Singapore University of Social Sciences

Business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are often mistaken as synonyms to each other. Although ethical decision making is a contributing factor towards fulfilling organisations’ duty of being a responsible member of society, students must be able to appreciate the subtle differences between business ethics and CSR to be more effective decision makers in the modern society. In this course, the following tools and topics will be discussed to enhance the understanding on ethical decision making in business; Ethics vs Law, Ethical and Moral Theories, Critical Thinking and Case Analyses. The case analysis portion will exclusively discuss potential areas of risks in procurement and how to manage unethical procurement behaviours. Over the past several decades, the concept of CSR has evolved from a philanthropic activity by an organisation to the appraisal of the whole processes of making profit. The definition of what constitutes CSR varies greatly among academics and practitioners. To avoid losing focus, CSR will be viewed as pursuing triple bottom lines (financial, societal and environmental bottom lines) in this course.