ch 10-12
There are no conditions that will allow the biosphere to produce resources and absorb wastes indefinitely. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'False'.
Defenders of globalization argue that international economic integration is an essential step in worldwide economic growth, which alone can adequately address worldwide poverty and deprivation. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
Discrimination, in itself, does not give rise to ethical problems unless the criteria for making it are unethical or unfair. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
If the productive activities used in the classical model of economics continue, the entire model will prove unstable because these activities may move resources through the system at a rate that outgrows the productive capacity of the earth or the earth's capacity to absorb their wastes and by-products. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
In one area of emerging environmental policy consensus, the real ethical issue in the debate over the use of nonhuman natural objects as resources is not that we use them, but which objects we use, how, what for, and the rate at which we use them. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
In spite of significant gains in many professional careers, women remain clustered in lower-paid and lower-status jobs, are relatively absent from higher-paying, blue-collar, and management positions, and continue to be paid lower wages than men. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
In the current decade, the idea of sustainability has become the primary model for understanding business's environmental responsibilities. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
Market solutions to environmental pollution fallaciously presume that what is good and rational for a collection of individuals is necessarily good and rational for a society. As a result, important ethical and policy questions can be missed and that can lead to serious environmental harm. Under the market model, for example, restricting sales of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and treating them as trucks with higher gas mileage standards or increasing taxes on gasoline would never be considered. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
No country is entirely self-sufficient in either producing, or finding markets for, its good and services. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
The "reasonable person" standard for judging the severity of workplace sexual harassment may mean what the average person considers reasonable, and that understanding may simply ingrain notions of reasonable behavior fashioned by the male offenders and may fail to adequately address injustice. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
Choose the statements that do not support the idea that international businesses should rely on local firms and independent contractors to supply workers in host countries. Select one: To benefit from less costly local labor, business should hire workers directly and take full and direct responsibility for how they are treated. Hiring individuals as contractors on a per-item basis avoids having to pay fair wages and benefits. As independent contractors, these individuals are responsible for the terms and conditions of their own employment. Local firms are better equipped to recruit competent workers who will be satisfied with minimum wages. A and D. A and B.
The correct answer is: A and B.
Which of the following rights might clearly be the sole responsibility of government rather than of international business? Select one: The right to minimal education. The right to nondiscriminatory treatment. The right to physical security. The right to a fair trial. A and D. B and C.
The correct answer is: A and D.
Choose the action that exemplifies affirmative action—that is, taking extra steps that move beyond passive nondiscrimination. Select one: Providing special support through the human resources office for women or people of color who are hired Taking steps to provide greater security for women than what is offered to men Advertising jobs in media that appeal to women or minorities Deliberately recruiting qualified women and minority candidates All of the answers are correct. None of the answers are correct.
The correct answer is: All of the answers are correct.
Identify the ways in which the process of international economic integration has increasingly become more common and accelerated in the last decade or two. Select one: International trade agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have been established. The euro was adopted in 2002 within the European Union, establishing a common currency. Monetary policies established by the International Monetary Fund have made it increasingly easy for capital to flow between countries. International loans from the World Bank have supported major development projects throughout the world. All of the answers are correct. None of the answers are correct.
The correct answer is: All of the answers are correct.
Question text Select the statement that does not challenge the narrow view of the economic model of corporate social responsibility. Select one: Important ethical and policy questions can be missed if policy decisions are left solely to the outcome of individual decisions. Business's only responsibility is to maximize profit within the law, and in so doing, fulfills its role within a market system, which, in turn, serves the greater overall social good. The "costs" of pollution are typically borne by parties external to the economic exchange, so free market exchanges cannot guarantee optimal results. Public goods such as a stable climate, clean air, and ocean fisheries have no established market price.
The correct answer is: Business's only responsibility is to maximize profit within the law, and in so doing, fulfills its role within a market system, which, in turn, serves the greater overall social good.
Select the reasoning that challenges support for the ethical case for free trade and international economic cooperation. Select one: The pursuit of profit within social and economic arrangements that secure free and open competition will allocate resources to their most highly valued uses and distribute those resources in ways that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Economic integration is a major impediment to conflict—the more countries cooperate economically, the less likely they will want to go to war. International competition for labor, jobs, goods and services, natural resources, and capital will, over time, increase the overall well-being of everyone. Even though newly employed workers in the poorer countries who are forced to take jobs that are at a subsistence level in sweatshop conditions are better off in these jobs than they would be without them, the choice to work under such conditions is little more than extortion and exploitation by business.
The correct answer is: Even though newly employed workers in the poorer countries who are forced to take jobs that are at a subsistence level in sweatshop conditions are better off in these jobs than they would be without them, the choice to work under such conditions is little more than extortion and exploitation by business.
