Business, Government and Society

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University Of Southern California

Marshall School Of Business

MOR 385m

Business, Government and Society

Spring 2013

Instructor: Prof. Paul S. Adler

Office: HOH 716

USC Office tel.: 213-740-0748

Home office tel.: 818-981-0115 any time

Email:

Office hours: by appointment

Class-time: M-W 10:00-11:50

Prerequisites: None

Version date: Oct 25, 2011

Course goals and objectives

Some students are looking for solutions to ethical and social issues in business. Perhaps you want to change the world through business. Perhaps you want to work for a non-profit and change the world that way. Perhaps, more modestly, you want to avoid doing harm to the world. Or perhaps, even more simply, you want to avoid behaving unethically.

Other students are not particularly concerned about these issues, but realize that ethical and social issues will imposed on them in their work lives. Business is under growing pressures from legislators, regulators, social movements, community groups, and unions; from an increasingly diverse workforce with new expectations of work; and from intensifying societaldemands for ethical integrity. And all these pressures are magnified and complicated by the greater global span of business organizations.

In attempting to resolve these issues, you will find yourself enmeshed in difficult debates. Many of these debates will be about whether business leaders should step beyond their shareholder-wealth-maximizing roles to protect alsothe interests of other stakeholders — employees, communities, the natural environment, suppliers, etc. Others will be about whether business really can help the world solve its problems, or whether these problems need to find their solutions elsewhere — in government or in social movements, for example.

At the core of these debates, and making them peculiarly difficult, there are competing points of view about what we call the “political-economy of business” — about the way economic and political forces interact in shaping the context and conduct of business. Indeed, in these debates, we typically encounter several competing perspectives — perspectives that differ radically in their value presuppositions and in their recommendations. And we typically encounter conflictingpressures— pressures from stakeholders whose understandings and actions are oriented by these competing perspectives, and who, as a result, advocate radically different policies.

The theory underlying this course is that the main questions at stake in these issues and debates involve both facts and values, and that as a result, there is no theory that can reliably lead us to objectively correct or optimal conclusions. The principle goal of this course is to prepare you to deal with this challenge by giving you an opportunity to explore these competing views in depth and to work out your own position on them. The course will enable you to think more rigorously about these issues and to advance more cogent arguments for your position.

Given this theory of the course, my specific teaching objectives are: to help you understand the main competing points of view in political economy; to help you see the main issues through the eyes of a broader set of stakeholders; to understand how these diverse stakeholders interact in shaping the role and conduct of business in society; and to give you the relevant conceptual tools, personal skills, and basic domain knowledge you will need to deal with these issues in your professional and personal life.

Who should take this course?

The course is designed primarily for students planning careers in business. It will also be of interest to students with career goals outside business, in roles where they will need to interact with business organizations, such as in public sector agencies, non-profits, or activist movements. And it will help prepare students for their lives as citizens where these political-economy issues are often under debate. A broad mix of goals and views among students in the class stimulates discussion.

This course fulfills USC’s Diversity Requirement by addressing four forms of difference: class, race, nationality, and gender; of these, class will be the main focus. Class refers to social groups differentiated by their relative control over key economic resources and by the resulting differences in life chances. Students will learn how class and other forms of difference affect and are affected by the practices and structures of contemporary business. They will learn how business as an institution in our society overcomes some differences but reproduces and exacerbates others, and also how the resulting inequities can be combated by people within management and in the various stakeholder groups that influence management.

Course outcomes

For the student, the key outcomes will be:

(a) mastering key conceptual tools: the various competing theories in political-economy;

(b) developing key skills:

strategic analysis expanded to encompass political as well as economic factors;

thinking clearly about ambiguous, complex problems in their business, social, and ethical dimensions;

making compelling arguments, oral and written;

(c) familiarizing yourself with key problemdomains:

at various levels of analysis: global/societal, industry, firm, individual,

in various industry settings,

as seen by diverse stakeholders.

Course materials

Course reader at Bookstore

Readings posted on Blackboard

Class process

Most class sessions will be devoted to facilitated discussion of cases and assigned readings. As shown in the Schedule below, most of the weeks of the semester will treated as distinct topic-units, and you will be expected to come to class on Monday having read all the materials for both the Monday and Wednesday classes that week and prepared to offer your analysis and recommendations for the case in light of the readings.

