Deck 2: Defining Business Ethics

Question 1

The standard of corporate governance is the extent to which the officers of an organization are fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of their offices to the relevant stakeholders.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Corporate governance is the system by which businesses are directed and controlled.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Business ethics involves the application of standards of moral behavior to business situations.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Unethical corporate behavior does not impact a company's stakeholders.

Question 5

Stakeholders include stockholders,employees,and the federal government.

Question 6

According to the ERC,an organization's cornerstones include its missions,values,and principles.

Question 7

Business ethics should be applied as a separate set of moral standards or ethical concepts from general ethics.

Question 8

The Ethics Resource Center states that a code of ethics should help managers,employees,and stakeholders understand how an organization's cornerstones translate into everyday decisions,behaviors,and actions.

Question 9

An oxymoron is the combination of two facts that mirror and support each other.

Question 10

The interests of wholesalers in an organization include accurate deliveries of quality products on time and at a reasonable cost.

Question 11

The interests of creditors in an organization focus specifically on the employment of local residents and the safety of the work environment.

Question 12

Not every stakeholder will be relevant in every business situation.

Question 13

The Ethics Resource Center defines a code of ethics as a central guide to support day-to-day decision making at work.

Question 14

Unethical corporate behavior could impact a community negatively if it were to lead to an economic decline.

Question 15

Business ethics can be approached from two distinct perspectives: prohibitive and preventative.

Question 16

The positive outcome of the awareness generated by unethical behavior in the business world has been increased attention to the need for third-party guarantees of ethical conduct and active commitments from the rest of the business world.

Question 17

Ethical behavior should be the same both inside and outside a business situation.

Question 18

The standard of corporate governance appears to be at the highest in recent business history.

Question 19

A company's code of ethics comprises written standards of moral behavior that are designed to guide managers and employees in making the decisions and choices they face every day.

Question 20

A stakeholder is someone with a share or interest in a business enterprise.

Question 21

The major ethical dilemma of the 2000s is the employee versus management mentality.

Question 22

The issue of corporate social responsibility has advanced from an abstract debate to a core performance-assessment issue with clearly established legal liabilities.

Question 23

An organization's code of ethics has no relevance to its stakeholders.

Question 24

According to the ERC,a good code of ethics is structured to liberate and empower people to make more effective decisions with greater confidence.

Question 25

As a message to its stakeholders,an organization's code of ethics should represent a clear corporate commitment to the highest standards of ethical behavior.

Question 26

Codes of ethics have matured from performance-measurement documents into cosmetic public relations documents.

Question 27

The notion that anything which isn't specifically labeled as wrong must be OK encourages ethical actions in employees prone to unethical behavior.

Question 28

The belief that an activity is safe because it will never be found out or publicized is one of the commonly held rationalizations,identified by Saul Gellerman,which can lead to unethical behavior.

Question 29

Once the type of ethical conflict has been determined,there are two principles by which it can be resolved: Volcker's Rule and Campbell's Rule.

Question 30

An ethical dilemma is a situation in which there is no obvious right or wrong decision,but rather a right or right answer.

Question 31

Utilizing the rules-based principle to resolve an ethical dilemma necessitates focusing exclusively on which decision would provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Question 32

International ethics centers that serve the needs of global businesses were formed in the 1960s.

Question 33

When trying to resolve an ethical dilemma,the Golden Rule principle considers only legal aspects of the problem.

Question 34

An organization's code of ethics does not pertain to the everyday functioning of its managers and employees.

Question 35

An organization's code of ethics has no relevance to its employees.

Question 36

The ethicalness of an activity is determined by the number of people who take the action.

Question 37

Utilizing the ends-based principle to resolve an ethical dilemma necessitates focusing solely on the decisions that other people in your situation would arrive at.

Question 38

Over the last five decades,corporate ethics has shifted from the organizational mainstream into the domain of legal and human resource departments.

Question 39

The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act introduced greater accountability for chief executive officers and boards of directors in signing off on the financial performance records of the organizations they represent.

Question 40

The three principles by which ethical dilemmas are resolved are successful in all situations.

Question 41

GeoTransmit,a large multinational telecommunications company,decided to hide the extensive debt and losses it was accumulating from its investors.Its fraudulent accounting behavior was eventually discovered,however,and the company went bankrupt.Which of the following is true of GeoTransmit and its stakeholders?

A) The different stakeholders of GeoTransmit will be affected in different ways.
B) Geotransmit's decision to hide its losses from investors will not impact the economy.
C) None of GeoTransmit's stakeholders will be affected adversely by its decision.
D) GeoTransmit's decision to hide its losses from investors cannot be considered unethical.

