Deck 1: Unethical Behaviors in Organizations and Human Nature

Question 1

What point is the text making about ethical misconduct when it describes the Wells Fargo employee practice of creating fraudulent checking and savings accounts?

A) Managerial negligence is typically the starting place for organizational corruption.
B) Governmental negligence in policing misconduct can be a major determinant of how commonly it occurs.
C) Public image and admiration and ethical misconduct are not mutually exclusive characteristics.
D) Organizational culture can be blamed for ethical misconduct as much as individual behavior.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What type of ethical misbehavior did UK managers rate highest in incidence among the most common they witnessed?

A) taking credit for others' work
B) lying about being sick
C) performing low-quality work
D) defrauding customers

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What is the first component of an action sequence?

A) considering the consequences of the act
B) motivation
C) the act itself
D) opportunity

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following was observed by the 2013 Ethics Resource Center (ERC) survey of 6,420 for-profit employees about work-related issues during their previous year of employment?

A) Managers were responsible for most of the reported ethical misdeeds.
B) Most respondents had observed an incident of ethical misconduct.
C) Most of the misdeeds reported were ongoing behaviors.
D) Senior management was implicated in very few ethical misdeeds, perhaps out of fear of retribution.

Question 5

How are small businesses different from large businesses with respect to ethics violations?

A) The difficulties of managing morally questionable employees are somewhat smaller with small businesses.
B) They are less susceptible to bullying issues with large clients.
C) They are likely to have more respectful and less contentious relationships with clients and customers.
D) They are likely to have fewer well-educated employees who are less committed to the organization.

Question 6

Joan works as a personal injury attorney, and her husband, Ali, is a consultant for a financial services firm. What particular type of ethical misconduct might they both be tempted to commit that is a common issue in, and somewhat unique to, their professions?

A) charging for unearned billable hours
B) overusing unpaid internships
C) dishonesty with clients
D) colluding with competitors to guide the market

Question 7

In which of the following ways does an unconscious ethical dilemma differ from a conscious one?

A) In an unconscious ethical dilemma, you are not aware of the moral issue occurring.
B) In an unconscious ethical dilemma, you know the action you are taking is wrong.
C) In an unconscious ethical dilemma, you know an action is right, but you are very tempted to do what is wrong.
D) In an unconscious ethical dilemma, you are aware a decision is a moral issue, but others are not.

Question 8

Which of the following could least be classified as a stakeholder of a local clothing retail business?

A) a person who buys clothes from the business
B) the owners of a restaurant across the street
C) a rival retail clothing business down the street
D) a person who receives a product of the company as a gift

Question 9

Which of the following statements about ethics and organizations at large is accurate?

A) Organizations must work hard to maintain an internal culture free of ethical challenges.
B) Organizations face ethical challenges only if they fail to both engage in ethics training and in hiring ethical employees.
C) All organizations are ethically challenged.
D) Most organizations are ethically challenged.

Question 10

How does the text define ethics?

A) a moral code adopted by each person--and the actions taken under that code--with respect to those it will affect
B) the quality of intention a person takes into each decision with respect to those whom the decision will affect
C) the actions a person takes to determine if they improve or lessen the quality of life for the community
D) the set of principles a person uses to determine whether an action is good or bad

Question 11

When asked to rate professions by how much they were trusted, what was the only profession Gallup Poll respondents rated higher than 15 percent?

A) doctors
B) nonprofit charity officers
C) police officers
D) nurses

Question 12

Karen spilled some coffee on the counter at a coffee shop and failed to wipe it up, and her friend said, "That was bad." Her friend just ______.

A) misapplied ethical reasoning
B) rejected analytical perspective
C) became a stakeholder
D) performed an ethical analysis

Question 13

Based on self-reporting in one study, from where did middle managers find that most pressure to write fraudulent internal reports originate?

A) customers and clients
B) their superiors
C) themselves
D) employees seeking more resources

Question 14

Which of the following is TRUE of employees' responses to witnessed ethical violations, as observed by the 2013 Ethics Resource Center (ERC) survey of 6,420 for-profit employees?

A) Most who reported the misconduct said they did so in hopes of hurting the perpetrator.
B) Most who reported the misconduct experienced some kind of retaliation.
C) Slightly less than half reported the misconduct.
D) Most reported the misconduct.

Question 15

What should be the primary ethical goal of managers in an organization?

A) creating a common mission for employees
B) appropriately serving the needs of customers
C) producing a trustworthy product
D) fostering trust, efficiency, integrity, and effectiveness across a range of actions for employees and customers

Question 16

How does the text define "well-managed organization"?

