Deck 4: Practical Ethical Decision Making

Question 1

The AACSB Ethics Education taskforce has called for business students to be familiar with the following approaches to ethical decision making:

A)Consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics
B)Consequentialism, deontology, and moral imagination
C)Distributive justice, deontology, and virtue ethics
D)Distributive justice, deontology, and moral imagination
E)Consequentialism, deontology, and distributive justice

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Frequently, decision makers have been subject to unreasonable expectations and unrealistic deadlines, this is an example of:

A)Conforming to an unethical corporate culture
B)Focusing only on legalities
C)Conflicts of interests
D)Failure to identify all stakeholder groups
E)Failure to rank stakeholder interests

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What is the most common measure of shareholder well-being:

A)Profit or loss
B)Profit or loss plus externalities
C)Profit or loss plus cost-benefit analysis
D)Profit or loss plus risk-benefit analysis
E)All of the above

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following is not one of the 5 questions in Graham Tucker's original approach to ethical decision making?

A)Is it profitable
B)Is it right?
C)Is it fair?
D)Is it legal?
E)Does it demonstrate the virtues expected?

Question 5

Lack of awareness of the following problem results in executives not attributing enough value to the use of an environmental resource:

A)Commons problem
B)Ethics problem
C)Value problem
D)Risk-assessment problem
E)Moral problem

Question 6

From a stakeholder point of view, which of the following must be satisfied for a decision to be considered ethical?

A)The decision should demonstrate virtues reasonably expected
B)The decision should result in more benefits than costs
C)The decision should not offend the rights of any other stakeholders
D)The distribution of benefits and burdens should be fair
E)All of the above must be satisfied for a decision to be considered ethical

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT a stakeholder right?

A)Life, health and safety
B)To earn a reasonable return on an investment
C)Freedom of speech
D)Fair treatment before the law
E)All of the above are stakeholder rights

Question 8

The first resource for guidance when a businessperson or a professional accountant faces an ethical problem should be:

A)Commonly accepted social norms
B)Corporate and professional codes of conduct
C)Ethical decision-making frameworks
D)Commonly accepted philosophical approaches
E)All of the above

Question 9

The following approach does NOT specifically incorporate a thorough review of the motivation for the decisions involved, or the virtues or character traits expected:

A)5-question approach
B)Moral standards approach
C)Pastin's approach
D)All of the above
E)(a)and (b)only

Question 10

Pastin's approach adds the following concepts to stakeholder impact analysis:

A)Rule ethics
B)Ground rule ethics
C)End-point ethics
D)Social contract ethics
E)All of the above

Question 11

The costs of environmental clean-ups absorbed by downstream individuals, companies, or municipalities are referred to as:

A)Surrogates
B)Externalities
C)Future impacts
D)Collateral damages
E)Ethical costs

Question 12

These costs can be measured indirectly by using costs incurred in similar circumstances or mirror image alternatives:

A)Surrogates
B)Externalities
C)Future impacts
D)Collateral damages
E)Ethical costs

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT an example of a common ethical decision-making pitfall?

A)Conforming to an unethical corporate culture
B)Focusing only on legalities
C)Conflicts of interests
D)Failure to identify all stakeholder groups
E)None of the above

Question 14

This approach incorporates the expected future impacts of a decision into the analysis:

A)Virtue ethics
B)Consequentialism
C)Cost-benefit analysis
D)Risk-benefit analysis
E)All of the above

Question 15

The following three standards make up the moral standards approach:

A)Utilitarian, Individual rights, and Justice
B)Utilitarian, Individual rights, and Fairness
C)Legal, Individual rights, and Justice
D)Utilitarian, Moral rights, and Justice
E)Legal, Moral rights, and Justice

Question 16

These are character traits that dispose a person to act ethically and thereby make that person a morally good human being:

A)Norms
B)Moral judgements
C)Virtues
D)Values
E)Ethical judgements

Question 17

These values are the combinations of a value and the probability of its occurrence:

A)Probable values
B)Common values
C)Present values
D)Expected values
E)Risk-adjusted values

Question 18

Completing the following steps in this order provides a sound basis for challenging a proposed decision:

A)Identify facts and stakeholders, rank stakeholders and their interests, and assess the impact of the proposed action
B)Identify a proper ethical decision framework, rank stakeholders and their interests, and assess the impact of the proposed action
C)Rank stakeholders and their interests, identify facts and stakeholders, and assess the impact of the proposed action
D)Identify a proper ethical decision framework, identify facts and stakeholders, and assess the impact of the proposed action
E)Rank stakeholders and their interests, identify a proper ethical decision framework, and assess the impact of the proposed action

Question 19

Failure to identify all relevant stakeholder groups for a proper stakeholder impact analysis may be the result of:

A)Bias
B)Conforming to an unethical corporate culture
C)Conflicts of interests
D)Failure to consider the motivation for the decision
E)All of the above

Question 20

If a decision is expected to be unfair to a particular stakeholder group, the decision may be improved by:

A)Using stakeholder analysis
B)Using a decision making approach
C)Increasing the compensation to that stakeholder group
D)Increasing the compensation to all stakeholder groups
E)All of the above