BUSINESS ETHICS, GOVERNANCE AND RISK - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module provides students with essential principles for responsible business management.
This is achieved by giving students an understanding of three key pillars: -

1. Business ethics
2. Corporate governance
3. Risk Management

In the current world of uncertainty, it is imperative that students of business understand and practice responsible management. This requires an understand of the institutional systems that have led to the development and enforcement of corporate governance.

The module provides awareness of contemporary ethical frameworks and values of organisations as well as the individual attributes required for responsible management. Students are expected not just to have an academic understanding of business ethics but to embed it into their practice as business ready graduates.

Business is about managing risk. Recent events have shown that a good understanding of risk identification, assessment, and mitigation are essential for managing downside risks whilst making the most of upside risks.

The module will use recent examples of business failures and scandals to illustrate the importance of ethics, corporate governance, and risk management to responsible managers.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

PARCHMENT Ann (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

No Pre-Requisites

Module content

• Corporate Governance


• Definition of governance


• Different approaches to corporate governance and its regulation


• The board of directors responsibilities, committees, remuneration


• Corporate responsibility and governance Professional values and ethics


• Contemporary theories on business ethics


• Framework approaches to business ethics


• Individual responsibility and integrity in the context of business Risk and the risk management process


• Defining and Identifying risk


• Applying risk management frameworks


• Assessing, monitoring, controlling, and risk reporting Governance, ethics, and risk management of professional responsible business management

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The Assessment Strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate understanding and application of the three pillars: - Ethics, Governance and Risk. This is achieved with short MCQ tests at the end of the learning of each of the pillars. Consolidation of knowledge across the three pillars is evidenced in the final individual essay.

The summative assessment for this module consists of: -

• 1. Ethics, Governance, Risk MCQ (addresses Learning outcome 1,2,3,4)


• 2. Individual Course work (addresses learning outcomes 5)

Formative assessment will be achieved through appropriate discussion, case Study analysis, Q&A, and quizzes in tutorials and/or on SurreyLearn. Feedback Formative feedback takes place in tutorials, via discussions, case study analysis, and quizzes. Summative feedback will be given at the end of each topic MCQs. This will highlight areas which require additional understanding prior to submission of the final individual essay. In respect of the individual coursework a rubric will be provided with the assignment brief.

Module aims

• Apply key frameworks of, Ethics, corporate governance, and risk management.
• Facilitate the analysis of current companies, corporate governance frameworks, execution of ethics and risk management.
• Understand the requirements of responsible management through the integration of ethics, governance, and risk management.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

This module embeds the UN Principles of responsible management education (PRME)

The Learning and Teaching strategy is designed to support the development of a professional responsible business management graduate.

Students are encouraged to: -. Understand the need for a business to remain a going concern while achieving its objectives via responsible management.

Develop knowledge of key frameworks in the three pillars and apply this knowledge to the real world.

Provide explicit evidence of academic and applied knowledge which results in effective learning experiences developing the attributes needed for tomorrows responsible managers.

Develop critical analytical skills by examining case studies.

Demonstrate confidence in problem solving which is evidence based. Identify ethical dilemmas, gaps in corporate governance and poor risk management

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN2195

Other information

This module embeds the five pillars of the Surrey Business School (SBS) curriculum framework. This is achieved by: - 1. Knowledge and skills development which underpin employability. 2. Supporting the sustainability of organisations to remain a going concern. 3. The module adheres to the nuances of global and cultural intelligence by embedding the inclusion of the principles of responsible management education. 4. Understanding of the attributes of ethics underpin the requirement to adhere to corporate governance through the growing exposure to digital risks 5. The interconnectivity of ethics, governance and risks validates the continuous development of resourcefulness and resilience as life skills for business.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.