MMM171: Sustainability and Business Ethics for Responsible Management

Module code: MMM171

Module provider: Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour; Henley Business School

Credits: 20

Level: Postgraduate Masters

When you'll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Professor Kleio Akrivou, email: k.akrivou@henley.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 28 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

Sustainability and Business ethics are key cornerstones to inform responsible management with a positive social and economic impact, being balanced with the economic sustainability of business. 
They also help personal development for a responsible management practice. This module introduces students to the related theory and practical applications on sustainability, business ethics and responsible management and develops students on how these theories are enabling business leaders, professionals and their organisations to integrate well ethical, humanistic, social and green impact in business and management and purposefully serve the common good, without sacrificing economic responsibility and performance. The module encourages students in personally developing as a responsible professional.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Acquire knowledge based on theory and latest scholarly literature on Sustainability, Business ethics and responsible business management
2. Develop Insight into a variety of topics that have an environmental, social and/or economic sustainability dimensions and more broadly ones with a focus on the critical examination of ‘ethical’ business management dimensions, and review, reflect on and apply the theory on different case studies of business and management, with the aim to better internalise and understand the theory and an awareness of ethical and sustainable dimensions of business and management at home and international contexts
3. Students should be able to discuss in depth both practical and theoretical issues relating to the responsibility and responsiveness of business to society and ethical decision-making.
4. The module encourages student habituation in the personal development relevant to being a responsible professional in business management.

The above relate to developing these skills:

1. Analytical and conceptual thinking and critical (ethical) analysis and evaluation
2. Self-confidence in presenting (oral / written) 
3. Working independently and with Others and integrating different perspectives
4. Understanding and systematic evaluation of different perspectives and moral aspects of decisions and their implications others, society, the environment; as much as their economic dimensions
5. Awareness and the valuing of ethical dimensions of business and for sustainable and responsible management, and its practical, contextual and theoretical dimensions
6. Personal development relevant to being a responsible professional in business management.

Additional learning outcomes:

1. Students will learn to work both collaboratively and independently and at times under pressure of time, and to organise diverse material and a variety of academic, scholarly and empirical applied sources. Students will increase their exposure to debate and diverse experiences and perspectives in the context of this work working with their groups and the class as a whole.  Students should be able to discuss and confidently present their own work relating to the subject matters which aims to increase their critical analysis skills. Students will develop ability to reflect on and actively share insights relevant to their own learning about how to grow good professional practices which relate to the subject matter via a better understanding, and the valuing of concerns and practical examples/cases relevant to the subject matter, such as but not limited to: positive social impact, license to operate, green business and climate change concerns, carbon emissions and environmental and social footprint, sustainable development (goals), corporate responsibility and responsiveness, business ethics, ethical and virtuous management, inclusive and humane organisations, dignity, humanistic concerns, reversing the impact of unsustainable practices, et cetera. Learning from Practical case studies and personal development are  part of the module’s pedagogy.

Module content

• Sustainability and Responsibility
• Business Ethics
• Learning from Practical case studies and flipped classroom on Sustainability, Business Ethics and Responsible Management.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

Detailed knowledge based on advances in research and scholarly literature on the subject matter will be offered to students in traditional lectures, some of which will incorporate related seminars and practical  classes and workshops will involve case study examination, analysis and discussion in the class and in subgroups.  Interactive and conversational learning will be embedded in the lectures and seminars to enable students to share perspectives and take active part in the learning.  Students will work in teams and be expected to produce a significant piece of applied work which they would need to present orally as part of their coursework marks; this will involve own research, analysis and application combined with self-scheduled work such as planning feedback and interview meetings with expert academic staff. Business case studies and the coursework related topics will be customized to enable students a contextualised understanding and application in a variety of contexts, cases and problems.

A total of 23 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person (consisting of 5x2 hours lectures and 3x3 hours lectures which incorporate one hour long seminars; and 2 hours of tutorials each of one hour in length. In addition the scheduled teaching and learning activities include 6 hours for practical classes involving flipped classroom. Which will be conducted either in person or online

Study hours

At least 24 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 50% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Formative oral feedback will be provided after CW1, which includes learning from peers and their feedback, in addition to formal marking and assessment.

Reassessment

Additional costs