Ethics Final
13: Determine whether the following statement is true or false. In the box for question 3, explain the reasoning behind your answer. You can cite the text to support your response. Tiffanie Wen argues that phone interviews are an effective replacement for in-person interviews, since you cannot see the candidate and so will not make any assumptions about their race or other demographic factors.
False
15 This week you learned about two different approaches to or accounts of moral responsibilities of a business: the shareholder and stakeholder theories. Based on these readings and theories, determine whether the following is true or false: Imagine there is a local youth baseball league that is seeking corporate sponsorships in exchange for their ongoing support of businesses as members of the local community. According to the shareholder theory, a business could never provide those kinds of sponsorship because doing so would not maximize their profits.
False
12: In the chapter for today, Sandel spends a lot of time discussing the concept of self-ownership. What does he mean by self-ownership? Why, according to Sandel, is this concept important to think about? (In other words, what kind of situations make questions of self-ownership relevant/important to consider?)
Self-ownership to Sandel is the idea that you work and create value to make money for yourself and yourself only. The idea is that if you work for the sake of redistributing your wealth and giving it to others, the state or the institution that facilitates the taking of your money has become your master and you have become a slave of labor with no benefit. This concept is important to think about in the way that we redistribute wealth not only from the richest of the rich, but also from lower-paid minimum wage jobs. For example, if you are a waiter and you make tips at your job but you have to share those tips amongst the staff, you no longer have the self-ownership of that money.
True or False: According to Arlie Hochshild, while emotional labor can be harmful in that it alienates the employee from their self and emotions, it can also be potentially good in that it makes market interactions more pleasant.
True
15 Based on R. Edward Freeman's stakeholder theory, which of the following is true of stakeholder groups? On Freeman's view, stakeholders ____________________.
have a right not to be treated as a means to some end
14 Slaughter argues that if businesses are more family-friendly this can help improve their economic performance.
true: Slaughter notes several studies that suggest that family-friendly policies help improve their share prices, and improve the well-being of employees in ways that may benefit the business financially over time.
Falk and Szech did a study in which they tested different types of market exchanges involving mice. They found that three essential features of the market cause markets to erode our moral standards. Which of the following is a feature of the market that causes this erosion of moral standards according to Falk and Szech? Select all that apply.
- Exchanges of goods and services for money inherently undermines the value or dignity of higher goods. - Correct! Observing others trading and ignoring moral standards in the market may make the pursuit of self-interest feel ethically permissible. - Correct! Markets are framed and focus on materialistic aspects like prices, bargaining, and competition, making us forget or ignore moral implications of trades. - Regularly engaging in financial exchanges causes us to become greedy, and this vice reflects an erosion of our moral character. - Markets are centered around maximizing freedom, which suggests the absence of universal moral codes. - Correct! Markets take two people who agree on trading to complete a trade, implying that responsibility and feelings of guilt may be shared.
14 Arlie Hochshild argues that there are three kinds of work people like flight attendants must do when completing their jobs: physical, mental, and emotional labor. Which of the following most closely matches Hochshild's definition of emotional labor? Emotional labor is the ability to...
...induce or suppress your own feelings in order to produce a particular state of mind in your customers
13: According to the article, which of the following is not an effective way to overcome or mitigate bias in wanted ads or job ads?
Balance out male- and female-coded words in the job description Avoid automatically recycling old job ads Broaden the talent pool rather than focusing directly on demographic diversity Correct! Use only gender-neutral words in the job descriptions
14 Anne-Marie Slaughter discusses whether women can truly "have it all," and discusses several cliches women tend to give to explain how they've managed to maintain a family and succeed in the workplace. Her article tries to break down many cliches and explain why they are only partially true. Based on the reading, which of the following would Slaughter most likely agree with, or think is true?
Businesses need to change their default office rules to advantage parents over other workers. CORRECT Employers should allow more flexible work schedules, including the ability to work from home or during the school day. It's possible to have it all if you are committed enough. There is an easy and clearly identifiable order in which women should have children and enter their career in order to succeed.
True or False: During Unit 3 we read about studies done by Bertrand and Mullainathan in which resumes were sent out with white- or African American-sounding names. Applicants with African American-sounding names received significantly fewer callbacks than their white counterparts, but this discrepancy can be explained or attributed to differences in educational background and career/employment history.
