Deck 3: Ethics and Social Responsibility

Question 1

Taking several pens from the office and giving them to family members is an example of living up to the "letter of the law."

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Values are broad beliefs about what is appropriate behaviour.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Results-oriented performance criteria are consistent with the utilitarian view of ethics.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Ethics reflect(s) the code of moral principles that sets standards as to what is "good" versus "bad" or "right" versus "wrong" in people's conduct, and thereby guides their moral choices and behaviours.

Question 5

Procedural justice involves the degree to which policies and rules are fairly applied to all individuals.

Question 6

Distributive justice is the degree to which others are treated with dignity and respect.

Question 7

The individualism view is supposed to promote personal enrichment but in business practice it may result in organizational enrichment.

Question 8

An individual whose ethical behaviour protects and respects the fundamental rights of all human beings is practising the moral-rights view of ethics.

Question 9

Among the terminal values held important by managers are honesty, ambition, imagination, and self-discipline.

Question 10

Justice view is based on the belief that ethical decisions treat people impartially and fairly, according to legal rules and standards.

Question 11

Self-respect, freedom, happiness, inner harmony, and family security are examples of terminal values; and courage, imagination, ambition, self-discipline, and honesty are examples of instrumental values.

Question 12

The individualism view of ethical behaviour focuses on the pursuit of long-term self-interests.

Question 13

Terminal values are preferences regarding the means to desired ends.

Question 14

To the extent that values vary among people, we can expect different interpretations of what behaviour is ethical or unethical in a given situation.

Question 15

The utilitarian view of ethical behaviour focuses on treating people impartially and fairly in accordance with guiding rules and standards.

Question 16

Variation in values among people has little, if any, impact on differences in people's interpretations of behaviour as being ethical or unethical in a given situation.

Question 17

In contemporary organizations, the moral-rights view concerns the protection of employees with respect to their rights to privacy, due process, free speech, free consent, health and safety, and freedom of conscience.

Question 18

Instrumental values are preferences regarding desired ends.

Question 19

The utilitarian view considers ethical behaviour to be that which delivers the greatest good to the greatest number of people.

Question 20

Most ethical problems in the workplace arise when people are asked to do or are about to do something that challenges their terminal and instrumental values.

Question 21

Keeping a safe workplace; creating a corporate culture that values employees, customers, and suppliers; and producing safe products and services are universal core values that respect human dignity.

Question 22

Cultural relativism suggests ethical standards apply universally across all cultures.

Question 23

A manager who operates in a foreign country with the premise that ethical behaviour is always determined by its cultural context is adopting a perspective of universalism.

Question 24

Questions such as "Is it legal?" "Is it right?" "Whom does it affect?" "Who benefits?" and "Who gets hurt?" are referred to as spotlight questions.

Question 25

When some action must be taken but there is not a clear "right" or "wrong" approach, a person is faced with an ethical dilemma.

Question 26

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do" is a classic example of the ethical perspective of cultural relativism.

Question 27

Ethical imperialism is an attempt to impose one's ethical standards on other cultures.

Question 28

Ethical imperialism is the attempt to externally impose one's ethical standards on others.

Question 29

The concept of procedural justice is concerned that policies and rules are applied fairly.

Question 30

An ethical dilemma occurs when there is a situation that offers potential benefit or gain and is also unethical.

Question 31

Interactional justice is the degree to which policies and rules are administered fairly in an organization.

Question 32

Commutative justice involves the degree to which outcomes are allocated fairly among people and without respect to individual characteristics based on ethnicity, race, gender, age, or other particularistic criteria.

Question 33

Cultural relativism is a form of ethical imperialism.

Question 34

An ethical dilemma is a situation that offers potential benefit or gain and that may also be considered unethical.

Question 35

Core values or "hyper-norms" that transcend cultural boundaries focus on human dignity, basic rights, and good citizenship.

Question 36

A person who adopts the perspective of cultural relativism assumes that ethical standards should apply absolutely across cultures and national boundaries.

Question 37

Ethical behaviour is determined by its cultural context.

Question 38

Ethical dilemmas frequently involve conflicts of interest, issues of customer confidence, or use of organizational resources, but seldom concern discrimination or sexual harassment.

Question 39

Asking spotlight questions is a powerful way to test whether a decision is consistent with an individual's personal ethical standards.

Question 40

The justice view of ethical behaviour focuses on treating people impartially and fairly according to guiding rules and standards.

Question 41

An ethical framework is a personal rule or strategy for making ethical decisions.

Question 42

Factors influencing ethical managerial behaviour include the person, the employing organization, and the external environment.

