Aims

In the social and economic domain, ethics is neither a dogmatic approach, nor a simple application of legal rules or "good- manner-codes" to specific situations. On the contrary, it is a critical reflection concerning the sense of human action and the values that support such an action, when people are involved into business activities.

When going through their internship (INGE 23), students are invited to achieve an "annex thesis" to their final report. The purposes of such an annex are the following :

- to be able to elaborate a business issue in its ethical dimensions ;
- to keep distant from immediate experience through critical reflection.

Therefore, this annex does not aim at summarising the whole training experience as such ; it aims at giving the students the opportunity to get involved into critical reflection when being faced to business issues, through the identification of an ethical question that emerged during their training period.

Main themes

Within such a perspective, students have to identify a specific business issue that meets the following conditions : 1/ they faced the problem during their training period ; 2/ this problem includes ethical dimensions ; 3/ they are able to gather solid material to analyse it. For example, on can mention : advertising with or for children, authoritarian decisions in HRM, governance structure and internal democracy, recruitment practices, wage transparency, out-sourcing, fair trade, nature and goals of financial investments, sustainable development, etc.

Content and teaching methods

Methodology

As the purpose of this thesis is to develop critical reflection concerning an experienced situation or a specific theme, the students are asked to stress the reasons for their choice, to develop coherent and solid arguments, to go into in-depth ethical analysis. Several interactive seminars, managed by the teachers, will support this apprenticeship.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Evaluation :

The evaluation of the "annex thesis" won't concern the training period as such : it will focus on the critical analysis and the ethical reflection that the students are able to extract from such a period.

The personal opinions and convictions expressed by the students won't be submitted to any kind of moral judgement. The evaluation criteria are the following :

- the capability to isolate an ethical question when achieving a training period ;
- the ability to master the conceptual background, as well as to bring scientific argument into discussion ;
- the quality of the interactions between practice, as experienced during the training period, and theory, as developed when going into reflection ;
- the formal quality of the text.

Support : none

References :

Boyer A. (dir.), L'Impossible éthique des entreprises, Paris, Ed. d'Organisation, 2002.
Calvez J.Y., Changer le capitalisme, Paris, Bayard, 2001.
Comte-Sponville A., Le Capitalisme est-il moral ?, Paris, Albin Michel, 2004.
Etchegoyen A., Les Entreprises ont-elles une âme ?, Paris, Bourin, 1990.
Woot (de) P., Faut-il enchaîner Prométhée ? La Responsabilité sociale des entreprises, Paris, Economica, 2004.


Pedagogic team : two teachers

Other credits in programs