The Morality of Commercial Life 2015-2016 16 01 13

COURSE MANUAL
THE MORALITY OF COMMERCIAL LIFE 2015-2016
30J302
TiSEM
Program: International Business Administration (IBA)
2015-2016
Semester 6 (Third year, second semester)
Lecturers: Dr. A. Archer and Prof. Dr. W. Dubbink
Version: 16 01 06
Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life
Table of Contents
Introduction
How we go about
Relevance and overview contents
11
Learning goals
13
Overview lectures, including required material per lecture.
15
Overview tutorials, including required material per lecture
20
Grading and exams
22
About the tutors / contact
24
Appendix: Required Material (per finding place)
25
INTRODUCTION
In daily life, morality is a pervasive but often unnoticed phenomenon. Typically,
we do not experience its importance or the extent to which we are moral creatures.
The reason is that most of the time people routinely abide by the commandments
of morality. Morality commands us not to steal, not to kill and to keep our
promises; most of the time people comply with these commandments without
giving it a thought. This makes our acceptance of morality a subconscious thing
and thus subjectively unnoticed.
Evolutionary biologists sometimes say that our moral nature is a genetic thing.
(Obeying) morality is in our genes. If it weren't, society would not be possible as
human beings can only co-exist if the members of a group obey certain crucial
principles. It is far from evident whether the evolutionary biologists are right in
their inference about morality being in our genes; but their analytical observation
seems right. Without morality society isn't possible; at least not the kind of wellorganized society human beings prefer to live in. Evolutionary biologists are also
right in thinking that human beings find morality extremely important. Very few
people can stand being treated unjustly and most human beings are highly
sensitive to justice. Historians claim that morality often is the source of
revolutions and social upheaval. People can accept poverty; they cannot accept
unjust poverty; people can accept an inefficient economy; they cannot stand a
government that violates and disgraces the conception of the good life they hold
dearly.1 Most individuals also care dearly about being a good person. We want to
be right and good, both in the eyes of others and in our own eyes. One piece of
evidence for this claim is that most people deal carefully with situations in which
morality cannot be dealt with on a routine basis and we are forced to make a
conscious moral choice. Interestingly, but also a bit frightening is that truly
immoral know exactly how important most people find morality. People like
Bernard Madoff will be the last to belittle morality's force. To a large extent their
success as frauds depends on their ability to pretend to be moral beings.2
However, the best piece of evidence for the crucial importance of morality is that
hardly any person in the world does not morally justify (i.e., excuse) their actions.
There is hardly any person who responds to the claim "you did this and this was
immoral" by saying: "so what? I do not care about being immoral". Almost all
human beings argue that it wasn't wrong or that they were excused. "They didn't
know"; "the other guy started the fight"; "it's a jungle out there"; "dog eat dog", to
name just a few of the common excuses prevalent in business. This goes even for
1 For example: the rise of radical Islam is often explained as a consequence of the
frustration and hate in Islamic countries against an unjustly and disrespectfully
intruding Western culture. Hence, according to this explanation, not religion per se
but morality explains the rise of radical Islam.
2 http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Madoff
the most evil people - and maybe for them in particular. The few people who do
not do that we refer to as psychopaths. A psychopath is a mentally disturbed
individual who has no clue whatsoever of what morality means.
Business people depend on and are immersed in morality as much as any other
human being. For example, the market cannot function without property and the
institution of property depends on (i.e., is constituted by) people obeying the
moral principle "do not steal". By the same token: the market cannot function
without people upholding contracts and the institution of contract is constituted by
the moral principle "do not make a lying promise".
Naturally, this is not to say that from the perspective of a particular individual
it may not sometimes be smart to disobey morality's commandments. The
proposition also does not imply that human beings are always motivated to act
moral. In so far as morality is understood as a societal instrument, much of it has
the structure of a prisoners' dilemma in single action situations. This fact does not
discredit the important social function of morality in any way. What is more, the
fact that immoral conduct sometimes is smart does not mean that it is right or "the
natural thing to do", as it is sometimes claimed.
Learning about morality
As morality is a pervasive phenomenon in society, we might have expected that in
their growth towards adulthood, children and young adults get serious training in
it. Surprisingly, this is not the case. Morality shares the tragic fate of raising
children and love and friendship. These phenomena are crucial to society and a
good life, yet people hardly get any real education in it. People are supposed to
acquire the necessary knowledge, insights and character traits needed to be a good
parent or a good friend all by themselves.
Things would not be so bad if there was really little to learn these phenomena.
However, empirical evidence shows this to be a false statement. Raising children
is truly difficult. Many love relations fail and it is not always easy to hold on to
friendships. As regards morality, things may be a little more nuanced. Through
their parents, schools and society at large, people learn basic moral knowledge.
They learn the basic moral principles (e.g., "do not kill". "do not steal" and "do
not lie") and they learn how to apply these principles in standard situations. For
example, they learn that the principle "do not lie" does not mean that one must
always exclaim one's thoughts (i.e., the thought that this customer really has a bad
taste for clothing).
Yet, a lot is left that people actually need to know if they are to become moral
persons able to understand and apply morality, especially in non-routine
situations. For example, most people do not really learn how to understand the
crucial distinction between a right action and a praiseworthy action. They do not
learn how to understand the distinction between a moral justification and a moral
excuse.
One of the biggest omissions lies with peoples' abilities to reason properly in
moral matters. Many people seem to lose 50 percent of their brain power when
they have to make a moral argument. For example, many people argue that
because of moral differences between cultures, morality is relative and that as a
consequence of that we must always "do in Rome as the Romans do". It is really
surprising that so many people find this kind of argument convincing as they
would never accept the same argument outside the moral domain. Who would
argue that we must conclude that physics is "relative" if there were one culture in
which it was believed that "E= MC2" while there was another culture in which it
was believed that energy is provided by the Goddess of the Sun and matter
provided by the God of Darkness and that both are sworn enemies? By the same
token, why do CEO's always fall back on the excuse that "they didn't know" if
things really go wrong in their company, when a child can see that this argument
is 100 percent nonsensical. The excuse is only valid if the CEO did not have to
know the facts.3
Another important omission concerns the fundamentals of morality, including its
grounding and its meaning. Many people do not really understand how morality
can be about "duty" and "acting out of free will" at the same time. Most people
also do not know what morality is for, exactly. Worse, they cannot see how we
could find a ground that could serve as a basis to give it meaning in a secular era.
What is morality and where does its authority come from? Can we still give
answers to these answers if we are necessitated to give answers that do not invoke
God? Lack of knowledge as regards these fundamental issues is not problematic
in daily life where we make moral decisions on a routine basis. They become
problematic in non-routine situations. In non-routine situations people need to
know what morality is for. Otherwise they will make bad decisions - which they
are already prone to make, given the fact that they tend to lose half their brain
when it comes to moral reasoning.
3 The Volkskrant August 25th, 2014 pages 4/5provides an interesting example of

