Class 2: Responsible Leadership and right vs right dilemmas

o Case Study – Newcastle takeover – moral values should prevail
o Case Study – Clothing makers in Asia give stark coronavirus warning
o The challenge of right vs right decisions and how to take them

Class 2a: Student Assessment – Presentation & Debate class

o Case Study - Apple and the backdoor to the iPhone OR
o Case Study - Deutsche Bahn conductors OR
o Case Study – Facebook & fake news
o NB: one case study per student

Class 3: Workplace health and corporate responsibility

o Discrimination & harassment
o Workplace health
o Case Study - France Telecom
 Class 3a: Student Assessment – Presentation & Debate class
o Case Study – Camino Therapeutics (multi part case study)

Class 4: Strategic CSR and profitability

o What is CSR
o Strategy and Society, Michael Porter – Creating shared value out of CSR
o Case Study – Singtel: Philanthropic or Strategic CSR

Class 4a: Student Assessment – Presentations class

o Case Study - IKEA’s global sourcing challenge: Indian rugs and child labour

Class 5: Leadership in Social Impact Investing – empowering responsible investment

o Article - Measuring CSR – Breaking down the wall of codes
o Understanding how to measure – Vigeo & CSR – the daughter of globalization
o Impact Investing: Tracking the adoption of a Financial (and Social) Innovation
o Case Study: Generation Investment Management

Class 6: Whistleblowers – stepping up to individual leadership responsibility

o Case Study - Olympus and the Whistleblower President
o Case Study - Conflict on a Trading Floor

Class 7: Ethical challenges in a world of robots and AI

o How is AI different from human capability
o What are the ethical challenges of AI?
o Class debate

Class 8: Implementing a culture of responsible leadership

o Fighting Corruption at Siemens – multi-media case study
o Case Study - Gender & Free Speech at Google

Class 9: Course review and assessment guidelines

o Review of course themes and open discussion
o Overview and guidance on course assessment

GRADING / ASSESSMENT

Your grading for this course will be a Letter Grade and will be based on a combination of:
1. Attendance in class and participation in class discussions/debates
 and on discussion boards: 15%
2. Performance in Three Team presentations/debates – all members
receive a team grade 25%
3. Integrated Test – multiple choice (virtual in one week after course) 30%
4. Integrated Test – case study (virtual in one week after course) 30%

Final Grades

Final grades will follow the university policy of criterion-referenced grading (actual grades) to determine
your final grades. The grade descriptors are below. Against each grade descriptor will be acceptable
grade bands. The shift from distributions to criterion-referenced grading is meant to reduce competition
for ranking and focus on achieving one’s own best work.

A+, A, A- 10-25% Excellent work

B+, B, B- 25-40% Good work
C+, C, C- 25-40% Satisfactory work
D 5-10% Marginal pass
F 0-5% Class failure

Participation: Attendance, classroom discussion, discussion board

The central purpose of this course is to help you develop your ability to reason about ethical issues. This is best
done in discussion with others, where you can present, defend and revise your opinion in a constructive
environment. Your thoughtful participation in class discussions and on the discussion board is thus essential and
will count for 15% of your grade. Please understand that this 15% is one of the biggest discriminators in grades.

Your participation grade will be determined by the quality and quantity of issues raised by you. What is
participation? In the ideal it’s offering an original and relevant perspective on an issue; moving the analysis
forward by building on previous contributions or revealing fresh insights. We will consider both meaningful oral
discussion and chat contribution towards participation as well as comments on the discussion board between
classes. Please note that the discussion board is not an alternative to participation in class but an additional
opportunity. Class participation will be rated higher than participation on the discussion board. Please note that
discussion in the breakout rooms do not count towards participation. They are meant to hone your reasoning and
try out ideas for the full class discussion.
Participation Rubric
Exemplary Proficient Developing Not Ready
13-15 10-12 6-9 0-5
Frequency of Student initiates Student initiates Student initiates Student does
 participation in contributions in contribution in contribution in a not initiate
class most classes. some classes. few classes. contribution &
needs instructor
to solicit input.
Frequency of Student initiates Student initiates Student initiates Student does
participation on new discussion new discussion new discussion not initiate new
discussion related to related to related to discussion
board theme of class theme of class theme of class related to
just completed just completed just completed theme of class
in most classes in some classes in a few classes in any class
Quality of Comments Comments Comments are Comments are
comments always insightful mostly insightful sometimes uninformative.
& constructive; & constructive. constructive, Heavy reliance
uses Occasionally with occasional on opinion &
appropriate comments are signs of insight. personal taste,
terminology. not relevant to Comments not e.g., “I love it”,
Comments the discussion. always relevant “I hate it”,
balanced to the “It’s bad” etc.
between discussion.
general
impressions,
opinions &
specific,
thoughtful
criticisms or
contributions.
Listening Student listens Student is Student is often Does not listen
Skills attentively mostly attentive inattentive. to others, is not
when others when others attentive.
present present ideas,
materials, materials, as
perspectives, as indicated by
indicated by comments that
comments that reflect & build
build on others’ on others’
remarks, i.e., remarks.
student hears
what others say
& contributes to
the dialogue.
Adapted from: Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, CMU

