BULW 1370 Midterm
Positives of CSR
- Balance corporate power with responsibility - Discourages government regulations - Promotes long term profit - improves stakeholders relationships - Improves rep and brand loyalty
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
- Born from Enron, seeks to ensue firms maintain high ethical standards - Requires executives to vouch for accuracy of financial records and pay back bonuses based on earnings that later proved fraudulent
What is the difference between an Independent Commission and an executive agency?
- Independent Commission can only be removed for cause Executive Agency is at the mercy of the president
Negatives of CSR
- Lowers economic efficiency - imposes unequal cost among competitors - imposes hidden costs passed on to steak holders - requires skills business may lack places responsibility on business rather than individuals
What are some universal principals that help guide a managers decision making?
- Virtue ethics - utilitarianism - human rights - justice - disclosure rule
What are some reasons that ethics are ignored?
- competition - conflicts - lack of strict regulations
What are the 3 types of corporate Political Strategies?
1. Informative 2. Financial Incentive 3. Constituency building
What are the four core labor standards enforced globally?
1. no child labor 2. no forced labor 3. no discrimination 4. Allow collective bargaining
What is the rule making sequence?
1. proposed rule is drafted and published in federal register 2. Comment period follows where public can give commentary 3. Final rule published in Federal Register
Free trade
Agreement to eliminate duties to the parties involved *can be regional or bilateral
What are executive orders?
Binding legal orders from President to Federal Executive Agencies
What is the social contract?
Businesses have more responsibility than to just make money but to meet social expectations
What did Milton Friedman believe?
Businesses sole responsibility was to maximize profit while upholding the law
How can stakeholders power be exercised?
By forming coalitions
What is a B Corporation?
Companies that are held to the B Lab standards
The Business Roundtable
Created by CEO's of leading organizations to promote direct communication between businesses and policy makers
What did the 1971 Federal Election Reform act do?
Created caps on individual contributions and placed a cap on expenditures
What did the Tillman Act of 1907 banned?
Direct contributions by corporations to federal political candidate
What are examples of external factors?
Economic, Social, legal, political and technological
Most Favored Nation
Enacted in a trade agreement that ensures that one partner does not give an advantage to another partner without giving that same advantage to everyone
Multinational corporation (MNC)
Entity headquartered in one country that does business internationally
National Treatment
Equal treatment for imported goods to that are domestic
U.S Sentencing Guidelines
Establish standards to reduce criminal conduct by - assign high level officer for compliance - avoid assigning authority to risky individual - Effective communication of S&P through training - Enforce standards through discipline
What guides moral behavior?
Ethics
Dumping
Exporting a product at a price below the price it normally sales for in the home market
Where do our ethics come from?
Families, religion, philosophy, culture and law
Subsidies
Financial aid to industry from government to keep prices low or to create competition
(Ch. 8) 1st Amendment
Freedom of speech
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
Funds acquired by MNC to expand into foreign nation
What is dark money?
Funds given to non-profit organizations
What does the commerce clause do?
Give the government the ability to regulate business
Law of comparative advantage
Idea that countries produce the the goods and service they have a natural talent for
Import and Exports
Imports flow in Exports flow out
Trade Surplus
Imports< Exports
Trade Deficit
Imports>Exports
Anti-dumping duties
Imposed when a country tries to engage in dumping but an export tariff is added to equal the playing field
Relationships with stakeholders Inactive? Reactive? Proactive? Interactive?
Inactive- No relationship Reactive- Only acting when an issue rises Proactive- Trying to take care of issues before they surface Interactive- Working with stakeholders to reach agreements
What is the relationship between business and society?
Interdependent
(Ch.1) What type of factors affect business?
Internal and External
Internal v. external stakeholder
Internal is employed by org External is not (this includes shareholders)
What was the second regulatory agency in the U.S?
Interstate Commerce Commission (1887) to oversee railroads in America
What did the 1890 Sherman trust act do and what did it create?
It prevented monopolies and price fixing. This gave birth to the Federal Trade Commission
Buy American Laws
Laws that require or influence government agencies to purchase US goods and services rather than foreign made products
What was the decision in Citizens Untied v. Federal Election Commission?
Lifted ban of expenditures in the election process. Companies could now advocate for or against a candidate
Liberalization
Lower tariffs and trade barriers to encourage investment
Tax inversion
Moving a companies legal domicile to a lower tax nation to retain material operations in a higher paying country of origin
PAC and Super PAC
PAC is unofficial representative of a candidate Super PAC is unofficial representative of an agendac
What do poor ethics and short term profit maximization lead to? Examples?
Poor business choices that creates crisis, enron, world com and Financial crisis of 2008
( CH. 2)What are scenarios?
Predicted events that a company has a plan developed for
What did the 1947 Taft Hartley Act do?
Prohibited labor unions to contribute to federal political candidates
What did the 2002 Bi-partisan campaign Reform Act do?
Prohibited soft money contributions to national party committees as well as raise individual contribution cap and prohibited corporations from running ads 30 days before primary and 60 days before general
(Ch.7) What does the government set?
Public policy
What do peak associations and trade associations do?
Represent the interest of the business
What do administrative law judges hear cases on
Rule violations
What is the main function of Administrative Agencies?
Rulemaking
What is a good company that exemplifies planning ahead?
Shell (Oil Embargo)
What is a pluralistic society?
Society with multiple groups and institution through which power is diffused
Stakeholder
Somebody that has a vested interest in the company, not just shareholders but employees, distributors ect
What is a lobbyist?
Someone who persuades lawmakers to pass favorable laws to who they represent
Business ethics across organizational functions is
Spreading the same ethics throughout the organizations department
What happened after Citizens United?
Super PACS formed
Tariff
Tax
What did congress pass in 2008 and what did this create?
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection was passed which created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
What was the first regulatory agency in the U.S?
The comptroller of the currency established in 1863 to charter and regulate national bank
(Ch. 5&6) What is ethics?
The conception of right and wrong
(Ch.3) What is corporate social responsibility? (CSR)
The duty of the corporation to create wealth in ways that protect the society
What act was passed out of response to 9/11?
The homeland security act
What should managers do to help in managing different scenarios?
They should be constantly scanning their environment
What is the Iron Law of Responsibility?
Those who abuse power in the eyes of society will lose it
How do you implement public policy?
Through federal regulations
How do businesses get involved in political process?
Through lobbying
How is social performance reported?
Through social audit
Why do corporations hire lobbyist?
To express their interest
Why were Political Action Committees (PACs) created?
To try to find a way around individual contributions.
Duty
Total tariff paid
What does the U.S foreign Corrupt Practice of 1977 act prohibit?
U.S business executives from paying bribes to foreign government officials, political parties or political candidates to obtain favorable treatment
Protectionism
Use of trade agreements to shield domestic industries from foreign competitors
What are corporations viewed as legally?
a legal person who can prosecuted for crimes
What is fiscal policy?
collected money from the government to stimulate the economy
What were soft laws and international norms created for?
encourage global CSR
What is performance expectation gap?
failure to understand stakeholder's expectations
Studies show that there is a link between business ethics and?
financial performance
(Ch. 4) Globalization
increasing business across national borders
What does an ethics compliance program do?
lower a corporation's culpability (blame) for companies
Bribery
questionable or unjust payment to a government official to ensure a business transaction
What is soft money?
unregulated money given to committee not actual candidate