how people lose half their brain when it comes to moral reasoning. The newspaper
relates the story of a recently deceased World War II resistance heroine who
decided to continue eliminating bad people after the end of the war. In relation to
a 1946 killing she said: although I can see now that this was a mistake (especially
since it turned out that this man secretly hid Jewish citizens), I do not regret it
because I was completely convinced of the rightness of my deed at the time.
Obviously, regret is especially urgent if at hindsight you must admit that your
most dearly held convictions were wrong. The fact that you were 100 percent
convinced does not indemnity you from regret. It is the core reason why you
should be regretful.
Moral cynicism
The most important reason why teaching in morality is imperative, in particular in
our culture nowadays has not been mentioned. Almost all cultures have
wholeheartedly and naturally acknowledged the importance and reality of
morality. Because of specific cultural developments in modern western culture
this natural acknowledgment has been impaired. A particular kind of moral
cynicism is about, denying morality its proper place in society and people's lives.
The moral cynicism pointed at here has specific characteristics. First, it is more
a belief or an epistemological attitude than a worked-out philosophical position.
Second, it is a belief that finds its source in all kinds of rather shallow argued for
positions on the fundamentals of morality, i.e., morality is unimportant because it
is "relative", "subjective", "only about feeling" or "impossible because people are
not like that". Third, it is a belief that is selectively and inconsistently taken up as
many people drop it immediately when they are the victim of another person's
immoral actions. Hardly anybody screams harder for justice than cynical mobster
or a cynical CEO when they feel they are unjustly treated by the public or the law.
Fourth - and perhaps most importantly - it seems that the cynicism is not unrelated
to human need to justify and excuse immoral actions. In fact, in may even be true
that the cynicism has an extremely important role in finding justifications and
excuses for immoral actions. Harming your competitor by immoral means is ok
because "it is a war out there". Ignoring child labor is ok because "morality is
relative anyways". In these cases, moral cynicism is paradoxically used as a moral
excuse.
There are various reasons why moral cynicism must be fought. As morality is
constitutive of society and the free market, moral cynicism must be considered a
parasitic phenomenon eroding the possibility of a free society and a free market.
As morality is also crucial for the possibility of a good and meaningful life, moral
cynicism is also eating away that prospect.
Two perspectives on morality
One of the most important things that needs to be taught about morality, especially
in relation to people's lack of understanding of the meaning of morality as well as
the fight against moral cynicism is that it can only be properly understand if we
approach it from a functional and a interpretative perspective at the same time.
Morality cannot be made fully sense of by approaching it from just one
perspective and it cannot be made sense of if these two perspectives are not
integrated. The need to interpret morality from these two perspectives is not
unique to morality. The phenomenon of "love" also stands in need of this dual
approach. It surely makes sense if the functionally looking biologist states that the
phenomenon of love is important for the survival of society. The bond between
parents would be much looser without love between them as would be the relation
between parents and children. Hence, the crucial process of raising children would
be much more difficult and unstable without love. Parents would abandon each
other and their children much quicker. Yet, we do not understand love at all if we
reduce its meaning to this functional account. Parents do not love each other or
their children because it is functional. For them, love makes sense because it has
meaning. Nobody says to the person they love: "I love you because that is
functional for the survival of society". The meaning of love can only be grasped
by an interpretative account of the phenomenon. What is more, the functional
account of love depends on the lived experience of the interpretative account.
Love loses its function the very minute people stop giving it meaning.
Morality must also be interpreted both functionally and interpretatively. The core
of all functional accounts of morality is to demonstrate how morality is useful for
non-moral reasons, ultimately a good life. The interpretative account seeks to give
meaning to morality, in relation to what it means to be a human being. It points at
the value of morality.
A functional account of morality must demonstrate how morality serves the
good of each individual. It may start from two different sources. It can start by
asking directly how morality is functional for the good of individual human
beings. The most meager and shallow of these direct functional accounts of
morality try to demonstrate why it is smart to be moral; i.e., how morality serves
the purposes of someone who defines the good life in terms of just one human
good: the availability of money.
The more interesting of these direct accounts try to demonstrate how it is
prudent to be moral. "Prudence" is a more comprehensive account of being smart.
A smart individual defines the human good solely in economic terms. The prudent
individual acknowledges that a good human life takes into account a lot more
goods and values, such as love, friendship, respect and so forth and that these
goals and values must be balanced against each other and against the importance
of economic success. The prudent person also knows that these goods are
incommensurable (which is not to say incomparable). Prudence is the realization
that the lives of Tony Soprano (The Sopranos) and Michael Corleone (The
Godfather) are not good, irrespective of their economic success. Prudent accounts
will point out that being moral is the best, the only or the most secure way to a
good life. Some crucial goods and values can only be experienced by moral
individuals. Examples are love, friendship and respect. These accounts will also
point out that prudent people must support the constitution of a well-organized
society as this is the only kind of society in which a moral person can attain
morality and happiness.
Functional account may also try to demonstrate indirectly how morality is
useful. Indirect functional accounts demonstrate that morality is a condition of the
possibility of a (well organized) society. As individuals have an interest in

