Introduction to CSR

The course provides a comprehensive overview of the essential theoretical foundations of business and corporate ethics and also establishes numerous practical application references. At the beginning of the lecture, the necessity of dealing with the topic of business and corporate ethics is discussed. Subsequently, important theoretical foundations of business and corporate ethics as well as corporate social responsibility (CSR) are presented in detail. Furthermore, the fundamental relationship between economics and ethics is discussed, key terms are defined and a distinction is made between individual, corporate and business ethics. Building on this, particular problems of business and corporate ethics in an international context are explained.

In the next step, various approaches to business and corporate ethics are presented and critically discussed. The aim is to understand the special features of the approaches and to work out their differences. Business and corporate ethics have no impact if their findings are not applied in practice. Accordingly, the lecture then focuses on the discussion of selected approaches to the concrete implementation of business and corporate ethics in international companies.

The course is divided into lectures and tutorials. The lectures and tutorials are held in German and explain the basic concepts and theories of business and corporate ethics with practical application references. From a methodological point of view, PowerPoint slides are used as a framework for discussing the content to be discussed. These slides serve more as a visual “stimulus” and not as a substitute for a lecture manuscript. Students are therefore strongly advised to supplement the lecture slides with their own notes. The slide set is provided in German.

The tutorials supplement and deepen the lecture content and prepare students for the final exam. The exercises are also intended to train essential academic skills. These include sensitization to problems of business and corporate ethics, critical thinking, argumentation and reflection skills, the improvement of general text comprehension and a more precise understanding of the differences between theory and practice. Various methodological concepts of the tutorials, such as group work, case studies and discussions, create a change from the lecture and offer special space for independent thinking and work by the students.

The course is administered via Openolat: https://www.openolat.uni-hamburg.de