Deck 14: Business and Community Stakeholders

Question 1

Most executives surveyed agree that the public expects business to consider employee and community needs in deciding whether or not to close a plant.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

When surveyed, companies often indicate altruistic motives for corporate contributions.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

There was a great increase in plant closings during the early 1970s, followed by a decrease in the 1980's and 1990's.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Volunteer programs are discouraged by most Canadian corporations.

Question 5

The increase in business closings has not created substantial public activism.

Question 6

Corporate philanthropy is a concept that has evolved within the past two decades.

Question 7

In terms of the corporate social responsibility model, business giving is regarded as primarily an economic issue.

Question 8

In deciding on a plant closing, a firm should consider social as well as economic responsibilities to the community and to its employees.

Question 9

Corporate philanthropy, to be strategic, need not involve detailed planning since the activities are so diverse.

Question 10

Those who argue against business's limiting of its gifts to educational institutions that support its own self-interests say that the corporate self-interest criterion is both illusory and dangerous.

Question 11

Advance notice involves the announcing by a firm of its future closing to workers and communities.

Question 12

Community-impact analyses are required by law to be conducted by firms that have decided to close.

Question 13

Irving Kristol, who argues in favor of a business being selective in its corporate contributions, says that educational institutions must earn the good opinion of the contributing business.

Question 14

Observers have noted that although community involvement is important, a company does not have the time and energy to pursue this type of involvement as it does to pursue its other goals.

Question 15

Gradual phase-out of a business and advance notice are the same thing.

Question 16

Selling the plant to employees was discussed in the text as a highly successful alternative to shutting down.

Question 17

Formal international philanthropy efforts are now part of global business strategies.

Question 18

Support for culture and the arts has been among the favorite outlets for business philanthropy for decades.

Question 19

According to Robert Cushman, president of Norton Company, a business should be concerned with creating a positive image in the community in order to enhance its hiring of employees.

Question 20

It has been extensively documented that foreign direct investors in Canada are not getting involved in their local communities.

Question 21

Effective addressing of various community needs requires an inventory and assessment of the company's resources and competencies is an example of which of the following?

A) knowing the community
B) knowing the company's resources
C) selecting projects
D) monitoring projects

Question 22

Which one of the following is the biggest motivation for foreign direct investors for community involvement?

A) they felt a moral obligation to be involved
B) they were responding to community expectations
C) they felt that community involvement strengthened their corporate image
D) they felt they were acting in enlightened self-interest

Question 23

Robert Cushman, in stating reasons for business involvement in the community, would agree that

A) business people are not efficient problem solvers and must therefore enlist the help of the community.
B) government regulation is a result of a business's social responsibility.
C) business does not need to support institutions that are important to the continuation of business.
D) employees gain satisfaction and improved morale from involvement in community programs.

Question 24

A recent study found that

A) Businesses are giving more to public schools than colleges and universities.
B) Businesses almost universally support probusiness causes.
C) Businesses are giving more to antibusiness groups than to probusiness groups.
D) Business giving has declined because executives have become more greedy in the 1990s.

Question 25

Executive loan programs involve

A) loaning money to executives for house down payments when the executives are transferred to a new location.
B) loaning executives' time and skills to assist local governments in solving problems.
C) pooling money donated by top executives and granting student loans.
D) pooling executives' donated money to grant loans to less privileged employees.

Question 26

Which one of the following is not one of the reasons for business involvement in the community?

A) businesspeople are efficient problem solvers
B) a positive image in the community facilitates hiring
C) social responsibility in business is the alternative to government regulations
D) all of the above

Question 27

Companies contribute help to community needs for all of the following reasons except

A) self-interest.
B) out of concern for the reputation of the community program.
C) direct benefits to the company.
D) indirect benefits to the company.

Question 28

Cause-related marketing

A) is enacted in the same way as is strategic philanthropy.
B) is marketed only toward art and culture.
C) benefits such organizations as MADD and Live Aid.
D) have no critics.

Question 29

Which one of the following is not one of the four steps in the development of a community action program?

A) knowing the community
B) knowing the company's resources
C) monitoring projects
D) all of the above

Question 30

Which of the following is not true regarding foreign-owned companies and philanthropy?

A) U.S. -owned companies are as supportive of employee volunteerism as their Canadian counterparts
B) Foreign-owned companies tend to make the largest donations to high profile causes within the first year of entry into Canada
C) Foreign-owned companies tend to avoid philanthropy
D) Canadian citizens expect these companies to make contributions to the communities within which they are located.