Question 43

In Kohlberg's preconventional level of moral development, moral thinking is largely limited to issues of punishment, obedience, and personal interest.

Question 44

Moral leaders are more influential than either amoral or immoral leaders.

Question 45

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act created the mechanism for governmental supervision of the liquidation of Enron and Arthur Andersen.

Question 46

Environmental factors that affect the ethical standards of an organization and its employees include social norms and values, competition within an industry, and governmental laws and regulations.

Question 47

An immoral manager is one who fails to consider or disregards the ethical implications of his or her behaviour.

Question 48

In Kohlberg's conventional level of moral development, the individual is strongly principle-centred.

Question 49

Government laws and regulations can describe and encourage ethical behaviour, but they can't guarantee ethical conduct.

Question 50

An amoral manager is one who fails to consider or disregards the ethical implications of his or her behaviour.

Question 51

The conditions that raise the ethics intensity of a situation include the magnitude, probability, and immediacy of any potential harm, the proximity and concentration of the effects, and social consensus.

Question 52

A moral manager is one who considers the ethical implications of his or her behaviour and actions.

Question 53

An amoral manager chooses to behave unethically.

Question 54

Making sure that everyone knows wrongdoing will be punished whenever it is discovered is an appropriate method for dealing with the rationalization that "no one will ever know about the unethical behaviour."

Question 55

The virtues of honesty, fairness, integrity, and self-respect provide ethical frameworks that help people make correct decisions even when circumstances are ambiguous and situational pressures are difficult.

Question 56

The ethics culture in an organization sets high standards and may even push people to behave more ethically than they otherwise would.

Question 57

A common statement by a rationalizer is "It's in everyone's best interests." This response involves the mistaken belief that because someone can be found to benefit from the behaviour, the behaviour is also in the individual's or the organization's best interests.

Question 58

Ethics mindfulness is a state of awareness that causes a person to behave in an ethical manner from one situation to another.

Question 59

Personal factors such as religious values and family influences have little effect on managerial ethics, whereas personal standards and needs have a great deal of impact on managerial ethics.

Question 60

The behaviour of supervisors and the expectations of peers are organizational factors that influence ethical behaviour.

Question 61

Strong work group identities that encourage loyalty and self-censorship are barriers to whistle blowing.

Question 62

A whistleblower is someone who exposes the misdeeds of others in an organization in an attempt to preserve ethical standards and protect against wasteful, harmful, or illegal acts.

Question 63

Formal codes of ethics are usually concerned with expressing how employees may be expected to behave in terms of customer-supplier relationships, political contributions, confidentiality of corporate information, and response to bribes and kickbacks.

Question 64

Corporate social responsibility means taking personal responsibility to always respect and protect the interests of society at large.

Question 65

The value of an ethics code relies on the organization's underlying human resource foundation.

Question 66

According to Archie Carroll, managers who are engaged in unethical practices remain mostly uninformed or undisciplined in considering the ethical aspects of their behaviour.

Question 67

Moral managers are leaders who possess ethics mindfulness.

Question 68

Advocates of corporate social responsibility assert that businesses have the resources and obligation to act in socially responsible ways, and that it decreases the need for restrictive government regulation, improves the public image of business, and may improve or determine long-run profits.

Question 69

Impaired career progress and various retaliatory actions, up to and including termination, are among the potential risks faced by people who act as whistleblowers.

Question 70

The classical view of social responsibility maintains that the organization must be concerned with the broader social welfare and not just with corporate profits.

Question 71

A whistleblower is a person who exposes the misdeeds of others in an attempt to divert attention from his or her own unethical behaviour.

Question 72

The triple bottom line evaluates organizational performance on economic, social, and environmental criteria.

Question 73

Codes of ethics may identify expected behaviours in terms of general organizational citizenship, the avoidance of illegal or improper employee behaviour, and customer relations.

Question 74

Codes of ethical conduct can guarantee ethical conduct.

Question 75

Exposure to a multi-step process for dealing with ethical dilemmas is an appropriate component of an ethics training program.

Question 76

Amoral and immoral leaders can be just as influential as moral leaders.

Question 77

Housing and job training for the homeless, bringing technology to poor families, improving literacy among disadvantaged youth, and making small loans to start minority-owned businesses are all examples of social entrepreneurship.

Question 78

According to its opponents, corporate social responsibility will raise business costs, reduce business profits, dilute the purpose of business, and give business too much social power.

Question 79

Organizational barriers to whistle blowing include a strict chain of command, strong work group identities, and ambiguous priorities.

Question 80

The socio-economic view of social responsibility holds that management's only responsibility in managing a business is to maximize profits.