Module description
This compulsory Business & Society Foundation module explores the interplay between business, ethics and society.
You’ll learn about the global and local values, culture and behaviours that have and will define the different disciplines involved in business studies, from economics to management. You will also explore the benefits and challenges to business of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
This Business & Society Foundation module will cover:
- business ethics
- capitalism
- industrial revolutions
- neoliberalism
- financial crises
- businesses shaping and serving society
- how to compare businesses across cultures
- business imperialism
- globalisation and corporate social responsibility
- intangible assets and human capital
- storytelling for brands
- entrepreneurship.
The lectures will put forward theoretical and conceptual questions, exemplified through business case studies. You will then explore these ideas more practically in your seminars, applying critical thinking and learning to work in teams and using feedback as a key for success.
You’ll sharpen your critical and analytical thinking skills, particularly through the use of theory, in order to prepare you for the evaluative expectations of a UK university environment.
Assessment details
You’ll be assessed for this Business & Society Foundation module through coursework (100%).
Educational aims & objectives
This Business & Society Foundation module will:
- provide an overview of key areas of knowledge that underlie teaching and learning in the UK in your discipline
- supplement your argumentation with analytical frameworks appropriate to business and economics.
- help you reflect on the foundations of and new developments in Western cultural and societal norms, and to make you aware of and sensitive to such norms
- further your ability to think systematically and analytically in such a way as to enhance your future success in a British academic environment and to enrich your ability to think about key debates in contemporary society that impact on and/or are impacted by your discipline and your future career path
- increase your ability, with appropriate support, to take responsibility for your own learning.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this Business & Society Foundation module, you will be able to demonstrate:
- a detailed factual knowledge base in key areas and the ability to think about this knowledge analytically
- an awareness of dominant theories that will be encountered in your discipline within a British university academic environment
- an awareness of cultural, societal and academic differences between your home country and your new academic environment
- an ability to critically assess texts and arguments from an analytical, often theoretical perspective, with explicit lecturer/tutor guidance
- increased experience of working creatively, critically and flexibly as part of an academic group
- the ability to research a topic, extract and synthesise information from a range of lecturer-directed written and spoken sources, and to formulate a response showing awareness of relevant theory
- appropriate linguistic skills in the defined and predictable contexts covered in the module
- an ability to evaluate your own academic strengths and weaknesses within the broad subject areas covered by the course, and put in place implicit or explicit plans to improve performance.