society's continued existence, they have an interest in morality. The biggest
problem indirect functional accounts face is showing how the people of a society
can surmount the prisoners' dilemma structure of morality.
Formulating an interpretative account of morality is difficult. We must try to give

moral meaning to morality, without getting in a circle. This cannot be done
without dwelling into the terrain of metaphysics and asking questions about the
meaning and the nature of (human) life. Some people say that we face
insurmountable methodological obstacles here. Metaphysics is meaningless
because all non-empirical truths are just speculation. The problem with this antimetaphysical stance is that it seems that by their nature human beings are
necessitated to ask and answer metaphysical questions. It is our fate as human
beings. For example, it cannot be argued that we do not need to dwell into
metaphysics because all human beings are egoists and that is end of story. The
idea that "human beings are egoists" is ultimately a metaphysical stance as it is
built on non-empirical assumptions as regards human nature.
Even if we find a way to surmount the methodological obstacles, the
interpretative account of morality still faces a difficult assignment. We must give
meaning to morality, ground it and give an account of its substance. The best
traditions in Western moral philosophy have put the concept of freedom (i.e.,
autonomy) in the centre of the interpretative account of morality. These traditions
have also suggested that at its core morality is a strife; an assignment always to
improve upon one's character and achieve virtue.
HOW WE GO ABOUT
Any introductory course on (applied) morality must eventually address
fundamental moral issues. Why morality? What is it for? Is there a ground for
morality's commandments? At some point these questions must be given attention.
The reason is simple. There is no need for moral reflection in routine situations.
Only non-routine situations give rise to moral questions. Yet, in these
circumstances no easy answers are possible. Sooner rather than latter reflection
will force us to face the fundamentals of morality. At some point the two
perspectives on morality must also be addressed in this process of reflection. This
means that a course in the morality of commercial life is by its nature abstract,
difficult and complex.
The need to address these fundamental issues is even bigger in a course on
business ethics or the morality of commercial life. One main reason giving rise to
fundamental questions is everyday moral skepticism and this particularly strong
amongst students of economics and management. The Pavlov reaction of students
of economics and management to business ethics still is: "isn't the concept
'business ethics' an oxymoron?" Others students will immediately start talking
about the relativity and/or subjectivity of morality and, hence, the impossibility to
actually learn something about morality that makes sense to reason. Most students
probably will not agree with these outbursts of everyday moral skepticism as they
intuitively realize that in their daily life they accept morality. Still, as they are
inexperienced in reflecting on the fundamentals of morality, they may have a hard
time finding the proper arguments with which these outbursts can be set aside as
nonsensical. They do not know how to react to cynical remarks. Most of them
seem defenseless against its claims. That is why a course on the morality of
commercial life is bound to deal with these fundamental issues. It must train
people in reflecting about these fundamentals. It must demonstrate that morality
makes sense from a functional perspective and that rational human beings must
also reflect on the interpretative meaning of morality.
The logical order of going about therefore would be to start the course with
fundamental issues and only after that, deal with more concrete practical issues.
However, experience has shown that students have difficulty coming to grips with
fundamental issues. It tends to become too abstract for them to swallow. That is
why the course begins with more concrete moral problems and issues, that are
relevant and interesting in their own right but that also pave the way to
understanding the more abstract fundamental issues. Amongst these more concrete
problems and themes are systematic issues, such as the kinds of problems that
business people may have to deal. It also includes contemporary issues such as tax
evasion, the limits of the market and human rights and international business. The
fundamental issues are only picked up at the very end of the course. It is expected
10
that students are more able to understand the abstract issued raised, now that they
are somewhat more acquainted with morality.
It can be argued that this way of going about is strange. It seems to put things
in the wrong order. We can only take on concrete moral issues if it is clear to
everybody that morality makes sense and why that is the case. Yet, this reversed
order is justified by pedagogic reasons. The moral knowledge of people needs to
attain a certain level, before one is able to lift one's moral reasoning beyond the
shallow level at with conclusions are drawn such as "business ethics is an
oxymoron", "morality is relative" or "morality is only about feeling". Still, the
reversed order only works if, at the beginning of the course, the participants agree
to bracket all their fundamental questions, doubts and problems about morality.
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Relevance of the course and overview of contents

Relevance
The question about the relevance of a course can be interpreted in terms of the
contribution to living a good life (prudence) or more delimitated in terms of
managerial success - or even more delimitated in terms of bottom line economic
success. "The morality of commercial life" certainly has relevance in this most
