Business Ethics Final Exam
As they try and fit into a work world dominated by white men, women and minorities can be disadvantaged by
- False preconceptions -Stereotypes -prejudice attitudes
Pollution permits
-A pricing mechanism basically a license to pollute
Resolving difficult moral dilemmas
-Account for specific obligations -effects of actions -ideals actions would support or undermine
Questionable premises of the personality tests?
-Are they useful and valid with a relatively small sample size. -Tests may have little to no research backing them
Arguments for Affirmative Action
-Compensatory Justice -Necessary to permit fairer compensation -break the cycle
3 sources of job dissatisfaction
-Concern with quantity over quality/repetition -Lack of opportunity to be your own boss -Bigness
Job Satisfaction vs. Job dissatisfaction
-Employees are satisfied when they feel valued -employees are dissatisfied when they feel undervalued (bad pay, bad leaders, etc.)
Types of discharge
-Firing: cause for dismissal (usually egregious) -Layoff: subject to recall, circumstantial necessity -Termination: poor performance -Position elimination: self explanatory
Whistle-blowing
-Informing the public about the illegal or immoral behavior of an employer or organization
Rights of employees concerning discharge
-Just cause -due process
Memphis Firefighters vs. Stotts
-Last hired, first to go -could not lay-off white firefighters with more seniority to preserve new black jobs
Traditional Law of Agency
-Places you under legal obligation to act loyally and in good faith to carry out all lawful instructions
Types of Boycotts (2)
-Primary: refusing to patronize struck companies -Secondary: refusing to patronize companies that handle products of struck companies
Views on Obligations to the company
-Profit making center so it is based on work for reward, requires no self sacrifice. No loyalty -Most people agree with the idea of company loyalty though
Factors that explain the absence of civil liberties (David Ewing)
-Rise of professional mgmt. and personnel engineering -traditionally giving the employer free hand in hiring and firing employees.
Hiring process
-Screening -Testing -Interviewing
Drawbacks to the regulatory approach
-There needs to be regulatory body in place that is both knowledgeable and equipped -Attempting to regulate all could result in diluted regulations -Regulations take away incentive to do more than required by the law -Displacement costs
7 factors to minimize unfair wages
-What is the law -Prevailing wage -community wage level -nature of the job -Job security -employer's financial capabilities -comparable work inside org.
Donald Wohlgemuth Cases
-Worked for a space station and had the opportunity to trade secrets
Common-law
-an employer may discharge an employee for any reason or no reason
Tests administered to applicants
-aptitude -skills -personality
Johnson vs. Transportation Agency
-hired equally qualified female over male because of affirmative action
Arguments against Affirmative Action
-injures white men and infringes on their rights -violates principle of equality -nondiscrimination will achieve social goals
Abuse of Official Position
-misusing expense accounts, billing clients for travel expenses, etc.
H. Ross Perot Views on corporate life today
-power struggles, maneuvering, politics, power grabbing, Machiavellian intrigues
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
-provides protection from employers who whistle-blow from discharge,demotion, suspension, threats, harassment and other things
Approaches to environmental protection
-regulations -incentives -pricing mechanisms/permits
What testing needs to be successful
-validity -reliability
Choose the factual precept concerning wages
A fair wage presupposes a fair work contract
Griggs vs. Duke Power
shifts burden of proof to employer in the instance of institution wide policy that negatively affects minority groups
Conflicts of interest
special or private interests that interfere with a job
An early 1970s government study (Work in America) identified three chief sources of worker dissatisfaction which of the following is one of those sources?
the rigidity of rules and regulations
Joel Feinberg's view on future generations
whatever future humans turn out to be like, they will have interests that we can affect right now.
Direct Strike
withholding labor to pressure employers.
In the 1997 case of the U.S. v Hagan the supreme court found that Hagan
Had misappropriated confidential information
Which of these statements is true concerning court cases about discrimination?
In the recent University of Michgan cases the Supreme court upheld moderate, flexible affirmative action programs
Ecology
Interrelationships among organisms and their environments
Francis Bacon's view on conscious and unconscious stereotypes
Interviewer's especially should seek to rid themselves of bias
Cost-benefit analysis
Involves value judgments and factual uncertainties
William F. Baxter addresses environmental ethics by noting
Judgments about environmental problems ought to be people-oriented
Which of these is a valid reasoning for not hiring a potential employee
Lack of experience
Groups of 18th century skilled artisans formed secret societies for two basic reasons. which of the following is one of those reasons?
