Question 1. Which of the following is a correct statement?
The legal law ultimately rests on coercion and force, whereas ethics relies on persuasion and social sanctions to enforce moral rules.
Inductive reasoning involves reasoning from general principles or definitions.
Socrates thought that obtaining knowledge was impossible and thus the search for knowledge was a waste of time and effort.
An ethics based on one's conscience or religion is a very scientific form of ethics since appeals to one's conscience or intuition as a moral guide are objective and impersonal and not subject to rationalization.
Question 2. Whistleblowing in the private employment sector in the United States typically is
Not protected by a uniform federal law
Protected under some state whistleblower protection statutes
Usually protected by the law if the disclosure is made to the media since the disclosure will be widespread and thus do the most good
Never required morally pursuant to Kantian ethics since the consequences for the whistleblowing employees usually are harsh, for example, loss of employment.
Question 3. Wal-Mart responded to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans by sending in its huge fleet of trucks to bring in desperately needed relief supplies. What is NOT accurate about Wal-Mart's actions?
A. Wal-Mart was under a legal duty to bring in supplies since it is a giant wealthy company doing business in interstate commerce.
B. Wal-Mart may be said to have a moral duty to act pursuant to the Ethical Principle of Last Resort if government - federal, state, and local - could not immediately bring in supplies.
C. Wal-Mart was acting in an ethically egoistic manner as it gained a great deal of good will and favorable publicity by helping out without any material cost or expense to the company.
D. Wal-Mart was acting in a socially responsible manner by providing the vehicles to bring in the supplies.
Question 4. The following statements pertain to the use of the law as a device to control corporate misbehavior. Which statement is most accurate?
A factor operating as a limit on the law's effectiveness is that rational corporate actors may at times consciously decide it makes more sense to violate a legal rule to advance their self-interest if they think they can "get away with it."
Because business entities seldom have a significant voice in determining the law's content, the law has generally proved to be an ineffective control device.
A basic assumption underlying the use of the law as a control device is that corporations frequently behave irrationally.
The law as a control device is irrelevant since market forces eventually will curb all illegal and immoral conduct.
Question 5. Happy Feet manufactures shoes in Country Y for sale in the United States. Happy Feet's president discovers that the Country Y workers' average age is sixteen and that they work on average of 13.2 hours per day in a 90 degree warehouse with insufficient safety precautions, all of which practices are legal in Country Y. The president of Happy Feet decides to improve the working hours and conditions of the company's workforce, even though these actions will be more expensive for the company. The president's decision is best described as
Lawful profit maximization
Moral profit-making
Illegal since the shareholders of Happy Feet might be harmed
Social Darwinism.
Question 6. Delta Equity Corporation provides other firms with capital to expand operations. If Delta strictly complies with existing laws, the firm likely will
Fulfill all business ethics obligations
Fulfill no business ethics obligations
Fulfill some business ethics obligations.
Fulfill all social responsibility obligations
Question 7. Which of the following is NOT a correct statement?
A company's code of ethics must demand altruistic behavior from the firm's employees.
All members of a profession are professionals but not all professionals are members of a profession.
Business management cannot yet be regarded as a profession because business management lacks a general code of ethics for managers as well as the typical autonomy of the traditional professions.
In recent years, businesses have taken a more active role in dealing with social problems.
Question 8. Pursuant to the Friedman, organizational, or traditional view of the corporation, the corporation is obligated to:
Obey Kant's Categorical Imperative since it is a high moral standard
Be socially responsible in the communities where it does business
Make profits legally
Come to the rescue of poor neighborhoods around its facilities when local government is financially constrained and the company is doing well.
Question 9. A spray paint company discovers that its products are being misused by children and young people, who get "high" sniffing the fumes. There are no warning labels on the spray paint cans. The company would be best deemed to have what type(s) of obligation and duty to take steps to protect children and young people?
An ethical obligation but not a legal duty
A legal obligation but not an ethical obligation
Both an ethical obligation and a legal duty
Neither an ethical obligation nor a legal duty.
Question 10. Which of the following corporate governance reform strategies, if adopted, would be MOST LIKELY to decrease the amount of immoral and "irresponsible" corporate behavior?
Requiring the study of business ethics in business schools and corporate training
Increasing the amount of legal regulation of business and imposing stronger penalties for violations
Increasing executives' power to determine their fellow executives' compensation packages
Reducing the amount of government regulation of business since market forces invariably will operate to deter corporate misconduc
Question 11. Which of the following is NOT part of the beliefs of Kantian ethics?
All like cases should be treated alike.
Treating others as you want to be treated.
Choosing a course of action that produces the greatest good for society.
Abiding by the rules applied to others in making decisions.
Question 12. Which of the following is a false statement?
A. Utilitarianism has its origins in the works of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
B. Utilitarianism requires taking the course of action that provides at least some good for some people or otherwise not acting at all.
C. One problem with the Utilitarian ethical theory is the difficulty of objectively measuring the good and the bad that would be produced by putting an action into effect.
D. Kantian ethics is based on reason-based, universal "rules" that require that in similar situations people should be treated alike.
Question 13. Which of the following is FALSE about Socrates?
a. He believed that there was universal, objective, and permanent truth to ethics and morality.
b. He believed along with the Sophists that virtue comes from having money and the best reputation that money can buy.
c. His Socratic Method contained an important element of inductive reasoning and argumentation.
d. He equated virtue with knowledge.
Question 14. Ethical relativism is best described as what type of a theory?
Legal since it is based solely on a society legislating laws.
Prescriptive since it sets forth moral norms.
Descriptive since it reports on different customs and practices.
None of the above.