Deck 4: Demanding Ethical and Socially Responsible Behavior

Question 1

Gary and his college friends often spend weekends hanging out at a small pub. Last weekend, after a few beers, one of his friends took the salt and pepper shakers from the table because they needed a set at their apartment. In this situation, this was not an unethical action because it was a restaurant and potential loss is figured into the prices.

Answer 1

False
Explanation:Ethical behavior should not be situationally based. If the act is appropriate behavior, then it is probably appropriate all of the time. This behavior in this situation, however, is clearly inappropriate behavior.

Question 2

People involved in business may be tempted to do something unethical in order to increase sales and profits, but rarely do because if they are caught, our legal system will deal harshly with them.

Answer 2

False
Explanation:Many immoral and unethical acts fall well within our laws.

Question 3

Ethical behavior requires more than following the law.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Ethical behavior focuses on treating others fairly.

Question 5

The Enron scandal illustrates the difference between unethical behavior and illegal behavior.

Question 6

Making accounting records more transparent may help restore trust in the free-market system and leaders in general.

Question 7

An accurate statement regarding this chapter is: "Business law establishes ethical behavior."

Question 8

Ethical behavior involves the clear and easy choice of right and wrong actions toward others.

Question 9

Legal behavior is a first step toward ethical behavior.

Question 10

A society gets into trouble when people consider only what is illegal and not also what is ethical or unethical.

Question 11

Both managers and workers cite low managerial ethics as a major cause of American businesses' competitive woes.

Question 12

Legal behavior and ethical behavior are basically the same.

Question 13

Ethical behavior refers to the standards that are accepted by society as true or false.

Question 14

Given the level of diversity within the United States, agreement on common standards of ethical behavior is unachievable.

Question 15

Moral behavior refers to behavior that is accepted by society as right versus wrong.

Question 16

Laws that protect us from fraud, theft, and violence determine ethical behavior.

Question 17

People should look at each situation individually and decide for themselves if it is right or wrong.

Question 18

Punishing business leaders who have broken the law may help restore trust in the free-market system and leaders in general.

Question 19

Legal behavior is directly related to our relationships with others, while ethical behavior is not.

Question 20

Making businesspeople more accountable for company actions may help restore trust in the free-market system and leaders in general.

Question 21

Corporate values, like personal values, are learned by observing what others do.

Question 22

Making ethical choices is always easy.

Question 23

Micah often takes longer lunch breaks than allowed. Melissa chooses to use her work computer to check out her personal Twitter account instead of using up her phone's data. Louis misrepresents his product to a potential customer. All of these are examples of unethical behavior.

Question 24

Utilizing the phrase "the ends justify the means" as a corporate value system can negatively impact company morale and competitiveness.

Question 25

Business behavior determines the ethics of society. We can improve society's moral and ethical behavior by first making a commitment to improving business's moral and ethical behavior.

Question 26

Andrea owns a small online retail business. On her company website, she asks customers who fill orders to mark a box if they are willing to let her share their personal information with her suppliers. By asking this question, Andrea is addressing privacy issues, and covering her actions in case someone should try to sue her for sharing private information. She is responding to the question, "Are my proposed actions legal?"

Question 27

A growing number of people feel that an employee's ethics are a personal matter, and have nothing to do with management.

Question 28

You're working as a human resources director for a small company. Part of your job is to assess the company's benefits plan. There are several workers utilizing the company daycare facility. However, the daycare costs the company far more than another benefit might cost, like employing an on-site physician. The on-site physician services are supported by insurance, and the physician actually rents space from the company. Under these circumstances, eliminating the daycare is a balanced decision.

Question 29

It can be very difficult to maintain a balance between ethics and goals such as pleasing stakeholders.

Question 30

In reality, ethical behavior depends on the situation. For example, in negotiating a contract with your employees, the way they win higher wages is by your losing the fight to hold down labor costs. You realize it is a win-lose relationship.

Question 31

The question "Is it legal?" establishes ethical behavior.

Question 32

You are in a business meeting at work that requires your group to make an ethical decision. Your willingness to post the final decision on the bulletin board in the break room for all to see passes the test: "How will it make me feel about myself?"

Question 33

While telling an abusive joke about an ethnic group may not be unlawful, it is unethical.

Question 34

An ethical manager's decisions are based only on the following questions: "Is it legal?" and "Is it profitable?"

Question 35

Trying to make decisions that will benefit all parties involved is consistent with the question "How will it make me feel about myself?"

Question 36

Behavior that is in conflict with your values and sense of right and wrong can damage your self-esteem.

Question 37

Management can create an environment in which unethical behavior can develop.

Question 38

Two recent studies found no correlation between academic dishonesty among undergraduates and dishonesty at work.

Question 39

Trust between workers and managers must be based on a foundation of fairness, honesty, openness, and moral integrity.

