ETHICS MIDTERM EXAM

Super PACs

independent, expenditure-only committees

How many Stages of moral development?

6

Stage 4

Adulthood, society at large: customs, traditions, laws, society and law centered reasoning

Stage 3

Early adulthood, social groups: friends, school, coworkers, family, group centered reasoning

Stage 5

Mature Adulthood, moral beliefs above and beyond specific social customs: human rights, social contract, broad constitutional principles, principle-centered reasoning

Stage 6

Mature Adulthood, universal principles, justice, fairness, universal human rights, principle-centered reasoning

Questions to ask in stakeholder analysis

Who are relevant stakeholders? What are their interests? What are the powers of each stakeholder? How are coalitions likely to form?

Stakeholder coalitions

a diverse group of stakeholders bringing together a variety of viewpoints and experiences

Moral intensity

a person's perception of how morally severe an ethical issue is

Artificial intelligence

ability of a digital computer or computer controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings

Economic regulation

aim to modify the normal operation of the free market and the forces of supply and demand

Social regulation

aimed at such important social goals as protecting consumers and the environment and providing workers with safe and healthy working conditions

General systems theory

all organisms are open to and interact with their external environments

Business

any organization that is engaged in making a product or providing a service for a profit

Business ethics

application of general ethical ideas to business behavior

Spirituality

belief in a supreme being, religious organization, or the power of nature or some other external, life-guiding force

Social assistance policies

benefit of cash or in-kind provided on the basis of lower means or income

Interactive social system

business and society need and influence each other

Stage 1

childhood, punishment avoidance: avoid harm, obedience to power, ego-centered reasoning

Revolving door

circulation of individuals between business and government

Trade associations

coalitions of companies in the same or related industries

Cybercrime

criminal activity done using computers and the internet

Nonmarket stakeholder examples

communities, nongovernmental organizations, business support groups, governments, the general public, competitors

Utilitarian

comparing benefits and costs

Cost benefit analysis

comparing projected costs with projected benefits or opportunities to determine whether it makes sense from a business perspective

Ethics

conception of right and wrong conduct

Stakeholder theory of the firm

corporations serve a broad public purpose: to create value for society

Citizens united decision

decision that allowed corporations, including labor unions, to directly contribute to candidates for public office for the first time ever

Social consensus

degree of social agreement that a proposed act is either acceptable or unacceptable

Boundary-spanning departments

departments or offices within an organization that reach across the dividing line that separates the company from groups and people in society

3 main arguments of stakeholder theory

descriptive, instrumental, and normative

Justice

distributing fair shares

Autonomous vehicles

driverless or self-driving cars, vehicles capable of sensing the surrounding environment and navigating without human input or control

E-business

electronic exchanges that consist of buying and selling goods and services via internet based systems

Market stakeholder examples

employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, retailers/wholesalers, creditors

Regulation

established rules of conduct for citizens and organizations

Ethical relativism

ethical principles should be defined by various periods of time in history, a society traditions, the special circumstances of the moment, or personal opinion

Advocacy advertising

focus on an organization's views on controversial political issues

Virtue ethics

focuses on character traits that a good person should possess

Big data

great deal of information

Ethical principles

guides to moral behavior

Omnichannel

idea that every distribution channel must work together to deliver a unified and consistent customer experience

Intellectual property

ideas, concepts, and other symbolic creations of the human mind

Stakeholder analysis

identify relevant stakeholders and to understand their interests and the power they may have to assert these interests

Software piracy

illegal copying of copyrighted software

Reregulation

increase or expansion of government regulation, especially in areas where the regulatory activities had previously been reduced

Political action committees (PACs)

independent incorporated organizations that can solicit contributions and then channel those funds to candidates seeking public office

Right to be forgotten

individual's right to have their personal information removed from online search results upon request

Hackers

individuals, acting alone or in groups often with advanced technology training, who for thrill or profit, breach a business' information security system

Corporate political strategy

involves the activities taken by organizations to acquire, develop, and use power to obtain an advantage

Ransomware attacks

kind of cyberattack in which malware locks the data on a victim's computer and demands payment to decrypt the data

Sarbanes oxley act

law seeks to ensure that firms maintain high ethical standards in how they conduct and monitor business operations

Temporal immediacy

length of time that the predicted consequences will occur from the present moment of the decision

