Ethics Exam 2 Chapter 8 & 9

The individual responsible for implementing disciplinary action for violation of a firm's ethics standards is usually the

ethics officer.

Which of the following is not an advantage of having a comprehensive code of conduct?

To help employees fight for satisfactory levels of compensation and benefits.

One of the main reasons employees do not report observed misconduct is

fear of retaliation

________________may be more inclined to engage in unethical organizational conduct because of social isolation that creates insensitivity and a lower level of motivation to regulate ethical decision making.

Top managers

All of the following are useful in monitoring ethical conduct and measuring the effectiveness of the ethical program except

firing

Codes of conduct

formal statements that describe what an organization expects of its employees in terms of ethical behavior.

Which of the following is not a main goal of successful ethics programs?

Allow employees to solve ethical issues themselves using their best judgment

Social Audit

Assessing and reporting on a business's performance in fulfilling the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities expected of it by its stakeholders

Risks in Ethics Auditing

Auditing does not assure that ethical risks and challenges can be avoided Assessing risk and identifying standards of comparison can be challenging

Which of the following is the most comprehensive?

Code of ethics

Output Control

Comparing standards with actual behavior

Benefits of Ethics Auditing

Detects misconduct before it becomes a major problem Helps understand the ethical culture in an organization Highlights trends, improves organizational learning, and facilitates communication and working relationships Improves relationships with stakeholders

Which of the following is a common mistake made in implementing an ethics program?

Developing materials that do not address the needs of the average employee

Measuring non-Financial Performance------Triple Bottom Line

Economic, social, and environmental indicators

Which of the following is an advantage of a values-based ethics program over a compliance-based one?

Employees learn to make decisions based on values such as fairness, compassion, respect, and transparency

Effective Ethics Program

Ensures employees understand ethical values and comply with the policies and codes of conduct Helps avoid legal problems Developed as an organizational control system to help predict employee behavior

Types of Controls

Formal, Output, Process

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Framework that companies have adopted to report their social and sustainability progress Goal - Mainstreaming of disclosure on environmental, social, and governance performance Used by businesses to develop a standardized method of reporting nonfinancial results Provides users a point of comparison with other companies' sustainability initiatives

What is not a common mistake when designing and implementing an ethics program?

Having top management take ownership of the ethics program

______________serve as a central contact point where critical comments, dilemmas, and advice can be assigned to the person most appropriate for handling a specific case.

Hotlines

Most executives feel that which of the following is the primary reason for much of the unchecked misconduct in business?

Inadequate ethics and compliance programs

Formal Control

Include input controls such as proper selection of employees, effective ethics training, and strong structural systems

Which of the following statements about training is false?

It can dictate personal ethics on the job

Process Controls

Management's commitment to the ethics program and the methods or system for ethics evaluation

Ethics Audit

Systematic evaluation of an organization's ethics program and performance to determine effectiveness EX: is a tool that companies can employ to identify and measure their ethical commitment to stakeholders.

Aurico is a company that offers ethics hotline maintenance and monitoring services for organizations. Which component of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations compliance program does this service help organizations to satisfy?

Systems for monitoring, auditing, and reporting misconduct

Which of the following statements about codes of conduct is false?

They guarantee an ethical business climate

A strong ethics program includes all of the following elements except

a clause promising good stock market performance

Organizational Misconduct

can contribute to diminished employee trust and increased employee turnover

At the heart of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations is a

carrot-and-stick philosophy that rewards efforts to improve ethics.

A_________________generates an ethical program that creates order by requiring that employees identify with and commit to specific required conduct using legal terms and statutes.

compliance orientation

For an ethical compliance program to properly function

consistent enforcement and disciplinary action are essential

A code of ethics that does not address specific high-risk activities within the scope of daily activities is

inadequate.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

increased the responsibilities on ethics officers and boards of directors to monitor financial reporting?

To ensure that an ethics program addresses the needs of the average employee, it should include all of the following except

lengthy legal documents

Fostering ethical decision making within an organization requires improving the firm's ethical standards and

terminating the "bad apples" in the organization

Organizations can become "bad barrels" not because of unethical individuals but because

the pressure to succeed creates opportunities that reward unethical decisions

In the absence of ethics programs, employees are likely to make decisions based on

their observations of how their coworkers and superiors behave

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations require federal judges to increase fines for organizations that continually

tolerate misconduct.

In the long run, a(n)___________orientation may be better for companies, perhaps because it increases employees' awareness of ethics issues at work.

values