A) a community of people on a common mission to be effective, efficient, and ethical
B) a community of people seeking a common goal in the marketplace
C) an efficient hierarchy of managers and employees operating under conditions of discipline and trust
D) a community of employees and managers working together to provide a net benefit to society

Question 17

What ethics trend was uncovered in a 2013 survey of managers in the UK?

A) Most of the time, when managers were pressured to violate ethical standards, lawbreaking was involved.
B) Nearly half of managers had pressured their own subordinates to commit fraud for their department's gain.
C) Around 10 percent were forced out of their jobs for refusing to violate ethical standards when pressured.
D) Nearly half of managers experienced pressure from others to violate ethical standards.

Question 18

Which of the following statements about sexual harassment in the workplace is accurate?

A) The legal profession has the highest rate of reports for sexual harassment among professions.
B) Reporting of incidents by one female employee typically encourages others to come forward.
C) Roughly half of women subjected to sexual harassment report the incident.
D) In surveys, some 60 percent or more of women report having been sexually harassed.

Question 19

Which of the following is perhaps the easiest way to quantify the costs associated with unethical behaviors?

A) interviewing defrauded clients
B) looking at lawsuits
C) surveying employees to determine work hours lost
D) comparing revenue of ethical companies to unethical ones

Question 20

When considering ethics, how does an action differ from the consequences of that action?

A) Acts carry moral weight, while consequences are neutral to the person taking the action.
B) Acts are morally neutral, while consequences have ethical weight.
C) Acts carry concrete moral implications, while consequences are subject to interpretation.
D) An act has moral implications for the actor, while consequences have moral implications only for those acted upon.

Question 21

There is a high level of mistrust between construction owners and contractors. When these two groups must work together on a project, this high level of mistrust is going to raise what cost in particular?

A) reputation costs
B) monitoring costs
C) direct costs related to theft
D) legal costs

Question 22

How has the theoretical debate over ethics and organizational performance changed in recent years?

A) It increasingly considers ethical behavior as an aid to financial performance.
B) It increasingly focuses on the choice between financial performance and ethical behavior.
C) It increasingly acknowledges that ethical behavior has little impact on organizational performance.
D) It focuses on the short-term benefits to financial performance of unethical action.

Question 23

What conclusion about ethical corporate behavior can be drawn from the lawsuits and payouts that R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, and Philip Morris continue to be subject to?

A) A culture of unethical behavior can be more costly than specific actions.
B) Even if upper management initiates unethical behavior, lower-level employees often pay the highest costs.
C) Just because an organization's behavior is legal does not mean there will not be ethical and financial costs.
D) State and local governments can exact steep costs even from international corporations.

Question 24

How does the text define human nature?

A) the sum of personality and how a human interacts with others in a community
B) the balance of an individual's ethical and unethical actions
C) the moral, psychological, and social characteristics of human beings
D) the degree to which a person seeks individual or collective gain

Question 25

What has research shown about the value Americans place on the ethical nature of their employer?

A) A minority of Americans consider an ethical culture a very important component in an employer.
B) The majority of Americans do not consider ethics when looking for an employer.
C) Most Americans would like to work for an ethical company but do not consider it a priority.
D) A vast majority believe it is highly important to work for an ethical company.

Question 26

Which of the following reasons most causes an individual to take a job at an unethical organization over an ethical one?

A) greater opportunity for personal enrichment through rule breaking
B) belief that workload will be easier/smaller
C) individual ignorance about ethics
D) much higher pay and benefits

Question 27

Two companies produce different proprietary versions of the same product. The two versions are very alike in quality and effectiveness, but the product from the company with a strong reputation for ethical performance costs slightly more. Given statistical research findings, what will most Americans who want this type of product do assuming they are familiar with the two companies?

A) Base their purchase on convenience and disregard ethical reputation.
B) Base their purchase not on ethics or price but solely on user reviews.
C) Pay the higher price for the product from the ethical company.
D) Pay the lower price for the product from the company with no reputation for ethics.

Question 28

Nalia is a millennial entering the workforce for the first time after college. If she is in the statistical majority, what will be most important factor for her in choosing a company to work for?

A) ethical culture/operation
B) salary
C) company reputation for financial success
D) schedule flexibility and work/life balance

Question 29

According to the text, 63 percent of the average corporation's market value can be attributed to ______.

A) quality of product
B) reputation
C) share price
D) market share

Question 30

Why does the text mention the core mission of the Starbucks corporation?

A) It exemplifies how multinational corporations need to better align themselves with an ethical mission.
B) It's an example of a company with a public and organizational commitment to ethical behavior.
C) It's an example of a company that puts profits and financial expansion over ethical behavior.
D) It demonstrates how most corporate mission statements do not take ethical behavior into account.

