Business 101: An Introduction to Professional Responsibility

We want our students to become leaders who will make us all proud. Our students belong to many communities, including their families, our college and university, and the larger society of which we are all members. To contribute to the growth of the leaders in whom we will all take pride, the concept and practice of professional responsibility is incorporated into every element of the ILLINOIS experience.

Larry DeBrock, Dean, College of Business

 

 

BUSINESS 101: AN INTRODUCTION TO PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY is a required course for all incoming first year undergraduates—about 600 students—in the College of Business. This unique course, developed in a cross-college collaboration among faculty, the Office of Undergraduate Affairs and the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society, introduces students to the basic principles of professional responsibility and their application through three modules and recurring “two minute challenges.”

The three-module course is taught in a combination of large lectures and small sections. The large lectures feature experienced faculty who share their perspectives on ways to develop a sense of professional responsibility as an individual, as a member of a profession, and as a member of an organization that plays a critical role in society. The course aims to develop a strong sense of the meaning of participating in communities of various kinds, and why individuals should take on the responsibility and accountability that comes with being a member of those communities. Throughout the course, students practice using a decision-making framework that gives them experience solving the kinds of dilemmas they will face once they join the working world. The small sections are facilitated by experienced undergraduates who have been selected and educated in more depth on various aspects of professional responsibility and care positioned to provide guidance and facilitate discussion with the students.

Personal Responsibilities
Business 101 starts with a discussion of a professional’s personal responsibilities and provides a structured way for students to develop themselves as members of the community of business. Students create a formal resume, learn how to use the College of Business online career development tools, enhance their written and oral communication skills, start considering their values and how to match them to those of potential employers, receive advice on how to dress for success, and build relationships with alumni and corporate representatives by participating in a formal career fair.

Professional Responsibilities
Students continue the examination of their personal values in this module, learn about principles of professional responsibility in the workplace, and identify connections between the two. Using an ethical decision-making framework, students explore professional dilemmas and develop constructive ways to approach them.

Societal Responsibilities
As part of a team, students devise business solutions to poverty-based market opportunities as a way of demonstrating ways business can be professionally responsible to society as a whole. Students are introduced to subsistence marketplaces through a poverty simulation that includes interview and video analysis, lectures and virtual immersion exercises. The skills from all three modules are combined as the teams develop a product idea and business plan that emphasizes people, planet, and profits. The capstone project is a poster session demonstrating each team’s corporate governance model, including mission statements and an ethical code, as well as specific elements of a business plan.

 

 

Business 101 Team Office
1055 Business Instructional Facility
515 East Gregory Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
Advising: (217) 333-2740
Fax: (217) 244-9992

EMAIL US Business 101 Team
C.K. Gunsalus, Course Director
Victor Mullins, Associate Dean
Madhu Viswanathan, Professor
Gretchen Winter, Executive Director, Center for Professional Responsibity in Business and Society
John Hedeman, Assistant Dean
Pat Shell, Support Team
Celeste Richardson, Support Team

 

Undergraduate Affairs