Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for PHL 209 Winter 2025


Course Number:
PHL 209
Course Title:
Business Ethics
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Reviews some historical and contemporary ethical theories and ethical issues that arise in several aspects of business, such as, management, use of computers, marketing, accounting, and doing business in an international setting. Includes the social responsibilities of corporations, the rights of workers, truth in advertising, the environmental impact of doing business, affirmative action in hiring, sexual harassment in the workplace, respect for cultural differences, and the responsibilities of the individual in the corporate setting. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  • Articulate key philosophical arguments in the field of business ethics.
  • Identify the influence of culturally based perspectives, values and beliefs to examine how diverse philosophical perspectives affect human experience.
  • Construct arguments on issues dealing with business ethics using critical reasoning to identify and investigate philosophical theses and evaluate information and its sources.
  • Respond to arguments on issues dealing with business ethics using critical reasoning to identify and investigate philosophical theses and evaluate information and its sources.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Philosophy courses ask students to use critical thinking and reasoning skills in multiple ways: to identify the content, structure, and influence of beliefs, to examine how diverse philosophical perspectives affect human experience, and to construct and respond to arguments on a variety of philosophical issues. They encourage students to both create and understand their and others’ frameworks of meaning, and to use this new understanding in their own lived experience.

Course Activities and Design

The course will be conducted in both the standard classroom and distance learning settings.  It will involve lectures, discussions, and other assignments such as exams and papers.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assessment strategies will include some of the following:

  •  Essays in the form of inclass exams, short papers, or term papers
  • Short-answer exams
  • Student presentations
  • Class and small group discussions
  • Portfolios
  • Service learning projects
  • Attendance

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Course Content

Themes, Concepts, Issues

The course will focus on some or all of the following topics and issues as they apply to Ethical concerns that arise in a Business context:

  • Recognizing Ethical issues and dilemmas
  • Ethical theories and other approaches to Ethical decision making
  • The role of reason in Ethical decision making
  • Analyzing and responding to case studies concerning
  • Management and employment decisions
  • The use of computers
  • Marketing
  • Accounting
  • Doing business in an international setting

Competencies and Skills:

Students will learn to do the following with respect to the context of Business:

  • Examine a situation and recognize Ethical issues that arise in it
  •  Discuss issues from Ethical point of view
  •  Devise and justify Ethical responses to situations
  •  Analyze and evaluate discussions of Ethical issues and concerns