Case discussions will usually begin with short oral presentations by one or two student teams, presenting as if they were consultants and the rest of the class were the client in the case and representatives of other relevant stakeholder groups. We then open the discussion to the class as a whole. As a group, we will try to build a complete analysis of the situation and address the problems and issues it presents in light of the readings. Some class time will be devoted to discussion of readings rather than cases: this will take the form of a facilitated discussion rather than a lecture. The following paragraphs elaborate.

Preparing for class (1): Cases

The detailed Session Descriptions below give more specific “study questions” for the case discussions. However, these study questions are onlyprompts to get you going, not an agenda for your analysis or for our discussion. It is for you to identify the specific issues posed by the case and to decide how they can be best addressed. I will expect you to consider the case in the light of all the assigned readings, and to come to each class prepared to present and defend your own analysis. I will sometimes “cold call.”

The basic challenges for case analyses are always essentially the same:

1. Who are the main stakeholders involved here and what are their concerns and interests? What do the competing views in political-economy suggest will be the key issues here?

2. Focusing on one stakeholder as your client, what is the challenge they face, and what is the root issue they must resolve in order to deal with this challenge?

3. What alternative strategies for resolving this issue should your client consider? Which of these alternatives do you recommend, and why is it superior to the others?

4. What implementation issues should your client anticipate and how do you think they should address them?

I encourage you to meet in teams to prepare these case discussions. You should try to schedule a regular time for your team to meet prior to each case discussion class to share ideas and formulate a deeper analysis of the case issues. Your learning from this course will be greatly augmented by such team preparation.

Preparing for class (2): Theme readings

Alongside the case, I have assigned a set of readings for each theme. The readings aim to give students starting points in reflecting on how the competing viewpoints in political-economy and the diverse stakeholders will interpret the issues at stake in the case.Student teams will prepare for the class a “Background briefing” on these readings (see below), and post their Briefing on Blackboard by midnight Wednesday of the prior week.

I will assume that you will come to class having read all theassigned readings and the Background Briefing. I will not waste your time by simply repeating in class what you have already read; my goal is to add value to your efforts by helping you reach a deeper level of comprehension. I may ask individuals or teams to prepare short presentations to the class on the key points of the readings. I will also cold-call students in the class to summarize the key points they noted in their own reading, or to comment on potential applications. To be sure you are ready for such discussion, ask yourself:

What is the basic argument the author makes?

What are the key concepts and principles informing their analysis?

How does this argument differ from competing alternative arguments?

Where do you stand on the focal issue, and why?

Team reports

At the beginning of the semester, students will form into teams (three people maximum), and each team will do two reports over the course of the semester. As explained above, you should think of these reports as if they were by a group of outside consultants (your team) reporting to your client. I leave it to you to select the client you would most like to work for. Detailed guidance on these reports is in the Appendix: Guidelines ForTeamReports. They will be graded using the criteria shown in the Appendix: GradingCase Analyses.

These reports have two components:

(a) Background briefing: here your team aims to summarize the competing views on the topic at hand. You should rely on the assigned readings, but you can also supplement these with other readings you identify through your own research. (I will point you to some web sites that you might find useful for this purpose.) You need to post your Briefing on Blackboard by midnight Wednesday of the prior week.

(b) Client presentation: here your team presents your analysis and recommendation to the class. You do not need to post this in advance, but you do need to bring along handouts of your slides for the class.

I have found that these reports and the discipline you will learn by doing them are one of the things about this course that students find most valuable. Your professional career depends crucially on the skills these reports rely on — your ability to reason your way through the maze of considerations to get to the heart of the matter, and your ability to communicate complex arguments effectively.

To ensure maximum value from the work you invest in the preparation of these reports, I will meet with each presenting team as soon as possible after class for 60 minutes, to discuss their report’s strengths and weaknesses, and to brainstorm how their report could be strengthened. After the meeting, I will send you and the class further feedback.

Note: As concerns the grading of the oral delivery, I will not penalize people for language difficulties when their first language is other than English.

