Deck 3: Ethics and Social Responsibility

Question 1

Halliburton Watch is one group that monitors Halliburton and reports on its alleged unethical and illegal behaviors and decisions.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Halliburton is one of the largest providers of products and services to the telecommunications industry.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Halliburton's Company Code of Business Conduct is a guide for every Company Director, officer, employee and agent in applying legal and ethical practices to their everyday work.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Hard and fast rules are adequate to cover the dilemmas faced in the work environment.

Question 5

The key to ethical behavior is found in written statements, not just in the day-to-day behaviors and decisions.

Question 6

In a U.S. Roper poll, 10 percent checked off "very trustworthy" to describe the chief executives of large U.S. companies.

Question 7

Although receiving a great deal of publicity, today's unethical corporate conduct is limited to only a few top executives.

Question 8

A variety of studies suggest that ethical behavior by managers and others are important to the long-term effectiveness of a company.

Question 9

In most instances, GE employees undergo ethics and compliance training soon after joining the company.

Question 10

What a society interprets as ethical or unethical rarely ends up being expressed through court decisions and the passage of laws within that society.

Question 11

Employment-at-will is a traditional common-law concept that says employers are free to discharge employees for any reason at any time and that employees are free to quit their jobs for any reason at any time.

Question 12

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act imposes rigorous accounting requirements on publicly traded companies.

Question 13

During the past decade, laws and regulations have been passed to reduce the discretion available to organizations and individuals as to what behaviors are both unethical and illegal.

Question 14

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act severely restricts the ability of corrupt managers to offer bribes to foreign officials.

Question 15

Sarbanes-Oxley affects the behavior of both organizations and individuals.

Question 16

When behavior is clearly unethical and illegal, employees also have clear knowledge of what's right and what's wrong.

Question 17

Some actions by businesses may be defined as a violation of a legal rule by a regulatory agency but not be considered unethical by the broader society.

Question 18

Most companies do not ask their workers to engage in conduct that violates the stated ethical standards.

Question 19

An organization should create a formal ethics system to help foster the creation and day-to-day implementation of an ethical culture.

Question 20

Citigroup's Code of Conduct outlines the rights and tasks of employees within the organization.

Question 21

The top executives of Citigroup have jointly signed a cover letter to the code of ethics that sets forth their commitment to ethics and integrity.

Question 22

Lawrence Kohlberg held that people develop morally, much as they do physically, from early childhood to adulthood.

Question 23

Tapestry is a multicultural contact agency that provides integrated media solutions for clients.

Question 24

Monica Gadsby, CEO and managing director for Tapestry, has a high level of moral development and communication competency.

Question 25

Whistle-blowers report the act of unethical or illegal actions by their employers to other people that can take corrective action.

Question 26

When a worker observes illegal activity by their employer, one appropriate response may be to report it.

Question 27

Whistle-blowers often receive promotions or career enhancement as a result of their actions.

Question 28

Whistle-blowers may experience retaliation that is not protected by law.

Question 29

The three ethical models used to develop an ethical framework in organizations are the utilitarian, moral rights, and contingency approaches.

Question 30

Milton Friedman is one of the most outspoken advocates of the utilitarian approach.

Question 31

Bill Ford, Jr., former CEO and chairman of Ford Motor Company, argues that excessive environmental laws and regulations reduce the company's profits and their ability to compete globally.

Question 32

The utilitarian approach prescribes ethical standards for managers and employees in the areas of achieving organizational goals, efficiency, and conflicts of interest.

Question 33

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970 is a part of the moral rights approach.

Question 34

The moral rights approach says more about what organizations should avoid doing, than it does about what to do.

Question 35

Citizens have the right to control access to and use of personal information about themselves by government agencies, employers, and others. This moral right was the basis for the U.S. Privacy Act of 1974.

Question 36

The privacy policies of Fidelity Investments are reviewed bi-annually.

Question 37

Fidelity clearly, and in detail, communicates the components of its privacy policies, practices, and safeguards.

Question 38

Under the utilitarian approach, individuals have the legal right to refrain from carrying out orders that violate their moral or religious beliefs.

Question 39

The justice approach evaluates decisions and behaviors by their consistency with an equitable, fair, and impartial distribution of benefits (rewards) and costs among individuals and groups.

Question 40

United Freight Carriers has been guilty of paying different wages to women and men when their jobs require equal skill, effort, and responsibility and are performed under similar working conditions. The pay practices of this company violate the fairness principle.

Question 41

Wells Fargo requires employees to be present and on time because excessive absenteeism and tardiness can negatively affect fellow workers and the organization as a whole. This company policy illustrates the natural duty principle.

Question 42

The fairness principle requires employees to support the rules of the organization as long as the organization is just or fair, and employees have voluntarily accepted some benefits or opportunities in order to further their own interests.

Question 43

The natural duty principle suggests that the obligation of an organization is to maximize returns for its shareholders.

Question 44

"Not to harm or injure another" is one of the universal principles of natural duty.

Question 45

The stakeholder view of social responsibility is based primarily on the utilitarian approach.

Question 46

There is no distinction between the importance of the concerns of primary stakeholders and those of secondary stakeholders.

Question 47

Employees are part of the primary stakeholder group.

Question 48

Johnson & Johnson puts a high emphasis on it commitment to primary stakeholders.

Question 49

Johnson & Johnson believes that we are responsible to the communities in which we live and work and to the world community as well.

Question 50

Customers, employees, and suppliers are of substantial importance to all businesses.

Question 51

Wells Fargo is committed to environmental sustainability.

Question 52

Many stakeholders are pressuring business leaders to move away from the sole focus on profits and to instead contribute more actively to society.

Question 53

Disclosure is one major theme found in a firm with a commitment to evaluating its social performance and responsibility.

