Business Ethics Final Exam

As they try and fit into a work world dominated by white men, women and minorities can be disadvantaged by

- False preconceptions -Stereotypes -prejudice attitudes

Pollution permits

-A pricing mechanism basically a license to pollute

Resolving difficult moral dilemmas

-Account for specific obligations -effects of actions -ideals actions would support or undermine

Questionable premises of the personality tests?

-Are they useful and valid with a relatively small sample size. -Tests may have little to no research backing them

Arguments for Affirmative Action

-Compensatory Justice -Necessary to permit fairer compensation -break the cycle

3 sources of job dissatisfaction

-Concern with quantity over quality/repetition -Lack of opportunity to be your own boss -Bigness

Job Satisfaction vs. Job dissatisfaction

-Employees are satisfied when they feel valued -employees are dissatisfied when they feel undervalued (bad pay, bad leaders, etc.)

Types of discharge

-Firing: cause for dismissal (usually egregious) -Layoff: subject to recall, circumstantial necessity -Termination: poor performance -Position elimination: self explanatory

Whistle-blowing

-Informing the public about the illegal or immoral behavior of an employer or organization

Rights of employees concerning discharge

-Just cause -due process

Memphis Firefighters vs. Stotts

-Last hired, first to go -could not lay-off white firefighters with more seniority to preserve new black jobs

Traditional Law of Agency

-Places you under legal obligation to act loyally and in good faith to carry out all lawful instructions

Types of Boycotts (2)

-Primary: refusing to patronize struck companies -Secondary: refusing to patronize companies that handle products of struck companies

Views on Obligations to the company

-Profit making center so it is based on work for reward, requires no self sacrifice. No loyalty -Most people agree with the idea of company loyalty though

Factors that explain the absence of civil liberties (David Ewing)

-Rise of professional mgmt. and personnel engineering -traditionally giving the employer free hand in hiring and firing employees.

Hiring process

-Screening -Testing -Interviewing

Drawbacks to the regulatory approach

-There needs to be regulatory body in place that is both knowledgeable and equipped -Attempting to regulate all could result in diluted regulations -Regulations take away incentive to do more than required by the law -Displacement costs

7 factors to minimize unfair wages

-What is the law -Prevailing wage -community wage level -nature of the job -Job security -employer's financial capabilities -comparable work inside org.

Donald Wohlgemuth Cases

-Worked for a space station and had the opportunity to trade secrets

Common-law

-an employer may discharge an employee for any reason or no reason

Tests administered to applicants

-aptitude -skills -personality

Johnson vs. Transportation Agency

-hired equally qualified female over male because of affirmative action

Arguments against Affirmative Action

-injures white men and infringes on their rights -violates principle of equality -nondiscrimination will achieve social goals

Abuse of Official Position

-misusing expense accounts, billing clients for travel expenses, etc.

H. Ross Perot Views on corporate life today

-power struggles, maneuvering, politics, power grabbing, Machiavellian intrigues

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

-provides protection from employers who whistle-blow from discharge,demotion, suspension, threats, harassment and other things

Approaches to environmental protection

-regulations -incentives -pricing mechanisms/permits

What testing needs to be successful

-validity -reliability

Choose the factual precept concerning wages

A fair wage presupposes a fair work contract

Griggs vs. Duke Power

shifts burden of proof to employer in the instance of institution wide policy that negatively affects minority groups

Conflicts of interest

special or private interests that interfere with a job

An early 1970s government study (Work in America) identified three chief sources of worker dissatisfaction which of the following is one of those sources?

the rigidity of rules and regulations

Joel Feinberg's view on future generations

whatever future humans turn out to be like, they will have interests that we can affect right now.

Direct Strike

withholding labor to pressure employers.

In the 1997 case of the U.S. v Hagan the supreme court found that Hagan

Had misappropriated confidential information

Which of these statements is true concerning court cases about discrimination?

In the recent University of Michgan cases the Supreme court upheld moderate, flexible affirmative action programs

Ecology

Interrelationships among organisms and their environments

Francis Bacon's view on conscious and unconscious stereotypes

Interviewer's especially should seek to rid themselves of bias

Cost-benefit analysis

Involves value judgments and factual uncertainties

William F. Baxter addresses environmental ethics by noting

Judgments about environmental problems ought to be people-oriented

Which of these is a valid reasoning for not hiring a potential employee

Lack of experience

Groups of 18th century skilled artisans formed secret societies for two basic reasons. which of the following is one of those reasons?

