Instructor: Visiting Associate Professor Craig P. Dunn, Ph.D.
Meeting Times: Monday Evenings (See www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/dunnweb/
COURSE DESCRIPTION: What is the relationship between business and the natural environment? Do corporations-and more particularly the managers who represent them-have any responsibility to preserve the environment? How does business activity impact the ecosystem? What is the appropriate relationship between the human species and the balance of the natural environment? These and other related questions provide the `grist' for this course.
This course has been offered within your curriculum in order to stress the appropriateness of evaluating corporate action from the perspective of the natural environment. The overriding pedagogical objective is to sharpen your abilities to think critically and to diagnose business situations from the environmental perspective. Accomplishing this objective entails introduction to a broad range of ethical and social frameworks as the interface between corporations and the natural environment is examined.
This course has been designed to be a challenging and exciting course for the Jones School student. There is not a specific set of skills serving to lead you through the course, and no unifying meta-theory to inform your decisions. The problems and issues of the environment embrace the entire spectrum of business and management disciplines-and more. Many variables and situational factors must be dealt with at once; weighing the `pros and cons' of a particular course of action necessitates a total enterprise perspective.
In concert with the rather ambitious charter of this course you will be required to articulate and defend your environmental philosophy; i.e., with respect to the study of management, what is the appropriate business response to environmental issues?
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. To increase the student's understanding of the tasks of the `environmentally conscious' manager;
2. To build the student's skills in conducting environmental analysis in `messy' situations;
3. To improve the student's ability to manage organizational processes;
4. To integrate and extend upon the knowledge gained in earlier business courses;
5. To convince the student of the essential role of envirnmental sensitivity in the conduct of business enterprise;
6. To utilize the principles and concepts of social theory through case study methodology; and
7. To better equip the student to integrate his/her environmental philosophy with a successful career as a practicing manager.
EVALUATION POLICY: A maximum of 1000 points may be accumulated in this course. Point distribution varies as follows (see grading contract at back of syllabus for details):
Social dilemma game 50-100 points
Individual Writing Assignments 200-300 points
Seminar project 200-300 points
Theory/practice project 0-300 points
Term project 0-300 points
Examination 0-300 points
GRADING STANDARDS: The following grading standards will be used to determine final course grades. Good work will be accorded a B+, standard work a B. Outstanding and substandard work will fall above or below these levels accordingly. In general, it is difficult to get A's. You are responsible for monitoring your own progress throughout the course.
| 965 - 1000 points A |
| 930 - 1000 points A |
| 900 - 929 points A- |
| 865 - 899 points B+ |
| 830 - 864 points B |
| 800 - 829 points B- |
| 765 - 799 points C+ |
| 730 - 764 points C |
| 700 - 729 points C- |
| 665 - 699 points D+ |
| 630 - 664 points D |
| 600 - 629 points D- |
|
HONOR CODE: All work required in this course is covered by the Honor Code. All written assignments submitted to the instructor must carry the signed Honor Code pledge. Any assignment not so signed will be returned to the student ungraded. Depending upon how much time is required to obtain a properly signed pledge, the instructor reserves the right to assess a grade reduction penalty.
You may and are encouraged to discuss cases and readings with other students. This is a critical part of the learning process. However, for the written assignments you are not to share or compare the text of your analyses.
In the team presentation, all the students are expected to participate fully and equally in the preparation and delivery of the oral presentation. Failure to do so will be penalized by stringent grade reductions. Violators should be reported to the instructor by other students.
In addition to the above standards, particular attention should be given to the following statements excerpted from a Rice publication entitled Academic Fraud and The Honor System...
On all academic written work of students at Rice University, the following pledge is either required or implied:
"On my honor, I have neither given nor received any aid on this (examination, quiz or paper)."Plagiarism is the use of the distinctive ideas or words belonging to another person without adequate acknowledgment of that person's contribution...Any quotations - however small - must be placed in quotation marks or clearly indented beyond the regular margin and single-spaced in a double-spaced paper. Any quotation must be accompanied (either within the text or in a footnote) by a precise identification of the source - identifying the author, title, place and date of publication, and page numbers. Any sentence or phrase which is not the original work of the student must be acknowledged...
