bus/ethics exam
6. How does government influence business? The public influence the government? Business influence the public?
Government / Business Relationship • Lobbying Public / Government Relationship • Voting • Electing officials Business / Public Relationship • Advertising • Public Relations • Other forms of communication
12. What is the disclosure rule?
"How would I feel if others knew if I was doing this"--- if you would not be comfortable with people knowing you did something, don't do it
. What is the test of one's best self?
"Is this action or decision I'm getting ready to take compatible with my concept of myself at my best" if the proposed course of action is not consistent with your perception of yourself at your best don't engage in it
3. What are examples of the questionable marketing practices that Nestle used to infant formula promotion in poor countries? What was they did legal? Ethical? Why?
"Milk nurses" sales women dressed up as nurses telling women to convert to powder formula, free samples radio jingles and billboards were also used. Was legal, but not ethical b/c once the women started using the formula, they couldn't go back to breast feeding, babies got sick b/c of over dilution of formula
5. What is utilitarianism?
"We should always act so as to produce the greatest ration of good to evil for everyone" basically if consequences are good, the decision is good, if the consequences are bad, the decision is wrong
8. What is servant leadership
"serving others first" some characteristics of servant leaders listening, empathy, healing, persuasion, awareness, foresight, stewardship, building community, commitment to the growth of people. An increasingly popular approach to organizational leadership and thinking today is "servant leadership"
8. What is an example of privatization failing because the pursuit of profit works against broader social goals or public policy?
BP refinery explosion, oil spill in Prudhoe bay, deepwater horizon
5. What are examples of clashing business and government ethical systems?
Bus. Individualistic ethic Maximizes concession to self-interest Minimizes the load of obligations society imposes on the individual (personal freedom) Emphasizes inequalities of individuals Gov. Collectivistic ethic Subordinates individual goals and self-interest to group goals and group interests Maximizes obligations assumed by the individual and discouraging self-interest Emphasizes equality of individuals
6. What is the categorical imperative?
Categorical imperative is a duty based principle of ethics(deontological principle) an unconditional moral obligation which is binding in all circumstances and is not dependent on a person's inclination or purpose.
7. What are examples of legal and moral rights claimed in today's society?
Civil Rights, Minorities' Rights, Employee Rights, right to life, fetal rights, gay rights, smokers rights
11. What does C.F.R. stand for? How can an agency pass law, isn't that the function of the legislative branch?
Code of federal regulations, legal procedures generally governed by the administrative procedure act
6. What are the best practices recommended by the FTC as to consumer privacy?
Privacy by design. Companies should "build in" privacy at every stage of product development Simplified choice for customers and business- consumers should be given he ability to make decisions about their data at a relevant time and context, including through a do not track mechanism, while reducing the burden of businesses of providing unnecessary choices and: Greater transparency. Make information collection and use practices transparent
12. What are reasons for government regulation of business?
Reasons are : 1 controlling natural monopolies 2. Controlling negative externalities 3. Achieving social goods 4 control excess profits and dealing with excessive competition
18. What are the different sources of a person's values?
Religious, philosophical, cultural, legal, professional (external)Respect for structure, loyalty to bosses, conformity to principles, practices and tradition, performance and results above all else (internal)
2. What are examples of issues managers and employees face at the organizational level?
Should I set high production goals for my work team to benefit the organization, even though they may cut corners Should I over report the actual time I worked on this project, hoping to get overtime pay Should I authorize a subordinate to violate company policy, to get a reward? Should I misrepresent the warranty time on a product in order to get the sale
12. What is the significance of the work of Transparency International?
Significance of fighting corruption in private sector, politics, public contracting, international anti corruption conventions, and poverty and development.
5. What are some major threats to consumer privacy posed by the internet?
Social networks, Hackers, Behavioral Advertising, Data Stealing, Facial Recognition Technology, Geo-tags
12. What are some features of an integrity strategy?
Some features of an integrity strategy are: guiding values and commitments make sense and are clearly communicated Organizations systems and structures support and reinforce its values
11. What is special about the Siemens bribery case?
Special because settled a long standing bribes-for-business case with Siemans AG and us authorities, with a record of 1.6 billion fine, almost 20 times higher than the largest previous penalty under the FCPA, penalized for routinely offering bribes
5. What is business ethics?
Standards of moral behavior to business situations
9. What is the golden rule?
The golden rule, merits consideration because of its history and popularity as a basic and strong principle of ethical living and decision making. "Do unto others as you would have them do to you"
2. Why is the government considered a major stakeholder of business?
The governments role in regulation of business
1. Why is public interest in business ethics at an all- time high?
The public's interest in business ethics is at an all-time high, spurred by headline-grabbing scandals. Enron scandal, "the enron effect"
17. Why does Gilligan think that Kohlberg's findings are only accurate as to men?
They do not generalize to women, Gilligan's view, men tend to deal with moral issues in terms that are impersonal, impartial and abstract. But women previewed themselves to be a part of a network of relationships with family and friends thus are more focused on relationship maintenance and hurt avoidance when they confront moral issues "ethics of care
9. What should a company do if the course of action it is pursuing is legal and ethical but not profitable?
They should either avoid this action all together, or find a way to make it profitable
8. What are the sources of ethical norms communicated to individuals?
Through fellow workers, family, friends, the law, religious beliefs, community, region of country, profession, employer, society at large
14. What led to the Cuyahoga river fire in Cleveland?
Water pollution, oil in the water.
