Business ethics Final exam
How many workers were killed in the BP Oil Rig Blowout?
11
How many months did it take to stop the spill?
3 months
Which of the following would you say is an incorrect application of ethical theories to the 3M case?
3M adopts the virtue ethics notion of the Instrumental view of employee roles.
As described in Hoffman's article, "cowboy culture" is:
A culture of risk taking and technological limit pushing that disregards data.
Desjardin provides an example of being "lost in the jungle" to illustrate Aristotle's conception of the good. What does this example suggest?
A person lost in the jungle would prefer to have a guide versus a survival handbook or map.
In the powerpoint presentation, the following example was used to clarify the difference between values and principles.
A value of "concern for others" translates into a principle of "creating a work environment where people are respected for their contributions."
False
According to David Boaz, libertarianism holds that the many necessary conflicts among different economic sectors of society (e.g., manufacturers and importers) require that government sometimes pick the economic winners and losers when those conflicts arise.
False
According to Porter & Kramer, company success and social progress are inherently in conflict in a capitalist economy.
Nagele-Piazza's article describes the following way(s) to address abusive workplaces:
All of these answers are correct. <-------- Anti-bullying company policies and an inclusive organizational culture. New legislation that addresses abusive conduct. Bystander intervention training for employees and workplace civility training.
Which of the following is true of Jeremy Bentham?
All of these are correct like literallyHe is a utilitarian.His remains are on display at University College, London.He defends a teleological normative theory.
Research finds that great teams are about personalities in addition to skills. Which of the following is NOT identified as an important personality perspective in this discussion?
Autocratic
Which of the following is true about BP's safety violations?
BP's refineries accounted for 829 of 851 industry-wide safety violations identified as "willful" by OSHA.
According to the lecture, what is the risk of using only examples from other countries to illustrate failures to practice human-centered design?
Both are trueIt suggests that design thinking is necessary only for projects intended to benefit people not "like us."It risks minimizing the need for design thinking across sub-cultures and more familiar forms of life.
According to research cited by Agarwal, all of the following are true of bullying EXCEPT:
Bullying is carried out by supervisors and superiors but not co-workers.
Which of the following best describes Aristotle's Golden Mean?
Character traits that represent the midpoint between the vices of excess and deficiency.
Which of the following is NOT one of Schein's ten Learning Culture Characteristics?
Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
Which of the following is true, according to Daniel Goleman's research reported in "What Makes a Leader?"
Emotional intelligence is twice as important for outstanding leadership performance as intellect (IQ), cognitive skills (big picture, long term vision), and technical skills.
Authentic leaders, according to George, et al ("and others") in "Discovering Your Authentic Leadership"...
Establish long-term, meaningful relationships. Lead with their hearts as well as their heads. Practice their values consistently and demonstrate a passion for their purpose. Correct! All of these answers are correct.<------
According to Agarwal, workplace bullying often happens unintentionally.
False
There are times that Person A may insult Person B, who holds a differing opinion, with criticisms that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. For example, Person A may criticize the way the Person B looks, talks, what he/she wears, how he/she laughs, etc, in an attempt to reduce the credibility of Person B (who has a different view) and thereby dismiss the relevance of their opinion.This is an example of which of the following logical fallacies?
Ad Hominem
What is the "utility" that Utilitarians think ought to be maximized?
All are correct literally good feelings good experience Intrinsic good
Starbucks's key to success is its laser focus on shareholders' needs, putting them first before those of other stakeholders.
All of the following are true about Starbucks, EXCEPT:
An "equal opportunity harasser" (a mean manager) might NOT be engaging in unlawful conduct (unlawful harassment), according to Lisa Nagele-Piazza in "Workplace Bullying and Harassment: What's the Difference?"
False
In her article, "Are your decisions influenced by fake news?" Katleen De Stobbeleir refers to research about false information that finds it spreads faster, wider, further, and deeper than correct information; this is because fake news is created to stir up emotions and is "new," and the human brain is more triggered by new, emotion-laden information. According to this research, how much more likely is it that false versus correct information will be disseminated?
