Business Ethics

All of these are ways of reducing pollution, except:

What concept refers to economic theories advocating the creation of a society where wealth and power are distributed evenly, relative to the amount of work expended in production?

Only 10% of employees observe abusive behavior in the workplace.

Chapter 3, Check your EQ

To ensure that an ethics program addresses the needs of the average employee, it should include all of the following except ...

Which of the following is not a benefit that primary stakeholders tend to provide to organizations?

Which of the following is not a conflict management style?

The stakeholder perspective is useful in managing social responsibility and business ethics.

Chapter 2, Check your EQ

Which of the following is not a way to avoid groupthink in small-group decision making?

According to Kohlberg's model, as a person progresses through the stages of moral development, and with time, education, and experience, he/she

For an ethical compliance program to properly function,

Having acceptable personal ethics is probably not going to be sufficient to handle complex business ethical issues when an individual has

Which-one(s) of the following statement(s) is(are) correct?

1. An important part of leadership is the implementation of employee-centred leadership. Employee-centred leadership recognizes that while not everyone will be a manager, every employee can and should practice leadership skills to support ethical decision making.

2. An essential component of employee-centred leadership is communication. Without communication all attempts at maintaining an ethical culture fail.

3. Evidence suggests that most firms understand the importance of communication in connection to leadership and that top management puts special emphasis on getting feedback from employees, listening to their concerns.

Which-one(s) of the following statement(s) is(are) correct?

1. Moral intensity and ethical issue intensity are similar concepts because they both relate to the individual’s perception of social or organisational pressure and the harm they believe their decisions will have on others.

2. Moral intensity is different from ethical issue intensity because the former relates to a company’s moral obligations regarding its corporate citizenship, and the latter relates to the importance of an event in the eyes of an individual person.

3. Regarding ethical issue intensity, it can be argued that senior employees and those with administrative authority play an important role as they typically dictate an organisation’s stance on ethical issues.

Sustainability is the potential for the long-term well-being of the natural environment including all biological entities, as well as the mutually beneficial interactions among nature and individuals, organizations, and business strategies.

Chapter 12, Check your EQ

Which-one(s) of the following statement(s) is(are) correct?

1. The prime goal of an ethical culture is the maximisation of the use of principles that contribute to ethical reasoning in difficult or new situations. Another, subordinate goal is to minimise the need for enforced compliance of rules.

2. Most ethical issues exist because of conflicts in values and belief patterns about right and wrong among and within stakeholder groups.

3. When unethical acts are discovered in organisations, in most instances cooperation or complicity facilitated the acceptance and perpetuation of the unethical conduct.

Among retail stores, _____ is a larger problem than customer shoplifting.

Which of the following leadership types has a strong influence on coworker support and building an ethical culture through increasing employee commitment and fostering motivation?

An unconscious reference to one's own cultural values, experiences, and knowledge is referred to as the ...

The leader demands instantaneous obedience and focuses on achievement, initiative, and self-control.

You work as the assistant to the CEO of an internationally active pharmaceutical company. In order to promote your products, you regularly invite medical doctors (MDs) to seminars and conferences that also help to exchange ideas and share insights gained from experience. In this context, it has been common practice that your company covers all the travelling expenses of the participants and their spouses and also pay a substantial fee if participants are willing to make a contribution in the discussion forums. As this has been a common practice within the pharmaceutical industry, your company has not considered this approach as ethically questionable so far.

However, recently, a new law was passed in one of the countries where you do business that prohibits the payment of a substantial fee merely for the agreement to participate in a discussion. Yet, it remains unclear exactly which sum could be considered substantial. At the same time, the parliament of the country where your head offices are located is preparing a new law making the payment of excessive compensation to participants of company-organised international conferences illegal. In this context, the CEO has asked you to come up with a plan of action, proposing, with an emphasis on sound corporate citizenship, an ethically viable and commercially sound approach to the new situation.

Given the above information, which-one(s) of the following statement(s) is(are) correct? See Visual with choices I, II, and III.

Business ethics deals with right or wrong behavior within a particular organization.

Chapter 1, Check your EQ

Three primary stakeholders are customers, special interest groups, and the media.

