Assignment:
Business Questions and Activities
1. Refer to Figure 1.1 to identify three specific environmental influences that the organization for which you work (or the institution in which you study) must address to survive and be competitive. Explain. How do these influences, pressures, and opportunities affect you, and how ethically do you accomplish your work and goals?
2. What are the three major ethical issues you face now in your work or student life? What is "ethical" about these issues?
3. Identify some benefits of using a stakeholder approach in ethical decision making. How would using a stakeholder approach help you plan and/or solve an ethical issue in your working life? Explain
4. Which, if any, of the five business myths in the chapter do you not accept as a myth (i.e., that you believe is true)? Explain.
5. Identify one myth you had/have about business ethics. Where did it originate? Why is it a "myth"? What led you to abandon this myth, or do you still believe in it? Explain.
6. Identify three reasons presented in this chapter for using ethical reasoning in business situations. Which of these reasons do you find the most valid? The least valid? Explain
7. Is the law sufficient to help managers and employees solve ethical dilemmas? Explain and offer an example from your own experiences or from a contemporary event.
8. What are some important distinctive characteristics of ethical problems? What distinguishes an ethical from a legal problem?
9. Identify and describe a specific belief or behavior of yours that you feel could be changed through taking a course in ethics.
10. From your own experience, provide three examples of foreign direct investment
in the United States. Visit your library and, consulting references, identify three foreign-owned companies operating in the United States. Should the United States encourage such investment? If yes, what benefits come from these investments? If no, what drawbacks exist?
11. Using the Internet, locate at least three major mergers or acquisitions between U.S. and foreign corporations over the past five years.
12. The U.S. steel industry was in dire straits in the 1970s until the major Japanese steel companies formed joint ventures with most of the U.S. steel giants. Cite three reasons why you agree or disagree with this idea, considering the" strategic importance of the steel industry as the primary supplier of military aircraft, tanks, weapons, and ammunition.
13. Using an Internet search engine, such as AOL, Yahoo, or Google, search "Product Licensing" and determine the world's largest consumer products licensor. Why, at many major domestic trade shows, are vendors of licensed products given increasingly larger amounts of floor space? Cite three licensed products that you own. (Hint: Consider logo products licensed by professional or collegiate sports teams)
14. For more than 25 years, the United States has had a growing trade deficit, with current imports exceeding exports by more than $600 billion. What steps in importing and/or exporting might be taken to reverse this economic dilemma? What are the risks of allowing the trade deficit to grow each year? Research recent literature on the U.S. trade deficit to determine the pros and cons of the growing imbalance of trade.