Deck 4: Virtue, Justice, and Social Responsibility

Question 1

What broad categories of acts do you consider to be acts of Corporate Social Responsibility?

Answer 1

not answered

Question 2

Rawls believed that society should strive for:

A) Equality of resource allocation among all
B) Equality of resource allocation among the most productive members of society
C) Inequality of resource allocation at birth, to spur hard work and innovation
D) Variability in resource allocation, which he called the difference principle

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Rawls believed that:

A) There should be perfect equality of resource allocation in society
B) Imperfect resource allocation benefits society because it encourages innovation and hard work
C) Resource allocation should resemble a normal statistical distribution, with most people concentrated around the median
D) Disproportionately greater resource allocations to some in society is acceptable as long as it results in a higher standard of living for those with lower incomes

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Virtue ethics is principally concerned with:

A) Ensuring that employees are loyal to their employers
B) Ensuring that partners are loyal to one another
C) Developing a person's character
D) Deterring breaches of trust without the need for imprisonment

Question 5

If a firm engages in activities that simultaneously are profit-optimizing and socially responsible:

A) Economists that adopt the stakeholder theory, but not the shareholder theory, will agree with its conduct
B) Economists that adopt the shareholder theory, but not the stakeholder theory, will agree with its conduct
C) Economists uniformly will criticize its claims of social responsibility as being highly unlikely, if not impossible
D) Its behavior is commendable in accordance with both the shareholder and the stakeholder theories

Question 6

Virtue ethics focuses on:

A) The development of integrity
B) The achievement of due care in all personal and professional interactions
C) Accomplishing sound decision-making
D) Implementing a systematic approach to the virtuous resolution of ethical dilemmas

Question 7

Rawls was a proponent of:

A) The universality principle
B) The veil of ignorance
C) The reversibility principle
D) Our current system of federal income tax rates

Question 8

Virtue ethics requires people to ask the following question of themselves:

A) "How should I act?"
B) "Who should I be?"
C) "Did I make an error in judgment?"
D) "Did my decision optimally protect the rights of others?"

Question 9

Should corporations be required to disclose in SEC filings their expenditures on improving and maintaining the environment?

Question 10

Under the viewpoint of virtue ethics, which of the following is not a commonly recognized virtue?

A) Loyalty
B) Trustworthiness
C) Independence of thought and action
D) Courage

Question 11

Aristotle believed that:

A) Unequals should be treated equally to ensure a just society
B) Unequals should be treated differently than equals, with unequals given just basic necessities for survival
C) Unequals should be treated unequally, with the relative difference in treatment being proportionate to the degree to which members of society are unequal
D) Unequals should be treated unequally, but fairness dictates that the amount sacrificed by the inferior party should be comparatively modest to ensure a tranquil society

Question 12

The disclosure of conflict minerals in SEC filings is historically significant because:

A) The Dodd-Frank Act revolutionized depletion accounting rules for natural resource properties
B) Investors now will be better able to evaluate the risks of firms that are highly dependent upon minerals from war-torn areas of the world
C) Investors receive superior information that better enables them to hold companies accountable if they engage in socially irresponsible behavior
D) Investors now will be better able to evaluate the foreign currency risks to which global corporations are subject

Question 13

A public opinion poll concluded that rich people tend to favor a lower estate tax on wealth, while poor people tend to favor a higher estate tax. This finding:

A) Is consistent with the veil of ignorance, which Rawls contends makes rich people irrational
B) Shows why policy-makers would tend to evaluate decisions more objectively by applying a veil of ignorance
C) Is a classic, real-world example of the veil of ignorance in action
D) Is a prime example of Aristotle's view of how unequals should be treated

Question 14

Which of the following is, or are, commonly accepted definitions of CSR?

A) A corporation fully complies with all applicable laws and regulations
B) A corporation engages in activities that are both socially responsible and profit-enhancing
C) A corporation engages in activities that are socially responsible, even if they are not profit-enhancing
D) All of the above

Question 15

Milton Friedman espoused the view that:

A) A corporation's sole duty is to make money, regardless of the means utilized
B) A corporation should sacrifice profit maximization if doing so is necessary to comply with legal mandates
C) A corporation has a compelling obligation to engage in socially responsible activities, even at the sacrifice of profits
D) All of the above

Question 16

The veil of ignorance illustrates the viewpoint that:

A) Most people are woefully uninformed about the meaning of fairness
B) Justice should be applied blindly, without regard to a person's innate character traits, such as race or religion
C) Resource allocation decisions should be made as if a decision-maker did not know his or her eventual status, or lack of status, in life
D) Random distributions of societal wealth might well be superior to the system in effect in many societies today

Question 17

Virtue ethics focuses principally on:

A) The preparation for being ethical, rather than on the achievement of end results
B) End results, like consequentialism does
C) Actions, like deontology does
D) The development of mental cues for evaluating the success, or failure, of past decisions

Question 18

"Triple bottom line" accounting emphasizes the measurement of a company's:

A) Net Income, Net Cash Flow, and Net Capital Expenditures
B) Corporate spending on the "three C's" of charitable, civic, and cultural causes
C) Profitability, environmental sustainability practices, and employee welfare
D) Payments of taxes for the public interest, payment of wages to worker-stakeholders, and profits for shareholders

Question 19

A student enrolled in your class has dyslexia. As a result of this learning disability, he reads slowly. The university has agreed to give this student more time to take a test that customarily is allotted to other students. Evaluate this decision in the context of Aristotle's view on distributive justice.

Question 20

Accounting staff members at a major corporation received an all-expense paid vacation to Hawaii from a hedge fund trader. In return, they shared company earnings results with a hedge fund trader two days prior to the public release of these results. The accounting staff members' actions are consistent with:

A) Deontology
B) Egoism
C) Virtue ethics
D) No recognized philosophy

Question 21

Do you believe that societal resource allocations based on Rawls' veil of ignorance should be widely adopted?

Question 22

Identify a corporate project that exemplifies corporate social responsibility and explain your rationale.

Question 23

No society has adopted Rawls' veil of ignorance. Why do you think that Rawls' approach to distributive justice has not been widely adopted?

Question 24

Should accounting rules be revised to better account for socially responsible expenditures? Which rules?