MKTG230-14S1 (C) Semester One 2014

Business, Society and the Environment

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 24 February 2014
End Date: Sunday, 29 June 2014
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 7 March 2014
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 23 May 2014

Description

This course is a general introduction to the changing responsibilities of business to society and the environment. This course is designed to 1) help you to understand current perspectives on the impact of business on climate change globalisation, and consumerism, and, 2) to help you analyse and develop ways in which business organisations respond ethically to the needs of society and the environment. Each of the topics is addressed at a global, national and organisational level.

No organisation lives on an island. This course introduces you to the impact business has on society and the environment. The objective is to help you understand the impact of globalisation, consumerism and the environment on business as well as how business can positively respond to social and environmental challenges facing humanity and the planet.

Relationship to Other Courses
This course is a required course for students majoring in Human Resource Management (HRM) or the Science Sustainability Endorsement. It builds a foundation for MGMT333, Managing Corporate Responsibility.

Work load for this course, in terms of class preparation, review, assignments, and readings is about 10 hours per week.

The Learning Process
It is YOUR responsibility to learn the material for this course to the standard you set for yourself.  The resources outlined below will aid you in this process, but ultimately you will get out of this course what you put into it.
 
The measures used to determine how successfully you have learnt the material will be outlined in an objective sheet given out at the start of each section of the course.

Learning Outcomes

  • By the end of the course you should be able to:

  • Identify and discuss forces that shape business activities and vice-versa. In particular, the environment, consumerism and globalisation.
  • Identify and discuss conflicting ideologies of the social and environmental responsibilities of business and how these affect business practices.
  • Identify useful and successful practices for responding to the needs of society and the environment.
  • Evaluate such practices in relation to a sample of New Zealand companies.

    B.Com. Learning Goals
    1) Graduates can demonstrate advanced knowledge of their selected subject major, informed by the broader context of commerce.
  • Students will understand the broader context of commerce through a global, environmental and consumption lens.
    2) Graduates are able to use analytical thinking and problem-solving skills to address specific problems.
  • Students will be able to analyse a specific environmental issue, such as climate change, and convincingly present the facts on such an issue in a way that is relevant to business.
    3) Graduates can understand issues from a range of ethical, global and multicultural perspectives.
  • Students can identify the implications of key personal and business decisions for a range of stakeholders, including the environment.
    4) Graduates are able to communicate effectively both orally and in written form.
  • Written and oral communication is assessed in this course.

Prerequisites

(1) 60 points from ACCT, ECON, INFO, MGMT, MKTG, MSCI, PSYC, SOCI; or (2) 60 points from Science

Restrictions

Equivalent Courses

Timetable Note

No face-to-face tutorials but assistance will be available for your “Issue Brief” projects and Office Hours are Mondays 1-2 and Friday 10-11 in my office.

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Marjo Lips-Wiersma

Week 1-8
Associate Professor Marjo Lips-Wiersma
                       
Week 9-12
Professor Michael Hall Michael.Hall

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Test 15 May 2014 40% Test
Issue Brief 20% Issue Brief
Essay 40% Essay


There are three pieces of assessment for this course. Detailed briefs will be put on  Learn. In summary:

The test in week 9 will test a combination of lectures, class discussion as well as the information provided by the combined issue briefs.

The Issue Brief: Organisations are much more likely to take action when they are convinced of the facts. In groups you are asked to provide an issue brief for an organisation with regard to one of the environmental or social issues affecting them. For example, climate change, soil depletion, obesity, non-renewable resource depletion, water quality, poverty, waste etc etc etc. Your brief is to identify 5 important facts on the issue and make a ‘business case’ for action.

Essay: Based on an analysis of your Ecological Footprint and diary reflection on your consumption patterns, you are asked to write an integrative essay supported by a number of readings to be made available on  Learn.

Late Assignments
Assignments submitted after the due date without an extension being granted by the Lecturer will have 10% of the mark deducted for every day or part day the assignment is late.  Assignments will not be accepted for marking if the assignment is submitted any later than 5 days after the due date.

Holding of Student Work
For quality assurance purposes the School is required to hold on record a number of assessment pieces as examples of differing standards of work.  If you have any objections to the School holding your assessment for this purpose then email the Course Coordinator to ensure your assignment is not used for this purpose.

The marks for each piece of assessment may be standardized before a final grade is determined.

Textbooks / Resources

There is no required text for this course. Readings for the course are available for free on LEARN

Learning Resources
The material taught in this course comes primarily from the readings from two books on managing change by Nilakant & Ramnarayan.  These readings, which are on Learn, are required reading for the course and will be your primary resource for the theory of the subject.  Lectures will not cover everything that is in the readings, although all material in the readings and lectures will be examinable.

The course class time will primarily be going over the key ideas in the readings.  You are expected to read the appropriate reading BEFORE the class time.  This will be critical to your learning.

The library provides many different resources, including many other texts on change management. Remember when using these resources for your assignment, that full referencing is required.

This course uses ‘Learn’ as a means of distributing lectures, notes, assignments and previous examples of test and examinations.  This system will also be used to submit all assessments and provide a means of giving feedback.

Notes

Departmental Academic Policies
The Department assumes that you have read this document.

You should also read the General Course and Examination Regulations

Dishonest Practice
The University of Canterbury considers cheating and plagiarism to be serious acts of dishonesty.  All assessed work must be your own individual work unless specifically stated otherwise in the assessment guidelines. Material quoted from any other source must be clearly acknowledged. You must not copy the work of another person (student or published work) in any assessment including examinations, tests and assignments. Any person, who is found to have copied someone else's work, or to have allowed their work to be copied, will receive a fail grade for that piece of assessment and may face disciplinary action which may lead to a fine, community service or exclusion from the university.

IMPORTANT: Where there are concerns regarding the authorship of written course work, a student can be required to provide a formal, oral explanation of the content of their work.

Class Representative
A class representative may be asked to volunteer in the first few weeks of class.  Any problems with the course can be raised with the class rep. The class representative will take up any issues raised by class members with the lecturer concerned as they occur.

Coversheets - Group and Individual

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $709.00

International fee $3,063.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Management, Marketing and Tourism .

All MKTG230 Occurrences

  • MKTG230-14S1 (C) Semester One 2014