Business Ethics
Unit Title Business Ethics
Assessor
Date issued
Hand in Date
Unit Grading Structure Pass
Assessment Guidance To achieve this unit, learners must achieve the learning outcomes and meet the standards specified by all assessment criteria for the unit.
LO LO Description AC AC Description
1 Understand perspectives on ethics and its relevance to business. 1.1 Explain the background and development of ethical
approaches.
1.2 Compare and contrast absolute and relative ethics.
1.3 Explain the ethical issues which can affect the operational activities of a business.
1.4 Evaluate the implications for a business and its
stakeholders to operate ethically.
2 Be able to report on the roles of directors, investors and other stakeholders to ensure ethical practice. 2.1 Assess potential conflicts between the needs and expectations of different stakeholders.
2.2 Analyse the impact of CSR on the business.
2.3 Report on how a business can improve the ethics of their operations whilst meeting objectives and ensuring good
employer/employee relationships.
3 Understand the issues which inform company reporting and their impact on society. 3.1 Explain how business objectives are affected by ethical considerations.
3.2 Summarise the regulatory framework for CSR.
4 Be able to evaluate ethical dimensions of businesses and the impact of CSR strategies on them. 4.1 Report on a current ethical issue affecting a selected business.
4.2 Assess the potential impact of changes in CSR on
business performance.
4.3 Recommend changes to CSR policy to benefit different stakeholders.
Scenario
You are working for “Computing Supplies Ltd” and you are an idealist: you only buy Fair Trade, you work in a charity shop over the week-end, you often participate in charity runs, and every year you attend community beach cleaning events.
Although you’ve already tried to approach the subject of Corporate Social Responsibilities, nobody has taken it seriously. However, the company recently received bad publicity after a documentary showing the obsolete computers being stripped down for gold by 10 year-olds in Africa. To complicate things further, the computers are actually being burnt to collect the gold which creates dangerous fumes both for the environment and for thechildren.
In addition to this new issue, “Computing Supplies Ltd” pays the majority of its employee the minimum wage in order to maximise profit. Several employees have now joined a union and trying to negotiate a living wage to no avail, which has also caused some badpublicity.
Due to the bad publicity, 4 large clients have already terminated their contract and as a consequence, the revenue is down 15% compared to the previous year.
To make the matters worse, although this has not emerged in the news, “Computing Supplies Ltd” is planning on relocating some of its manufacturing to India in order to cut down costs, however it seems that it would not really benefit the locals as the subcontracting cost implies cuts, in particular relating to local wages and local use ofwater.
You believe that this time senior management will listen, but you know that you should prepare the ground before the meeting in order to make a successful proposal.
Task 1 of 3 – Presentation (AC1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1 & 3.2)
Instructions
Prepare a presentation, supported by PowerPoint
Provide an illustration showing the different approaches to business ethics. You should then provide examples of ethical issues that could affect the operations. Also provide examples of “absolute” and “relative”ethics.
Create a mind map of the stakeholders, and comment on the implications for each stakeholder when operating ethically, including potential conflicts between thestakeholders
Explain the regulatory framework forCSR
Delivery
1x presentation (circa 10minutes)
Submission
1x lecturer feedbackform
1x PPTslides
Task 2 of 3 – Case Study (AC2.2 & 4.2)
Instructions
Provide a case study of an organisation that has implemented Corporate Social Responsibility. You should:
1. Briefly describe the changes that the organisation, andwhy.
2. Review the impact of CSR on their supplychain
3. Analyse the impact of changes in CSR on business performance such as profitability, revenue, brand,etc.
Delivery and submission
1x case study (circa 500words)
Task 3 of 3 – Report (AC2.3, 4.1, 4.2 & 4.3)
Instructions
Based on the scenario, write a report to suggest an implementation of CSR. You should:
1. Research a current ethical issue in anorganisation.
2. Describe how business objectives are affected by ethicalconsiderations.
3. Report on how the business could improve the ethics of theiroperations.
4. Recommend changes to CSR policy to benefit differentstakeholders.
Delivery and Submission
1x report (circa 1500words)
Summative Delivery and Submission
• Evidence generated for activities1-3
• Word count3000
