San Diego State University

College of Business Administration

Business Management and the Good Society

Instructor: Assoc. Professor Craig P. Dunn, Ph.D.

Office: SS 3105

Office Hours: Mondays 3-4 pm and Wednesdays 6-7 pm (Spring 2003)

Phone: 594-5783 (office/voicemail)

E-mail: craig.dunn@sdsu.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Business issues from perspective of ethical theory, focusing on social, political, and legal environment of corporations and their agents. Role of firm in creating the "good society" as well as assumptions undergirding capitalist economic thought.

What is the corporation? Do corporations--and more particularly the managers who represent them--have any responsibilities beyond seeking to maximize shareholder wealth? How does business activity help to bring about the 'good society'? What is the 'good society'? 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 social theory. The overriding pedagogical objective is to sharpen your abilities to think critically and to diagnose situations from the sociological perspective. Accomplishing this objective entails introduction to a broad range of social frameworks as the role of the corporation in creating the good society is examined. This course has been designed to be a challenging and exciting course for the MBA student. The major theme of the course is corporate social performance. Most of the student's prior coursework has been concerned with highly structured topics closely related to a well-developed body of theory; not so with corporate social performance. 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 corporate social performance embrace the entire spectrum of business and management disciplines. 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 perspective on organizational reality; i.e., with respect to the study of management, how does business enterprise contribute to the creation of the 'good society'?

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1. To increase the student's under-standing of the tasks of the 'moral' manager;
2. To build the student's skills in conducting social 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 corporate social performance 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 personal ethical ideal with the desire for 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):

GRADING STANDARDS: The following University-wide grading standards will be used to determine final course grades. You are responsible for monitoring your own progress throughout the course.

PLAGIARISM "Plagiarism is formal work publicly misrepresented as original; it is any activity wherein a person knowingly, directly, and for lucre, status, recognition, or any public gain resorts to the published or unpublished work of another in order to represent it as one's own. Work shall be deemed plagiarism: (1) when prior work of another has been demonstrated as the accessible source; (2) when substantial or material parts of the source have been literally or evasively appropriated (substance denoting quantity; matter denoting qualitative format or style); and (3) when the work lacks sufficient or unequivocal citation so as to indicate or imply that the work was neither a copy nor an imitation. This definition comprises oral, written, and crafted pieces. In short, if one purports to present an original piece but copies ideas word for word or by paraphrase, those ideas should be duly noted;" (Lindey, Alexander, Plagiarism and Originality, 1952; as cited in San Diego State University 1992-93 Graduate Bulletin).

"Wittingly or willfully to ignore or to allow students' ascription of others' work to themselves is to condone dishonesty, to deny the purpose of formal education, and to fail the public trust;

Accordingly, one who is suspected or accused of disregarding, concealing, aiding, or committing plagiarism...must be liable to an appropriate penalty, even severance from the University...should the demonstrated plagiarism clearly call into question one's general competence or accomplishments" (San Diego State University 1992-93 Graduate Bulletin).

Students involved in plagiarism (including 'cheating') on any MGT 742 coursework will receive a failing grade for the course.

READINGS: Several books are assigned: Looking Backward (Bellamy); Nickel and Dimed (Ehrenreich), Herland (Gilman); either The Good Society (Bellah et al.) or The Good Society (Galbraith); either The Worldly Philosophers (Heilbroner) or The Nature and Logic of Capitalism (Heilbroner); and The Hungry Spirit (Handy). In addition, volume 34, number 4 of the journal Business Horizons is assigned: Creating the Good Society: To Whom is the Corporation Responsible? (Dunn et al., Foundation for the School of Business at Indiana University [1991]). You are expected to read each assigned chapter and/or article before the scheduled discussion of that chapter. In addition, assigned case studies and supplementary reading materials will be made available. (Recommended reading: Ruppert's Reader in a Strange Land: The Activity of Reading Literary Utopias).

UTOPIA PRESENTATION: Literature on utopia plays a foundational role in consideration of just how the 'good society' might be constructed. Students are to work in pairs to read and report to the class on one piece of utopian 'literature' of their own choosing. This is a non-graded assignment; the intention is to expose the class to as many alternative constructions of the 'good society' in as brief an amount of time as possible. Each 'presentation' will be limited to ten minutes, including time for questions. Issues to be included in the oral report should include those questions outlined in Part I of the Term Project below. A list of sample readings is offered at Utopian Readings; in order to avoid duplication of treatment, titles will be awarded to teams on a first-come, first-served basis. It is also acceptable for the student to report on contemporary novels, films, poetry, music, and/or theatre arts which relate to the general theme of utopia. Recommended reading for this assignment is Ruppert's Reader in a Strange Land: The Activity of Reading Literary Utopias.