Question 42

Which of the following is true of business ethics?

A) The descriptive dimension of business ethics evaluates the degree to which the observed customs,attitudes,and rules of a business are ethical.
B) Business ethics should ideally not reflect the ethical concepts of the society within which an organization functions.
C) The normative dimension of business ethics is a summation of the customs,attitudes,and rules that are observed within a business.
D) Business ethics should not be applied as a separate set of moral standards or ethical concepts from general ethics.

Question 43

Business ethics can be approached from two different perspectives.The _____ perspective is a summation of the customs,attitudes,and rules that are observed within a business.

A) descriptive
B) normative
C) preventative
D) prescriptive

Question 44

Which of the following is true of the standard of corporate governance?

A) It is a set of guidelines that has been universally adopted by all business organizations.
B) It does not ensure that an organization's officers fulfill their obligations to stakeholders.
C) It focuses on establishing a leadership pipeline for an organization.
D) It appears to be at its lowest level in recent business history.

Question 45

Which of the following perspectives of business ethics is a simple documentation of what is happening?

A) Arbitrative
B) Normative
C) Prescriptive
D) Descriptive

Question 46

Which of the following functions does the code of ethics perform?

A) It clarifies an organization's cornerstones to its employees,managers,and stakeholders.
B) It allows the board members of an organization to be accountable only to themselves.
C) It allows chief executive officers unrestrained power in the decision-making process.
D) It works with the standards of corporate governance to limit employees' independence.

Question 47

The code of ethics is intended to:

A) prevent managers and employees from making everyday decisions unsupervised.
B) guide managers and employees in making sound decisions and choices every day.
C) liberate the chief executive officer from any constraints placed by the board of directors.
D) decrease the independence of the board of directors and reduce the power of shareholders.

Question 48

A(n)_____ is defined as a central guide that supports day-to-day decision making at work.

A) business matrix
B) code of ethics
C) internal channel
D) external channel

Question 49

_____ is the application of standards of moral behavior to business situations.

A) Business structuralism
B) Business contingence
C) Business ethics
D) Business sourcing

Question 50

"Business ethics" is sometimes considered an oxymoron because:

A) small,new businesses tend to be less honest than large,established businesses.
B) the recent spate of financial scandals portrays organizations as fundamentally unethical.
C) the standard of corporate governance has been at its highest level in the last decade.
D) local businesses tend to have fewer accounting scandals than international businesses.

Question 51

_____ is the system that directs and controls business organizations.

A) Business structuralism
B) Organizational resonance
C) Retail optimization
D) Corporate governance

Question 52

The standard of corporate governance:

A) allows select corporations to monitor the ethical conduct of government officials.
B) plays no role in regulating the ethical behavior of senior executives in an organization.
C) ensures that officers of an organization fulfill their obligations to their stakeholders.
D) plays no role in regulating the ethical behavior of employees in an organization.

Question 53

As an internal document,the code of ethics should represent a clear guide to _____ in making the decisions and choices they face every day.

A) managers and employees
B) competitors and consumers
C) stockholders and shareholders
D) retailers and wholesalers

Question 54

A _____ is defined as someone with a share or interest in a business enterprise.

A) stakeholder
B) moderator
C) mediator
D) crossholder

Question 55

Which of the following is true of corporate governance?

A) It plays no role in enforcing ethical behavior in the workplace.
B) It is the process by which the government nationalizes corporations.
C) It is the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled.
D) It is the entity responsible for the execution of a company's CSR policy.

Question 56

Which of the following is true of codes of ethics?

A) Fewer small businesses adopt a formal code of ethics now than they did in the past.
B) The codes are structured to empower employees to make effective decisions confidently.
C) The codes prescribe appropriate courses of action for every business situation in detail.
D) Fewer international organizations adopt a formal code of ethics now than in the past.

Question 57

Which of the following is true of stakeholders?

A) Not every stakeholder is relevant in every business situation.
B) The stakeholders of an organization are not affected by its unethical behavior.
C) The cancellation of an organization's dividends has no impact upon stakeholders.
D) Creditors are not considered the stakeholders of an organization.

Question 58

Business ethics:

A) involves applying ethical and moral standards to business behavior.
B) should be applied as a separate set of moral standards from general ethics.
C) deals exclusively with the ethical behavior of stakeholders and shareholders.
D) can by understood from two perspectives-preventative and prohibitive.

Question 59

Business ethics can be approached from two different perspectives.The _____ perspective evaluates the degree to which the observed customs,attitudes,and rules can be considered ethical.

