Chapter 3: Ethics in Business - Concepts

Under the concept of duty-based ethics, which of the following represent sources from which standards of behavior in society are derived?

-Philosophical reasoning -Religious authorities and texts

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was designed to do which of the following?

-Reduce corporate fraud -Require accountability measures for publicly traded companies -Create confidential systems for fraud reporting within a publicly traded company

T/F Every public corporation is required to have an ethical hotline for reporting violations within the company.

False

Immanuel Kant is most associated with which theory for ethical behavior?

The idea that moral behavior is based upon the fundamental nature of human beings

Compliance with the law is sometimes called the _________

moral minimum

Ethics can be defined as the study of ________

what constitutes right and wrong behavior

Under the Principle of Rights, or "rights theory", which of the following are groups whose rights a company should consider before making a decision?

-The company's employees -The community in which the company does business -The company's owners -The company's suppliers -The consumers of the company's products or services

To apply the utilitarian theory to a business decision, a company should consider: a determination of which __________ will be affected by the action in question, a _________ analysis of the positive and negative effects of all alternate options, and the selection of a choice of action that will produce the _________ ________.

-individuals -cost-benefit -maximum -societal utility

To make a decision resulting in good corporate citizenship, a business should evaluate the decision based on: the _________ implications of each decision; the _________ impact; the safety risks for _________ and employees; and the financial _________.

-legal -public relations -consumers -implications

The application of moral and ethical analysis to a situation is usually called ethical _______. _________ ethics is rooted in the idea that every person owes certain responsibilities to others and the planet. ___________ ethics focuses on the consequences of a decision.

-reasoning -duty-based -outcome-based

A triple bottom line considers each of the following:

-the corporation's impact on people. -the corporation's impact on the planet. -the corporation's profits

T/F A company may be sanctioned by a regulatory body as a result of certain ethical breaches by one or more of its employees.

True

T/F The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed in response to Wall Street's ethical lapses and abusive financial services practices.

True

___________ is a philosophical theory developed by two British philosophers, Bentham and Mill, whose major premise is "the greatest good for the greatest number of people".

Utilitarianism

The idea that individuals should evaluate their actions in light of the consequences that would follow if everyone in society acted in the same way is known as the:

categorical imperative