study guide for ethics

Given the less hierarchical organizational structures that are more common place today, it is less important for to have strongly aligned ethical culture to guide employees in their independent decision-making.

False

In 2004 Congress created the U.S. Sentencing Commission in response to criticism of judicial discretion in sentencing and perceived disparities between sentences for "white-collar" and other types of crimes.

False

In a strong organizational culture, strong subcultures exist and guide behavior that differs from one subculture to another.

False

In any organization, it is safe to assume that most employees fit into the grenades category.

False

It is easier to change informal systems than to change the formal systems.

False

Loyalty is paramount in business and employees who question unethical direction or an unethical boss are doomed.

False

Mission statements should be written by outsiders who are unbiased.

False

Most often, pressure for culture change comes from employees inside the organization who tire of unethical behavior.

False

Organization cultures are maintained through formal systems alone.

False

Organizations in the same industry tend to have very similar cultures.

False

Pursuant to the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines, an organization cannot be convicted of a crime until majority of the employees break the law.

False

Research has found that executive ethical leadership is critical to investors but not the employees.

False

Research suggests that ethics only needs to be communicated in orientation materials for new employees.

False

Rituals are a relatively minor part of an ethical culture.

False

Seldom should ethics information be included in a company's external website.

False

Standards should be different for different levels of the organization.

False

The corporate ethics and compliance office concept can be traced to 1965 and General Motors, then the largest U.S. automaker.

False

The ethics officer is typically a first-line to middle-level manager.

False

Today, with advances in technology, very few modern organizations are bureaucratic.

False

Values statements, policy manuals, and conduct codes are adequate for organizations serious about ethics.

False

When standards are violated, the organization should take the time to deliberate long-and-hard before taking action.

False

With enculturation, individuals have adopted the external cultural standards as their own.

False

A weak moral person can still be an ethical leader.

False Note: If they are a strong moral manager, we call them a hypocritical leader

Centralized ethics offices are nearly always the best choice as these provide for greater consistency and commitment to the organization's key values.

False Note: Students will be tempted to say True. However, the culture of the company and many other variables set out in the section help students understand why this is not the case.

With socialization, people behave in ways that are consistent with the culture because they are forced to do so.

False Note: With socialization, people behave in ways that are consistent with the culture because they feel they are expected to do so.

___________ is a type of sexual harassment wherein a worker is made to feel uncomfortable because of unwelcome actions relating to sexuality.

Hostile work environment

Once employees are on board, organizations can aim to guide employees' behavior through formal organizational value statements, mission statements, credos, policies, and formal codes of ethical conduct.

True

Organization cultures vary widely, even within the same industry.

True

Organizational stories explain and give meaning to the organizational culture.

True

Pursuant to the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines, an organization can be convicted even if only one employee is caught breaking the law.

True

Research has found that employees working in organizations with an enforced code of ethics report that they engage in less unethical behavior.

True

The US Sentencing Guidelines call for more attention to developing and maintaining the ethical culture of the organization.

True

The corporate ethics and compliance office concept got its start based on a directive from the secretary of the Navy.

True

The corporate ethics and compliance office concept moved beyond the defense industry as a result of the 1991 U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines

True

The demand for qualified and knowledgeable compliance and ethics professionals is so high that more organizations are being created to help them share information and design more effective ethics and compliance programs such as the Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE), a nonprofit started in 2002.

True

The ethics officer can also be called the "director of ethics" or "director of internal audit."

True

The ethics officer can be hired from inside or outside of the firm.

True

The ethics officer typically reports directly to the CEO.

True

The job of ethics officer has been called "the newest profession in American business."

True

The more a firm demands unquestioning obedience to authority, the more likely the firm will experience higher levels of unethical conduct among their employees.

True

The only way to determine if the culture is aligned to support ethical behavior is to conduct regular, comprehensive audits of all relevant cultural systems, both formal and informal.

True

The organization's formal decision‐making processes are an important part of the ethical culture.

True

The very nature of policy—it's usually voluminous and written in legalese—makes it a poor way to communicate important rules.

True

To complete the ethical leadership picture, executives must also act as "moral managers"— they must focus on the "leadership" part of the term ethical leadership by making ethics and values an important part of their leadership message and by shaping the firm's ethical culture.

True

Unethical leaders can just as negatively affect the culture of a company as ethical leaders can affect the ethical culture.

True

When employees think about ethical culture, they tend to think about the climate for fairness in the organization.

True

With a deferred prosecution agreement, the government sets aside prosecution because prosecuting the company would likely put it out of business and its employees out of a job.

True

Any attempt to change an organization's ethics must consider the entire cultural system.

True Note: Culture changes are not short-term and may take as much as 6 to 15 years.