delimitated respect. As morality is functional for society, it is a societal force to be
reckoned with and understanding how this force works, is useful in the strife for
economic success. After all, at some point in their career business people will be
confronted with non-routine situations in which they will have to make moral
choices that other people will punish them for if they make the wrong choice or
cannot account for their mistakes. Being able to make a sound moral argument has
clear money value in these situations.
However, one of the goals of the course it to demonstrate that evaluating a
course on morality in terms of the contribution it may make to being smart is
extremely limited if not utterly mistaken. A course on morality must also be
relevant in that it demonstrates that human beings have reason to evaluate
activities in terms of the more comprehensive concept of being prudent. What is
more, a course on morality that does not vindicate the value of morality in its own
right, may be downright immoral.
It is important to see that these various ways of evaluating activities (smart,
prudence, value) cannot completely overlap. A perspective that fixates on
economic success as the only good worth living for cannot but must reject as silly
everything related to prudence and valuing morality for moral reasons. From this
limited perspective, everything going beyond it is stupid. Paradoxically, this
implies that this course is successful if its use - in this strict sense - is relatively
low while, at the same time, students understand the relevance of the course in
terms of its moral value and its contribution to being prudent.
Contents
The course is subdivided in five parts. In part I (introduction) we will investigate
the characteristics of a free market society in terms of its institutions and the
values and goods it vindicates. We will also describe and analyze the basic
characteristics and concepts of morality. In part II (kinds of moral problems) we
will describe and analyze the various kinds of moral problems that business
people may have to deal with. We will describe and analyze the characteristics of
each kind of problems and the differences between the kinds of problems. The
names of these kinds of problems are: morally hard cases, problems of moral
motivation, morally sad situations and dirty hands problems. We will also
12
investigate what kind of solution each kind of moral problem calls for and provide
elementary knowledge on (theories related to) these solutions.
In part III (contemporary themes in business ethics) we turn to moral themes
relevant in today's commercial life, including CSR, human rights and international
business, tax fairness and tax evasion and the limits of the market.
In part IV (CSR as integrity management) we elaborate on problems of moral
motivation in particular and inquire how an organization with moral integrity
ought to be organized, given the harmfulness and pervasiveness of this kind of
moral problem in commercial life. In the course of this analysis we will also
investigate what the most important reasons are why in the context of
organizations people act immoral. In view of that we will discuss the problem of
"rationalizing"; the tendency of human beings to snooze themselves into the moral
comfort zone by deceiving themselves about the validity of the arguments they
use to either justify or excuse their actions.
In part IV Finally, in part V (fundamental issues) we step back from concrete
moral issues and ask what morality is for. We will argue that morality is useful,
both for the continuation of society and for the good of individuals. However, it
will also be argued that its meaning cannot be reduced to this kind of relevance.
We will also sketch the outlines of an important hermeneutic account of morality
that put freedom and rationality at center stage.
13
LEARNING GOALS
The morality of commercial life is an introductory course in morality. It will be
assumed that in the course of their life the participants have acquired the basic
knowledge to deal with morally routine situations. They know the basic principles
(do not lie, do not steal, do not make a lying promise and so on) and they know
how to apply them. The course will focus on elementary moral knowledge people
need to acquire in order to deal with morally non-routine situations as well as
elementary knowledge and insights people must have in order to understand the
function and the meaning of morality, both from a societal and a personal
perspective. It will also try to improve the students' abilities to reason in moral
affairs.
There are five specific learning goals for this course, one for each of the parts.
Learning goal part 1:
Students can explain and give an elementary account of the free market system
and can recall, clarify and make sense of morality in terms of its characteristics
and basic concepts.
Students can characterize, distinguish and relate the various moral problems as
they occur in commercial life. They also can give an account of and make sense of
the various answers these various problems call for. They can also apply the
instruments needed to deal with morally hard cases and reflect on these
instruments. Students are able to reason and argue about moral problems, at least
in an elementary way.
Students can recall, make sense of and reflect organizational integrity and the
concepts and theories relevant to this topic.
Students can describe and give an account of the problem of rationalizing.
They can make sense of the difference between a moral justification and a moral
excuse and can make sense of the validity conditions of each of these concepts.
Students can assess make use of these concepts in concrete cases.
Learning goal part 4
Students can describe, clarify and analyze the concepts and theories relevant to
understanding contemporary themes in business ethics.
14
Learning goal part 5