14. What do ethicists think of cultural relativism?
When they adopt the cultural standards of ethical/moral standards or host country.
15. What are some strategies for improving global business ethics?
create global codes of conduct (universal principles and guidelines that must be followed when doing business around the world) -integrate ethics into a global strategy -suspend activities in host country (when unbridgeable gaps between ethical values of its home and host countries) -create ethical impact statements and audits (Chapter 10 - page 328
9. What are arguments for and against bribery?
for: Necessary for profits in order to do business, everyone does it-it will happen anyway, it is an accepted practice in many companies against: Bribes are inherently wrong, bribes are illegal in the us and most developed nations, one should not compromise her or his own beliefs.
3. Why looking historically we find that there is a "pendulum" of government regulation?
public sentiment has been cyclical, too much power gov had over business, and not enough
6. What is the difference between descriptive ethics and normative ethics?
• Normative ethics: the study of the principles, rules, or theories that guide our actions and judgments • Normative studies theories that guide our thoughts while descriptive studies the actual thoughts and behavior Descriptive ethics: describes and explains how people think and behave when faced with moral issues
19. What are the elements of moral judgment?
1. Moral Imagination 2. Moral identification and Ordering 3. Moral Evaluation 4. Tolerance of moral disagreement and ambiguity 5. Integration or managerial and moral competence 6 a sense of moral obligation
13. What are the seven habits of moral leaders?
1. they have a passion to do right. 2 they are morally proactive. 3. They consider all stakeholders. 4. They have a strong ethical character. 5. They have an obsession with fairness. 6. They undertake principled decision making 7. They integrate ethics wisdom with management wisdom
16. What are Kohlberg's levels of moral development?
1.Preconventional level (1. Reaction to punishment, 2. Seeking of rewards) 2. Conventional level (3. Good boy/nice girl morality, 4. Law and order morality) 3. Post conventional, Autonomous, or Principled level (5. Social-contract orientation 6. Universal ethical principle orientation)
2. What is the dilemma of the MNC?
A MNC is a multinational corporation -corporations operating with offices, factories, and headquarters in more than one country -most major US corporations -underlying challenges: corporate legitimacy, differing philosophies between MNC's and host countries, and MNC and host country challenges (Chapter 10 - page 304) MNC Corporate legitimacy= -must fulfill its social responsibilities (economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic) -similarities and differences between cultures of two countries affects legitimacy too (Chapter 10 - page 305) The dilemma of the monk is that, many Less developed countries have different priorities than the US does(different stakeholder pressures from home country vs host country)
5. What is the Fair Labor Association? How does it help eliminate sweatshops?
A non-profit of clothing firms, unions, and human rights groups focused on the worldwide elimination of sweatshops. Helps to eliminate sweatshops by using large companies to back them in order to make new proposals
3. What are cookies?
A way by which companies invade consumer's privacy Identification tags that Web sites drop on our personal computer hard drives so they can recognize repeat visitors the next time we visit their Web sites
7. What is industrial policy?
Any selective government measure that prevents or promotes changes in the structure of an economy
6. What is SA8000? What is its significance?
-An effort to improve sweatshop conditions created by Social Accountability International (SAI) 1. Child labor 2. Forced labor 3. Health and Safety 4. Freedom of Association and Right to Collective Bargaining 5. Discrimination 6. Discipline 7. Working hours 8. Compensation 9. Management systems -a number of companies have developed global outsourcing guidelines in an attempt to monitor their production facilities (Chapter 10 - page 315-316)
4. What are sweatshops?
-characterized by child labor, low pay, poor working conditions, worker exploitation, and health and safety violations -increased scrutiny of sweatshop practices in recent years -MNC's use of women and children to cheaply staff factories -many major corporations and many countries have been involved -FLA = Fair Labor Association (Chapter 10 - page 314)
8. What is bribery?
-relatively large amounts of money given for the purpose of influencing officials to make decisions or take actions that they otherwise might not take -money given, often to high-ranking officials, to get them to purchase goods or services -to do illegal things (Chapter 10 - page 319)