One of the major arguments for preferential treatment in hiring is that such policies are a legitimate means for compensating people for harms they have suffered. To fail to compensate continues a practice of undeserved advantages for white males having to compete in an unfairly restricted job pool and undeserved disadvantages for victims of discrimination. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
Pollution of any type is an example of market failure due to negative externalities. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
Quid pro quo harassment cases that involve trading sexual realties with workplace benefits are forms of coercion or extortion. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
The argument that the free, competitive international market will provide a more efficient and optimal distribution of economic goods and services is utilitarian in that the recipient of the market's benefits is the collective "greatest number of people" while allowing that the market may cause harm to actual individuals and their families in the process. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
The fact that political and economic elites in other countries tolerate corrupt and unethical conduct and are the very ones to benefit from that conduct in certain cases does not provide evidence to support the claim that what we take as unethical is ethically acceptable there. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
The most effective way to create a diverse workplace is to use categories of sex, race, or ethnicity as a criterion for hiring or promotion, but it violates equality by denying equal opportunity for white males. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
When an employer seeks to increase the applicant pool for its positions, no white male's rights are violated because no white male has been denied anything to which he had a legitimate ethical claim. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'True'.
If environmental, labor, consumer, and other ethical regulations are accepted and endorsed universally, they prove to be barriers to fair and open competition. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'False'.
If free trade and greater international economic integration can improve the economic well-being of any nation that adopts free trade and free market policies, it follows that these policies can improve the economic well-being of all countries. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'False'.
The word "sex" can mean sex as gender or sex as sexuality. Even though the treatment a woman receives in a case of quid pro quo sexual harassment is unequal, it only involves sexuality and, as a result, cannot be a case of gender discrimination as well. Select one: True False
The correct answer is 'False'.
Identify the statement that challenges the perspective that ad hoc attempts to repair market failures are environmentally inadequate. Select one: Markets can work to prevent harm only through information supplied by the existence of market failures. We learn about market failures and thereby prevent harms in the future only by sacrificing the first generation as a means for gaining this information. External costs should be internalized, and property rights should be assigned to unowned goods such as wild species. Business has wider environmental responsibilities than those required under a narrow free market approach.
The correct answer is: External costs should be internalized, and property rights should be assigned to unowned goods such as wild species.
Select the preferential treatment policy that is likely to raise the least serious ethical challenge. Select one: Identifying members of previously disadvantaged groups in the pool of qualified candidates and giving them preference in the hiring decision Hiring members of disadvantaged groups with only minimal consideration given to their qualifications Identifying members of previously disadvantaged groups in the pool of candidates who are less qualified than white males and giving them preference in the hiring decision Giving preference to otherwise qualified but previously disadvantaged candidates
The correct answer is: Giving preference to otherwise qualified but previously disadvantaged candidates
Select the statement that does not identify a problem that suggests that the regulatory approach will prove inadequate over the long term. Select one: It underestimates the influence that business can have in establishing the law. It underestimates the ability of business to influence consumer choice. It assumes that business fulfills its environmental responsibility when it responds to the environmental demands of consumers. It assumes that economic growth is environmentally and ethically benign.
The correct answer is: It assumes that business fulfills its environmental responsibility when it responds to the environmental demands of consumers.
Here are some ethical reasons for regulating economic activity. Determine which ones are not likely to be judged a barrier to free trade. Select one: Protecting domestic industries Protecting workers and consumers Protecting the environment Protecting family farms All of the answers are correct. None of the answers are correct.
The correct answer is: None of the answers are correct.
Identify the arguments that have not been used to support or refute the ethical legitimacy of preferential hiring policies. Select one: Preferential hiring is a means of providing more role models for young women and people of color. These policies are obligatory means for compensating people for harms they have suffered. Such policies should be rejected because they may create more discrimination as a backlash against gender or racial preferences. These policies violate the rights of white males. All of the answers are correct. None of the answers are correct.
The correct answer is: None of the answers are correct.
Select the statement that is not an objection to insisting that diversity of values in cultures entails compromising because of ethical relativism. Select one: It is a mistake to conclude too quickly that because cultures are diverse, they necessarily hold diverse ethical values. Given different circumstances, conduct that might be condemned or excused in one context might not be excused or condemned in another. But, excusing unethical behavior is not the same as justifying it. Attempts to justify or excuse otherwise unethical conduct by appeals to local values and customs that are advanced only to contribute to the bottom line are simply another instance where ethical responsibilities restrict self-interest. This fact alone is not a good reason to abandon ethics in the face of a disagreement of values. Even in cases where a local culture holds values different from one's own, a person's own integrity would require that one's personal values not be abandoned. All of the answers are correct. None of the answers are correct.
The correct answer is: None of the answers are correct.
Choose the statement that does not provide a reasonable way for international businesses to treat their employees in foreign countries on a comparable level with their treatment of employees in their home countries. Select one: Pay wages and benefits that are very similar in the home and host countries. If it takes two people earning minimum wages to support a family of four just above the poverty level in the United States, a minimum wage in the host country would be similarly determined. Pay wages and benefits that are somewhere between those paid in the home country and the minimal wages that will get people to work in the host country. All of the answers are correct. None of the answers are correct.