Students can recall and make sense of the fundamental issues of morality, at
least at an elementary level. They can describe, explain and analyze naturalistic
functionalism as a theory explaining morality from a functional perspective. They
can also recall and make sense of theories that give morality meaning from an
interpretative perspective. Students can describe and explain how everyday moral
skepticism is related to the problem of rationalizing.
15
LECTURES
PART 1 Introduction
Lecture 1 (lecture week 1; Wednesday, February 3)
Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: what is a free market system?
- Lindblom, C.E. (2005) What is the market system? In: The Market System.
What it is, how it works and how to make of it? New Haven: Yale University
Press, 4-15.
- Dubbink, W. (2003) Market Description I: The non-mainstream approach
and market description II: neo-classical market concepts in: Assisting the
Invisible Hand. Contested Relations between Market, State and Civil Society.
Dordrecht: Springer, 32-49.
Theme: what is morality?
- Dubbink, W. (2015) Chapter 1. In: Commercial life and the retrieval of
morality. A philosophical introduction into business ethics.

Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: what is morality?
Theme: Everyday Moral Skepticism
- See lecture 1, part: what is morality
16
PART II: Kind of moral problems - and how to dealing with each kind
Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: 3 kinds of moral problems
Lecture 4 (lecture week 4; Wednesday, March 2)
Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: dealing with Morally Hard Cases
- Beauchamp, T.L. and Childress, J.F. (2001) Principles of Biomedical Ethics (5th
edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press; 57- 65; 113-119 and 225-230.
17
PART III - Contemporary Themes in Business Ethics

Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: Product Responsibility
- Boatright, J.R. (1993/2007) product responsibility. In: Boatright, J.R. Ethics
and the conduct of business. (5th edition). Upper Saddle River: Pearson; 284294.
- United Nations, Human Rights Council (2010; 14th session item 3) Report of
the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the Issue of Human
Rights and Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises.
Business and Human Rights: Further Steps towards the Operationalization of
the Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework. (Especially the part on due
diligence!!)
Lecturer: A. Archer
Theme: Tax Evasion
- OECD (2013) Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. OECD Publishing.
Theme: Morality and the Law
- De Bakker, F. G. A. and den Hond, F. (2011) Case Description: A Disputed
Contract IHC Caland in Burma. In: Dubbink, W., Liedekerke, L. van; Luijk,
H. van., (eds.) (2011), European Business Ethics Casebook: The Morality of
Corporate Decision Making. Dordrecht: Springer. 121 -141.
Lecturer: Archer
Theme: Corporate Social Responsibility
- Heath, J. (2004) A Market Failures Approach to Business Ethics. In: Studies
in Economic Ethics and Philosophy. Vol. 9, Dordrecht: Springer, 69-89.
Lecturer: A. Archer
Theme: The Moral Limits of the Market
- Sandel, M. (1998) What Money Cant Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. The
Tanner Lectures on Human Values.
18
Lecture 9 (lecture week 9; Wednesday, April 6)