False: Bertrand and Mullainathan's study controlled for factors like different experience or education levels. Even when comparing the same, identical resume where the only thing changed was the name, resumes with African American-sounding names received significantly fewer callbacks than white applicants.
14 Select whether the following bolded statement is true or false. Then, in question 3, explain your answer. As with previous quizzes, you can receive partial credit if you pick the wrong answer for this question but have a strong explanation/justification of your answer based on the readings. Hochshild is concerned that with emotional labor, one might become alienated from themselves and their bodies/mind. She does not think this kind of alienation occurs with physical labor.
False: Hochshild argues that people can become similarly alienated with their own bodies through physical labor (see pg. 9).
14 Slaughter argues that institutions cannot do anything to help redefine what it means to have a successful career. Instead, she thinks this shift in how we understand success needs to be done by individual workers.
False: Slaughter notes that institutions can help promote acceptance of this shift in our understanding of success. They can do this by putting policies in place to allow for flexibility when raising a family, enabling people to fast-track their promotion path if they choose, etc.
12: Both of the readings this week have touched on Robert Nozick's account of a just society. As Srinivasan reviews in the paper for today, Nozick argued that just societies were ones that resulted from unfettered (non-regulated or interfered with) free markets. Nozick went as far as to argue that "that the only legitimate function of the state was to ensure the workings of the free market by enforcing contracts and protecting citizens against violence, theft and fraud. " Sandel and Srinivasan touch on many concerns with this view, illustrating some of the difficulties and problematic implications of Nozick's "just society". Today we will reflect together on some of these concerns in light of the Srinivasan article. Reply to the following: After reading the article, can you accept Nozick's position or find it plausible? If so, why? If not, why not? Give reasons to defend your response. What concerns, if any, remain with Nozick's position and overall libertarian approaches to markets? What strengths of those accounts should we consider? Based on this and last week's readings, which approach to markets do you find more plausible: a welfare approach, a freedom/libertarian approach, or something else entirely? Explain your response.
I don't think Nozick's position is plausible or acceptable by any means. As was said by the author, the view of a "free" market is often one that is taken by the entitled elite who hope to hold on to their money. Oftentimes, the elitism that comes with those who make up the 1% is out of a place of being born into privilege, not out of a sense of supplying an item or service that is highly demanded, like in the idealistic version of Nozick's libertarian approach. When the individuals who benefit from this approach to the free market have their money, there is oftentimes an unspoken power dynamic in which these individuals have a greater sense of influence over society as a whole than the majority of people who are financially struggling to get by. There is no legal or physical obligation to participate in unethical practices in this model of the market, BUT we see many individuals being obligated by a sense of desperation to work for those who control the money and business standards of society. The creation of this power dynamic and sphere of influence by those unchecked by the markets is unfeasible for a successful and sustainable society. The welfare approach is one that comes off as much more plausible as it guarantees the equality of opportunity, which allows for people to have a better chance at financial success rather than becoming victim to their own fate by the opportunities they are given.
12: Now that we've considered welfare approaches to and defenses of markets, we're going to look at libertarian defenses. In today's reading, Sandel presents several "hard cases"-- cases which he says might give one pause, even if they accept or are a proponent of libertarianism. Read through the cases Sandel presents. Then reflect on the following: Do these "hard cases" make libertarianism more difficult for you to endorse or find plausible? Explain your response. Are any of the three cases Sandel discusses not an actual challenge to libertarianism? In other words, do any of the cases seem less threatening to a libertarian defense/position than Sandel believes them to be? Explain your reasoning. What other cases pose a threat to libertarian ideology/beliefs?
