Legal and Ethical Concepts for Decision Makers – BUSI 301

CG • Section 8WK • 11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 02/01/2024

Course Description

Headlines are replete with stories of organizations experiencing crises resulting from legal and ethical failures. This course engages the student in understanding the American legal system in the context of business, highlighting key legal precedents and laws that impact the people serving in an organization and the organization itself. The course also examines diverse ethical perspectives, from a biblical perspective, and the virtue and character necessary for the marketplace to truly thrive.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

Assumptions that any organization will normally operate in a legal and ethical manner are not valid; it takes knowledge, intentionality, and biblical wisdom to do this well. Therefore, this class explores the legal and ethical frameworks necessary for organizations to both honor the law and foster an ethical culture.  

Course Assignment

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to create a thread in response to the provided prompt for each discussion. Each thread must be at least 300 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 150 words. For each thread and each reply, the student must support conclusions with at least 2 sources cited in current APA format. All written work also requires Biblical worldview integration.

The student will complete eight interactive application-based analyses in Connect, which will assess the student's understanding of key legal topics.

The student will identify and research a recent instance of unethical business behavior and write a critical analysis of at least 800 words, supported by at least 3 scholarly sources other than the course materials, cited in-text and in a reference list in current APA format. The analysis will also integrate Biblical worldview analysis.

The student will complete 5 quizzes through Connect. All quizzes are open-book/open-notes, but the student may not receive help from another person while taking the quiz. The quiz questions will be multiple-choice.