Course Details

Ethics in Business

Academic Year 2025/26

NZB021 course is part of 2 study plans

​ NPC-ARS / ARA Winter Semester 2nd year

​ NPC-ARS / ARP Winter Semester 2nd year

Course Guarantor

RNDr. Ing. Jaroslav Lindr, Ph.D.

Institute

Institute of Social Sciences

Language of instruction

Czech

Credits

3 credits

Semester

winter

Forms and criteria of assessment

graded course-unit credit

Offered to foreign students

Not to offer

Course on BUT site

https://www.vut.cz/en/students/courses/detail/296015

Lecture

13 weeks, 2 hours/week, elective

Syllabus

  • 1. Introduction to ethics. Importance of ethics. Ethics and philosophy, development overview.
  • 2. Concepts of ethics. Traditional and modern conception. History of ethics.
  • 3. Historical-developmental changes of ethics. The important ethical paradigms and personalities in history. Ethics in antiquity and the Middle Ages, heritage for nowadays.
  • 4. Ethics in Modern Ages, present ethical discourses. Metamorphosis in the relations between ethics and business. Positivism, existentialism and materialism.
  • 5. Transformation of ethics to business. Economic pragmatism, utilitarianism, liberalism and neoliberalism.
  • 6. Introduction to ethics of management. Corporate culture and identity. Importance of ethics for the economical way of thinking.
  • 7. Relation between ethics, economics and business. Ethics in direction, personal morality and corporate ethics, ethical-professional manager's character.
  • 8. Ethics in management and business, fundamentals and importance. Ethical integration into business. Social firm responsibility.
  • 9. The manager and ethics - perspectives and changes. Development of a manager personality.
  • 10. Ethics in firm managemment activity. Ethics of work relations in firm. Moral culture of a contemporary businessman.
  • 11. Ethical code. Ethical auditing of a firm. A variety of ethical codes. Non-ethical examples in behaviour.
  • 12. Practical aspects of ethics, ethical elements in strategy planning. Modernism and postmodernism in ethics, corporate strategy.
  • 13. Self-assessment exercise in the area of ethics and management. Ethical-social catechism.

Exercise

13 weeks, 1 hours/week, compulsory

Syllabus

  • 1. Development of ethics in philosophy, connection of ethics and economy.
  • 2. Concepts of ethics, traditional and modern conceptions. Mankind and ethics.
  • 3. Metamorphosis of the relations between ethics and business. Positivism, existentialism and materialism. Corporate culture and identity, importance of ethics in management. Ethics as the fourth ethic dimension.
  • 4. Importance of ethics, psychology and sociology for the economic way of thinking. Firm's social responsibility.
  • 5. Relations between ethics, economics and business. Assessment of ethic benefit in business environment.
  • 6. Ethics in management and business, fundamentals and importance. Currently ethic problems. Ethics and motivation.
  • 7. The Manager and ethics - perspectives and changes. Moral development levels of personality. Corporate strategy and ethics, ethics as a strategy? Implementation of ethics in firms. Ethics of work relations in firm.
  • 8. Philosophical aspects of ethics, contemporary philosophy of business.
  • 9. Modernism and postmodernism in ethics, corporate strategy. Present businessman's moral culture.
  • 10. Students' presentations of projects from the area of applied ethics in praxis.
  • 11. Students' presentations of projects from the area of applied ethics in praxis.
  • 12. Students' presentations of projects from the area of applied ethics in praxis.
  • 13. Students' presentations of projects from the area of applied ethics in praxis.