Deck 8: Ethics and the Employee

Question 1

Conflicts of interest arise when employees have a private interest in the outcome of a task in which they are engaged in that is possibly antagonistic to the firm's interests and substantial enough that it might affect the employee's independent judgment on the firm's behalf.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

A firm's main moral duty to its employees is to provide them with:

A) Clean working environment
B) Friendly supervisors
C) Medical and dental insurance
D) Fair wage and fair working conditions

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In this view, the employee's main moral duty is to work toward the goals of the firm. This view is referred to as:

A) Law of Legitimacy
B) Law of Structure
C) Law of Agency
D) Law of Duty

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Being that the United States is a developed and sophisticated country, there are no sweatshops within its boundaries.

Question 5

Whistle blowing seldom has heavy personal costs to the whistleblower because it is justified when there is clear evidence that the firm's activity is seriously harming others and reasonable attempts to prevent it by informing management have failed.

Question 6

Potential conflicts of interest may or may not be ethical, depending on the probability that the employee's judgment will affected by the conflict of interest.

Question 7

Employees' rights to privacy must be balanced against employers' rights to know certain information about their activities.

Question 8

A firm's organizational chart, identifying the formal and informal hierarchies of authority, exemplifies the fundamental reality of the organization.

Question 9

Immanuel Kant's argument about moral rights supports the employee's right to give or withhold their consent before the private aspects of their lives are investigated.

Question 10

The traditional, "rational" model of the business organization is defined it as a structure of formal relationships, which are designed to achieve a goal efficiently.

Question 11

Whistle blowing-the attempt by an employee to disclose wrongdoing in an organization-
can take two forms.

Question 12

Skills that an employee acquires by working for a company can be and usually are considered part of her or her person and are not property of the employer.

Question 13

Workers risks on the job in less developed countries are affected by:

A) Labor markets that are not competitive or job risks not yet known.
B) Workers might accept risks unknowingly because the worker doesn't have access to the risk information.
C) Workers might knowingly accept risks because they lack mobility to enter less risky industries.
D) All of the above.

Question 14

Risks are sometimes unavoidable and acceptable, as long as:

A) Employees are not coerced
B) Employees are fully compensated for assuming them and they do so freely and knowingly
C) No one else has the expertise to do the work
D) All the above