False information has a 70% greater chance of being disseminated than the truth.
Board of Directors
In "The Importance of Business Ethics, by Ferrell, Fraedrich, and Ferrell, the authors connect increased profitability with ethical business relationships. While there are many business relationships important to a business' success, the authors emphasized three in particular. Which of the following is NOT one the three relationships they emphasized?
Since Starbucks has added additional products to its offerings, it didn't want its logo to primarily emphasize coffee.
In 2011 Starbucks changed its logo from the mermaid with "Starbucks Coffee" encircling it to a logo of the mermaid without the words because:
ColorDry
In Andrea Newell's article, "How Nike Embraced CSR and Went from Villain to Hero," she describes Nike's move into a carbon-based dyeing process that dyes garments without using water or chemicals. Nike calls this process:
Entrepreneurs must figure out how to keep passion alive.
In his TedX Talk, "Business is about Purpose," Edward Freeman describes three flaws about the current story of business. Which of the following is NOT one of the flaws Freeman mentions?
SAS
In the "Introduction to Business Ethics" Kaltura video PowerPoint, which of the following companies was described as having a strong industry reputation for valuing employees and an annual turnover rate of 4% versus the industry average of 20%?
5300 employees across the company were fired for secretly creating new bank and credit card accounts for customers without their knowledge.
In the Wells Fargo scandal described by Kouchaki:
Get Ethical!
In the embedded video within the "Introduction to Business Ethics" Kaltura video PowerPoint, the two office workers used the phrase, "Let's_____" ?
The discussion of existentialism includes an example of a professor. Which of the following is NOT one of the points made in this example?
In this case, the professor doesn't really have the freedom to quit her job because of her family obligations.
What are the spaces of design thinking?
Inspiration, ideation, and implementation.
Yes it is an example of CSV because it represents a new product for Nike to sell that generates a new source of revenue and profitability. No, ColorDry is NOT an example of CSV; it's an example of a CSR project. No, ColorDry is neither CSV or CSR. Yes it is an example of CSV; it reduces costs for Nike while addressing an important social need.
Is Nike's ColorDry an example of CSV, and if so, how?
Human centered designers:
all are true. literallyBelieve in small scale testing of ideas before final implementation.Believe all problems can be solved.Believe the people with the problems understand best what they need.
When Aristotle says that virtue is a habit, he means all of the following EXCEPT:
Rationality and autonomy always lead to virtue.
There are times that Person A may divert a conversation onto an entirely different path, throwing out a shiny new topic to deflect attention from the original point and distract Person B from the original point. This may occur especially when Person B has a valid point. This method of diversion and distraction is an example of which of the following logical fallacies?
Red Herring
According to George, Sims, McLean, and Mayer in "Discovering Your Authentic Leadership," which of the following is NOT true?
STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) expertise and technical skills are critical for the development of leadership.
Which of the following is NOT reflected in these three videos?
Schultz cautions that if you give employees too much room to be proactive, you'll lose organizational control and productivity.
In the "Learning Culture" reading, Schein makes all of the following points EXCEPT:
Since "strong" cultures are desirable as a basis for effective and lasting performance, too much flexibility will increasingly become a liability in the future.
Which of the following best reflects the second principle of John Rawls's theory of justice?
Social/economic inequalities are arranged to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged
MMS (Minerals Management Service) inspectors examined and approved oil spill response plans for rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the plans MMS received from BP and approved had all of the following problems EXCEPT:
Some of the plans, which MMS approved, referred to water temperatures off the coast of Alaska.
According to Jerome Popp's article on workplace abuse, discussed in this video PowerPoint, zero or low empathy individuals:
Target respected, intelligent, popular, competent, or attractive co-workers for abuse
The title of Reskin's article is "The Proximate Causes of Employment Discrimination." What does she mean by "proximate" causes, and why does she say we should focus on them? Choose the BEST answer.
The discrimination is caused by automatic cognitive processes over which we don't have control, but we do have control of how we structure workplaces to constrain these automatic processes. The organizational practices are therefore SUFFICIENTLY RELEVANT CONTRIBUTING FACTORS to discrimination, i.e. the PROXIMATE causes.
