Chapter 04 – Demanding Ethical and Socially Responsible Behavior
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1. The Enron scandal illustrates the difference between unethical behavior and illegal
behavior.
2. Ethical behavior requires more than following the law.
3. Legal behavior and ethical behavior are basically the same.
4. A society gets into trouble when people consider only what is illegal and not also what is
ethical or unethical.
5.
Chapter 04 – Demanding Ethical and Socially Responsible Behavior
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Ethical behavior refers to the standards that are accepted by society as right or wrong.
6. People should look at each situation individually and decide for themselves if it is right or
wrong.
7. Given the level of diversity within the United States, agreement on common standards of
ethical behavior is unachievable.
8. An accurate statement regarding this chapter is: “Business law establishes ethical
behavior.”
Feedback: The most basic step in ethical behavior is the law, but ethics go far beyond
legality.
9.
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Legal behavior is directly related to our relationships with others, while ethical behavior is
not.
Feedback: Legal behavior and ethical behavior are directly related to our relationships with
others.
10. Legal behavior is a first step toward ethical behavior.
Feedback: Ethical behavior requires more than following the law, but following the law is an
important first step.
11. Laws that protect us from fraud, theft and violence determine ethical behavior.
Feedback: Ethical behavior requires more than following the law, but following the law is an
important first step. Legality is narrower.
12.
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Moral behavior refers to behavior that is accepted by society as right versus wrong.
Feedback: Ethics defines the standards of moral behavior, or the attempt to live by certain
values and standards of conduct accepted by society as right rather than wrong.
13. Ethical behavior focuses on treating others fairly.
Feedback: Ethical behavior focuses on proper relations with other people. An ethical person
will treat others with honesty and sincerity. Perhaps the essence of this behavior is The
Golden Rule, “do unto to others as you would have them do unto you.”
14. Making accounting records more transparent may help restore trust in the free-market
system and leaders in general.
Feedback: Given the ethical lapses that are so prevalent today, several things can be done to
restore trust in the free-market system and leaders in general: (1) those who have broken the
law need to be punished accordingly including religious people, government people, and
businesspeople; (2) new laws making accounting records more transparent should be passed;
and (3) making businesspeople and others more accountable may help.
15.
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Punishing business leaders who have broken the law may help restore trust in the free-
market system and leaders in general.
Feedback: Given the ethical lapses that are so prevalent today, several things can be done to
restore trust in the free-market system and leaders in general: (1) those who have broken the
law need to be punished accordingly including religious people, government people, and
businesspeople; (2) new laws making accounting records more transparent should be passed;
and (3) making businesspeople and others more accountable may help.
16. Making businesspeople more accountable for company actions may help restore trust in
the free-market system and leaders in general.
Feedback: Given the ethical lapses that are so prevalent today, several things can be done to
restore trust in the free-market system and leaders in general: (1) those who have broken the
law need to be punished accordingly including religious people, government people, and
businesspeople; (2) new laws making accounting records more transparent should be passed;
and (3) making businesspeople and others more accountable may help.
17.
Chapter 04 – Demanding Ethical and Socially Responsible Behavior
People involved in business may be tempted to do something unethical in order to
increase sales and profits, but rarely do because if they are caught, our legal system will
deal harshly with them.
Feedback: Many immoral and unethical acts fall well within our laws, but “white collar”
crime has not always been harshly punished.
18. Jake and his college friends frequent a small pub on weekends. Last weekend, after a few
beers, one of his friends decided to take the salt and pepper shakers from their table
because they needed a set at their apartment. In this situation, this was not a particularly
questionable activity because it was a restaurant where one pays for these extras.
Feedback: Ethical behavior should not be situationally based. If the act is appropriate
behavior, then it is probably appropriate all of the time. This situation however is clearly
inappropriate behavior.
19. Ethical behavior involves the clear and easy choice of right and wrong actions towards
others.
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20. Both managers and workers cite low managerial ethics as a major cause of American
businesses’ competitive woes.
21. A common form of cheating in schools today is plagiarizing material from the Internet.
22. Making ethical choices is always easy.
23. Two recent studies found a strong correlation between academic dishonesty among
undergraduates and dishonesty at work.
24.
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The question “Is it legal?” establishes ethical behavior.
25. It can be very difficult to maintain a balance between ethics and goals such as pleasing
stakeholders.
26. Trying to make decisions that will benefit all parties involved is consistent with the
question “How will it make me feel about myself?”
27. While telling an abusive joke about an ethnic group may not be unlawful, it is unethical.
Feedback: Humor at someone else’s expense is an example of unfair treatment of others.
28.
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An ethical manager’s decisions are based only on the following questions: “Is it legal?”
and “Is it profitable?”