Question 31

In studies of foreign-owned companies doing business in Canada, a major motivation for community involvement was found to be

A) pressure received from their home countries.
B) a desire to improve relations between their home countries and the U.S.
C) a moral obligation to be involved.
D) None of the above.

Question 32

One of the recent additions to corporate contributions programs is

A) helping prevent colleges from going into bankruptcy.
B) programs for children from single-parent families.
C) formal international philanthropy efforts.
D) funding for labor unions' social activist groups.

Question 33

Conducting a community-impact analysis of a closing and helping the community attract replacement industry are processes that occur

A) when the firm first begins to experience trouble.
B) before a firm ever begins to experience trouble.
C) after trouble has begun, but before the decision to close is made.
D) after trouble has begun, and after the decision to close is made.

Question 34

When considering employee ownership of a plant, all of the following need to be studied except

A) Competitor products.
B) employee readiness for ownership.
C) union attitudes.
D) potential funding sources.

Question 35

Assessing the company's available materials and competencies is a part of which step in developing a community action program?

A) knowing the community
B) knowing the range of company resources
C) selecting a project
D) monitoring the project

Question 36

Which of the following was not cited in the text as a criterion for a corporate contribution program to be strategic?

A) it has a clearly stated strategy
B) it is based on short-term interests of the company
C) it will be planned
D) it will be evaluated for results

Question 37

Which of the following is most frequently used by companies to encourage employee volunteerism?

A) publicity about community volunteer opportunities
B) board membership
C) company-sponsored projects involving multiple volunteers
D) recognition through articles, awards, and commendations

Question 38

Community improvement activities, environment and ecology, and neighborhood renewal are elements of which category of corporate philanthropy?

A) civic activities
B) health and welfare
C) Education
D) culture and arts

Question 39

Strategic philanthropy

A) is the idea that business should apply its management knowledge to aligning its economic and social thrusts.
B) implies purely altruistic corporate giving.
C) was discovered in the mid-1980s.
D) ignores the firm's goal of profitability.

Question 40

Companies aid literacy improvement programs and work with the public schools in hopes of

A) practicing cause-related marketing.
B) increasing sales of their product.
C) ultimately increasing the level of literacy of their employees.
D) avoiding feeling obligated to contribute to other community programs.

Question 41

Global philanthropy giving programs have tended to focus on

A) the elimination of deceptive advertising.
B) infrastructure needs, education, environment and healthcare.
C) cultural and the arts.
D) literacy programs.

Question 42

In the U.S., the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (WARN), which was passed in 1988,

A) is an advance notice law.
B) applies only to foreign direct investors that have located in the United States.
C) requires a community impact analysis before a plant can shut down.
D) is designed to reimburse fired employees if a company cannot justify its plant closing.

Question 43

Each of the following was cited in the text as a factor that a firm should consider in deciding to what extent it should assist displaced employees and communities except

A) how large an employer the firm was relative to the total economic base.
B) the length of time the firm was in the community.
C) the economic options available to the firm to assist.
D) the current state of the market of the firm's products.

Question 44

Craig Smith identifies six steps companies and their executives can take to implement strategic philanthropy. Which step comes after promoting and oversee a feisty dialogue between business functions and philanthropy?

A) appoint and empower a philanthropy czar
B) decentralize the philanthropic function
C) make the parts add up to more than the whole
D) Continue research, testing, evaluation, and revision of corporate philanthropy

Question 45

The advantages of advance notice of a closing

A) accrue primarily to the firm.
B) almost always exceed the disadvantages.
C) accrue primarily to affected employees and communities.
D) accrue mostly to financial institutions that have granted the firm loans in the past.

Question 46

Which one of the following is not an effective strategic corporate contribution program?

A) it will be based on the longer-term, strategic self-interest of the company
B) it will have a clearly stated strategy, agreed to by top management
C) it will have clear, well-defined guidelines
D) all of the above

Question 47

Providing support for traditional nonprofit institutions is an example of which category of corporate contribution programs?

A) the nondonor
B) the "what's in it for us" donor
C) the "we are a good citizen" donor
D) the "we care" donor

Question 48

Which one of the following categories receives the most corporate contributions?

A) Education
B) health and human services
C) civic and community activities
D) culture and the arts

Question 49

National Steel's Weirton (West Virginia) mill is famous because

A) it was the first business closing of the 1980s.
B) employee ownership seemed to work there.
C) of the highly sophisticated community-impact analysis that was done by top management.
D) it led to the passage of the Corporate Democracy Act.

Question 50

Businesses see in public purpose partnerships the opportunity to

A) expand their labor pool.
B) gain recognition for being good community citizens.
C) simultaneously achieve economic and philanthropic objectives.
D) fulfill their ethical responsibilities.