Question 54

___________ is a group that monitors Halliburton and reports on its alleged unethical and illegal behaviors and decisions.

A) FDA
B) Environmental Protection Agency
C) Halliburton Watch
D) Halliburton Ethics Committee

Question 55

According to the "Challenge of Managing" reading, Halliburton's dining halls in _________ reportedly served spoiled food to unsuspecting people.

A) Iraq
B) Houston
C) Afghanistan
D) Flower Mound

Question 56

Seventy-two percent of those polled rated the moral and ethical standards of CEOs of major corporations as __________.

A) no different than the general public
B) improving after the Enron crisis
C) an international embarrassment
D) either fair or poor

Question 57

All of the following statements are supported by research except:

A) 72% of poll respondents see typical CEOs as less ethical than the average person.
B) ethical standards of major corporate CEOs are rated as either fair or poor by 72% of the public.
C) fraudulent activities cause close to 10 percent of U.S. businesses to fail.
D) studies indicate that ethics programs can be effective

Question 58

The notorious unethical and often illegal practices by some the top executives at Enron and Tyco have resulted in all of the following except:

A) bankruptcy
B) loss of jobs by employees
C) jail time for whistle-blowers
D) massive financial losses for shareholders

Question 59

General Electric employees undergo ______________ training soon after joining the company.

A) strategy
B) ethics and compliance
C) effective communication
D) business writing

Question 60

A set of values, principles, and rules that define right and wrong conduct is known as _________.

A) social mobility
B) natural duty
C) ethics
D) traditional responsibility

Question 61

Personal values that shape American culture include all of the following except __________.

A) uncertainty avoidance
B) honesty
C) respect for other people
D) achievement

Question 62

Which of the following is not considered a basic force from which ethical values and decisions are evaluated?

A) cultural
B) legal and regulatory
C) organizational
D) All are considered to be basic forces.

Question 63

________is (are) society's values and standards that is (are) enforceable in the courts.

A) Culture
B) Laws
C) Ethics
D) Codes

Question 64

Capitalism is built on investor trust. Unimportant to this trust is __________.

A) stewardship
B) return on investment
C) perfect competition
D) All are important elements of investor trust.

Question 65

Jie Yu has just been fired by his supervisor at the local plant where he has worked for many years. Yu has participated in all of the activities listed below, but only one activity is classified as an acceptable reason for him being fired. Which of the following is considered an acceptable reason for Yu being fired?

A) engaging in an activity to protest wages
B) filing of unfair labor practice charges against the company
C) reporting a violation to OSHA
D) committing harassment, which is considered a civil rights violation

Question 66

Robert Simper is the Vice President of a marketing company and is about to fire the advertising manager who has been at the company for several years. All of the following are considered permissible reasons for firing the manager except:

A) drug activity on the job
B) filing discrimination charges
C) theft
D) All of the above are acceptable reasons.

Question 67

Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco would be affected by the passage of __________.

A) the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002
B) Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
C) the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
D) all of the above

Question 68

Which of the following scandals would not be affected by the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002?

A) Enron
B) Tyco
C) Continental Airlines
D) Adelphia

Question 69

Through Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Federal law provides protection to all of the following except __________.

A) whistle-blowers
B) corporate officers
C) shareholders
D) employees

Question 70

Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act directly protects __________.

A) investors
B) auditors
C) investment bankers
D) employees

Question 71

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is intended to __________.

A) break up monopolies
B) reform accounting practices
C) reform campaign financing
D) all of the above

Question 72

Fernando Garza is the loan manager for a local bank. A publisher of a legal, pornographic magazine has asked for a loan. The local community has been indifferent to the pornographic business. The loan will be beneficial to the bank in terms of increasing business. The bank has a nondiscrimination policy. Garza is personally very opposed to pornography and thinks all pornographic materials should be illegal. Based on _________ as a source of guidance, Garza refuses to make the loan.

A) formal rules
B) interpretive standards
C) personal values and beliefs
D) a cultural code of ethics

Question 73

The Ethics Resource Center in Washington, D.C. furnishes all of the following except __________.

A) publications
B) consulting
C) implementation
D) legal representation

Question 74

In order to foster the creation and day-to-day implementation of an ethical culture, organizations should do all of the following except:

A) create a formal ethics system
B) measure ethical conduct for developmental purposes only
C) communicate ethical expectations
D) make it acceptable to talk about ethics

Question 75

John Stringfield has strived to act as a responsible member of the community. He has respected the law, protected public goods, and contributed to the community betterment. Stringfield has engaged in the ______________ principle.

A) fiduciary
B) reliability
C) fairness
D) citizenship

Question 76

In a world-class code of ethics, the __________ principle refers to carrying out the company's business in a diligent and loyal manner.

A) transparency
B) responsiveness
C) reliability
D) fiduciary

Question 77

The Citigroup Code of Conduct offers guidance under six main categories. The key point that employees must report suspicious activity through proper channels to government authorities would most closely relate to _________________.

A) privacy/confidentiality
B) other key legal/compliance rules
C) investments and outside activities
D) work role tasks

Question 78

New employees of Citigroup are required to sign a statement that does all of the following except:

A) acknowledges that they have read the Code of Conduct
B) indicates agreement to adhere to the Code of Conduct
C) guarantees their compliance with companies policies
D) expresses an understanding of the obligations as an employee

Question 79

Tapesty, a multicultural contact agency, has experts specializing in ___________ consumers.

A) Hispanic
B) Asian
C) Africa-American
D) All of the above

Question 80

Monica Gadsby, CEO and managing director of Tapestry, has helped global marketers like _______ reach their diverse customer base.

A) Procter & Gamble
B) Microsoft
C) Pepsi
D) Intel