Business Ethics Chapter 1 Test

Statutes

laws enacted by *legislative bodies*

Diffusion of Responsibility

leads individuals to have a diluted or diminished sense of their own personal moral responsibilities. they tend to see themselves simply as small players in a process or as cogs in a machine over which they have no control and for which they are unaccountable.

Counterexample

example that is consistent with the premises but is inconsistent with the conclusion.

Organization

group of *people working together* to achieve a common purpose.

Argument

group of statements. Consists of premises followed by concolusion

Businesspeople

those who participate in planning, organizing, or directing the work of business

Invalid Argument

Argument whose premises do not entail its conclusion

Valid Argument

Argument whose premises logically entail its conclusion

Bystander Apathy

In emergencies, we seem naturally to let the behavior of those around us dictate our response

Business

any organization whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit.

Common Law

body of *judge-made law* that first developed in the English-speaking world centuries ago when there were few statutes.

Moral Standards

concern behavior that is of serious *consequence to human welfare*, that can profoundly injure or benefit people.

Constitutional Law

court rulings on the *requirements of the constitution* and the *constitutionality of legislation*

Ethics

deals with *individual character and the moral rules* that govern and limit our conduct. It investigates questions of right and wrong, duty and obligation, and moral responsibility.

Self-interest

doing (or not doing) something based on our desires (?)

Etiquette

norms of *correct conduct in polite society* or, more generally, to any special code of social behavior or courtesy.

morality in the broad sense

not just the principles of conduct that we embrace but also the values, ideals, and aspirations that shape our lives.

Conscience

our internal sense of wrong or right (?)

Paradox of Hedonism

people who are exclusively *concerned with their own interests* tend to have *less happy and less satisfying* lives than those whose desires extend beyond themselves.

Morality in the narrow sense

principles that do or should regulate people's conduct and relations with others.

professional codes of ethics.

rules that are supposed to govern the *conduct* of *members of a given profession*.

Organizational Norms

set of norms followed by the people in an organization

Administrative Regulations

set up by legislatures as *boards or agencies* who issue detailed regulations covering certain kinds of conduct

business ethics

study of what constitutes *right and wrong*, or good and bad, human conduct in a business context.

divine command theory

the only reason it is wrong is that *God* commands us not to do it

ethical relativism

what is right is determined by what a *culture or society* says is right.

Groupthink

when pressure for unanimity within a highly cohesive group overwhelms its members' desire or ability to appraise the situation realistically and consider alternative courses of action.