The course of Business Ethics and Sustainability, launched in 2008, has had a history of teaching in School of Business, Guangdong University for more than 11 years. Learners of the course include a variety of students or learners in English-instructed degree programs of different levels. The lecturer team of this course has strengthened the construction of online course platform in China MOOC ICOURSE to benefit the study or review of learners worldwide in recent years, resulting in the production of 40 mini video lectures which are of era characteristics and complete contents as well as learner convenience. This course is delivered with English instruction and online progress test to interpret Chinese management culture, especially the typical modern cases of Chinese corporate social responsibility values and practices.

This course covers 12 chapters altogether and 40 video lectures in English instruction, totally lasting more than 500 minutes, with each lecture lasting 8-15 minutes. The teaching activities of the course are conducted in a mixed mode of online video study, online tests, online questions and answers, and online instructions, and so forth.   

The study of the whole course, with the textbooks of Business Ethics Now Fifth Edition (W. Ghillyer, 2018) and On Country-specific and Industrial Dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility (W. Zhu, 2015), is planned to be completed within 8 weeks with 4 credit classes each week. 

On completion of this course, learners are expected to:

1.     Learn about basic terms and concepts related to ethics, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and basic theories in this field of study.

2.     Learn about basic ethical definitions and ethical issues each functional department of a business organization and each individual may face in the work environment;

3.     Learn about ethical dilemmas in business world and increase the sense of confidence in students’ ability to recognize and solve these ethical dilemmas with resolution principles.

4.     Learn about the institutional system construction of business ethical behaviors through corporate governance and laws and regulations. 

5.     Enhance the understanding of concepts of corporate social responsibility and balance the needs of stakeholders involved in business operations.

6.     Enhance the understanding of sustainability in business objectives and the management practices of sustainability in some well-known Chinese companies.

7.     Enhance the understanding of Chinese Confucian cultural values and their connections with the modern concept of business ethics and sustainability.

8.     Enhance the understanding the ethical challenges of business globalization under the Belt and Road Initiative.

9.     Foster the abilities or practical skills of learners to study, understand, analyze, criticize, and manage ethical problems through real examples or cases of unethical behaviors or practices.

Learners should be somewhat proficient in English language.