Which of the following is NOT a phrase that could be associated with Kant's categorical imperative?
The end justifies the means
Which of the following examples was NOT used to illustrate the need for design thinking in Brown & Wyatt's 'Design Thinking for Social Innovation'?
The example of the couple working to decrease malnutrition among children in Vietnam
Since a cylinder could be incompletely described as a circle or a square when viewed as a shadow projected from different angles, it's beneficial to study additional perspectives to get more accurate knowledge of the object.
The first week of class we looked at a picture of a cylinder. The point of this slide in the context of our class discussion of ethics is:
Yvon Chouinard, a mountain-climber entrepreneur
The founder of Patagonia was:
What is the only intrinsic good, according to Kant?
The human capacity to act from principle.
Which of the following is NOT a key fact of the BP oil rig blowout case?
The modeling methods employed by BP and its consultants were not robust enough to accurately predict the likelihood of failure.
All of these answers are correct.
The point of the perceptual puzzles on the first week of class was:
This is the claim that it's impossible to put a common value on some goods.
The problem of commensurability
Our perspective is always a valid and full representation of a system or problem at hand or system.
The reading on systems thinking from Cabrera and Cabrera distinguishes between two related elements of perspectives: a point and a view. Which of the following was NOT claimed in the reading?
What is the Kantian argument against workplace discrimination, according to Shaw & Barry?
Those doing the discriminating would be unwilling to be treated that way themselves, were they in the the discriminated against class.
One-for-one Model
Through its business, TOMS Shoes founded and adopted the:
What was the purpose of Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes Exercise?
To demonstrate how discrimination feels to a group of 3rd grade students in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination.
Which element of the Ford Pinto decision do you think Kant would find ethically problematic?
Treating customers as a mere means to profits
3M allows all employees to spend 15 percent of their time working on personal projects that may or may not benefit the company.
True
According to the second assigned reading 'Can Money Buy Utilitarian Happiness? The Ford Pinto Case.' Ford made the right utilitarian decision not to redesign the Pinto, based on the estimated dollar values in their cost benefit decision.
True
The national policy was to increase revenues, and MMS (Minerals Management Service) officials routinely received cash bonuses for meeting federal deadlines for offshore leasing.
True
Which book did Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, mention in his video interview?
True North
At the time of the Deep Horizon oil spill, Minerals Management Service (MMS) was responsible for overseeing oil rig safety as well as collecting revenue from oil and gas leases.
True: MMS was responsible for both safety and collecting oil revenues, which resulted in MMS prioritizing revenue collection
Virtue ethics upholds the professional view of employee roles that recognizes the positions and individuals who occupy them as valuable in themselves.
True: Virtue ethics is concerned with the development of character and habit for employees within their work roles.
In part 3 of the lecture, Professor Woodman most strongly connected the first video clip on corporate culture with which of the following ethical theories?
Virtue Ethics: companies are encouraged to link behaviors (or culture traits) with overall company strategy and mission.
Which ethical theory stresses the importance of "professional roles" in the workplace?
Virtue ethics
According to Reskin, most discrimination is...
systemic
Kant's theory entails that one must know why an action is performed in order to know whether that action is morally right.
true: Motives, not consequences, matter for Kant.
Which of the following is NOT something that Reskin says will decrease discrimination in the workplace?
Priming people by telling them that women are frequently discriminated against.
In the Asch conformity experiments, the test subjects' conformity was attributed to normative conformity rather than informational conformity.
False: The experiment tested both; some subjects conformed both because of pressure to go along with the group and others were persuaded they were wrong.
3500
Fiona Wilson described the B Corps certification which helps consumers and investors identify "good" companies. The B Corps certification has been around about ten years and puts companies through a rigorous assessment of their practices associated with employee management, governance/leadership of the business, suppliers, community, and environment, and so forth. Today, about how many B Corps are there worldwide?