I think to an extent, these cases make libertarianism easier to understand, but still not plausible for a sustainably successful society. I understand the idea that disrupting a free market overturns a series of individual choices and voluntary transactions. However, what you have to consider is the cost of living and the degree to which individuals should have the ability to participate in these luxuries. Furthermore, individuals like Michael Jordan have plenty of other people that do the EXACT same thing as him, from high school basketball players to college basketball players, and make no money for doing these things. The problem with the wealth inequality is that the entertainment and sports industries have created an unrealistic scale for paid labor, meaning that these people do not particularly deserve or contribute to society enough to be making the wealth that they do. I don't see the assisted suicide case as a direct challenge to libertarianism as the author makes it out to be. It is understandable that if a person has their own life in their hands, they should be able to do what they want with it. However, that does not specifically mean that they need an external individual to pull that trigger for them. Legally, if someone is incapacitated when making a decision like dying, it is not permissible for the logic that they decided it was their time to die. You are unable to sign a legally binding document when incapacitated by disease or general lack of understanding from old age. With this logic, why should it be legally justified for you to help someone, with this incapacitation, to make a decision and get off as a compassionate participant in their decisions? If we were talking about the action of direct suicide, I think that would be more aligned with a libertarian position, because someone is taking their own life and not having someone take it for them. A topic that would pose a threat to libertarian ideology is the prison systems in the US. If you put someone in prison, you are effectively taking away their fundamental rights and liberties as an American citizen. The entirety of the system is built on the idea of taking away these rights as a means of punishment for breaking crimes, but I could see libertarian ideology being threatened by much of fundamental parts of this legal system.
12: In the article for today, Sandel discusses the views of Milton Friedman. Milton Friedman objects to many widely accepted state activities on the grounds that they are illegitimate infringements on freedom. Which of the following types of state activities does Friedman argue is a violation of human freedom? Select all the answers that apply below-- more than one option may be correct.
Minimum wage laws Mandatory social security Occupational licensing requirements (e.g. doctors' or barbers' license)
13: We've now read several pieces which outline the ways in which implicit bias can harm people during the job selection/application process, including during interviews and in reviewing application materials or resumes. Respond to the following: Looking beyond the application process, at what other points in business settings might implicit bias impact or negatively harm employees? Based on what we've learned about mitigating bias in other contexts, what steps can businesses take to help address bias in their companies' policies, leadership, code of conduct, firing and hiring decisions, etc.?
Implicit biases exist in everyday life and all elements of business. Employees are individuals that have their own beliefs and understanding of the worlds, and this can often be harmful to the business environment. For one, a business setting in which a company works with a vendor or contractor outside of their own company could negatively impact employees. Outside of the obvious discrimination or understanding that a company has of its own employees, often times it can be more difficult to mitigate implicit bias from vendors as they have their own company culture and understandings. A way in which this could be negative is if vendors treat employees differently based on uncontrollable factors of employee's identities, such as gender, ethnicity, position, and so forth. This could make employees who make up a minority in any of these categories feel belittled. This is just one example of how people can be treated differently in a business setting in a way that negatively impacts their mental and emotional well being. Outside of this, companies can tackle bias through active awareness. For example, a company I worked for this summer had a town hall around the time of the Black Lives Matter protests to allow employees to voice their opinion on company practices. The company prides itself on having a collaborative and inclusive environment, but creating open forums for conversation like these allows the employees voices to be heard. Many individuals spoke of the clear lack of diversity in the highest levels of management and how that effects their views of themselves as minorities. Outside of general bias-awareness policy and training, the understanding and space to mitigate these biases comes from leadership of a company. People react well to people, meaning if you make company leaders aware of your policies and what it means to have implicit biases, this will cause a trickle down effect.
13: In the paper for today, Bertrand and Mullainathan provide data and analysis from a study done with resumes. Briefly explain the study that was done, and what they concluded from the results of the study.
In essence, Marianne and Sendhil created several candidate profiles (including resumes) to apply for jobs. This was for the sake of identifying racial discrimination in hiring practices. After they created resumes of varying levels, they assigned names that were clearly white or clearly black for the sake of comparing the hiring practices across the board. What they found was that white names received 50% more callbacks for interviews. Outside of basic interview selections, it was clear that even "equal opportunity employers" had the same discriminatory hiring practices as regular employers.
12: In 1-2 sentences, explain the central beliefs libertarians hold (as outlined in the Sandel chapter for today's class).
Libertarians oppose government regulation of the free market as it infringes on individual's liberties and the rights that they hold. They want the market and societies to run without this government interference to uphold individual freedom of decisions and respect of this freedom.