Lecturer: Archer
Theme: global governance
- United Nations, Human Rights Council (2008; 8th session, item 3) Report of the
Special Representative of the Secretary General on the Issue of Human Rights
and Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie:
Promotion and Protection of all Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development.
the Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework Protect, Respect and Remedy:
a framework for Business and Human Rights
Sub-theme: Right Based Theory
- Donaldson, T. (1989) The Ethics of International Business. The Ruffin Series
in Business Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 64-77.
Lecturer: A. Archer
Theme: Sustainability
- Bowie, N. E. (1990). Morality, Money and Motor Cars in Hoffman, W. M.,
Frederick, R. and Petry Jr., E. S. Business Ethics and The Environment,
Westport: Quorum Books, 89-98.
- Desjardins, J. (2007) Business's New Environmental Obligation. In:
Beauchamp et al. Ethical Theory and Business New Jersey: Pearson Education
International, 533-540.
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PART IV: The Organization of Morality

Lecturer: Alfred Archer
Theme: Organizing Ethics
Required:
- Goodpaster, K. (2007) Chapter 1: Teleopathy: The Unbalanced Pursuit of
Purpose. In Conscience and Corporate Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, 15- 31
- Goodpaster, K. (2007) Chapter 2: Mindsets and Culture. In Conscience and
Corporate Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, 32- 49
Recommended:
- Goodpaster, K. (2007) Chapter 3: Conscience as a Mindset: Personal and
Organisational. In Conscience and Corporate Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, 5085.
Lecture 12 (lecture week 12; Tuesday, April 26)
Lecturer: Archer
Theme: Moral Leadership and Culture within Organizations
Required:
- Goodpaster, K. (2007) Chapter 5: Orientating Corporate Conscience. In
Conscience and Corporate Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, 115- 149
- Goodpaster, K. (2007) Chapter 6: Institutionalizing Corporate Conscience. In
Conscience and Corporate Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, 150- 189.
Recommended:
Goodpaster, K. (2007) Chapter 7: Sustaining Corporate Conscience. In
Conscience and Corporate Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, 190- 215.
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PART V - Fundamental Issues

Lecture 13 (lecture week 13; Wednesday, May 11)
Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: Making sense of morality 1
- Dubbink, W. (2014) Chapter 6 - Chapter 8. In: Commercial life and the
retrieval of morality. A philosophical introduction into business ethics.
Lecture 14 (lecture week 14; Wednesday, May 18)
Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: Moral Skepticism
- no required literature
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TUTORIALS
PART 1 Introduction
Tutorial 1 (lecture week 1 and 2)
Thursday, February 4 and Thursday, February 18
Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: Moral basics
- See lecture 1 and 2.
PART II - Kinds of Moral Problems

Thursday, February 25 and Thursday, March 3
Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: Kinds of moral problems
- See lecture 3
Theme: Formulating a morally hard case (instruction)
- Dubbink, W. (2014), Three Steps to Go, working document, Tilburg
University, pp. 1-11.

Thursday, March 10 and Thursday, March 17
Lecturer: Archer
Theme: Formulating a morally hard case
- Verweij, M. (2011)The Pharmaceutical Industry and the AIDS Crisis In:
Dubbink, W., Liedekerke, L. van; Luijk, H. van., (eds.) (2011), European
Business Ethics Casebook: The Morality of Corporate Decision Making.
IN TUTORIAL 3 WE DISCUSS THE PROVISIONAL ANSWERS TO
ASSIGNMENT 1: FORMULATING A MORALLY HARD CASE.
Each student group must have a presentation present.
22

Thursday, March 24 and Thursday, March 31
Lecturer: Archer
Theme: Finding reasonable answers to morally hard cases:
- Dubbink, W. A question of involvement: Unilever and Indian Cottonseed
Production. In: Dubbink, W., Liedekerke, L. van; Luijk, H. van., (eds.) (2011),
European Business Ethics Casebook: The Morality of Corporate Decision
Making. Dordrecht: Springer, 113-144.
PART III: Contemporary Themes in Business Ethics