To equalize their relationship with their employers

Workers killed on the job each year

about 5,000

Insider Trading

buying or selling stocks with information that has not been made public.

Polygraph tests

can produce false positives

Assessment of costs and benefits

evaluates a projects direct and indirect costs and benefits, the difference being the net result to society

Fair personnel policies and decisions must be based on criteria that are clear, job related, and

Equally applied

U.S. vs Hogan

Established Misappropriation theory w/ insider trading

U.S. Companies have a history of paying off foreign officials for business favors. Such acts were declared illegal by the ______ ______ ______ ____

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Business' Traditional Attitude toward the environment

Seen as free, nearly limitless good

According to the philosopher Joel Feinberg,

The rights of future generations are contingent upon those people coming into existence

According to David Ewing, two factors explain the absence of civil liberties and the prevalence of authoritarianism in the workplace. which of the following is one of them?

The rise of personnel engineering and professional management

Since Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1994 employees must make "_________ _______" for disabled workers

"Reasonable accommodations"

The proper approach to promote safety is found in the "hidden culture" which is

a culture that is proactively oriented toward safety

Job Discrimination

1. Employment decision harms or disadvantages 2. Decision based on individuals membership of a certain group 3.Decision is based on prejudice

What to do if you encounter sexual harassment

1. Make it clear the advances are unwanted 2. Document it is it persists 3. Complain to appropriate supervisor with facts

Types of Sexual Harassment

1. Quid-pro-quo 2. Hostile Work Environement

Drug Testing Perspectives:

1. The issue of drugs in daily life isn't as high as people say 2.Must be pertinent to employment 3.What are the intentions for putting the test into play? 4. Must respect dignity of employees

Giving receiving gifts in a business situation factors to consider:

1. Value 2. Purpose 3. Circumstances 4. Authority of person receiving gift 5. Accepted practice in business 6. Company policy 7. Law

Sexual comments and behavior are unwelcome if:

1. submissions is explicitly or implicitly necessary for employment 2. Submission determines progress in an org. 3. interrupts employees work and performance

Job satisfaction for employees

1. sufficient help 2. support and information 3. authority 4. good pay 5. opportunity to develop skills 6. job security 7. chance to see results of work.

"Trade Secret"

Can be any information not generally known if it is valuable to its possessor and treated confidentially

many major employer routinely monitor the performance of their employees through the computers and telephones they use. The one check that they can do is

Check the number of keystrokes that word processors enter during the day

Drug Testing: Journal of the American Medical Association

Drugs increased likelihood of negative work-related issues.

Theory X

Managers believe employees dislike work and will do everything they can to avoid it

According to the text book a _______ vegetarian rejects eating meat based on moral grounds

Moral

Conflicts of interests are what type of problem

Moral

Anthropocentric (human-oriented) view (Baxter's view)

Nature has value because humanity values it

OSHA

Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration

Tragedy of commons

Parable describing the consequences of belief in limitless natural resources

Per the textbook, what is the most common reason people leave their jobs?

Poor relationship with their immediate supervisor

According to Professor Norman Bowie, which of the following factors is relevant to determining the motivation blowing the whistle?

Public interest morally outweighs loyalty to the organization

When Investigators send equally qualified young white and black men - all of them articulate and conventionally dressed - to apply for entry-level jobs in Chicago and Washington D.C., the results clearly showed

Racial discrimination against African-American men

Today most large corporations not only accept the necessity of affirmative action but also find that _____ benefits when they make themselves more diverse?

The bottom line

Which of the following statements is accurate?

The law treats sexual harassment as a form of sexual discrimination

Hawthorne Effect

When employees feel valued, productivity increases

Some environmental regulation(like forbidding the burning of coal in cities) benefit each and everyone of us because the air we all breathe is cleaner. if an individual ignores the regulation and burns coal, while others obey the regulation, then he or she

is being a free rider

Factory farms

mass production of animal generated products

Privacy

must be respected if we are to function as complete, self-governing agents

Foreign Corrupt Trade Practices Act of 1977

prohibits use corporations of participating in bribery