To equalize their relationship with their employers
Workers killed on the job each year
about 5,000
Insider Trading
buying or selling stocks with information that has not been made public.
Polygraph tests
can produce false positives
Assessment of costs and benefits
evaluates a projects direct and indirect costs and benefits, the difference being the net result to society
Fair personnel policies and decisions must be based on criteria that are clear, job related, and
Equally applied
U.S. vs Hogan
Established Misappropriation theory w/ insider trading
U.S. Companies have a history of paying off foreign officials for business favors. Such acts were declared illegal by the ______ ______ ______ ____
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Business' Traditional Attitude toward the environment
Seen as free, nearly limitless good
According to the philosopher Joel Feinberg,
The rights of future generations are contingent upon those people coming into existence
According to David Ewing, two factors explain the absence of civil liberties and the prevalence of authoritarianism in the workplace. which of the following is one of them?
The rise of personnel engineering and professional management
Since Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1994 employees must make "_________ _______" for disabled workers
"Reasonable accommodations"
The proper approach to promote safety is found in the "hidden culture" which is
a culture that is proactively oriented toward safety
Job Discrimination
1. Employment decision harms or disadvantages 2. Decision based on individuals membership of a certain group 3.Decision is based on prejudice
What to do if you encounter sexual harassment
1. Make it clear the advances are unwanted 2. Document it is it persists 3. Complain to appropriate supervisor with facts
Types of Sexual Harassment
1. Quid-pro-quo 2. Hostile Work Environement
Drug Testing Perspectives:
1. The issue of drugs in daily life isn't as high as people say 2.Must be pertinent to employment 3.What are the intentions for putting the test into play? 4. Must respect dignity of employees
Giving receiving gifts in a business situation factors to consider:
1. Value 2. Purpose 3. Circumstances 4. Authority of person receiving gift 5. Accepted practice in business 6. Company policy 7. Law
Sexual comments and behavior are unwelcome if:
1. submissions is explicitly or implicitly necessary for employment 2. Submission determines progress in an org. 3. interrupts employees work and performance
Job satisfaction for employees
1. sufficient help 2. support and information 3. authority 4. good pay 5. opportunity to develop skills 6. job security 7. chance to see results of work.
"Trade Secret"
Can be any information not generally known if it is valuable to its possessor and treated confidentially
many major employer routinely monitor the performance of their employees through the computers and telephones they use. The one check that they can do is
Check the number of keystrokes that word processors enter during the day
Drug Testing: Journal of the American Medical Association
Drugs increased likelihood of negative work-related issues.
Theory X
Managers believe employees dislike work and will do everything they can to avoid it
According to the text book a _______ vegetarian rejects eating meat based on moral grounds
Moral
Conflicts of interests are what type of problem
Moral
Anthropocentric (human-oriented) view (Baxter's view)
Nature has value because humanity values it
OSHA
Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration
Tragedy of commons
Parable describing the consequences of belief in limitless natural resources
Per the textbook, what is the most common reason people leave their jobs?
Poor relationship with their immediate supervisor
According to Professor Norman Bowie, which of the following factors is relevant to determining the motivation blowing the whistle?
Public interest morally outweighs loyalty to the organization
When Investigators send equally qualified young white and black men - all of them articulate and conventionally dressed - to apply for entry-level jobs in Chicago and Washington D.C., the results clearly showed
Racial discrimination against African-American men
Today most large corporations not only accept the necessity of affirmative action but also find that _____ benefits when they make themselves more diverse?
The bottom line
Which of the following statements is accurate?
The law treats sexual harassment as a form of sexual discrimination
Hawthorne Effect
When employees feel valued, productivity increases
Some environmental regulation(like forbidding the burning of coal in cities) benefit each and everyone of us because the air we all breathe is cleaner. if an individual ignores the regulation and burns coal, while others obey the regulation, then he or she
is being a free rider
Factory farms
mass production of animal generated products
Privacy
must be respected if we are to function as complete, self-governing agents
Foreign Corrupt Trade Practices Act of 1977
prohibits use corporations of participating in bribery