NO TUTORIAL ON THIS PART
PART IV: CSR as Integrity Management
Tutorial 5 (week 9 and 10)
Thursday, April 7 and Thursday, April 14
Lecturer: Archer
Theme: The problem of rationalizing
- Bandura, A., Caprara, G.V. and Zsolnai, L. (2000) Corporate Transgressions
through Moral Disengagement Journal of Human Values VI/I: 57-64.
- Zyglidopoulos, S. C., Fleming, P. J., & Rothenberg, S. (2009). Rationalization,
overcompensation and the escalation of corruption in organizations. Journal
of Business Ethics, 84(1), 65-73.
Tutorial 6 (week 13 and 14)

Thursday, May 12 and Thursday, May 19
Lecturer: Dubbink
Theme: Making sense of morality 2
See lecture 13 and 14.
23
EXAMINATIONS AND PASSING THE COURSE

The Morality of Commercial Life is examined by two assignments, a mid-term
exam and a final exam.
Passing the course

The final mark is composed of the following weighted elements:
Mid-term exam:
Final exam:
Assignment 1
Assignment 2:
35 percent
45 percent
10 percent
10 percent
Students pass the course if their final mark is a 5.5 or higher. This rule is
conditioned by the additional rule that students have obtained at least a 4.5 for
both the mid-term exam and the closing exam.
Mid-term exam
The mid-term exam consists of 20 multiple choice questions and two open
questions.
This exam can be retaken at the end of the course.
Required material: contents lectures 1-6 and tutorials 1-2 as well as all
required material relevant for these lectures and tutorials.
Final exam
This exam consists of 25 multiple choice questions.
This exam can be retaken at the end of the course.
Required material: contents lectures 7-14 and tutorials 3-6 as well as all
required material relevant for these lectures and tutorials.
24
Concerning the assignments

During the course two team assignments are issued. Teams consist of two
students. Handing in assignments is optional. However, passing over the
opportunity will have a negative effect on ones final mark as one missing out on
two times 10 percent of the final mark. Assignments cannot be retaken.
We want to make sure that students work together on the assignments, and do
not merely split the work between them. Therefore, teams must hand in their
team assignment and, as appendices, two individually written draft assignments
to illustrate how their individual contribution differs from the end product.
Students who cannot find a partner to form a team with must notify the course
coordinator. This should be done in the first 4 weeks after the beginning of the
course. It is not permitted to hand in team assignments individually.
Details on assignment 1
Assignment 1 is a take home assignment issued in lecture week 3. Assignment 1
involves a small presentation in tutorial 3 and a paper to be handed in twee weeks
after the team has taken tutorial 3. That is why teammates must be present at the
same tutorial, at least this time.
The subject matter of the assignment is "dealing with morally hard cases"
Further details will be provided in the assignment.
Details on assignment 2
Assignment 2 is a take home assignment issued in lecture week 8.
Assignment 2 must be handed in Monday, June 7 at noon.
The subject matter of the assignment is "limits of the market"
Further details will be provided in the assignment.
25
CONTACT
The coordinator of this course is Mrs. Milou Rabelink. Please sent your emails to
her.
If you ask a question, please explain why you ask the question. What is
confusing you in the course guide or on BB that makes you ask the question?
Emails that ask about information available in the course guide or on Black Board
(BB), will be answered by the short return message See BB or see course
guide. If you think BB is unclear or contains contradictory messages, please
explain your question.
We welcome questions about the contents of the course.
Milou Rabelink
Room D123
E-mail: m.e.rabelink@tilburguniversity.edu
Prof. Dr. W. Dubbink
Room D123
Email: W.Dubbink@uvt.nl
Telephone: 06-18128427 (only urgent matters)
Dr. Alfred Archer
Room: D107
Email: a.t.m.archer@uvt.nl
26
REQUIRED MATERIAL: OVERVIEW PER FINDING PLACE

This document gives an overview of the required material. The material is
organized per finding place and then alphabetically. There are 4 finding places:
- book shop
- Reader (to be acquired through the reader outlet)
- TiU library system
- the Black Board site of the course
An overview of required literature per lecture is given in the chapters "lectures"
and "tutorials".
1. Books - bookshop
Goodpaster, K. (2007) Conscience and Corporate Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.
2. Reader reader outlet
Dubbink, W. and Archer, A. (2016) Reader The Morality of Commercial Life.
Tilburg University no. 5600.15.280
Table of contents reader:
- Beauchamp, T.L. and Childress, J.F. (2001) Principles of Biomedical Ethics (5th
edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 113-119; and 225-230.
- Boatright, J.R. (1993/2007) product responsibility. In: Boatright, J.R. Ethics
and the conduct of business. (5th edition). Upper Saddle River: Pearson; 284294.
- Bowie, N. E. (1990). Morality, Money and Motor Cars in Hoffman, W. M.,
Frederick, R. and Petry Jr., E. S. Business Ethics and The Environment,
Westport: Quorum Books, 89-97.
- Desjardins, J. (2007) Business's New Environmental Obligation. In:
Beauchamp et al. Ethical Theory and Business New Jersey: Pearson Education
International, 533-540.
- Donaldson, T. (1989) The Ethics of International Business. The Ruffin Series
in Business Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 65-77.
- Heath, J. (2004) A Market Failures Approach to Business Ethics. In: Studies
in Economic Ethics and Philosophy. Vol. 9, Dordrecht: Springer, 69-89.
- Lindblom, C.E. (2005) What is the market system? In: The Market System.
What it is, how it works and how to make of it? New Haven: Yale University
Press, 4-15.
27
3. Papers to be downloaded through the library system