A) descriptive
B) prohibitive
C) normative
D) preventative

Question 60

Which of the following perspectives of business ethics is involved in recommending what should be happening?

A) Delineative
B) Normative
C) Formative
D) Descriptive

Question 61

_____ refers to a situation in which there is no obvious right or wrong decision,but rather a right or right answer.

A) Status Paradox
B) Freedman's Paradox
C) Ansoff's Matrix
D) Ethical Dilemma

Question 62

Over the last five decades,codes of ethics have matured from cosmetic public relations documents into _____ documents.

A) profit-oriented
B) financial-assessment
C) performance-measurement
D) expenditure-maximization

Question 63

The _____ is the principle for resolving an ethical dilemma that considers doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

A) Golden Rule
B) formative perspective
C) oscillatory approach
D) Egocentric Rule

Question 64

The _____ of 2002 introduced greater accountability for chief executive officers and boards of directors in signing off on the financial performance records of the organizations they represent.

A) Comstock Act
B) Federal Corrupt Practices Act
C) Sarbanes-Oxley Act
D) National Banking Act

Question 65

Over the last five decades,corporate ethics has moved from the domain of human resource departments into the _____.

A) legal department
B) finance and accounting department
C) talent management portfolio
D) organizational mainstream

Question 66

Business ethics can be approached from two different perspectives.The _____ perspective is a summation of the customs,attitudes,and rules that are observed within a business.

Question 67

_____ is the application of ethical standards to business behavior.

Question 68

Business ethics can be approached from two different perspectives.The _____ perspective recommends what should be happening.

Question 69

The belief that an activity is safe because it will never be found out is a common rationalization behind an employee's unethical conduct.What can an organization do to deter unethical behavior based on this rationalization?

A) Managers should take punitive action in private.
B) Managers should punish the individual publicly.
C) Managers should ideally ignore first-time offenders.
D) Managers should reprimand the individual discretely.

Question 70

The _____ principle for resolving an ethical dilemma considers what would happen if everyone made the same decision as you.

A) rules-based
B) ends-based
C) Golden Rule
D) Volcker's Rule

Question 71

Over the last five decades,the issue of corporate social responsibility has advanced from an abstract debate to a core _____ issue with clearly established legal liabilities.

A) performance-assessment
B) profit-oriented
C) internal-relations
D) profit-minimization

Question 72

How can companies reduce unethical behavior in their companies?

A) By disciplining unethical behavior in private
B) By creating and maintaining a corporate culture of trust
C) By giving their CEOs more power than their boards of directors
D) By not conducting audits and spot checks

Question 73

Business ethics can be approached from two different perspectives.The _____ perspective is the evaluation of the degree to which the observed customs,attitudes,and rules can be said to be ethical.

Question 74

Over the last five decades,codes of ethics:

A) have matured from performance-measurement documents to cosmetic public relations documents.
B) have been adopted by fewer corporations because employees and managers no longer need guidance.
C) have been adopted by an increasing number of organizations who share them with all their stakeholders.
D) have relieved chief executive officers from the control mechanisms used by the board of directors.

Question 75

The _____ principle for resolving an ethical dilemma considers which decision would provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

A) ends-based
B) rules-based
C) Golden Rule
D) Volcker's Rule

Question 76

Which of the following is true of corporate ethics?

A) It has advanced from a core performance-assessment issue to an abstract debate.
B) It does not require the senior executives of a company to be accountable to stakeholders.
C) It no longer deals with performance measurement,but with cosmetic public relations.
D) It has moved from the domain of legal departments into the organizational mainstream.

Question 77

Which of the following changes has occurred in the business environment over the last five decades?

A) The code of ethics has moved from performance-measurement documents to cosmetic public relations documents.
B) Senior executives of a company are no longer required to be accountable to the board of directors and their stakeholders.
C) Corporate ethics has moved from the organizational mainstream into the domain of legal and human resource departments.
D) Corporate social responsibility has advanced from an abstract debate to a core performance-assessment issue.

Question 78

Which of the following is true of the three principles for resolving an ethical dilemma?

A) They predict the behavior of other people involved in the situation.
B) They don't offer a perfect solution or resolution for every situation.
C) They need to be applied simultaneously in order to be effective.
D) They can only be applied to situations involving personal issues.

Question 79

Companies can discourage unethical behavior in their employees by:

A) disciplining repeat offenders in private.
B) conducting regular audits and random spot checks.
C) not adopting a formal code of ethics.
D) giving their CEOs more power than their boards of directors.

Question 80

Business ethics can be approached from two different perspectives.The _____ perspective simply documents what is happening.