Question 31

What cost, which includes loss of company time, is directly incurred by an organization when it hires untrustworthy employees?

A) theft
B) damaged reputation
C) customer disloyalty
D) fraud

Question 32

Indira's financial services company knowingly financed high-risk securities during a time when all their competitors were doing the same, and like others, they were caught in the process. Over the next decade, what is likely to be the most quantifiable cost to the company?

A) fired employees and associated severance packages
B) lowered budgets for projects beginning the year the unethical conduct occurred
C) lowered employee morale
D) ongoing legal defenses

Question 33

The text uses the example of the Volkswagen (VW) emissions scandal to illustrate what point?

A) Companies can commit unethical actions while trying to act ethically.
B) Legal protection can shield upper management from the costs of unethical behavior.
C) Companies can seriously underestimate the costs of unethical behavior.
D) Companies can sometimes commit major ethical violations and not suffer a loss of reputation.

Question 34

Janele is three years old. While playing with another child, she takes the juice from the other child's hands and drinks it herself. How would Socrates have interpreted this action?

A) Janele might have known taking the juice was wrong, but she would have learned about that wrongness from the culture around her.
B) Janele already knew in her soul that taking the juice was wrong (she was born with this knowledge) and chose to do it anyway.
C) Janele was born good, so she must have learned this behavior from a corrupt adult.
D) Janele was born with inherited sin, which manifested in the theft of the juice.

Question 35

According to the "born good" philosophy of human nature, which of the following is a person imbued with since birth?

A) a conscience that represents pure goodness
B) a soul programmed with both goodness and sin
C) inherited sin that must be rejected
D) a "tabula rasa"

Question 36

Harold was caught lying about his worked hours on a time sheet, admonished, and allowed to stay on at the company. What type of company cost related to Harold will rise now that the incident has already occurred?

A) costs due to loss of company time
B) public reputation
C) monitoring costs
D) lost salary costs

Question 37

Kamilah runs a medium-sized real estate agency in her hometown. After some clients reported violations, it became public knowledge--and was printed in the newspaper--that the company inflated its closure numbers with fake sales. The most direct reputation cost for Kamilah's company will be ______.

A) employees leaving the company
B) governmental sanctions
C) an inability to hire quality employees
D) lost business

Question 38

What affects approximately 13 percent of U.S. workers and costs an estimated $23.8 billion annually?

A) poor customer-employee relationships
B) pressure to lie
C) employee theft
D) abusive supervision

Question 39

What does research show about Wall Street investors' response to new accounting laws requiring financial transparency?

A) They seek to invest in companies they believe will be most talented at avoiding the provisions of such laws.
B) They do not factor it into their calculations because such laws are applied across all companies.
C) They react poorly because they know companies will be less capable of maximizing profits.
D) They respond favorably because investors prefer higher ethical behavior in companies in which they invest.

Question 40

Which of the following statements about the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance is accurate?

A) Research has demonstrated a slightly negative causal relationship--greater social responsibility causes lower (but not low) financial performance.
B) No direct relationship can be shown, but social responsibility should be pursued for its own sake.
C) Companies in developing nations show greater return on financial performance for corporate social responsibility than companies in developed nations.
D) Research increasingly shows a positive causal relationship between the two.

Question 41

Which of the following best characterizes the finding about childhood morality by childhood psychologist Michael Tomasello?

A) Children demonstrate the capacity to deceive before learning language.
B) Because helping behaviors do not appear until two years of age, we cannot determine if they have innate components.
C) Children must learn helping behaviors from their parents.
D) Children exhibit helping behaviors before they learn speech.

Question 42

Which of the following qualifies as an unintended unethical behavior?

A) punching a stranger because they insulted you
B) failing to report an unwanted sexual advance for fear of being fired
C) a store manager using a waste disposal service that secretly pollutes
D) going along with a boss's unethical request because one values loyalty highly

Question 43

"Do not lie" is an example of which of the following found in all major cultures and world religions?

A) a moral imperative
B) a stage of moral reasoning
C) cognitive dissonance
D) conventional reasoning

Question 44

In Lawrence Kohlberg's moral stages, most adults never advance beyond ______.

A) postconventional moral reasoning
B) the preconventional level
C) stage four, the "law-abiding citizen" stage
D) stage three, the "Good Boy-Nice Girl" stage

Question 45

Ali is old enough to have developed the capacity for mental scripts. Which of the following scenarios demonstrates enactment of a mental script?