Which of the following means treating people equally while incorporating their diverse ideas?

Valuing diversity

What does it mean to adhere to a fiduciary standard?

You must always act in the best interests of the client

If you are employed and you are making business decision for your employer, those decisions must be made with the interests of who?

Your employer

Given that executive leaders are part of formal structure, they affect culture in a formal way whereas non-executive members affect culture in an informal way.

False

Employees are more likely to believe the messages carried by the formal system rather than by the informal system.

False

Ethical action happens before ethical judgment.

False

Ethics officers seem to agree that, whatever other reporting relationships exist, the ethics officer should never have a direct reporting relationship to the CEO.

False

Formal attempts to develop or change organizational ethics should begin with a public relations campaign targeting employees.

False

Formal rules are almost never inconsistent with the informal norms that develop.

False

Which of the following is most likely an appropriate "gift" to accept from a vendor?

Dinner for you and your wife at Applebee's

A code of conduct is an effective substitute for an ethics program.

False

A full‐fledged ethical culture audit is a fairly straightforward process that can typically be completed fairly quickly.

False

A values statement is a short description of the organization's reason for existence—a sort of "here's what we do."

False

A weak culture is a bad culture.

False

All ethics training should be conducted through new employee orientation.

False

An effective culture change may take as long as 1 to 2 years.

False

An organization with a benevolence climate is one that cares mainly about its employees.

False

As an ethics officer at WeCare International, when Brian is designing ethics communication for the company's employee population, he needs to consider three kinds of people: employee, managers, and customers.

False

But being a moral person is enough to be perceived as an ethical leader.

False

Command-and-control is a term frequently used to describe ethics initiatives that begin at the top of the organization and work their way down, level by level.

False

Companies that look for advice from consultants will do well to find a "spray and pray" plan.

False

Deployment is a term frequently used to describe ethics initiatives that begin at the top of the organization and work their way down, level by level.

False

_____________ is a type of sexual harassment wherein an individual believes that sexual favors are a requirement for advancement in the workplace.

Quid pro quo

___________ refers to the fairness of exchanges: "You did this for me and I'll do that for you."

Reciprocity

New rules and values must be reinforced via training programs and reward systems.

True

Norms are standards of daily behavior that are accepted as appropriate by members of a group.

True

A 2006 study found that 82 percent of Americans would prefer to be paid less but work for an ethical company than be paid more and work for an unethical company.

True

A cultural system includes both formal and informal systems.

True

A mission statement describes "how we do business."

True

According to Peters and Waterman, an effective leader must be the master of two ends of the spectrum: ideas at the highest level of abstraction and actions at the most mundane level of detail.

True

According to United States v. Booker, judges are no longer required to follow strictly the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines.

True

According to ethics and compliance officers, a respected and trusted insider who knows the company's culture and people is a preferable choice for a firm's ethics or compliance officer.

True

Alignment of the goals and rewards of an organization with the organization's values is essential because employees will generally do what is measured and rewarded.

True

An ethical culture is maintained through alignment between the formal and informal systems.

True

An ethically neutral leader is not clearly unethical, but is perceived to be more self-centered and more focused on the bottom line.

True

Anthropologists define culture as a body of learned beliefs, traditions, and guides for behavior shared among members of a group.

True

Any attempt to develop or change the organization's ethics must take the entire cultural system into account.

True

As a new ethics officer at ABC Trading, if Susan wants to assess the company's credibility on ethics, she should compare the messages on the formal and informal communications systems.

True

Changing organizational culture is more difficult than developing it.

True

Depending on the organization's culture, the word "ethics" may carry a negative connotation and need to be replaced with "business conduct."

True

Employees are brought into the organization's culture through a process called enculturation.

True

For some companies, mission statements are a mainstay of the corporate culture.

True

Heroes are symbolic figures who set standards of performance by modeling certain behaviors.

True

In a rule‐based climate, employees perceive that the organization is one where employees follow both laws and the organization's rules when making decisions.

True

In a weak organizational culture, there is no single strong set of standards or behaviors.

True

In order to be an ethical leader, a manager must be both a strong moral manager and a strong moral person.

True

Many organizations have codes of conduct that are divided into parts.

True

Mission statements should be short and memorable.

True

Most people, according to cognitive moral development, are looking outside of themselves for guidance on decision-making. This means that stated organizational policy can be an important source of guidance foe employees in making decisions.

True

John is a Financial Aid director at ABC University. As a rule John will only direct students for loan to companies that offer him financial payback as a percent of the loan. This is an example of _______.

conflict of interest

When something is divided between two people according to the worth and inputs of the two individuals, it is said to be ___________ and represents one component of "fairness."

equitable

Identify the three components that are used to define "fairness."

reciprocity, equity, and impartiality