Note also: Since these reports require considerable teamwork, and since teamwork is an important skill in management and in life, students will conduct peer evaluations of their team members after their each team report (see Peer Evaluation Form appended). The first is to encourage your team to address any “team process” issues; the second will count towards your final grade.

Engagement

Active engagement is a key part of learning in this course. Your engagement grade will reflect: (a) your pre-class contributions of “discussion issues” on the readings and cases, (b) your in-class contributions to discussions, and (c) your after-class contribution of “take-aways” on what you have read and heard. Grading for these three components is described in the Appendix:Grading Engagement. To elaborate on my expectations:

(a) Pre-class: I would like you to share your initial responses to the cases and assigned readings before you get to class. To this end, you need to prepare one “discussion issue” (DI) for each week’s topic, starting with the week of Jan 25. Your DI should aim to identify in 5-15 lines a key issue that you think needs to be resolved in the upcoming week. Please post your DI on Blackboard no later than 8:00pm Sunday: I will not be able to read questions submitted after that deadline.

(b) In-class: As in many of your other classes, your active participation in the class discussion is a crucial part of the learning process: your contributions help both you and the rest of the class. Since during class I may cold call on students at any time, please avoid embarrassment by telling me before class if you are not prepared. And if you are uncomfortable with class participation, please let me know at the beginning of term and I will work with you to help you overcome this barrier.

(c) After-class: In a case-oriented, discussion-based class such as this, much of the learning happens after class, as the “dust settles” and the key “take-away” lessons (TAs) become clear. By 8pm the night before the next class, I would like you post a short note with your TAs (5-15 lines, or longer if you like) on our Blackboard Discussion space. These TA postings might also include responses to other TAs already on the Discussion space.

Individual written case analyses

Over the course of the term, each student will need to do twoindividual written case analyses. You can choose any two cases in our syllabus, apart from the two on which you will be doing team reports. In their form, these analyses should follow the Guidelines for Individual Written Case Analysis in the Appendix. In their substance, these written cases analysis should follow the same Guidelines as the Team reports – except that no Background Briefing is required. They will be graded using the same Grading case analysescriteria. They must be emailed to me before the week’s Monday class or handed in at the beginning of that class session. You may do more than two of these, and I will count the best two grades towards the course grade.

Please note: these are individual assignments, and I expect you to respect USC’s corresponding Academic Integrity standards and Marshall’s Honor Code. You may discuss the cases with your colleagues, but the write-ups must be your own individual work.

“This I Believe”

In 2005, National Public Radio brought back the “This I Believe” radio series that first broadcast in the 1950s. The new series recently ended, but the website continues. The course culminates by having each student write a 500-word essay for the series. This assignment asks you to articulate crisply and compellingly your fundamental beliefs as they pertain to the broad domain of the course.

Obviously, I hope that our time together will inform what you have to say; however, your essay will not be about the course per se. Rather, it is about you. It is also about what you are willing to stand up in public and say about yourself: so I would like you to submit your essay to the This I Believe website. You can either submit it to the site when you submit it to me or you can wait for some feedback from me and then send it in to the site. Either way, I would like you to share your beliefs with the world.

This is due by the beginning of class on April 26. It should be posted on our Blackboard Discussion space, and you should take time to read those of your colleagues in the class in time to discuss them all together in class on April 28.

Here is the link to website and your instructions for writing the essay: You can find many other people’s essays on the site: they might inspire you.

Final assignment

In lieu of a final exam, each student must submit a final paper due at the time the exam is scheduled to start. Details will be announced later.

Grading

The components of the final course grade will be weighted as follows:

Component / Weight
1st team report / 20%
2nd team report / 30%
Class engagement (5% for each of 3 components) / 15%
Individual written case analyses / (2 x 10% =) 20%
“This I Believe” / 5%
Final written assignment / 10%
Total / 100%

Class attendance

Class attendance is essential to your learning in this course. Each student is allowed two absences, no questions asked. All further absences over that limit will reduce the student's course grade, at the rate of one-third a letter grade for every further absence. Students with an excessive number of absences are therefore at risk of failing the course. Only official university engagements, such as scheduled debating or sports events are exempted. Job interviews, etc., are not excused, so choose your absences carefully.