Probability

likelihood that a decision maker's action will lead to the consequences predicted

Factors to determine moral intensity

magnitude of consequences, proximity, social consensus, probability, temporal immediacy

Digital millennium copyright act

makes it a crime to circumvent antipiracy measures built into most commercial software agreements between the manufacturers and their users

Public affairs departments

manage the firm's interactions with governments at all levels and to promote the firm's interests in the political process

Ethical egoist

manager or employee who puts their own self-interest above all other considerations

Market failure

marketplace fails to adjust prices for the true costs of a firm's behavior

Natural monopoly

monopoly that arises or would arise through natural conditions in a free market

General data protection regulation

regulates processing of personal information of EU residents by an individual, a company, or an organization

Economic leverage

occurs when a business uses its economic power to threaten to leave a city, state, or country unless a desired political action is taken

Focal organization

organization from whose perspective the analysis is conducted

The business roundtable

organization of CEOs that study various public policy issues and advocate for laws that it believes "foster vigorous economic growth and dynamic global economy"

Utilitarian reasoning

overall amount of good that can be produced by an action or a decision

Stakeholder (nonmarket)

people and groups who do not engage in direct economic exchange with the firm but are affected by or can affect its actions

Stakeholder

person and groups that affect or are affected by an organization's decisions, policies, and operations

Human rights

person or group is entitled to something or is entitled to being treated in a certain way

Public policy

plan of action undertaken by government officials to achieve some broad purpose affecting a substantial segment of a nation's citizens

Monetary policy

policies that affect the supply, demand, and value of a nation's currency

Predatory pricing

practice of selling below cost to drive rivals out of business

Antitrust laws

prohibit unfair, anticompetitive practices by business

Dodd frank act

protects consumers from unscrupulous practices

U.S. corporate sentencing guidelines

provide strong incentive for businesses to promote ethics at work

Society

refers to human beings and to the social structures they collectively create

Fiscal policy

refers to patterns of government collecting and spending funds that are intended to stimulate or support the economy

Proximity

refers to social, physical, and psychological distance decision makers perceive themselves to have from those affected by the decision

Net neutrality

refers to the principle that internet service providers should give customers equal access

Deregulation

removal or scaling down of regulatory authority and regulatory activities of government

Rights

respecting entitlements

Chief information officer

responsible for managing information technology and its many privacy and security issues

Negative externalities

result when the manufacturer or distribution of a product gives rise to unplanned or unintended costs borne by workers, consumers, competitors, or other stakeholders

Task policy

rules that govern imports from and exports to foreign countries

Lobbying

seek to influence on an issue

Laws

society formal written rules about what constitutes right and wrong conduct in various spheres of life

Instrumental argument

stakeholder management is more effective as a corporate strategy

Normative argument

stakeholder management is simply the right thing to do

Descriptive argument

stakeholder view is simply a more realistic description of how companies really work

Bundling

taking all contributions to candidates, clearly indicating that contributions are from firm's shareholders

Dark money

term used to describe contributions made to 527 organizations since the donors' names and amount of their contributions were not reported to the federal election commission

Stakeholder power

the ability to use resources to make an event happen or to secure a desired outcome

Stakeholder salience

the degree to which stakeholders are visible, vocal, and important to a project

Shareholder theory of the firm

the firm is seen as the property of its owners, make the most money for its shareholders (aka ownership theory)

Stakeholder interests

the nature of the group's stake (what are their concerns and what do they want from their relationship with the firm?)

Internal stakeholder

those employed by the firm; contribute their effort and skill usually at the company worksite

Stakeholder (market)

those that engage in economic transactions with the company as it carries out its purpose of providing society with goods and services

External stakeholder

those who are not directly employed by firm, but they may have important transactions with it

Magnitude of consequences

total amount of harm or benefit that results from an act

Soft money

unlimited contributions to the national political parties by individuals or organizations for party-building activities

Virtues

values and character

4 methods of ethical reasoning

virtues, utilitarian, rights, justice

Stakeholder map

visual representation of the relationships among stakeholder interests, power, and coalitions with respect to a particular issue

Types of stakeholder power

voting power, economic power, political power, legal power, informational power

Conflict of interest

when individual's self-interest conflicts with acting in the best interest of another, when the individual has an obligation to do so

Stage 2

youth, reward seeking: self-interest, own needs, reciprocity, ego-centered reasoning