1. What is the transnational economy?
-the new expanded marketplace (global) -trade in goods, a much smaller trade in services, the international movement of labor, and international flows of capital and information -managers have to deal with differing customers, protocols, ways of operating, laws, and standards of acceptable business practices -business must strive to be a leader in all developed markets (Chapter 10 - page 300)
10. What makes the golden rule attractive as a method of ethical decision making?
1 accepted by mostly everyone 2 easy to understand 3 is a win-win philosophy 4 acts as a compass when you need direction
3. What are examples of misconduct reported by managers and employees?
Abusive or intimidating behavior toward employees (23 percent) Misreporting actual time or hours worked (20 percent) Lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public (19 percent) Stealing theft or fraud, discrimination based on race, color, gender, age, or similar category
2. What are some ongoing ethical issues as to e-commerce?
Access-Intellectual property-Privacy and informed consent-Protection of children-Security of information -Trust Invasion of privacy via e-commerce -Identity theft -Unintentionally revealing information -Lost/stolen personal information -Fake Web sites -Government distribution of information -Broadcasting information over the Internet -Victim of spying -Cyberstalking
7. Describe the conventional approach to business ethics?
An approach whereby a decision, practice, or policy is compared with prevailing norms of acceptability in society; based on ordinary, common sense Based on how common, everyday society views business ethics today, the conventional approach is based on ordinary, common sense and prevailing practice
4. What is spam?
Another way companies invade consumers privacy, spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail. It is sent through "open-relays" to millions of persons. Takes a toll on internet users time, resources and internet resources
1. Ethical issues arise at how many different levels? What are these levels?
Personal Level, Organizational Level, and Industry or Profession level
17. What is deregulation? What are some of its causes?
Deregulation is intended to increase competition with the expected benefits of greater efficiency, lower prices and enhanced innovation Dilemma are competitors are unable to compete with the dominant firms. Must enhance competition without sacrificing applicable social regulations
14. What is the test of purified idea?
Don't think that others, such as an accountant, a lawyer, or a boss can "purify" your proposed action by saying they think that it is "okay". It still may be wrong. You will still be held responsible
15. What are the 2 basic types of government regulation of business?
Economic Regulation and Social Regulation
13. What is ethical imperialism?
Ethical imperialism is when, MNCs should continue to follow its HOME country's ethical standards while operating in another country
4. What is the ethical problem?
Ethical problems and the trust the public has for businesses
13. What is the test of ventilation?
Expose your proposed course of action to others' opinion. Don't keep your ethical dilemma to yourself, get a second opinion
3. What are examples of ethical issues businesses face?
Fair Compensation, compliance with employment laws, environmental sustainability, good corporate citizenship, protecting shareholders interest, transparency
8. What are GMFs?
Genetically modified foods or GEF (genetically engineered food) -Fear over health and environmental effects. -Major U.S. crops that are genetically modified: Sugar beets (95%) Soybeans (91%) Cotton (88%) Corn (85%) Genetically modified foods, also known as genetically engineered foods, or bioengineered foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering
14. What are examples of everyday ways that managers can display moral management?
Giving proper credit where it is due, always being honest and straightforward, treating all employees equal etc
10. What is the difference between a grease payment and a bribe?
Grease payments are to do legal things; bribes are for illegal things or to not do something -money given to minor officials to expedite processes -relatively small sums of money given for the purpose of getting minor officials to do what they are supposed to be doing, but faster and/or better -to do legal things/their jobs
1. Is it feasible or desirable to have no business regulation whatsoever? Why?
If we had no regulation the businesses would be able to do whatever they wanted to
10. What are the three models of management ethics?
Immoral Management, Moral Management, and Amoral Management
16. What are the costs of regulation?
Indirect (forms, reports), Direct (new agencies, aggregate expenditures), and induced costs: 1 Innovation may be affects 2 new investments in plant and equipment may be affected 3 small business may be adversely affected.
9. What are some non-regulatory ways that the government influences business?
Industrial policy and privatization, taxation, monetary policy, loans and loan guarantees, use of subsides
15. For a better ethics environment which is better, a compliance strategy or an integrity strategy? Explain.
Integrity strategy b/c integrity is more hands on where as a compliance strategy isnt
7. What is biometrics?
Is the use of body measurements, such as eye scans, fingerprints or palm prints for determining and confirming identity
4. What are examples of industry or professional level ethics issues?
Is this safety standard we electrical engineers have passed really adequate for protecting the consumer in this age of do-it-yourselves? Is this standard contract we mobile home sellers have adopted really keeping with the financial disclosure laws that have been strengthened recently
20. Why is having a moral imagination important?
It is important because, it allows us to be sympathetic to ethical issues in business decision making but also developing the perspective searching out subtle places where people are likely to be affected by adverse decisions.
13. What is an example of a negative externality?
Negative externality is a spillover effect or something that results when the manufacture or use of a product gives rise to unplanned or untended side effects on third parties. Ex is pollution
1. What is the ethical lag?
Occurs when the speed of technological change far exceeds that of ethical development.
