LGST 612: RESPONSIBILITY IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICESSample Page
Spring 2013, Q3

649 Jon M. Huntsman Hall Office hours: Monday 12-1:30pm
Course Description and Objectives
Businesses function in an environment defined not only by market forces, but also by legal,
political, and ethical constraints. This course uses a professional services context to introduce
students to important challenges they will face as leaders in such fields as financial services
and consulting. However, the scope is not limited to these contexts, and the material will be
equally useful to students preparing for any position owing duties to third parties such as
partners, clients, suppliers, and customers.
This is a course about judgment. The primary goal is to develop skills in ethical and legal
analysis to make individual-level decisions about the proper courses of action when duties,
loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. In today’s environment, managers without
exposure to these subjects can be woefully unprepared to develop business strategy or react to
situations, at great cost to their firms.
Instructor
Kevin Werbach is an Associate Professor in the Legal Studies and Business Ethics department.
In addition to publishing numerous articles on telecommunications and Internet policy,
Werbach is a pioneer in the emerging field of gamification, and the co-author of For the Win:
How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business. Outside his academic role, Werbach is the
founder of Supernova Group, a technology analysis and consulting firm. He served on the
Obama Administration’s Presidential Transition Team in 2008, and later was an expert advisor to
the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Commerce on broadband
issues. Prior to Wharton, Werbach was the editor of Release 1.0, a renowned monthly report on
technology trends, and Counsel for New Technology Policy at the FCC. He was named Wharton’s
first Iron Prof in 2010 for his talk, “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in World of Warcraft.”
Course Materials
Coursepack available through Study.Net
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Syllabus

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Grading
Quizzes (20%)
There will be three quizzes done online on Canvas. These will focus on the course reading
materials but may also include key points from the class sessions. You may refer to the
readings or your notes, but you must do the quizzes individually.
Participation (30%)
You will be assessed on the overall quality of your contributions in all forms of class discussion.
Attendance is one factor in the participation score, but not the primary one.
Final paper (50%)
The largest single component of the grade will be a paper of 6-10 pages in length, double
spaced, which is prior to the final class session (in order to avoid conflicts with the many other
exams and final assignments at the end of Q3). Details on the assignment are provided below.
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All assignment deadlines are specified in Canvas, so please set up appropriate notifications to
complete the assignments on time. Unexecused late submissions may be accepted with a
markdown at the professor’s discretion.
Final Paper
The topic for your final paper must be approved by the instructor in advance. You must submit
a proposed topic via Canvas by Monday, February 4, although early submissions are encouraged.
Your topic must meet the following criteria:
1. Address one or more issues of law, ethics or both.
2. Involve a real-world situation or company. (Could be a hypothetical development based
on an existing situation, such as a proposed law being passed.)
3. Relate to a personal or career interest of yours.
The topic proposal need only be a sentence or two if that is sufficient to convey the idea. The
intent of this assignment is to give you leeway to pick a topic that you find meaningful and
that advances your understanding of responsibility in business. As starting points, here are
some ideas:
• Write an ethics code or clickwrap terms of service agreement for your former company.
(Or, critique its existing one.)
• Should professional services firms be subject to different standards of conduct than
other kinds of companies?
• Should the U.S. government have imposed antitrust sanctions on Google?
• How well the company you worked for handled a lawsuit, and what the best strategy
would be for similar legal issues it might face in the future.
• Do “expert networks” constitute insider trading?
• How Wal-Mart should respond to its recent bribery case in Mexico?
• Should brokers be treated as fiduciaries under U.S. law, like investment advisors?
• Should gun manufacturers be held legally liable for injuries caused by shootings?
• Has the transition of investment banks such as Goldman Sachs from partnerships to
public companies compromised ethics?
• Do MBA graduates believe they had sufficient training in legal and ethical responsibility
in business school, and what do they feel could have been better?
You are expected to obtain additional information beyond your own viewpoint and the course
materials. Depending on the topic, this might mean outside research, surveys of fellow
students, or interviews with businesspeople. The paper must be written individually, but you
may discuss your topic or conduct interviews with anyone you choose.
Classroom Expectations
I will follow the normal Wharton concert rules, with the following exceptions/addenda:
· Unlike many Wharton faculty, I do not object if you use laptops, tablets, or other electronic devices in class. However, this is a two-way street. I expect you to be focused
during class and to limit your use of electronic devices to note-taking or other activities that contribute to learning.
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· Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. If you arrive late, it is your
responsibility to send me an explanatory email in order to be marked as present. If you
are unable to attend a session but can come to the other section that day (1:30 or 3:00
on MW), you will be marked as present if you notify me beforehand by email.
· All class sessions will be video recorded, and available on the Wharton Video Network.
You are welcome to review the videos for any reason, but please note that attendance
and class participation are still expected and counted toward your grade.
· Please bring a name tent to each class (or make one). I try hard to give accurate credit
for class participation, but it is difficult to memorize everyone’s face in a short course.
Student-Faculty Lunches
I would be glad to have lunch with groups of students during the course, or in Q4 after it
concludes. For reference, I work in three primary areas: Internet and telecommunications
regulation; technology industry trends; and gamification (application of digital game design
techniques to business). I would be glad to discuss any of these topics, or issues more directly
related to the course.
If you are interested in scheduling a lunch, please sign up in groups of 3-7 through the tool
provided on the Canvas course site.
Ethics Matrix