HIS4610 Virtuous Capitalism in Malaysia and Thailand
(Formerly Social Responsibility in Malaysia & Thailand)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Elective Abroad Credits
Program fee and group international airfare is paid to Glavin Office - program fee includes accommodations, breakfast, group flights (2), airport transports, ground transportation, site visits, program planned meals, and cultural excursions. Not included: tuition, visa costs, additional meals and personal expenses.
The purpose of our course is to explore the question: “How do Malaysians and Thais think about ‘Social Responsibility’ and how do they act in order to achieve it?” By extension, we will be asking about how approaches to business ethics in our own countries differ from Malaysians’ and Thais’? Often in Western discussions of business ethics, it is assumed that the West is far ahead of Asia in business ethics. We will make no such assumption, but rather, we will ask if Malaysia and Thailand have anything to teach our countries.
More particularly, we will focus on three Asian faiths and cultural traditions – Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism. We will visit 3 socially responsible companies, each representing, respectively, an approach to social responsibility consistent with one of those 3 traditions. We will aim not only to learn about the implications of Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism for business ethics. We will also aim to understand what qualities those 3 Asian traditions share which may distinguish them generally from Western traditions in business ethics.
Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)