A) An uncle gives Ali a present, and Ali says, "Thank you."
B) His mother smiles at him, and he smiles back.
C) Ali recognizes that others might feel bad even though he feels good.
D) A stranger appears, and Ali tries to crawl away from him.

Question 46

According to Lawrence Kohlberg, which of the following is a factor that influences passage through the stages of moral development?

A) avoidance of pain
B) empathy for people at lower stages
C) moral comfort
D) age

Question 47

What do the "born good" and "tabula rasa" approaches to human morality have in common that the other approaches lack?

A) Humans must relearn after birth what they already knew before birth.
B) Humans have a "conscience" that is basically good.
C) Soul is joined to the body before birth.
D) Unethical or immoral behavior must be learned from others after birth.

Question 48

For what common social function does lying serve as a defense mechanism?

A) hiding our flaws and imperfections
B) assisting in material gain
C) maintaining societal order
D) protecting self-interests

Question 49

Which of the following is TRUE of helping behaviors in American adults?

A) Generation X had the highest rate of volunteerism of the various age groups.
B) A little less than half of American households donate money to charity.
C) Helping behavior decreases dramatically in the adult years.
D) Volunteering time was a minimal helping behavior for Americans, with just a few million reporting hours given to volunteering.

Question 50

Chudra's cognitive moral development has reached the postconventional level. With which of the following statements is she most likely to agree?

A) Act as you would to be the best role model for others.
B) Every human being has the right to sufficient food, shelter, and just treatment.
C) The law is the law, and it should be obeyed to maintain societal order.
D) Life is short; do what makes you happy.

Question 51

What component must be present for a person to advance from one stage of moral reasoning to the next?

A) a significant advancement in age
B) empathy for others
C) psychological pain
D) a moral script

Question 52

Which of the following statements about lying and cheating in high school and college is accurate?

A) Less than half of high school students thought it was important to display good character.
B) The incidence of cheating is lower in college than in high school, though still very high.
C) Most college students admit to wanting to cheat, though most do not.
D) Over 90 percent of high school students admit to cheating in the last year.

Question 53

According to research, when are altruistic behaviors first observed in children?

A) 4 years
B) 2 years
C) 12 months
D) 18 months

Question 54

According to Lawrence Kohlberg, how does right behavior at the conventional level of reasoning differ from right behavior at the preconventional level?

A) It is less concerned with being a good role model.
B) It has a higher component of pain avoidance.
C) It is based more on universal ethical principles.
D) It is based more on societal order.

Question 55

According to Jean Piaget, what does a child possess at 18 months that he or she does not at 14 months?

A) feelings such as pride and shame
B) curiosity
C) a social smile
D) an understanding of what it means to be good or bad

Question 56

How do Hindu and Buddhist beliefs about human moral imperfection differ from those of Roman Catholics and Protestants?

A) They believe moral imperfections come from God, not from original sin.
B) They believe moral imperfections comes from previous humans, not from original sin.
C) They believe the soul joined to the body is perfect at birth and learns immorality.
D) They believe the soul joined to the body is not imperfect at birth.

Question 57

What common characteristic is found among children and adults?

A) a desire to avoid pain
B) a desire to make others happy
C) a need to be taught a sense of justice
D) an inherent good or bad nature

Question 58

Which of the following is an "other-suffering" emotion as detailed by professor Jonathan Haidt?

A) contempt
B) guilt
C) empathy
D) gratitude

Question 59

Which of the following does not qualify as a general reason that good people sometimes behave unethically?

A) causing, but not intending, unethical outcome
B) choosing not to justify an unethical behavior
C) failing to prevent an unethical behavior out of fear of retaliation
D) choosing one set of values over a competing set of values

Question 60

Five-year-old Duanna steals candy from the grocery store even though she knows it is supposed to be paid for. If Aristotle or John Locke were asked to explain the origin of Duanna's sense of morality, what would they most likely say?

A) God
B) culture
C) inherent conscience
D) her soul prior to birth

Question 61

A person who reasons at the postconventional level is most influenced in their decisions by ______.

A) the laws that govern the community
B) the will of the majority
C) the need to be a good role model
D) their conscience

Question 62

Which of the following is a component of the "born morally neutral" philosophy of human nature?

A) Prior to birth, the mind exists in a spiritual realm.
B) Kindness is part of the human DNA.
C) Children have an innate "moral sense."
D) Newborns have moral capacities.

Question 63

How does Rushworth Kidder characterize the "really tough choices" that people must go through regarding ethical decisions?

A) right vs. right
B) right vs. wrong
C) justice vs. loyalty
D) good vs. bad

Question 64

When do children show the first evidence of lying?