The correct answer is: Pay wages and benefits that are very similar in the home and host countries.
Which of the following is an argument in support of preferential hiring? Select one: Preferential hiring is unlikely to interfere with the right to equal treatment of white males as it is reparative in nature. Preferential hiring is an ethically legitimate means for compensating people for the harms that they have suffered. Preferential hiring is based on the concept that the most qualified candidate has earned or deserves the job. Preferential hiring policies are unlikely to create more discrimination as a backlash against gender or racial preferences.
The correct answer is: Preferential hiring is an ethically legitimate means for compensating people for the harms that they have suffered.
Which of the following statements is true of market failures? Select one: A. Ad hoc attempts to repair market failures have proved to be environmentally adequate. B. Market failures bolster the ability of economic markets to achieve a sound environmental policy. C. Sacrificing the first generation of public goods as a means for gaining information on market failures is an ill-advised strategy. D. Market failures occur when abundant markets exist to create a price for important social goods.
The correct answer is: Sacrificing the first generation of public goods as a means for gaining information on market failures is an ill-advised strategy.
Identify a true statement about environmental regulations. Select one: Currently, the primary legal avenue open for addressing environmental concerns in business is tort law. National environmental regulations are sufficient to address international environmental challenges. The current approach to environmental regulations underestimates the influence that business can have in establishing the law. Environmental laws enacted during the 1970s shifted the burden of proof from those who cause the harm to those threatened with harm.
The correct answer is: The current approach to environmental regulations underestimates the influence that business can have in establishing the law.
Choose the statement that defenders of the circular flow model, which explains the nature of economic transactions in terms of a flow of resources from businesses to households, would agree with. Select one: The services that resources yield can be provided in many ways by substituting different factors of production and are, therefore, infinite. If resources are moved through the classical model of a productive system at a rate that outpaces the productive capacity of the earth or the earth's capacity to absorb wastes and by-products of the system, the entire classical model will prove unstable. The possibility that the economy can grow indefinitely to keep up with significant population growth is ignored by this model. Many resources like clean air, drinkable water, fertile soil, and food, under the circular flow model, cannot be replaced by the remaining factors of production.
The correct answer is: The services that resources yield can be provided in many ways by substituting different factors of production and are, therefore, infinite.
Identify the reason for not believing that it would be correct to shift from the reasonable "man" or reasonable "person" standard to the reasonable "women" standard for identifying conduct that unreasonably interferes with work. Select one: The shift from reasonable man to reasonable "person" should alert us to the possibility that "person" is simply a disguised version of "man." Unless, as one judge has ruled, the outlook of the reasonable women is adopted, defendants and courts are permitted to sustain ingrained notions of reasonable behavior as fashioned by male offenders. The reasonable "person" standard can have the effect of simply maintaining the status quo in a workplace that remains very male-oriented. This shift can reinforce the unacceptable sexual and paternalistic stereotype of women as more sensitive, fragile, and delicate than men and that, therefore, women need extra protection from the rough and tough workplace.
The correct answer is: This shift can reinforce the unacceptable sexual and paternalistic stereotype of women as more sensitive, fragile, and delicate than men and that, therefore, women need extra protection from the rough and tough workplace.
Identify the statement that does not meet Natural Capitalism's principles for the redesign of business to meet its environmental responsibilities. Select one: To serve the needs of the poorest 75 percent of the world's population, ecoefficient business practices focus on ways of increasing efficiency and, therefore, decreasing resource use by a factor of 5 to 10. To serve the needs of the poorest 75 percent of the world's population, the standard growth model would increase economic growth by a factor of 5 to 10. The principle of biomimicry attempts to eliminate by-products once lost as waste and pollution and reintegrate them into the production process or return them as a benign or beneficial product to the biosphere. Models of business as a producer of goods should be replaced with a model of business as a provider of services.
The correct answer is: To serve the needs of the poorest 75 percent of the world's population, the standard growth model would increase economic growth by a factor of 5 to 10.
Choose the statement that does not support the claim that justice requires preferential hiring and promotion to compensate people for the harms they have suffered. Select one: Compensation is not being paid by young white males but by private business or society. These white males are only being denied the competitive advantage they previously enjoyed—something they did not deserve. Preferential treatment equalizes the situation of unfair discrimination after the fact and returns it to the point that it would have been had discrimination not occurred. The only means to compensate for overall discrimination (e.g., in pay treatment) is to grant individual women preferential consideration in hiring and promotion. Young white males will lose their undeserved competitive advantage if society simply adopts equal opportunity policies.
The correct answer is: Young white males will lose their undeserved competitive advantage if society simply adopts equal opportunity policies.
