MW 3:00-4:15 FGM278
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Instructor Contact Information
Office Hours
Textbook & Course Materials
Course Prerequisites
Course Description
Course Goals and Objectives
Course Requirements
Important Notes Regarding Tests
Attendance
Students with Disabilities
Course Strategies
Paper Assignment
One Standard for Success
Course Schedule
COURSE AND CONTACT INFORMATION
| INSTRUCTOR | Dr. J. Brooke Hamilton, III. |
| OFFICE | O.K. Allen 107 |
| PHONE | Office: 318/482-6427
Home: 318/235-6791 (leave a message) |
| OFFICE HOURS | TH 12:30-3:30 p.m; FRI 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Others by appointment |
| TEXTBOOK | Business & Society (Second Edition), Donna J.Wood. (1994: Harper Collins College Publishers). |
| ADDITIONAL COURSE MATERIAL | On reserve in the library. |
| COURSE PREREQUISITES | Management 320 or 230. Philosophy 316 would be very helpful. |
Most courses in the business curriculum provide an understanding of the market environment of business--the management, marketing, economics, finance and accounting functions which firms must perform in order to be successful. The purpose of Business and Society is to provide an understanding of some important aspects of the nonmarket environment in which social and political forces impact on businesses. The primary topics to be covered include:
The primary example in this unit will be the environmental controversy over the harvesting of old growth timber in the Pacific Northwest.
Throughout the course, students will focus not only on the current relationship between business and society and how it developed, but also on how this relationship should develop in the future.
Students will increase their historical
understanding of the relationship between business and society and learn to
use a set of conceptual tools designed to aid them as managers in dealing
with the opportunities and problems which arise in this area. Specific
learning objectives will be provided for each chapter so that students will
have no trouble identifying what they will be responsible to know.
IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING TESTS/EXAMS
Exam format will be announced at least 1 week prior to each exam and exam study guides are provided so that students can focus their study on what will be on the exam. Makeup exams will be available for students unfortunate enough to miss an exam for a legitimate reason.
A ten point grading scale will be used for letter grades. Any student found cheating on assignments or exams will be removed from the class and assigned a grade of F for the course.
Students are responsible for all material covered in class even if they are absent from class and are responsible for all assigned reading whether or not it is discussed in class.
Because of the discussion format, attendance is required.
A student is allowed 4 absences, either excused or unexcused, after which each additional absence will subtract one point from his/her final average. Students are asked not to enter the class more than 10 minutes after class has started since this entry breaks the flow of the discussion. After 10 minutes, the student will be counted as absent.
If you come in after roll is taken, it is your responsibility to remind me after class that you should be marked present. Any claims at the end of the semester that you were present on the days you were marked absent will be heard with a great deal of sympathy but no change in the roll.
The instructor may change the course requirements and schedule as necessary, with changes announced in class.
Students requiring special arrangements for examinations must notify
the teacher at least one week before each exam during the semester.
For emergency evacuation procedures, a map of this floor is posted near the elevator marking the evacuation route and the Designated Rescue Area. This is an area where emergency service personnel will go first to look for individuals who need assistance in exiting the building. Students who may need assistance should identify themselves to the teaching faculty.
The discussion of these chapters will be case driven:
read the case first and consider the discussion questions after the case.
Then read the chapter to find conceptual tools needed to answer the
questions. Class time will not be spent reviewing point by point what is
presented in the textbook. Some time during most class periods will be
devoted to small group discussions of particular questions about the case
or the concepts needed to discuss the case. These small group discussions
give each student a chance to participate and have been shown to greatly
enhance the learning of the material. It is important that you read the
case and the chapter before coming to class or you will not know what the
discussion is about.
Another important feature of the learning process in this class will be the use of concept maps to summarize the important ideas in each chapter and to show the relationships among them in a graphical form. Concept maps are excellent way to organize a large body of knowledge and will help you keep a macro perspective on what we are learning in this course.
As can be seen from the learning techniques discussed above, this class is not aimed at the rote learning level where students are asked to learn and repeat what is learned, or at the recognition level where students simply recognize the correct answer from among several possibilities on a multiple choice test. We are aiming for the understanding-application level were students understand the ideas discussed and are able to apply them in new situations. Retention at this level of learning is considerably higher than at the rote or recognition levels. This 400 level course involves some challenging concepts which require reading, reflection and practice. The instructor promises that he will not insult your intelligence.
Students will be encouraged to participate in class discussions through the small groups and by being asked specific questions by the instructor. Introverts who would like a short time to think before responding can simply hold up an open hand toward the instructor who will give then briefly distract the rest of the class while they are thinking. Since not all students come to class 100% prepared all the time, students may avoid embarrassment to themselves and their classmates by simply saying "Pass" when asked a question they are not prepared to answer. Students should be aware that saying "Pass" too many times is probably a good indication that they will not do that in the course.
The issues we are exploring this semester:
Each Team should:
The presentation will be graded on the content of the information presented, the level of information technology utilized, the quality of the delivery and the overall effectiveness of the presentation.
Individual Written Assignment to be handed in:
In addition to the oral presentation (see syllabus for dates), each team member should hand in
The annotated bibliography should give a full citation for each article and a 100-150 word abstract of the article's contents. Write your own abstract after reading the article--do not simply copy the abstract from the reference source. Use a topic sentence explaining what the article is about and then summarize the main ideas. Include only information which relates to your topic. Differentiate between types of publications: general readership publications (Newsweek, New York Times), business publications (Forbes, Business Week), trade publications (Management Accounting), and academic or scholarly publications (Academy of Management Review, CPA Journal). Try to have at least 3 sources from trade publications and academic publications.
For the executive summary, state the topic to be considered and show how the information in the articles provides answers to the topic. Do not simply list all of the ideas from the articles or summarize each article separately. Use a compare and contrast strategy, grouping similar ideas together and showing the difference between dissimilar ideas. Remember, you are trying to help us draw conclusions from your research. Do not name the articles or authors or quote directly from them. Use APA citations, such as (Breaux, 1992) or (Wall Street Journal, 1993).
In grading this assignment, I will read the abstracts first, looking for a topic sentence, clarity of the ideas in the summary, and relevance of the ideas to the topic under consideration. Then I will read the executive summary, looking for the inclusion of the ideas from the abstracts in some kind of logical order and for the effectiveness of the analysis of the 4 points given above.
One way to judge whether this class is a successful learning experience
is to ask whether we (students and teacher)are enjoying it! Learning should be exciting,
fun, challenging--not all of the time but at the beginning (the stage of romance when you see
the possibilities) and at the end (the stage of synthesis when you understand
how everything fits together). The middle stage (the stage of precision when you learn
all of the details necessary to really understand the subject) involves hard work which
is not always fun but is the only way to reach the goal of synthesis.
As your instructor, I get paid for grading but I teach because I like to.