Related Links:

Professor Rick Shreve also hosts Ethics Fireside Chats. Recent ones have reviewed the economic crisis, analyzed the business practices of Countrywide Financial, and told the story of corporate theft and resulting incarceration from the viewpoint of the perpetrators. [more]

Academics - Courses

Ethics and Social Responsiblity Requirement: In a competitive and rapidly changing world, effective leaders will have to understand how the success of their organizations is intertwined with broader ethical and social issues. Business leaders must recognize that sustainable economic growth is not possible without considering the needs and demands of broader society. To prepare students for success as principled leaders of business and society, Tuck now requires each student to take at least one mini-course (a minimum of 1.5 credits) that explores the complex ethical and social challenges of business. All students will pick from an array of courses that could include the following:

Issues at the intersection of business and society including environmental challenge, conflicting demands of constituents and the changing expectations of society are explored through cases in core courses.

One of Tuck's signature courses is the Tuck Global Consultancy, which sends teams of students to developing countries for three weeks. In collaboration with Tuck's Center for International Business, which administers these consulting projects, the Allwin Initiative works to create and define consultancy projects for nonprofit organizations and NGOs in the developing world. For example, in December 2005, Director Pat Palmiotto lead a field study team to Johannesburg to consult for the NGO CityYear South Africa.

Business and Climate Change

Dealing with the likely impacts of climate change has become one of the momentous societal and economic concerns of our time. Forward-thinking companies worldwide are aggressively addressing it, since they are the constituency with the largest cause/effect relationship to climate change. Through their resource use and emissions, companies are a cause; the effect of mitigating and adapting to it will be a source of costs (for some) and benefits (for others). The focus of this mini-course is to examine the links between climate change and the firm as viewed through an economics/finance/public policy lens. The course goals are: (1) To develop your awareness of the facts and debate on climate change, and the challenges/opportunities it presents for business; (2) To expose you to the science, forecasts, and public policy on climate change, as well as the key players, their roles, and agendas; (3) To develop the tools and frameworks for you to understand the economics of regulatory responses, and the value-at-risk consequences of companies’ exposure to climate change risks, fossil fuel use, carbon footprints, and GHG emissions; (4) To develop your understanding of the emerging landscape of corporate responses to climate change. There will be a ‘fossil fuel beta’ project, and a term paper. Statistics and Corporate Finance are pre-requisites.

Business and Society Partnerships

This course investigates program- and project-driven collaboration between for-profit business and non-profit organizations, and the potential for win-win outcomes. It takes a global perspective, paying particular attention to challenges of partnerships across markets and cultures. We develop a set of frameworks for analyzing cross sector partnerships and value creation at the intersection of business and society. We consider the challenges that confront partners in a changing societal and global environment, given the capacities, constraints and strategies available to business managers and their non-profit counterparts from the social and public sectors. Throughout, we embrace the larger question of how differences among partners may or may not drive learning and transformation of the partners themselves. The cases and readings aim to develop an appreciation of innovative partnership models, as well as the risks and challenges of cross-sector collaboration, especially as partnerships go global. The final module is concerned with business-social sector partnerships that aim to address consumers at the base of the global income pyramid.

Corporate Responsibilty

This mini course starts with the premise that corporate social responsibility is good for business and focuses on how leaders can balance the needs of their organizations with responsibilities to key constituencies. Through cases focusing on the social, reputational, and environmental consequences of corporate activities, students will learn how to make difficult choices, promote responsible behavior within their organizations, and understand the role personal values play in developing effective leadership skills.

Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector

There has been a worldwide explosion of entrepreneurial activities by organizations whose primary focus is on improving the health, education, and well-being of individuals and communities. Most of this activity has been undertaken by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or nonprofit organizations, which, in the United States, generate revenues greater than the gross domestic product of Brazil, Russia, or Australia. In recent years, some entrepreneurs working in the social sector have chosen to incorporate as for-profit organizations rather than nonprofit organizations. Both models will be considered in this course, though the vast majority of cases will be about nonprofit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity and City Year.

This course focuses on the tools and skills required to launch or grow a successful enterprise in the social sector. Because of the nature of the funding in this sector, all but the largest organizations rely on an entrepreneurial style of management. During this course you will meet some outstanding social entrepreneurs who have succeeded in creating sustainable enterprises that combat important social problems.

Ethics in Action

Ethics in Action is a minicourse that addresses the ethical challenges that arise in the ordinary course of business. Students develop the ability to identify the ethical dimensions of business problems; the ability to make practical, reasoned decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas; and the ability to justify those decisions in language that is both clear and persuasive. The course is taught several times during the year to make it accessible to the students. The class size is limited to allow for active interaction in class discussions.

The ethics faculty members administer the course, and an ethics professor participates in every class session. Faculty members from a variety of disciplines teach the classes, each covering ethical issues pertaining to his or her area of expertise. The course constantly evolves as the composition of the faculty participants changes and as new ethical issues arise in the current business environment. The course addresses such diverse subjects as corporate espionage, sweatshops, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, and sexual harassment.

Social Marketing

This course is designed to promote the use of social marketing in for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations. Social marketing is the application of commercial marketing frameworks and techniques to promote individual and collective well-being. This course is offered in the spirit of taking responsibility for ourselves as well as caring for those around us. As such it includes, but goes beyond, nonprofit marketing (where the main aim is to utilize the organization’s services), public sector marketing (where the main goal may be to increase use of services such as public transportation), and cause marketing (designed to focus efforts on awareness of social issues such as global warming).

The course will allow students to develop and apply a set of frameworks to overcome challenges that are unique to social marketing such as invisible long-term benefits, negative demand, public scrutiny, and culture conflict. This mini course is divided into five sections: 1) understanding the power of social marketing, 2) developing a successful social marketing plan, 3) selecting target audiences and managing public scrutiny, 4) designing and implementing the social marketing mix, and 5) managing corporate social marketing programs.