Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Department of Industrial & Management Engineering

Proposal for a New Course
Course No. :

MBA 617

Course Title:

SOCIAL POLITICAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS OF BUSINESS

Type:

Compulsory for the MBA students

Units:

3-0-0-10

Proposer:

Rahul Varman

Other Instructors:
Prerequisites:

None

Purpose:
The purpose of this course is to situate business in its larger context and develop an
appreciation for the interrelationship of business and society. It also aims to
contextualise institutions through which business is conducted, like corporations,
nation state and markets. Further, concepts like morality of profit, private property,
free trade, etc. are of relatively recent origin and their significance have varied over
different periods in world commercial history. Therefore there is a need to understand
the historical context in which these institutions and values have originated and
evolved. The course also endeavours to bring in the specificities of the Indian context
to establish business society relations.
Course Content:
Business and its relation to society, Socio-political aspects of corporations, Corporate
social responsibility and business ethics, Stakeholder theory, Evolution of capitalism
and capitalist institutions, Socio-political context of industrialisation in colonial India,
Late industrialisation, Globalisation, state and business, Agrarian distress, Political
economy of growth, Caste, class, gender and business, Natural resources and
business, Environment and business, Financial crisis and business, Resistance,
movements and business.
Text Books and References:
Korten, David 1998. When Corporations Rule the World. Goa: Other India Press.
Chang, Ha-Joon 2010. 23 Things They Dont Tell You About Capitalism, Penguin.
Jackall, Robert 1988. Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers, OUP.
Joseph Weiss, 2003. Business ethics, Thomson.