True
Friedman believes it would be better if corporate executives refrain from cloaking their self-interested actions in a justification of 'social responsibility' because, according to Friedman, such hypocrisy harms the foundation of a free society.
False
Friedman believes taxation to advance public goods is never justified.
Taxation without representation.
Friedman describes a corporate executive acting in a way not in the interest of their employers (i.e., socially responsibly) as:
The Myers-Briggs is a test that:
Generates a four character personality "type."
From the Starbucks videos, it's evident that Starbucks's CEO Howard Schultz's success was due in part to all of the following EXCEPT:
His willingness to sacrifice whatever is necessary to get ahead.
In one of the videos, Joseph DesJardins discusses a number of questions that apply virtue ethics to business culture. Which of the following is NOT one of these questions?
How do we ensure that business culture provides maximum benefits to most people?
Capitalism depends upon prioritizing individual self-interest and maximizing short-term profitability
In "The False Choice between Business and Ethics," Freeman and Parmar describe the relational view of business. Which of the following is NOT one of the points they make?
The impossibility of separating the business case from the ethics case.
In "The False Choice between Business and Ethics," Freeman and Parmer describe two versions of a business transaction involving a violin to illustrate the "Separation Fallacy." Which of the following best describes the Separation Fallacy?
Which of the following is one of the research findings described in In Chinwe Esimai's article, "Great Leadership Starts with Self-Awareness?"
Less than 20 percent of executives studied- less than 4% of male and less than 19% of female executives studied -- exhibited self-awareness. You Answered Companies with strong financial performance have employees with higher levels of self- awareness than poorly performing companies. Correct Answer All of these answers are correct.<------ Successful leaders know their inclinations and abilities and use this knowledge to strengthen their abilities or compensate for them.
Which of the following is NOT a phrase associated with utilitarianism?
Optimize human design process
What did Karlene Roberts and Robert Bea conclude was the primary problem with the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill?
People: it was a management problem.
There are times that Person A may make an assumption that since one event followed another event that the first event caused the second even though they merely happened in the same timeframe (correlation versus causation).This is an example of which of the following logical fallacies?
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
Generate new revenue streams, reduce costs, and build cluster conditions for long-term viability and profitability.
What are three approaches to creating shared value (CSV)?
TerraCycle is a global, innovative recycling business.
What is TerraCycle's business?
Shareholders, Customers, Employees, Suppliers, and Community/Environment
Which of the following are Starbucks' key stakeholders?
All of these answers are correct. Externalities arise when businesses create social costs that they do not have to bear, such as pollution. The externalities of external stakeholders and their concerns are reflected in company business plans. The gap between externalities and internalities presents a lucrative business opportunity.
Which of the following best captures Porter's and Kramer's point about externalities?
Many employees personally enjoy "gaming" the system.
Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons Kouchaki provided for why employees set aside their own ethical compass at work?
Coordinating development efficiently.
Which of the following is NOT one of the three ways that Porter & Kramer say that you can create shared value?
None of these answers are correct.
Which of the following is a view espoused by modern libertarians, according to David Boaz?
All of these answers are correct.
Which of the following points does Allen make about ROE?
Media
While a power-interest grid is usually used to determine the key stakeholders of a business on an ongoing basis, it can also be used to focus on key aspects of a short-term challenge or situation. In the aftermath of the Starbucks incident in the Philadelphia store in 2018, a likely stakeholder to move into the key stakeholder quadrant in the short term would be:
In the video on Virtue Ethics, Martha Nussbaum makes all of the following points EXCEPT:
While we need to see life as a whole, including all its parts, discussions of entertaining friends is not as intrinsically valuable as courage.
He grew up poor with a father whose life was nearly ruined by an unsympathetic employer who did not offer health benefits.
Why was Howard Schultz of Starbucks so committed to providing health benefits to Starbucks' employees?
Which of the following best describes the "Doll Test," which Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark devised and facilitated?
Young black children had to choose which doll was the "good," "bad," "pretty," or "ugly" doll by selecting either a white or black doll.
Which of the following is NOT true of Jane Elliott?
a bird cage