SEMINAR PRESENTATION: Students are to work in groups of three to facilitate discussion for one class session. These 'presentations' are to address the seminar readings as catalogued in the course schedule (see Schedule and Discussion Questions). The facilitators will be responsible to: 1) prepare relevant questions for discussion to be e-mailed to the instructor for posting to the class website one week prior to their scheduled seminar; 2) provide a summary overview (no longer than fifteen minutes) 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 term project; 5) illustrate the topic under discussion through application to a case of the students' choosing; and 6) provide an annotated bibliography of readings related to the section of the term project under consideration. The objective is to engage the class in discussions which will facilitate the writing of term paper(s). 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 grading the seminar presentation include:

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS: There are four writing assignments which are due throughout the term of the course (see Schedule and Discussion Questions for details; any four may be selected). These writing assignments relate directly to the course content, either as presented in class or as covered in assigned readings. Each student is to respond to the writing prompt with a two page, typed paper which directly addresses the question(s) posed. While it is certainly allowable for students to discuss these writing assignments with one another, the final papers ought to be recognizable as the 'independent' work of the student submitting the writing assignment.

TERM PROJECT: A term project will be submitted by each student. Please be as creative as possible in making your arguments, keeping in mind this is not a research paper but rather a three-paper articulation of your perspective on the role of business within society. In completing this assignment, each student is required to articulate and defend his/her responses to the following question(s):

Part 1: What is the 'good society'?
What is it that gives meaning to life?
What is the ultimate goal of the 'good society'?
What assumptions about human nature are implicit within your model of the 'good society'?
What values are critical to the development of this society? By what means are such values transmitted from person to person in this society? What sanctions are there for those who violate these norms? How much diversity is tolerated in this society?
What role do propery, the state, work, and business enterprise play within this society?

Part 2: What is 'economics'? What role do material possessions play in bringing about the 'good society'?
How--i.e., on what basis--are scarce resources allocated within this society?
How is justice both defined and ensured within this society?
How would unconstrained free-market capitalism contribute to and/or detract from the 'good society'?
What constraints<either regulatory or non-regulatory<upon free-market capitalism are necessary for the preservation of the 'good society'? How are these constraints enforced?

Part 3: What is the 'corporation'? What is the nature of the corporate enterprise? How does a 'Freidmanite' view of the corporation contribute to and/or detract from the 'good society'? What social restrictions upon corporatism are necessary for the preservation of the 'good society'? To whom is the corporation responsible? To whom are managers responsible? and finally, What are the practical, 'real world' lessons to be derived from this view of managerial responsibility<i.e., how does this course relate to management practice?

Reasons for the position taken should rely upon social, ethical, and/or managerial 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; typed drafts may be submitted for instructor comment no later than two weeks before the assignment due date. There is no page length requirement for this assignment; however, conciseness will be one of the evaluation criterion for this assignment. Areas that will be considered (in addition to those previously or subsequently mentioned) in grading the term project include:

Adequacy of analysis

Clarity and conciseness of arguments

Use of social theory to support arguments

Professionalism of project

Creativity of project

Self-evaluation

EXAM: One (optional) essay exam will be given, covering assigned texts as well as class lectures/discussions.

CONTRACT: Outlined above are the course activities available to students. Ranges of possible points have been listed in the Evaluation Policy section of this syllabus. 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 0-60% 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 term project (400 points) by completing the seminar presentation, writing assignments, and the examination at close to their minimum points as well (e.g., 400 points for the term project, 100 points for the writing assignments, and 250 points each for the seminar presentation and the examination). You will notice that the examination may be eliminated from your grading algorithm. In all cases, class participation is mandatory. Failure to attend scheduled class sessions may be reflected in final course grading.

To send your MGT 742 contract, fill out the following form thoroughly and completely. This form must be submitted electronically. Confirmation will be made by return e-mail.

MGT 742 Contract: The following agreement is entered into by the designated graduate student and Professor Dunn for work to be completed Spring session, 2003. It is understood that this agreement is not subject to change. First Name: Last Name: Complete E-mail Address: Point Objective for Seminar Presentation: select here 200 250 300 Point Objective for Writing Assignments: select here 100 150 200 Point Objective for Term Project: select here 400 450 500 550 600 Point Objective for Examination: select here 0 200 250 300 Please make certain the above point objectives total 1000. By sending this form, you agree to be evaluated on the basis of this contract as well as by the terms of the course as outlined in this syllabus.

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