206-A Weber Hall or by appointment 946-2639 rhoverst@pacific.edu
A copy of this syllabus is available on Sakai.
Course Prerequisites: Admission into a graduate program at the university.
Required Materials: Denis Collins (2012), Business Ethics: How to Design and Manage Ethical Organizations, John Wiley and Sons
Other assigned readings are noted on the attached course outline. Most of the articles will be posted on Sakai. Cases for the course can be purchased directly from the Harvard Business School. To purchase the cases, go to the coursepack link at:
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/20490843
and follow the instructions
Recommended Reading: The Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine, The Economist, etc.
What is a business? “If we want to know what a business is we must start with its purpose… There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. What business thinks it produces is not of first importance – especially not to the future of the business or to its success. What the customer thinks he is buying, what he considers ‘value’ is decisive – it determines what a business is, what it produces, and whether it will prosper.” Peter F. Drucker, The Practice of Management, 1954.
What is a business for? “In the wake of recent corporate scandals, it is again time to ask ourselves the most fundamental of questions.” Charles Handy, “What’s a Business For?” Harvard Business Review, December 2002. According to the Gallup Poll, 90% of Americans felt that people running corporations could not be trusted to look after the interests of their employees, only 18% thought that corporations looked after their shareholders a great deal. Over 40% thought that senior executives were only in it for themselves. Clearly, we are witnessing a serious level of mistrust in corporate America. Is this a problem? Or, should