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Class Prep 13- Organizational Ethics: Guest Instructor

In this class we will learn about organizational ethics. The focus will be on practical differences between businesses which successfully manage for their values, and those that don’t. Professor David Silver will be our guest. It is important that you prepare thoroughly following the instructions, below. Make some personal notes on each of the questions so that you are ready to actively participate.

1. Learning objectives:

  • Understand how culture, policies, leadership, incentives (etc.) make some businesses better at managing for their values than others.
  • Understand the difference between creating value and extracting value
  • Reflect on the Sauder learning experience: has Sauder been successful at managing for our values? How can we do even better?

2. Preparation: Consider the following articles and questions and be prepared for in-class activity and discussion. 

 Research ahead of class by reading:

News article on the ongoing scandal at HSBC. Feb. 25th, 2015. CBC News. (Also, follow news link for Canadian angle)

HSBC mission statement

Question: in what ways did HSBC fail to live up to its own values? What explains this failure?

Look through this annual report for VanCity (or related material on the VanCity website)

Questions: what are some specific ways that VanCity manages for its values? What can HSBC learn from VanCity?

 In this class your teams will have two activities. The first focuses on:

What can you learn about managing for values from HSBC and VanCity?

An article on VW that came out at the very beginning of the scandal:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/business/as-vw-pushed-to-be-no-1-ambitions-fueled-a-scandal.html
Library PURL link – https://go.library.ubc.ca/MCFGbK 

  1. What can we learn from the VW scandal about corporate culture, strategy, HR, marketing, governance, or any other part of the business?
  2. What other car companies do a better job in terms of “organizational ethics”–that is, having all these elements in place so that the company can deliver on its values?

What have you learned about managing for values over the course of this semester? Throughout your Sauder career?

In a second activity you will discuss:

What does Sauder do well in terms of managing for its values? What does it do poorly? What specific ideas do you have for improvement?