International Business Final

Ethical dilemmas exist because many real-world decisions involve:

1st, 2nd, & 3rd order consequences that are hard to quantify

A situation in which none of the available alternatives seems morally acceptable is called?

An ethical dilemma

Employees in a business often take their cue from _____.

Business Leaders

Child labor is permitted and widely employed in Country X. A multinational company entering Country X decides to employ minors in its subsidiary, even though it is against the multinational's home-country ethics. Which of the following approaches to business ethics would justify the actions of the multinational company?

Cultural relativism

A firm's _____ include customers, suppliers, and lenders

External Stakeholders

Corporations can contribute to the global tragedy of the commons by not pumping pollutants into the atmosphere or dumping them in oceans or rivers.

False

Cultural relativism suggests that even if slavery is culturally acceptable in a country, a foreign firm operating in that country should avoid using slave labor.

False

Ethical strategies are the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of businesspeople.

False

Societal business ethics are divorced from personal ethics.

False

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act originally allowed "facilitating payments" to secure contracts that would not otherwise be secured

False

The Friedman doctrine is the belief that ethics are nothing more than a reflection of culture and therefore, a firm should adopt the ethics of the culture in which it is operating

False

The Sullivan principles mandated that GM could operate in South Africa as long as the company complied

False

The ethical obligations of a multinational corporation toward employment conditions, human rights, environmental pollution, and the use of power are always clear-cut.

False

The righteous moralist approach to ethics is typically associated with managers from developing and under-developed nations.

False

The utilitarian approach to ethics is a straw men approach to business ethics that has some inherent value but is unsatisfactory in important ways.

False

To establish moral intent, managers need to stand in the shoes of a stakeholder and ask how a proposed decision might impact that stakeholder.

False

To foster ethical behavior, many businesses draft a code of ethics, which is an informal statement of the ethical priorities the company follows

False

Which of the following was designed to allow GM to operate ethically in South Africa as long as the company did not obey the apartheid laws in its own South African operations?

Sullivan's Principles

Which of the following observation about the Foreign Corrupt Practices is true?

The act outlawed the paying of bribes to foreign government officials to gain business

Expatriate managers may experience more than usual degree of pressure to violate their personal ethics because which of the following?

They may be based in a culture that does not place the same value on ethical norms importance in the manager's home country

The _____ occurs when a resource is shared by all, but owned by no one, is overused by individuals, resulting in its degradation.

Tragedy of the commons

A firm's organizational culture refers to the values and norms that are shared among employees of an

True

An individual with a strong sense of personal ethics is less likely to behave in an unethical manner in a business setting

True

Building an organization culture that places a high value on ethical behavior requires incentive and reward systems.

True

Ethical dilemmas are situations in which none of the available alternatives seems ethically acceptable.

True

Ethics officers are hired by many businesses to make sure that all employees are trained to be ethically aware and that ethical considerations enter the business decision-making process at all levels of the organization

True

In a business setting, noblesse oblige is taken to mean benevolent behavior that is the responsibility of successful enterprises

True

Milton Friedman's basic position is that the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company stays within the rules of law.

True

Most moral philosophers see value in utilitarian and Kantian approaches to business ethics.

True

Social responsibility refers to the idea that businesspeople should favor decisions that have both good economic and social consequences

True

What is considered normal business practice in one country may be considered unethical in other

True

The _____ approaches to ethics hold that the moral worth of actions or practices is determined by their consequences.

Utilitarian

Cultural relativism suggests that:

a firm should adopt the ethics of the culture in which it is operating

The righteous moralist suggest that:

a multinational's home-country standards of ethics are the appropriate ones for companies to follow in foreign countries.

According to the _____ point-of-view, a firm should adopt the ethics of the culture in which it is operating.

cultural relativism

In it extreme viewpoint,_____ suggest that if a culture supports slavery, it is all right to use slave labor in the country.

cultural relativism

The Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions exclude:

facilitating payments made to expedite routine government action

An international U.S.-based company sets up a production unit in a developing country with poor environmental regulations. This contributes to the:

global tragedy of the commons

According to the naive immoralist:

if firms in host nation do not follow ethical norms then the manager of a multinational should also not follow ethical norms there

Facilitating payments

permitted under the amended Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The idea that businesspeople should consider the social consequences of economic actions when making business decisions and that there should be presumption in favor of decision that have both good economic and social consequences is known as:

social responsibility

The _____ occurs when a resource held in common by all, but owned by no one, is overused by individuals, resulting in its degradation.

tragedy of the commons

The _____ outlawed the paying of bribes to foreign government officials to gain business.

Foreign Corrupt Practices

According to____, the social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company stays within the rules of law

Friedman Doctrine

_____ arguments suggest that improving working conditions beyond the level required by the law and necessary to maximize employee productivity will reduce profits and are therefore not appropriate.

Friedman's

Companies can strengthen the _____ of employees by committing themselves to not retaliate against employees who complain about unethical actions.

Moral courage

_____ enables managers to walk away from a decision that is profitable but unethical.

Moral courage

_____ is a French term that refers to honorable and benevolent behavior considered the responsibility of people of high (noble) birth.

Noblesse Oblige

BP, one the world's largest oil companies, has made it part of the company policy to undertake "social investments" in the countries where it does business. There was no economic reason for BP to make this social investment, but the company believes it is morally obligated to give something back to the societies that have made their success possible. BP's actions are an example of:

Noblesse oblige

Which of the following, in a business setting, is taken to mean benevolent behavior that is the responsibility of successful enterprises?

Noblesse oblige

Which of the following refers to the values and norms that the employees of an organization share?

Organization culture

_____ recognize that human beings have fundamental rights and privileges that transcend national boundaries and cultures.

Right Theories

According to the _____, even if a manager of a multinational sees that firms from other nations are not following ethical norms in a host nation, that manager should maintain the standards of the company's home country.

Righteous Moralist

Facilitating payments are also known as _____.

Speed Money

_____ approaches to business ethics are raised by business ethics scholars primarily to demonstrate that they offer inappropriate ethical decision making in a multinational enterprise.

Straw Men

According to the Friedman doctrine:

businesses should not undertake social expenditures beyond those mandated by the law and required for the efficient running of a business