Deck 4: Practical Ethical Decision Making.

Question 1

The AACSB Ethics Education taskforce has called for business students to be familiar with which of 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

consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics

Question 2

Which of the following four standards make up the modified moral standards approach?

A) utilitarian, individual rights, justice, and virtues
B) utilitarian, individual rights, fairness, and virtues
C) legal, individual rights, justice, and virtues
D) utilitarian, moral rights, justice, and virtues
E) legal, moral rights, justice, virtues

Answer 2

utilitarian, individual rights, justice, and virtues

Question 3

Which of 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

Answer 3

virtues

Question 4

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 these are correct.

Question 5

Which of 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 6

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 7

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.

Question 8

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 these are correct.

Question 9

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 these are correct.

Question 10

Which of 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 11

Which of these approaches 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 these are correct.

Question 12

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 these are stakeholder rights.

Question 13

Pastin's approach adds which of 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 these are correct.

Question 14

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 these are correct.

Question 15

Which of the following approaches 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 these are correct.
E) 5-question approach and the moral standards approach only

Question 16

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 these must be satisfied for a decision to be considered ethical.

Question 17

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 these are correct.

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

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 20

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?