Question 40

A common form of cheating in schools today is plagiarizing online material.

Question 41

In order to be successful, efforts to improve the ethical behavior of businesses must begin with top management's support of a corporate code of conduct.

Question 42

People who report illegal or unethical behavior are called whistleblowers.

Question 43

Employees observe behavior and adopt standards of right and wrong.

Question 44

Compliance-based ethics codes are based on preventing unlawful behavior.

Question 45

In order to avoid the costly act of being sued in court, it makes good sense to manage your business ethically.

Question 46

One good reason for managing a business ethically is to help reduce employee turnover.

Question 47

A business should be managed ethically to keep existing customers and attract new customers.

Question 48

Integrity-based ethics codes are based on avoiding legal punishment.

Question 49

Overly ambitious business goals and employee incentives can lead to unethical behavior.

Question 50

Effective corporate values start with employees and develop throughout the organization to include top management.

Question 51

As a result of pressure from business lobbyists, Congress failed to pass legislation protecting whistleblowers.

Question 52

Recently, Silky Soft Inc., a clothing and soft goods company agreed to adopt higher ethical standards with respect to contract manufacturers producing their goods. Company leadership agreed this was a good approach to avoid the U.S. government's intervening and creating new laws to force the entire industry to work only with foreign manufacturers who operate with high ethical standards. This was sensible strategy on the part of the clothing and soft goods industry.

Question 53

"Actions speak louder than words!" is an old saying that refers to the fact that people's actions-how they act as opposed to what they say-are often testament to their true ethical values.

Question 54

In order to maintain a good reputation, it is good strategy to manage your business ethically.

Question 55

In order to do the right thing for all stakeholders, a business should be managed ethically.

Question 56

Businesses with a formal code of ethics are less common now than in the past.

Question 57

As a manager, you have a responsibility for the unethical behavior of your employees.

Question 58

Compliance-based ethics codes focus on preventing unlawful behavior by increasing control and by penalizing wrongdoers.

Question 59

"Do what I say, not what I do" can be an effective code of conduct to instill corporate values.

Question 60

Employers should proceed cautiously when designing an employee incentive program that rewards employees strictly on increased sales.

Question 61

Since most ethics violations are small and rather insignificant in nature, employees need to understand that addressing these issues is secondary to making profits. CEOs may be justified in ignoring these small problems and waiting for more convenient moments to address them.

Question 62

Corporate philanthropy refers to the position a firm takes on social and political issues.

Question 63

Dewey Cheatsum urges his employees to find and use legal loopholes to gain a competitive advantage whenever they can. In keeping within the legal limits of the law, the employees are within their compliance-based ethics rights.

Question 64

Tobacco companies label their products with warnings of the potential health hazards that could occur from smoking. Due to the fact that this is a government-mandated disclosure, it is part of the industry's compliance-based ethics.

Question 65

When stating a firm position on various social and political issues, corporate policies often commit company profits to back these positions.

Question 66

A large amount of retail theft is committed by employees; therefore, Suit Up, Inc., requires that managers personally unlock fitting rooms and count the number of items taken to the fitting rooms by not just customers but sales associates too. This policy is written in the company manual and breaking with the policy is grounds for dismissal. It is correct to say that this is part of Suit Up's compliance-based ethics.

Question 67

To be effective, an organization's code of ethics should be kept in-house and not communicated to outsiders such as suppliers, subcontractors, and customers.

Question 68

Business issues such as treating employees fairly and ethically are part of corporate responsibility.

Question 69

At Fisher Financial Services, clients have a right to do business with whichever consultant they choose. It is not out of the ordinary for a financial consultant to lose a client to another consultant in the same office. If it is a high-net worth client, with the potential for high commissions on sales, the incentive to steal a fellow worker's client exists because the firm's culture has not established integrity-based ethics to deter this activity.

Question 70

An important step in improving U.S. business ethics is for companies to hire whistleblowers.

Question 71

A charitable donation contributed by a corporation is an example of corporate philanthropy.

Question 72

An integrity-based ethics code moves beyond legal compliance in order to create a "do-the-right-thing" climate.

Question 73

Enforcement is perhaps the most important step in an effective code of ethics.

Question 74

Corporate social responsibility refers to the concern businesses have for the welfare of society.

Question 75

Surveys show that students are willing to agree to lower salaries if they know their employer is participating in socially responsible activities.

Question 76

A code of ethics designed to avoid criminal misconduct is an example of a compliance-based ethics code.

Question 77

Corporate philanthropy refers to the position a firm takes on issues that affect society.

Question 78

Beer brewers, both large and small, often encourage their customers to drink responsibly. This reflects a compliance-based approach to ethics.

Question 79

The job of an ethics officer is to serve as a counselor for employees and as an investigator for the company.

Question 80

America's business ethics can improve simply by requiring written contracts with employees, customers, and owners. This alone will do the job!