Introductory description

The aims of this module are:
to build an ethical leadership capacity in critical areas of banking, and in particular financial conduct
to explore what ethics in business are, and should be, considering both an economic approach and how incentives and industrial structure alter the propensity to malpractice
to explore ethical leadership from multiple angles: academic, through practice, and via peer learning
to explore financial conduct, covering the regulatory rules, and the enforcement tools available if ethics are poor

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Ethics

• What are business ethics? Consequentialist, Deontological, Aristotelian (virtue ethics) approaches.
• What leaders can do to ensure their own organization’s ethics.
• Competition and ethical behaviour, including its interaction with the law.
• Remuneration and a culture of malpractice.
  Ethical Leadership
• Values based leadership and morality.
• Creating an ethical corporate culture.
• Ethical leadership across societies.
• Leaders' ethical decision-making.
• Traits of an ethical leader/ authentic leadership/characteristic of an authentic leader.
• Responsible leadership.
  Financial conduct
• Historical scandals.
• Mis-selling and consumer protection.
• Anti-money laundering and anti-insider dealing.
• Enforcement tools.
• Insights from the Fair and Effective Markets Review.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an in depth understanding of financial conduct, leadership and ethics.
• Demonstrate an ability to consume and understand detailed investigation and research into Ethical Banking and Behavioural Anomalies.
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of various leadership styles based on context.
• Demonstrate a critical awareness of current issues, research and advanced scholarship in in the areas of financial conduct/ leadership and ethics.
• Reflect on and learn from some prior experience and thus be able to integrate new knowledge with past experience and apply it to a new situation.
• Make sound judgements whilst understanding the limitations on judgements made in the absence of complete data.

Indicative reading list

Bowie, N. E. (2017). Business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Morrison, Thanassoulis, 2016, Ethical Standards and Cultural Assimilation in Financial Services, mimeo Warwick University. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2766996
Solomon, R (1993), Ethics and Excellence, Oxford University Press.George, B. and McLean, A., 2007. Why leaders lose their way. Strategy & leadership, 35(3), pp.4-11.
Gentilin, D., 2016. The Origins of Ethical Failures: Lessons for Leaders. Routledge.
McCann, J. and Sweet, M., 2014. The perceptions of ethical and sustainable leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(3), pp.373-383.
Ochs, Susan M. "The Leadership Blind Spots At Wells Fargo". Harvard Business Review. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Dec. 2016.
Soltani, B., 2014. The anatomy of corporate fraud: A comparative analysis of high profile American and European corporate scandals. Journal of business ethics, 120(2), pp.251-274.
Wallace, E., de Chernatony, L. and Buil, I., 2011. How leadership and commitment influence bank employees’ adoption of their bank’s values. Journal of Business Ethics, 101(3), pp.397-414.

Subject specific skills

Identify and critique leadership styles based on various theories discussed.
Identify causes of dysfunctional leadership and propose strategies for change.

Transferable skills

Written communication.
Independent learning.