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MGF5020Semester 2, 2014

Business Ethics in a Global Environment

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Tutorial 6

Week 7

Reaching agreement. Managing workplace conflict

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Our Discussion Today

1. Assessment Task 2: Group update on research paper: RQ and Case

2. Exam question Part B: Discussion 3.The Wal-Mart case: Discussion and Debate4. Expectations

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Progress on Research Paper

Get together in your groups: •Research question? Clearly identify

•Project plan? Timeline

•Task allocations? Who is doing what

•Paper structure? Guideline, sections and words

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Wal-Mart Case Study: DesJardins, J. (2009) ‘Discussion Case: Wallmart’, in An Introduction to Business Ethics (3rd edn, pp. 46-50.

Boston: McGraw-Hill, pp. 46-50. The guided summary for this week must be based on this reading.

• ‘Identify a contemporary ethical challenge in international business, with cross-cultural dimensions, and provide a literature justified solution’. You can use any previously discussed theories (not just discourse ethics).

• 10 Minutes in pairs• 5 minutes Discussion

Exam Question Part B

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Wal-Mart Case study1.Who are the stakeholders in this case?

Wal-Mart, Employees, Shareholders, Customers, Suppliers, Community

2. What are the main sources of injustice in the policies and behaviours of Wal-Mart?

Employee benefits for full time workers, unhealthy workers, young and old workers, Women employees

3. How should the ethical issues raised in this case be addressed?

CSR, Legislation, Discourse Ethics

6

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• A group of senior and experienced Wal-Mart employees wish to form a labour union (employee organisation) in order to organise collective negotiations with the firm’s management, to protect and improve employee entitlements and conditions.

• Form two debating teams to argue for (team 1) and against (team 2) the employee organisation idea.

• Each team is given 10 mins to prepare their position and argument(s). • The two teams will debate for about 15 mins, and seek to reach agreement. • Reflect and give feedback on the communication process. • Evaluate this process by reference to Habermas’s ‘ideal discourse’ and its

conditions.

Workplace Debate

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Features:–Impartial –Non-persuasive (but rational-argumentative)–Non-coercive –Sensitive to the experience and expertise of all participants

Conditions: –‘Those who are more powerful in a certain situation refrain from imposing their values on others’ (Crane & Matten, 2010) –Agreement is reached through the ‘non-coercive coercion of the best argumentation’ (Habermas, 1983)

Ideal Discourse

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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZwfNs1pqG0

• The Stanford Prison Experiment is a dramatic simulation study of the psychology of imprisonment. This videos takes us through the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which healthy college students are transformed into unstable prisoners and brutal prison guards within days by the power of the situation in which they found themselves.

Stanford Experiment

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• Lecture Topic: Care and relationships• Tutorial Topic: Business, environmental protection and societal

governance • Prescribed Readings (all eligible for AT1):

–Crane, A. & Matten, D. (2010) Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability in the Age of Globalization (3rd edn.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 119-121 (‘Ethical approaches based on relationships and responsibility’).

–Lawrence, A.T. & Weber, J. (2008) Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy. (12th edn.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, pp. 520-530 (‘Shell Oil in Nigeria’).

• Continue your group research for AT2• Submit your second reading summary • Read the Tutorial Guide on Moodle before class (it suggests

topics and questions related to tutorial activities)

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Thank you!

Have a good week