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Course Syllabus
5 Modules, 40-50 Hours
New: Explore AI-focused content throughout the course that connects leadership concepts to real-world AI developments. Through new faculty insights and interactive activities, you'll examine AI's role in judgment, fairness, accountability, and responsible decision-making.
Understand what “gray-area situations” are and the reflective leadership model to start assessing difficult circumstances and improve your decision-making skills.
Highlights
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Alex’s final decision
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Development of Antegren
Concepts
Course Introduction and Overview of the Reflective Leadership Model
The Complexities of Business-Customer Relationships
Applying the Reflective Leadership Questions
Ethical Practices with Business Customers
Featured Exercises
Examine gray-area decisions related to customers
Apply the reflective leadership model to work through a crisis
Differentiate between customers, clients, and counterparties
Module 2
Ensuring Fairness for Employees
7-9 hours
Learn how to make a fair workplace culture at scale that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, and analyze how personal beliefs might influence decision-making. Develop techniques to combat bias.
Highlights
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What is Fairness
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Organizational Fairness and Challenges
Concepts
Employee Considerations
An Analysis Using the Reflective Leadership Framework
Examining Employee Responsibilities at Scale: What Can We Learn from Google?
Review and Self-Reflection
Featured Exercises
Analyze your biases and reflect on past decisions to help identify problem areas
Consider how employee rights factor into firing decisions
Identify three types of fairness in employee-employer relationships
Module 3
Investor Responsibilities and Fiduciary Duties
7-9 hours
Explore due diligence and how fiduciary duties influence leadership responsibilities. Unpack the tensions leaders face when balancing value creation for investors with accountability to other constituencies.
Highlights
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What Can We Learn
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Briefing on Wilder's Plan
Concepts
Theranos: Where Does the Responsibility Lie?
Power and Money at TXU Corporation
From TXU to Energy Future Holdings
Review and Self-Reflection
Featured Exercises
Evaluate long-versus short-term responsibilities through the lens of different stakeholder interests
Reflect on the responsibilities of founders, CEOs, and boards
Module 4
The Social Responsibility of Business
7-9 hours
Understand different perspectives on the role of business in society and why an organizational approach focusing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues can—and should—be financially viable.
Highlights
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Purpose of the Firm
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The Tazreen Fire
Concepts
The Changing Role of Business in Society
Engaging with Harms in the Garment Industry
SA Taxi: One Firm’s Response to Harms
Long-Term Value Through Commitment to Society
Featured Exercises
Analyze an organization’s goals by reflecting on your company’s purpose
Identify different types of harms most common in your industry
Module 5
Reflective Leadership in a Digital World
7-9 hours
Discover how the scale, scope, and speed of business in Big Tech affects leadership responsibilities and integrate your knowledge of the reflective leadership model through a critical analysis of Facebook.
Highlights
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Mossberg and Spar about Privacy
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Frances Haugen - Civic Integrity Work
Concepts
Leadership Changes in the Digital Age
Awareness: Considerations and Responsibilities at Facebook
Judgment: What Should Facebook Do?
How Should Facebook Do It?
Featured Exercises
Develop action plans to address specific company problems
Reflect on past mistakes and issues in tech to identify improvement areas
Identify your strengths and weaknesses when dealing with ethical decision-making
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes, including applying the reflective leadership framework.
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HBS Online courses allow you to immerse yourself in a dynamic, interactive learning experience. You’ll engage in a new activity every three to five minutes and apply your knowledge through polls, quizzes, and problem-solving exercises designed to accelerate and reinforce your learning.
Real-World Connections
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
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See how the HBS Online course platform engages you in social learning. You exchange ideas, offer input, and seek out viewpoints from a community of learners gathered from around the globe. In the process, you learn from each other’s experiences and perspectives, and leave the program with a broader outlook on the world.
Real-World Cases
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading companies like Facebook, Google, and SA Taxi.
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Our courses allow you to apply your learning through real-world examples and experience Harvard Business School’s signature case method. Business leaders will share challenges they’ve faced. As the story unfolds, you’ll leverage course concepts, vital tools and frameworks, and the diversity of your peers’ perspectives to analyze the problem and determine a path forward.
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HBS Online courses allow you to immerse yourself in a dynamic, interactive learning experience. You’ll engage in a new activity every three to five minutes and apply your knowledge through polls, quizzes, and problem-solving exercises designed to accelerate and reinforce your learning.
Don’t be intimidated by the Harvard name or the price tag. Try one course; you’ll discover real value—not just in what you learn, but in the people you meet.
Ieva Ruža
Medical Doctor, Riga East Clinical University Hospital
Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability FAQs
Free E-Book
How to Become a More Effective Leader
Explore the difference between leadership and management, the qualities and skills that characterize an effective leader, and how you can unleash the potential in yourself and others.
Bring HBS Online’s flexible, scalable, and high-impact learning experiences to your organization through shared learning and group discounts for teams of five or more.