12: In the paper for today and Monday's reading, Sandel explains libertarian views and several replies to libertarian approaches to free markets. One of the things he highlights is that libertarians are opposed to the redistribution of income, as they believe it violates the rights and freedom of the person who earned that money. Explain 2 objections that Sandel raises to this libertarian position. In other words, why might one argue that income should be redistributed? Then, for each of those objections, explain the libertarian reply in your own words.
One objection that Sandel raises for the redistribution of income is that the people who have a deficiency in a resource, such as money, need that resource more. The libertarian response to this idea is that just because someone is more in need of a resource than others does NOT mean that person is owed that resource. For example, if I was in need of a kidney transplant and my friend had two functioning kidneys, that need that I have does not give me a right to take one from my friend. The other objection that Sandel raises is the idea that people are not forced to be taxed or to give up resources against their will as they are participating members of a democracy. The libertarian response to this objection of redistribution of wealth is that even if the individual who did not support this idea elected the right individuals and voted against it, if he is outweighed by a majority (such is the fundamental ideal of democracy) he would still have to pay.
13: Explain your response from question 2, citing to the text where applicable. Even if your response to question 2 is incorrect, if you give a strong justification that demonstrates understanding of the relevant section of today's reading you can receive partial credit.
This is incorrect because as the article cites, there are still many elements of a candidates identity that you can tell by their voice, such as race or socioeconomic status. According to the study cited in the article, candidates who were identified as being black by the sound of their voice were subject to much harsher criticism. It is more important for recruiters to understand their implicit biases going into an interview rather than attempting a "blind" selection for a candidate.
15 According to Milton Friedman's shareholder theory, agents of a company can only act on social responsibilities when (1) they are doing so because the principals of the company have asked them to or (2) they are acting during their private time (i.e. not during work hours or on behalf of the company).
True
Michael Sandel discusses different methods of recruiting for the army, using utilitarian and libertarian lenses to assess conscription vs. volunteer armies. He says that from both the libertarian and utilitarian perspectives, a volunteer army seems best at first glance. Similarly, from both perspectives conscription seems least desirable. Which of the following is not an objection Sandel considers to this assessment of volunteer vs. conscription armies?
Voluntary armies are immoral because war inherently violates our worth and dignity as human beings.
13: The study in today's paper is concerning, as it reflects deeply-seeded bias throughout the hiring places. Think about the process of applying for a job or entering the workforce. In what other places is there potential for bias to negatively and disproportionately harm members of marginalized communities? What steps can be taken by employers to help mitigate bias in their hiring practices/process?
When companies do not hire individuals in marginalized communities, it not only harms the individuals who are discriminated against, but also gives current employees a warped sense of reality. By not allowing minorities into the work force, you do not give the employees of your company the space to have awareness of the marginalized community. This means that in a sense of the general population, non-marginalized communities would not be as aware of the journey or issues that marginalized peoples face in the workplace or beyond. This lack of awareness leads particularly to more discrimination in any place, including on social media where movements for marginalized peoples tends to take off and reach heavy opposition. Employers can try to make the applications more "blind" so as to remove bias. This can include having names and addresses removed from the eyes of the application viewer.
10: In this week's readings from Michael Sandel, he discusses limits to freedom and concerns with various kinds of market exchanges. Sandel ends the article by posing the following questions: How free are the choices we make in the free market? And are there certain virtues and higher goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?
When defining the concept of a free market, it is hard to see it as being completely free given that individuals do not control the market but groups do. For example, the US government can put embargoes and tariffs on China which will send ripple effects through the supply and demand of certain markets. When it comes to virtues and higher goods that markets don't honor, a lot of the virtues that seem to lack in a free market is the idea of true and equal fairness. No global market is ever 100% free as countries and companies create market barriers to push themselves above other countries and companies. Money cannot buy true cooperation between market entities and this deficiency of generosity within some of the actions made by market players enter a grey area on unethical behavior or competitive tactics to succeed.
When reviewing the material on welfare- and freedom-based defenses of markets, I introduced a term called pareto improvements. Pareto improvements occur when there is an exchange of goods that makes _________________.
at least one person better off, and no one worse off than they were before the exchange