This course aims to:
- Promote understanding of the importance, for business and the community, of ethical conduct;
- Provide the skills with which to recognise and resolve ethical issues in business;
- Enhance awareness and critical self-examination of one's own values, and to appreciate the relevance of personal values in the business/workplace setting; and
- Encourage reflection on the ethical dimension of your own decision-making in workplace and other settings.
This course introduces ethical issues and economic decision making in a variety of contexts. It aims to develop participants’ capacity to analyse and argue the ethical dimension of contemporary and emerging business models. Using various philosophical theories of Ethics, we would explore social and ethical responsibility of corporations, social entrepreneurs and digital innovators. Our main task is to understand how ethical theories interact with practice and their applicability to different business models. We will not only apply ethical theories to some core areas such Information technology, HRM, Finance, Entrepreneurship but we will also cover ethical tension in emerging business models such as Uber, Airbnb and other actors in platform economy. A core question that is inherent in the key themes of the course is who is responsible for business ethics?
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Define, explain and illustrate the theoretical foundations of business ethics;
- Re-examine their knowledge of business and economic concepts from an ethical perspective;
- Explain and illustrate the importance, for business and the community, of ethical conduct;
- Recognise and resolve ethical issues in business;
- Reflect on and critically examine their own values and the importance of the ethical dimension in business and workplace decision making; and,
- Apply systematic ethical reasoning to business dilemmas and communicate effectively in oral and written forms, using the concepts, logic and rhetorical conventions of business ethics.
Indicative Assessment
- Typical assessments may include, but is not restricted to: in-class exercises, written and oral assignments, quizzes, examinations, group project tasks, oral presentation, and other assessment deemed appropriate to show attainment of the learning outcomes set for the course. Further details will be made available via the Class Summary. (100) [LO 1,2,3,4,5,6]
- Oral assessment task. Further details, including % value, will be made available via the Class Summary (0) [LO 1,2,3,4,5,6]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
Students taking this course are expected to commit 130 hours to completing the work. For semester length offerings this will typically include 3 hours per week in class and at least 7 hours a week on average (excluding non-teaching weeks) on course reading, research, writing and assessment work.
Inherent Requirements
This course has no inherent requirements.
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Information about the prescribed textbook (if any) will be made available via the Class Summary.
Preliminary Reading
Minors
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 34
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $5280 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $6720 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
Second Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8217 | 21 Jul 2025 | 28 Jul 2025 | 31 Aug 2025 | 24 Oct 2025 | In Person | N/A |