Any material summarized or paraphrased from a source must be specifically acknowledged in a footnote or in the text, as would a direct quotation. A thorough rewording or rearrangement of an author's text does not relieve one of this responsibility. A writer should be diligent in taking adequate reading notes so that debts of phrasing may be acknowledged where they are due; it is not necessarily a sufficient or valid excuse to claim that the phrases or ideas of a text were unknowingly duplicated simply because of a time lapse between the reading of a source and the writing of a paper...
Any ideas or facts borrowed from a particular source should be specifically acknowledged in a footnote or in the text of the paper, even if the idea or fact has been further elaborated by the writer. Some widely known ideas, facts, formulae and other kinds of information are considered to be "common knowledge" and do not require citation. The criteria for "common knowledge" vary among disciplines; if doubt exists as to whether a citation is needed, a faculty member should be consulted. The requirements for citing the sources of ideas and facts apply to unpublished essays and notes, as well as published works. If such unpublished sources are used, the writer must state the fact and indicate clearly the nature and extent of his or her obligation...
Students required to submit written notes for oral reports must clearly acknowledge any work that is not original, in accordance with the requirements for written work, as stated above.
BLIND GRADING: All individual written work in this course will be blind-graded. Do not put your name anywhere on your written work. Please sign the honor code with your student ID number and your mailbox number rather than your name. I use the system primarily for my benefit: it makes me completely confident that your work has been evaluated solely on the basis of its intellectual merit.
GRADE APPEALS PROCESS: Appeals of any assignment grade will only be considered under the following procedures. Appeals must be made within one week of the assignment having been returned to the student.
Automatic Appeal: Math Error: Please check each assignment as well as final course point totals to make certain I added up your scores correctly. If you discover a mistake, please put your entire assignment and grade sheet into my box, write 'MATH' prominently across the first page, and the appropriate adjustment will be made.Non-automatic Appeal: All Others: All other appeals must be in writing and submitted via the following electronic form, and the original graded assignment put into my box with the word 'APPEAL' written prominently across the first page. You must specify the precise nature of your concern and why you think you should be awarded more points. One important note is that I will regrade the entire assignment; thus, I may determine your grade should be adjusted either upward or downward.
READINGS: Two books are assigned: Either The Ecology of Commerce (Hawken) orThe Gnat is Older than Man (Stone), and Ecotopia (Callenbach). In addition, a substantial readings packet will be available through the Jones School office. You are expected to read each assigned chapter and/or article before the scheduled discussion of that reading. Supplementary case studies and reading materials will also be made available by seminar presenters.
ASSIGNMENTS:
Social Dilemma Game (50 or 100 points):
Students will participate in a term-long environmental `game.' A renewable resource pool has been established, and every class session each student will decide how much of this `commons' will be appropriated for private use. Students may discuss and/or collaborate during any and all phases of this game. Ultimately, students will be evaluated on the basis of a one-page double-spaced typed `interpretation' of the relevance of the game to management practice. Game `objective(s)' and `rules' will be negotiated during the first class session.
Individual Writing Projects (200, 250, or 300 points):
There will be five writing projects assigned approximately every third week throughout the term. Each student is to respond to any four of these prompts. These assignments relate most particularly to the readings over the immediately prior two weeks, and will be distributed in hard-copy form one week before their due dates (but will be posted to the course web-site schedule prior to in-class distribution). Writing projects shall be typed using double-spacing, must adhere to a strict two-page limit (I will remove and dispose of any additional pages prior to grading), and will under no circumstances be accepted late. Principal evaluation criteria will be adequacy of analysis, clarity and conciseness of arguments, use of theory to support arguments, and professionalism.
Group Seminar Project (200, 250, or 300 points):
Each 2 member team is to facilitate discussion for one class session. These 'presentations' are to address the seminar readings as catalogued in the web-site schedule. The facilitators will be responsible to: 1) prepare relevant questions for discussion to be both e-mailed to the instructor as well as distributed in hard copy one week prior to their scheduled seminar; 2) provide a summary overview of the literature to be discussed for the selected class session; 3) introduce relevant commentary and/or supplementary readings where appropriate; 4) relate the required reading to the topic under discussion as well as the individual writing assignments and individual term paper; 5) illustrate the topic under discussion through application to a mini-case of the students' choosing; and 6) provide an annotated bibliography of related readings. The objective is to engage the class in discussions which will facilitate the execution of individual writing assignments. Groups are encouraged to meet with the course instructor prior to their 'presentation' in order to help 'frame' the class session.Areas that will be considered (in addition to those previously or subsequently mentioned) in evaluating the group seminar project include:
Adequacy of analysis
Clarity and conciseness of arguments
Integration of social theory within discussion of topic
Professionalism/creativity of presentation
Linking of theory and practice A one-page double-spaced typed project proposal is to be submitted by each group for approval no later than the end of January. Groups are to indicate their preferred presentation date. Please note that other than this proposal, a two-page executive summary to be submitted in both hard-copy and electronic format, and the annotated bibliography there is no written component to this assignment.