- Bandura, A., Caprara, G.V. and Zsolnai, L. (2000) Corporate Transgressions
through Moral Disengagement Journal of Human Values VI/I: 57-64.
http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura2000JHV.pdf
- De Bakker, F. G. A. and den Hond, F. (2011) Case Description: A Disputed
Contract IHC Caland in Burma. In: Dubbink, W., Liedekerke, L. van; Luijk,
H. van., (eds.) (2011), European Business Ethics Casebook: The Morality of
Corporate Decision Making. Dordrecht: Springer. 77 -98.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-90-481-8966-3_7/fulltext.html
- Dubbink, W. A question of involvement: Unilever and Indian Cottonseed
Production. In: Dubbink, W., Liedekerke, L. van; Luijk, H. van., (eds.) (2011),
European Business Ethics Casebook: The Morality of Corporate Decision
Making. Dordrecht: Springer, 113-144.
- OECD (2013) Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. OECD Publishing.
- Sandel, M. (1998) What Money Cant Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. The
Tanner Lectures on Human Values. Freely available on:
http://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/s/sandel00.pdf
- Verweij, M. (2011)The Pharmaceutical Industry and the AIDS Crisis In:
Dubbink, W., Liedekerke, L. van; Luijk, H. van., (eds.) (2011), European

Business Ethics Casebook: The Morality of Corporate Decision Making.
- Zyglidopoulos, S. C., Fleming, P. J., & Rothenberg, S. (2009). Rationalization,
overcompensation and the escalation of corruption in organizations. Journal
of Business Ethics, 84(1), 65-73.
28
4. Papers posted on Black Board (drafts and free of charge)

- Dubbink, W. (2014), Three Steps to Go, working document, Tilburg
University.
- Dubbink, W. (2003) Market Description I: The non-mainstream approach and
market description II: neo-classical market concepts in: Draft version of:
Assisting the Invisible Hand. Contested Relations between Market, State and
Civil Society.
- Dubbink, W. (2015) Commercial life and the retrieval of morality. A
philosophical introduction into business ethics. Various chapters
- United Nations, Human Rights Council (2008; 8th session, item 3) Report of
Rights and Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises, John
Ruggie: Promotion and Protection of all Human Rights, Civil, Political,
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development.
Protect, Respect and Remedy: a framework for Business and Human Rights
the Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework
--//--
29

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COURSE MANUAL

THE MORALITY OF COMMERCIAL LIFE 2015-2016

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Relevance and overview contents

Overview lectures, including required material per lecture.

Overview tutorials, including required material per lecture

Grading and exams

About the tutors / contact

Appendix: Required Material (per finding place)

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

3 The Volkskrant August 25th, 2014 pages 4/5provides an interesting example of

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

possibility of a (well organized) society. As individuals have an interest in

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Formulating an interpretative account of morality is difficult. We must try to give

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Relevance of the course and overview of contents

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Learning goal part 5

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Lecture 2 (lecture week 2; Wednesday, February 17)

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

PART III - Contemporary Themes in Business Ethics

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Lecture 9 (lecture week 9; Wednesday, April 6)

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

PART IV: The Organization of Morality

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

PART V - Fundamental Issues

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

PART II - Kinds of Moral Problems

Tutorial 3 (lecture week 5 and 6)

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Tutorial 4 (lecture week 7 and 8)

PART III: Contemporary Themes in Business Ethics

Tutorial 6 (week 13 and 14)

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

EXAMINATIONS AND PASSING THE COURSE

Passing the course

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Concerning the assignments

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

REQUIRED MATERIAL: OVERVIEW PER FINDING PLACE

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

3. Papers to be downloaded through the library system

Dubbink, W., Liedekerke, L. van; Luijk, H. van., (eds.) (2011), European

Course Manual The Morality of Commercial Life

4. Papers posted on Black Board (drafts and free of charge)

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