Feedback: Ethics-based managers ask themselves the following questions when faced with a
potentially ethical dilemma: “Is it legal?”, “Is it balanced?”, and “How will it make me feel
about myself?”
29. Behavior that is in conflict with your values and sense of right and wrong can damage
your self-esteem.
Feedback: Ethics-based managers do what is proper as well as what is profitable. Decisions
that go against their sense of right and wrong corrode their self-esteem.
30. When facing an ethical dilemma, it is often helpful to discuss the situation with your
supervisor because ethical decisions will always withstand scrutiny.
Feedback: The ethics check question “How will it make me feel about myself?” focuses our
attention on the impact of decisions that go against our sense of right and wrong. Decisions
that corrode our self-esteem will ultimately injure the organization.
31.
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Business behavior determines the ethics of society. We can improve society’s moral and
ethical behavior by first making a commitment to improving business’s moral and ethical
behavior.
Feedback: Ethical behavior begins with you and me. We cannot expect society to become
more moral and ethical unless we as individuals commit to becoming more moral and ethical
ourselves.
32. Utilizing the phrase “the ends justify the means” as a corporate value system can
negatively impact company morale and competitiveness.
Feedback: In a recent study, both managers and workers cited low managerial ethics as a
major cause of our competitive woes. Employees reported that they often violate safety
standards and goof off as much as seven hours a week.
33. Barney extends his lunch break beyond the allotted time. Wilma uses the office telephone
for unauthorized personal phone calls. Fred misrepresents his product to a potential
customer. All of these are examples of unethical behavior.
Feedback: All three situations violate the ethics-check questions of “Is it legal?”, “Is it
balanced?”, and “How will it make me feel about myself?”
34.
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In reality, ethical behavior depends on the situation. For example, in negotiating a contract
with your employees, the way they win higher wages is by your losing the fight to hold
down labor costs. You realize it is a win-lose relationship.
Feedback: Every situation cannot be completely balanced, but it is important to the health of
our relationships that we avoid major imbalances over time. An ethics-based manager has a
win-win attitude.
35. You are in a business meeting at work that requires your group to make an ethical
decision. Your willingness to post the final decision on the bulletin board in the break
room for all to see passes the test: “How will it make me feel about myself?”
Feedback: By posting the decision on the company bulletin board, you are demonstrating that
you stand behind the decision that was made; that you believe it is an ethical decision, and
you do not need to hide your actions from your coworkers.
36.
Chapter 04 – Demanding Ethical and Socially Responsible Behavior
As the human resources director for your company, it is your job to evaluate the
company’s benefits plan. Although several workers utilize the company day care facility,
the facility costs the firm considerably more than another benefit might cost, such as
having an on-site physician. The on-site physician services are supported by insurance,
and the physician actually rents space from the company. Under these circumstances,
eliminating the day care is a balanced decision.
Feedback: Winning at the expense of others is not a balanced decision. The health of our
relationships with our co-workers is very important. We should avoid major imbalances and
strive to make decisions that benefit all employees.
37. On her company website, Ali asks customers who fill orders to place a check-mark in a
box if they are willing to let her share their information with her suppliers. By asking this
question, Ali is addressing privacy issues, and covering her actions in case someone
should try to sue her for sharing private information. She is responding to the question,
“Are my proposed actions legal?”
Feedback: Asking the question, “Are my proposed actions legal?” is the first step toward
addressing ethical concerns. By asking and answering this question, the business owner takes
the first step in determining if the action is acceptable behavior.
38. Trust between workers and managers must be based on a foundation of fairness, honesty,
openness, and moral integrity.
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49. An ethic of justice is based on a sense of responsibility to reduce actual harm or suffering.
50. An ethic of care is based on a sense of responsibility to reduce actual harm or suffering.
51. An ethic of care is based on principles like justice, fairness, equality, or authority.
52. Employers should proceed cautiously when designing an employee incentive program that
rewards employees strictly on increased sales.
Feedback: Increased pressure on employees to meet sales quotas can create an environment
where management is insensitive to ethical considerations. The text presents an example of
this issue with cell phone reps.
53.
Chapter 04 – Demanding Ethical and Socially Responsible Behavior
“Do what I say, not what I do” can be an effective code of conduct to instill corporate
values.
Feedback: People learn their standards and values from observing what others do. They
seldom adopt values strictly from what others say.
54. Employees, just like children, can observe behavior and adopt standards of right and
wrong.
Feedback: People learn their standards of values from observing what others do, but not
particularly from hearing what they say.
55. “Actions speak louder than words!”, is an old saying that refers to the fact that people’s
actions – how they act as opposed to what they say – are often testament to their true
ethical values.
Feedback: People adopt values from observing what others do, not particularly from hearing
what they say; making the actions of others more important in framing ethical behavior, than
what people say.
