MG468      Half Unit
Foundations of Management II: Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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Additional requisites:

This is a second year course for Global Master's in Management students who must have successfully completed the first year of the programme.

In the first part of the module, we consider some of the main philosophical approaches to the ethical responsibilities of managers. Normative ethical theory helps us to do better than relying on vague opinions or hunches when we are trying to decide right from wrong. We contrast the shareholder approach, where the interests of shareholders take priority, to the stakeholder approach, in which managers are morally obliged to balance competing stakeholder interests in their decision-making. We then turn to consider ethical issues around how firms interact with consumers and how managers can balance diverse, and even contradictory ethical demands when operating in a globalized economy. 

The second part of the module considers the governance of social enterprises and other hybrid organisations, focusing on performance measurement and control. 

In the final week we reflect on the issue of freedom of speech and conclude.  

The teaching relies heavily on case studies and encourages students to address questions such as: 

• What obligations do business leaders owe to shareholders versus employees, customers, and other stakeholders?
• What are the limits of markets? Should everything be for sale? 
• Should there be laws that limit ‘unreasonable’ price increases of essential goods during an emergency or disaster? 
• Who does bribery harm? What can companies do to limit corruption when they work in regions with less well-developed institutions? 
• Is our right to free speech absolute, or are there any grounds for restricting freedom of speech? 

15 hours of seminars and 20 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

In its Ethics Code, LSE upholds a commitment to intellectual freedom. This means we will protect the freedom of expression of our students and staff and the right to engage in healthy debate in the classroom.

To help prepare for the exam: In week 11 of WT we will provide suggested revision questions for the exam and discuss LSE assessment criteria.

Exam (60%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Course participation (10%)

Case analysis / study (30%)

This component of assessment includes an element of group work.

For detailed assessment information, including all deadlines and timings, please see the relevant course Moodle page. Assessment timings will be available at the start of each term.