Chapter 2, Check your EQ

Please fill in the missing part in a manner consistent with business ethics.

After identifying ethical risk areas, ethical leaders should develop policies and procedures for _____ and _____ misconduct. This process is an important part of risk management.

While companies might adopt risk management plans to deal with economic, marketing, and technological risks, they are less likely to consider _____ risks as a major area of concern.

Which-ones of the following terms belong to the same group (i.e., the same category)?

1) Egoism

2) Utilitarianism

3) Relativism

4) Consequentialism

5) Nonconsequentialism

Please fill in the missing part in a manner consistent with business ethics. (p. 135/moderate)

A(n) _____ is a problem, situation, or opportunity that requires an individual, group, or organisation to choose among several actions that must be evaluated as right or wrong, ethical or unethical.

Which leadership type values people, their emotions, and their needs and relies on friendship and trust to promote flexibility, innovation, and risk taking?

All of these are ways of reducing pollution, except:

Which-one(s) of the following statement(s) is(are) correct?

1. In the context of business ethics, the notion “ethics” refers to the decisions made within the framework of an organisation’s values. However, it does not refer to the specific behaviour of members of an organisation.

2. In the context of business ethics, the notion “ethics” refers to both, to a specific behaviour of members of an organisation as well as to a person’s personal philosophies about what is right or wrong.

3. In the context of business ethics, there exists a difference between an ordinary decision and an ethical-one. For instance, contrary to an ordinary decision, an ethical decision requires the weighing of values in order to reach a judgement regarding a situation the decision maker has not faced before.

During the 1990s the institutionalization of business ethics was largely driven by which piece of legislation?

Act deontology requires a person use equity, fairness, and impartiality in making decisions and evaluating actions.

Chapter 6, Check your EQ

There exist positive links between environmental and economic performance. In connection thereto, a firm’s innovation strategy might lead to a better economic performance for all of the subsequent reasons except:

_____ is a term used by Adam Smith to explain the inherent mechanisms at work in free market systems that keep commerce in equilibrium. It is also known as the “invisible hand.”

Which-one(s) of the following statement(s) is(are) correct?

1. A company’s ethical culture has a positive effect on employee commitment and trust. However, investor loyalty is only marginally affected by a company’s ethical culture as investors are primarily interested in high returns on equity.

2. A company’s ethics and compliance program can support values and appropriate conduct. In this context, it is important to realise a company’s core values, which are derived from principles, might not be the same as an employee’s individual values.

3. A company’s value practices are distinct from its organisational practices, which are driven by technical or efficiency considerations.

Which is the last of Kohlberg's stages of cognitive moral development?

There exist positive links between environmental and economic performance. In connection thereto, a firm’s innovation strategy might lead to a better economic performance for all of the subsequent reasons except:

An unconscious reference to one's own cultural values, experiences, and knowledge is referred to as the ...

Risk compartmentalization occurs when

An ethical compliance audit is designed to determine the effectiveness of ethics initiatives.

Chapter 8, Check your EQ

Last year, your company, a supplier of electronic hard ware, adopted a new environmental strategy in which the long-term overlaps of shared values between the needs of the company and the needs of society and the environment receive special attention. In this context, your company has begun with the development of new technologies that should provide the means to extract, from electronic waste, the raw materials needed in the production of new units. In this sense, the company hopes both to better secure the supply of those needed raw materials in the future as well as comply with newly established legal environmental standards. However, the development of that technology proves to be more costly and more challenging than expected. And whilst the board of directors, at last year’s general assembly of shareholders, received great support for its decision to develop the new technologies, important shareholders have now voiced their serious concern that the strategy appears to be too costly, putting the company’s economic performance at risk.

The CEO is a much appreciated person; many consider him an ethical leader. However, he is not what one would call an authoritative, inspirational leader. Especially when it comes to communication, he appears to have trouble in bringing a message across in an inspiring manner. Many believe that it is because of this shortcoming that some shareholders don’t trust the companyto be able to successfully complete the development of the new technologies. Many believe that his resignation would solve that problem. He, however, does not seem to share that view.

In view of the above-described situation, which-one(s) of the following statement(s) is(are) correct? See visual for I, II, and III.