Deck 1: Why Study Ethics

Question 1

Which of the following statements is decisive in determining whether or not to study business ethics?

A)Business managers don't need to study ethics in order to know how to treat employees, shareowners, and customers.
B)Business and ethics simply don't mix. In the final analysis, self-interest, represented by profit, overrides the interests of employees, customers, and communities. Opinion and sentiment get in the way of efficient business decision-making.
C)Ethical concerns are as unavoidable in business as are concerns of marketing, accounting, finance, and human resources. Formal study of business ethics helps address these concerns so that businesses can integrate ethics in their decision-making.
D)The answers to ethical questions are clear-cut enough; all business people already know right from wrong.

Answer 1

Ethical concerns are as unavoidable in business as are concerns of marketing, accounting, finance, and human resources. Formal study of business ethics helps address these concerns so that businesses can integrate ethics in their decision-making.

Question 2

Ethics refers to the beliefs, values, and principles that guide a person's life and decisions.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Ethical behavior and an ethical reputation can provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace and with customers, suppliers, and employees.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In a society that values individual freedom, everything that is legal is ethically right and everything that is ethically wrong is illegal.

Question 5

Unlike Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for accountants, there are no principles, standards, concepts, or values common to business ethics.

Question 6

The role of an ethics course should be to convey information to a passive audience, while treating students as passive learners.

Question 7

The unexamined life, according to Socrates, is not worth living.

Question 8

Business ethics is concerned more with reasoning than answers.

Question 9

If something is seriously wrong, the law will prohibit it. Consequently, it's enough to rely on the law for deciding what's right or wrong.

Question 10

Philosophical ethics denies that conformity and obedience are the best guides to how we should live.

Question 11

According to philosophical ethics, a simple acceptance of customary norms is an adequate ethical perspective.

Question 12

Philosophical ethics distinguishes what people do value from what they should value.

Question 13

The major reason to study ethics is to be able to answer questions such as "what should I do?" or "what type of person should I be?" or "how shall I live in my community?"

Question 14

Gatekeepers are those people and institutions whose role is to provide checks on illegal and unethical behavior.

Question 15

A skeptical challenge to business ethics is that there is no common rational basis for making ethical judgments.