A) as soon as they are able to express wants or needs
B) when they are capable of recognizing unique individuals
C) as soon as they are capable of speech
D) when they reach the postconventional reasoning stage

Question 65

Which of the following scenarios would cause cognitive dissonance, as defined by the text?

A) An employee is pressured by their manager to falsify sales numbers and discovers that the action helps the company's bottom line.
B) A person justifies stealing based on the need to feed his family, but then he sees that it helps his children stay healthy.
C) A person decides to lie for the first time to achieve better results at work but is caught.
D) A person believes stealing is harmless but then sees the pain it causes a victim.

Question 66

Katie is 16 years old. If she is part of the statistical majority, she reasons at ______.

A) the conventional level
B) the preconventional level
C) the postconventional level
D) stage 2

Question 67

Which of the following statements about the cognitive development of children is accurate as articulated by Jean Piaget?

A) Conscience forms soon after a child is capable of mental scripts.
B) Empathy usually appears by age three.
C) A child is sociocentric at about 18 months.
D) Concepts of good and bad appear at about four years of age.

Question 68

If an office worker sometimes takes supplies home for personal use without asking and justifies it because others in the company do the same, what is she using to justify the action?

A) organizational culture
B) avoiding pain
C) short-term gain for long-term success
D) deserved rewards

Question 69

In the Buddhist and Hindu tradition, what stops the cycle of reincarnation?

A) the choice to do good
B) achieving an equal balance between immoral and moral behavior
C) birth into a good being
D) achieving a state of enlightenment

Question 70

How does the text define "altruistic behaviors"?

A) the deliberate pursuit of actions that will benefit both the self and the interests of the community
B) the deliberate pursuit of actions intended to benefit the interests or welfare of others
C) behaviors designed to elicit happiness and cooperation from others
D) behaviors designed to help one take on a beneficial role in the community

Question 71

Which of the following is one of the four types of ethical dilemmas based on competing values identified by Rushworth Kidder?

A) short-term vs. reward
B) community vs. common good
C) truth vs. justice
D) truth vs. loyalty

Question 72

If a sales manager asks her subordinates to falsify their sales numbers and justifies it by saying, "The end justifies the means," she is likely making an argument that ______.

A) lying is essentially a victimless crime
B) the company must do anything it can to succeed in the marketplace
C) helping her subordinates do well justifies the minor ethical issue with lying
D) loyalty is no excuse for poor work performance

Question 73

Which of the following general statements about early child development is accurate?

A) Newborns are not yet capable of expressing their desire to experience pleasure and avoid pain.
B) Infants are born without a sense of justice.
C) A child's most direct role model is his or her parents.
D) Neglected infants often grow up emotionally secure.

Question 74

Which of the following conclusions about human nature and morality can be drawn from the Stanley Milgram experiment involving electric shocks?

A) Personal gain does not often factor into unethical behavior that harms others.
B) People will choose to harm others if they believe it makes the community healthier.
C) Good people have basic moral boundaries that almost nothing will compel them to cross.
D) Direction from authority can convince good people to harm others.

Question 75

What are the two core types of ethical dilemma?

A) motivated and unmotivated
B) action and inaction
C) emotional and analytical
D) conscious and unconscious

Question 76

What is Kohlberg's first stage of moral development?

A) egocentric punishment avoidance
B) universal ethical principles
C) good boy--nice girl
D) law and order

Question 77

Hae-Won, a middle manager at a sales company, wrote a dishonest internal report to make her team seem more productive than it was. Based on general trends, what is the most likely reason she wrote this report?

A) to avoid being fired
B) the need to get new clients
C) personal gain
D) pressure from a superior

Question 78

What lesson is the text trying to convey by relating the example of ignition switch malfunctions in General Motors cars?

A) Failure to report unethical behavior can be extremely costly.
B) People fail to report unethical behavior mainly out of concern for the person doing the action.
C) Most unethical behaviors are intentional in nature.
D) Failure to report unethical behavior is usually due to valuing short-term benefits over long-term benefits.

Question 79

Which of the following is an example of a "justice vs. mercy" ethical dilemma based on competing values?

A) A mother wonders if she should try to restrict spending money on her young children so that she can save for their college fund.
B) A city council has to vote on whether or not to allocate the majority of their resources to help a few people whose property was damaged by a fire.
C) A man needs to feed his children but has no job and wonders if he should steal food for them.
D) A police officer sees a woman accidentally break the law and wonders if he should arrest her.

Question 80

The Society for Human Resource Management and the Ethics Resource Center found the most common reason an employee was pressured to act unethically was ______.

A) schedule stress
B) wanting to help the team
C) directives from a boss
D) need for personal gain