AFW2700 - Ethics and business

Leader: Mr Andrew West

Offered

South Africa Second semester 2007 (Day)

Synopsis

An introduction to ethical issues in business, with a specific focus on the accounting profession. The unit addresses four areas of ethics and business: An introduction to applied ethics, including the nature of ethics and ethical decision-making; An overview of business ethics and its relationship with corporate governance and social responsibility; An understanding of how ethics affects businesses, organizations and professions; A case study of ethics in the accountancy profession.

Objectives

The learning objectives of this unit are to:

• explain selected ethical theories and their relevance to business and professional ethical issues;
• apply an ethical perspective to organisational and management issues
• explain the nature of professionalism;
• describe the purpose, structure and contents of selected codes of conduct from business and professions, particularly the accounting profession;
• apply critical thinking, problem solving and presentation skills to individual and/or group activities dealing with ethics in business.

Assessment

Two assignments (2,000 words each): 40%
Examination (3 hours): 60%.

Contact hours

One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial

Prerequisites

AFW1001 or MGW1010