Topic outline

  • Course Introduction

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    • Time: 39 hours
    • CEUs: 3.9
    • Free Certificate

    Law, in its simplest form, is used to protect one party from another. For instance, laws protect customers from being exploited by companies. Laws protect companies from other companies. Laws even protect citizens and corporations from the government. However, the law is neither perfect nor all-encompassing. Sometimes, societal ethics fill the voids that laws leave behind; other times, usually when a group of the population has systematically violated societal ethics, we write laws designed to require individuals to live up to certain ethical standards. For example, new accounting laws were passed in the backlash of the Enron scandal (where Enron executives used accounting tricks to hide losses). Similarly, as a result of the financial crisis of 2008, legislators proposed new regulations designed to enforce a certain standard of ethical behavior within the financial services industry.

    This course will introduce you to the laws and ethical standards that managers must abide by when conducting business. Laws and ethics almost always shape a company's decision-making process: a bank cannot charge any interest rate it wants; that rate must be appropriate. Car manufacturers must install hardware and develop new technologies to keep up with regulations designed to reduce pollution. By the end of this course, you will clearly understand the legal and ethical environment in which businesses operate.