Die Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Unternehmen in Theorie und Praxis

This course is a seminar offered in the Bachelor of Social Economics.

The seminar first provides an overview of the essential theoretical foundations of economic and business ethics and establishes practical application references. At the beginning of the seminar, the necessity of dealing with the topic of economic and business ethics is discussed. Subsequently, important theoretical foundations of business and corporate ethics as well as corporate social responsibility (CSR) are presented. In particular, key terms will be defined and a distinction made between individual, corporate and business ethics. Building on this, particular problems of business and corporate ethics in an international context will be explained.

In the further course of the seminar, students will then work independently on current topics and issues of international business and corporate ethics, as well as sustainability management, and discuss them together.

The aim of the seminar is to sensitize students to the difference between theory and practice in business ethics. The seminar participants train their ability to reflect ethically and learn about the challenges associated with applying ethical behavior in companies in practice.

Against this background, the following objecives should be achieved:

• Students will gain an insight into the research field of business and corporate ethics and be sensitized to ethical issues in international competition.
• Students should be able to apply the content they have learned to specific practical problems and independently reflect on the ethical behavior of companies.

Due to the continuing restrictions on face-to-face teaching in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, this course will also only be offered digitally. In general, there will be no face-to-face courses on campus in the winter semester 2021/21. As the situation may change at any time, please refer to the current version of the course description.

The seminar consists of a total of seven teaching units in which the course content is taught. Four of these sessions will take place synchronously, i.e. digitally and live via Zoom, while the content of three sessions will be uploaded to Lecture2Go, Universität Hamburg's central media platform. These videos can be viewed at a time of your choice. The live events serve to get to know each other, to explain the organization of the event and to exchange ideas between the lecturers and the students. Questions from course participants about lecture content can be discussed in detail here.

Important: Be sure to attend the first synchronous lecture on Thursday, November 05, 2020, from 10:15 - 13:45. In this event you will receive all relevant information on how to register for this course and you will be divided into presentation groups!

The access information for the first synchronous appointment at the beginning of the semester will also be announced on STiNE. A corresponding document will be uploaded to the materials. After that, the entire administration for the course takes place via OpenOLAT. It is important that students register for OpenOLAT in good time.

After the topics and tasks have been assigned on November 5, the group work on the presentations will begin. Students have the opportunity to send a first draft outline to their supervisor and will receive detailed feedback and further advice immediately if requested. For this purpose, the draft outline must be sent to the supervisor at least three days before the respective presentation date. The so-called peer review procedure is used on the presentation days. Each group therefore takes on two additional tasks:

• Expert feedback: Each group prepares the content of another presentation group using selected literature and thus takes on the role of an expert. The expert group gets the first word after the presentation.
• Feedback on the presentation style: In addition, each group takes on the task of giving brief feedback to a presentation group on their presentation technique.

After the presentation, the individual groups will also receive feedback from the supervisor on the content and presentation.

Students can send their draft outline for the individual term papers to the supervisor by February 17, 2021 in order to receive individual feedback. The term papers will be submitted to the Socioeconomics Office on March 17, 2021

The following requirements apply for passing the course:

• You must write a term paper and pass it with a grade of at least 4.0.
• The scope of the term paper is 10 pages (approx. 20,000 characters).
• You must give an oral presentation during the seminar session (group presentation) and prepare a (PowerPoint) presentation.
• The oral presentation can be in English or German.
• After your presentation, you are required to moderate the subsequent discussion yourself and keep it going.
• Assignments that are not handed in on time are considered failed and cannot be reworked!

The grade for the course is made up as follows:

• Homework (individual grade): 70% of the overall grade
• Presentation (group grade): 30% share of the overall grade