PAD 107 Course Outline

ABIA STATE UNIVERSITY, UTURU

MJCE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Course Outline

Course Title: Corporate Ethics

Course Code: PAD 107

Office Hours: 8am-4pm, Monday to Friday

Credit Unit:2 Credits

Lecture Day/Time: Tuesday 8am

Lecture Venue: Social Science Lecture Hall-001

Recommended Text(s): Njoku (2017), Human Resource Management and Cooperate Ethics.

Lecturer: Emmanuel Shebbs

Email: emmanuel.shebbs@abiastateuniversity.edu.ng

Phone Number: +234-806-340-0-402

Course Description

This course is aimed at equipping students with requisite tools needed to coerce a sense of sanity in public offices. This role is essentially geared towards the propagation of collective values in administrative outfits, agencies and institutions that can promote lucid administration in the public place.

Considering the complexity of social and cultural ideologies of the Nigerian system, there is therefore the need to marshal out a statutory and ideal format for corporate lifestyle, to engender harmony in the public service and erase misunderstandings among public servants and institutions within the public service machinery.

At the end of the course duration, the students should be able to understand the concept of ethics, critically apply ethical standards in practical terms, and analytically examine values and attitudes of public servants in line with ethical judgments, distinguish between right and wrong values in public service.

This course examines the philosophical foundation of ethics, moral philosophy and Ontology. It examines formal and informal ethics, imperatives of ethical studies and its knowledge in public corporations. It further explains those sources from where ethics found in Nigerian public service were extrapolated such as legal sources, social sources, etc.

Two theories of ethics which include Deontology and Teleology are studied as well as factors that constitute impediments to human action such as ignorance, fear, passion, habit, violence, etc.

In addition, basic concepts such as liberty, freedom, justice, unity are examined from ethical perspectives. It equally examines the various peculiar outfits which the Nigerian state has established to checkmate unethical acts by public officers.

Challenges to ethics in Nigeria are equally examined such as political influence, accountability, religious and cultural misconceptions, among others.

Objectives of the Course

At the end of the course, the students should be able to:

- Understand the concept of ethics

- Critically apply ethical standards in practical terms

- Analytically examine values and attitudes of public servants in line with ethical judgements

- Distinguish between right and wrong values in public service

Course Contents

Section A

The nature of ethics

- What is ethics?

- Philosophical foundation of ethics

- Why we study ethics

- Formal and informal ethics

Sources of Corporate Ethics

- Legal sources (laws, rules, regulations etc)

- Social sources (value systems)

- Religion

- Culture and tradition

Schools of ethics

- Deontology

- Teleology

Impediments to human action

- Ignorance

- Passion

- Habit

- Fear

- Violence

- Temperament

- Pathological states

Basic Concepts in ethics

- Liberty/ freedom

- Justice

- Reciprocity

- Solidarity/ Unity

Section B

Ethics in Nigerian public service

- What are the ethics found in Nigerian public service?

Codes and compliance in the Nigerian public service

- It is one thing to have ethics and another to have people follow the ethical standards in place. What instruments does the Nigerian government have to enforce compliance of the people to the ethics of public service?

- Punishments and sanctions

Challenges to ethics in Nigerian public service

- Political influence

- Accountability

- Patronage system (spoils and merit system)

- Misconceptions (religious and cultural