Final Examination – Multiple Choice

This will be a short multiple choice paper that can be completed within one-week after the conclusion of the
course in your own time. The examination is open book meaning you are encouraged to use class materials and
reading to help you answer the questions. The questions will be sufficiently challenging that collaborating with
other students is not recommended.

Final Examination – Case Study

This examination is also open book. You will have one week after the completion of the course to submit a
maximum 3-page A4 essay on a case study question that will be released on Canvas at the end of the course. The
University takes all allegations of cheating, copying and plagiarism very seriously. It is your responsibility to
familiarize yourself with the guidelines for academic integrity posted on the University website:
http://www.ust.hk/vpaao/integrity.
In order to avoid any hint of plagiarism, please ensure that you are familiar with the guidelines for proper
referencing

COURSE MATERIALS

A preliminary reading list is below. However, please refer to Canvas for any changes to the reading
requirements. Students should prepare for the reading assignments for this course. For each class you
should expect to be reading one case study and possibly one or two short articles. For a number of classes
you will be expected to work in teams to prepare short Powerpoint presentations which will need to be
presented in class. These presentation will require all team members to participate for part of the
presentation.

Reading Bibliography:

o Class 1:
− A Friedman Doctrine: The Social Responsibility of Business is to increase profits – New
Yorker Magazine
− Deepwater Horizon: Spilling Oil, Money and Trust
o Class 2:
− Newcastle takeover: Moral values should prevail Khashoggi’s fiancée says, BBC
− Clothing makers in Asia give stark coronavirus warning, BBC
− Right vs Right: when managers are faced with tough ethical choices, Josepeh Badaracco
o Class 2a:
− Building a back door to the iPhone – an ethical dilemma
− Deutsche Bahn AG: the heartless train conductor
− Facebook: Fake News, Free Speech and an Internet platform’s responsibility
o Class 3:
− Suicides at France Telecom
 o Class 3a:
− Camino Therapeutics (A)
o Class 4:
− Strategy & Society: the link between competitive advantage and corporate social
responsibility
− Singtel: Philanthropic or Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
o Class 4a:
− IKEA’s global sourcing challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labour (B)
o Class 5:
− Vigeo and CSR: the daughter of globalisation
− Generation Investment Management
o Class 6:
− Conflict on a Trading Floor (A)
− Olympus (A)
o Class 7:
− Google and Project Maven (A)
o Class 8:
− Corruption at Siemens (A)
− Gender and Free Speech at Google

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Professor Mitya New has been faculty at HKUST Business School since 2012. He delivers a number of
EMBA, MBA and MSc courses as well as Executive Education programmes. He is also adjunct faculty at
SDa Bocconi’s Asia Study Centre in Mumbai India where he teaches executive MBA courses. He is one of
the core faculty for the executive Leadership programme at Skolkovo Moscow School of Management.
He has taught at the Indian Business School in Hyderabad.

Mitya New owns and runs his own consultancy firm that focuses on improving leadership and team
performance and works exclusively with multinational clients across Asia and Europe.

Previously he spent over 15 years in CEO roles at blue chip global companies. He was most recently
Managing Director for Dow Jones in India, where he was responsible for building the business from the
ground up and working with Rupert Murdoch and News International on developing the strategy for
Dow Jones’ business expansion in India.

Before that he led the Reuters business across the Scandinavian and Baltic region in northern Europe
and was responsible for the company’s business operations and growth in six markets there. Between
2004 and 2006 he was the Managing Director for Reuters Japan and between 2000 and 2004, as
Managing Director South Asia, he led the Reuters business in the Indian sub-continent including India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He also led the company’s business in Hungary and developed the
company’s strategy for central and Eastern Europe.

Mitya New has an MA in International Affairs from the School of Advanced International Studies at
Johns Hopkins University as well as a BA in International Relations from the University of Sussex. He has
completed a number of senior executive development programmes at the Bocconi School of
Management, the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago (Barcelona) and
Pennsylvania State University.

He is a certified practitioner of a number of psychometric instruments widely used in organisational and

individual performance development, such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Reuven Bar-on’s
Emotional Quotient EQ@i, Hogan Inventories, Saville Wave and Thomas Kilman Conflict Mode
Instrument (TKI).