Environmental Theory/Practice Project (0, 200, 250, or 300 points):
Each 2-3 member team is to develop a course project specifically designed to link environmental theory with management practice. These projects can range from environmental social change programs to thorough case analyses. Each group is to give a debriefing of their project to the class, to include an overview of the project; ethical and social reasons for its importance; assessment of the degree of relevance of the project to environmental management, and a question and answer session. Written project documentation should be provided where relevant.Reporting will take the form of a 30-40 minute oral presentation, including question and answer session. Be creative. Present the information to any fitting audience you explicitly identify, to be role-played by those students not in your group (who will be accountable for posing relevant questions to the presenting group).
Areas that will be considered (in addition to those previously or subsequently mentioned) in evaluating the group seminar project include:
Adequacy of analysis
Clarity and conciseness of arguments
Use of theory to support project relevance
Ability to defend recommendations
Professionalism of presentation
Creativity of presentation A one-page double-spaced typed project proposal is to be submitted by each group for approval no later than the end of January. Groups are to indicate their preferred presentation date. Please note that other than this proposal, a two-page executive summary to be submitted in both hard-copy and electronic format, and the written project documentation there is no written component to this assignment.
Individual Term Paper (0, 200, 250, or 300 points):
A term project will be submitted by each student. This project is essentially a written summary of the student's `environmental philosophy,' with each student required to articulate and defend his/her perspective on the question: What is the appropriate relationship between business enterprise and the `natural environment'? In formulating this `position paper,' consideration should be given to the following issues:
What is the appropriate role for the environment in free-market capitalism?
Whatassumptions about the relationship between human nature and the natural environment are implicit within your model of environmental management?
What human values are critical to your view of the environment?
What role does property play in the preservation of environmental values?
What role should the state play in environmental protection?
What constraints upon business enterprise are necessary for the preservation of the `environment'?
What are the managerial implications of your view of the business and the `environment'? Reasons for the position taken should rely upon ethical, social, and management theory. Defense of the position taken, rather than the position itself, is of fundamental importance. Text documentation (either from assigned texts or `outside' readings) would be appropriate.
Term projects shall be typed using double-spacing. In the case of either paper option there is no page length requirement; however, conciseness will be one of the evaluation criterion. Typed drafts of your term project may be submitted for comment any time prior to the 1st of May. A self-evaluation of this project (form to be distributed under separate cover) is to be submitted along with the final paper draft. Evaluation criteria include:
Adequacy of analysis
Clarity and conciseness of arguments
Use of social theory to support arguments
Professionalism of project
Creativity of project
Self-evaluation
Individual Examination (0, 200, 250, or 300 points):
One (optional) essay exam will be given, covering assigned texts and readings as well as class lectures/cases/videos/discussions. The exam will run a full three hours, and is by design extraordinarily challenging.
CONTRACT: Outlined above are the course activities available to students, including ranges of possible points. Each student is to fill out and return to the professor a binding contract (see electronic form below) for work to be completed this session. You are to fill out the number of points desired for each activity. The total number of points must total 1000. Points for each activity will range from 0-30% of the course grade, depending upon the individual assignment and weightings. Points must be selected in increments of 50.
For example, you may choose to minimize the points on the Individual Term Paper and the Individual Examination (0 points) by completing all other assignments at their maximum point objectives (i.e., 100 points for the Social Dilemma Game, and 300 points each for the Individual Writing Assignments, the Group Seminar Project , and the Group Theory/Practice Project). In all cases, class participation is mandatory. Failure to attend and participate in scheduled class sessions may be reflected in final course grading.
To send your Admin561 contract, fill out the following form thoroughly and completely. This form must be submitted electronically. Confirmation will be made by return e-mail.
Return to Professor Dunn's home page.