AFW2700 - Ethics and business

Offered

South Africa Second semester 2009 (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 ethical theories and 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, organisations and professions; The Code of Professional Conduct in the accountancy profession.

Objectives

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

• examine the ethical dimension of individual and social life in the context of cultural diversity
• define and explain selected ethical theories and their relevance to business and professional ethical issues
• apply an ethical and corporate governance perspective to organisational and management issues
• explain the nature of professionalism
• be able to use ethical knowledge and theory to make decisions in relation to case studies
• describe the purpose, structure and contents of selected codes of conduct from business and professions, particularly the accounting profession and
• apply critical thinking, problem solving and presentation skills to individual and/or group activities dealing with ethics in business, as well as in the accounting profession.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 40%
Examination (3 hours): 60%

Contact hours

One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week

Prohibitions

AFW2042, AFW3004