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a. disparity between CEO sentencing and upper management sentencing
b. overly harsh sentencing by judges for work-related crimes to satisfy public outrage
c. easy cover-ups by management of work-related crimes
d. wide variation in sentencing decisions for work-related crimes
52. An employee of a major corporation commits a specific act of fraud in the course of
his employment and is caught. When the employee is brought before a judge and
sentenced, the judge refers to the FSG to levy a specific fine. Once the standardized
fine is chosen, what does the judge then consider to possibly adjust the fine?
a. How long the employee has been at the company and whether or not there have
been previous offenses?
b. Whether or not the company has implemented an ethics best-practices program?
c. The company’s track record with legal challenges during the past 10 years?
d. The amount of compensation the company earned from the fraudulent behavior?
53. Companies that report unethical employee behaviors to the appropriate government
agency are clearly concerned with complying with ______.
a. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
b. Consumer Protection Act
c. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations
d. Sherman Antitrust Act
54. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations encourages ethical behaviors by
providing ______.
a. federal recognition of ethical practices
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b. a tax-exempt status compliant companies
c. punishment for unethical activity
d. financial audit immunity
55. If a company wants to be recognized as an ethical company, one of its first actions
should be to ______.
a. host a fundraising event for politicians
b. engage in a rapid growth plan
c. build an ethical culture
d. market how ethical the company is
56. Building an ethical culture, complying with ethics laws, and ______ are all ways a
company can demonstrate its commitment to ethical practices.
a. encouraging social responsibility
b. raising executive pay
c. increasing shareholder dividends
d. maintaining financial confidentiality
57. One of the weaknesses of Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations is that
they are ______.
a. paired with weak fines for violation
b. unfunded mandates
c. expensive to implement
d. suggested, but not required
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58. What is the goal of websites like Glassdoor and Just Capital?
a. providing guidelines for ethical behavior that companies can follow
b. granting tax breaks to companies with good ethical reputations
c. increasing LGBT representation in companies
d. forcing transparency on the ethics of many companies
59. How did the Obama administration differ from the Reagan and Bush administrations
with respect to business ethics?
a. It sought to increase environmental protection while decreasing consumer protection
regulation.
b. It sought to decrease general regulation of business.
c. It sought to increase general regulation of business.
d. It did not make regulation or deregulation of business a priority.
60. How did the Trump Administration action on the Affordable Health Care Act differ
from the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890?
a. It targets business instead of consumers.
b. It represents deregulation at the state level instead of the federal level.
c. It represents government regulation instead of deregulation.
d. It represents government deregulation instead of regulation.
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61. Which of the following statements about the “living wage” concept is accurate?
a. Living wage calculations are typically limited to food, childcare, and healthcare.
b. About half of states have instituted living wage legislation.
c. It is typically slightly lower, when calculated, than local minimum wage levels.
d. A living wage calculation is specific to geographic region or city.
62. Organizational culture is shaped by the degree to which ______ matters in the
pursuit of business goals.
a. regulatory compliance
b. union membership
c. moral behavior
d. employee satisfaction
63. ______ help(s) make moral behavior a crucial component of a business.
a. Organizational culture
b. Union membership
c. Executive compensation
d. Employee benefits
64. Strong leader commitment has a direct influence on ______ when it comes to
ethical behavior in the workplace.
a. organizational culture
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b. union membership
c. executive compensation
d. employee actions
65. Identifying ______ is an excellent way to signal that ethics matters to a company.
a. brand partnerships
b. ethical risks
c. highly qualified talent
d. potential markets
66. Businesses can communicate the importance of ethics to their stakeholders by
taking what action?
a. marketing ethical products
b. promoting popular employees
c. centering ethics in their strategic plans
d. growing their market share
67. Long-term organizational growth is achieved by building honesty, integrity, and
______.
a. market share
b. trust
c. executive awards
d. internship programs
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68. Ethical behaviors are necessary for maintaining successful ______.
a. brand partnerships
b. profit maximization
c. highly qualified board members
d. long-term growth
69. Ethical behaviors are by and large the result of ______.
a. organizational culture
b. individual choice
c. religious affiliation
d. market trends
70. The Ethical Systems Model synthesizes best practices for what purpose?
a. avoiding government regulations
b. hiring qualified workers
c. reducing ethical risks
d. increasing profits
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71. One of the most important steps to take when examining unethical behavior is
______.
a. ask employees to tell on each other regarding these behaviors
b. identifying the business opportunities of the crisis
c. providing employees with an ultimatum
d. determining the circumstances that led to unethical behaviors
72. The process that provides a systematic approach to finding the root cause of
unethical behaviors in the workplace is known as ______.
a. ethical systems model
b. total quality management
c. virtue ethics theory
d. the ethics of care
73. Total quality management of ethics is a process that helps businesses by providing
a systematic approach for identifying ______.
a. why immoral actions occur
b. ethical rewards
c. highly qualified talent
d. potential markets
74. The total quality management of ethics process is preferable to simply blaming an
employee for unethical actions because ______.
a. failure to address the concerns will result in further infractions
b. blame serves little to improve organizational culture
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c. blame doesn’t identify root causes
d. legal liabilities are abundant if it is not addressed
75. What are Edgar Schein’s three distinct levels of organizational culture?
a. gender relations, manager-employee relations, and employee-organization relations
b. artifacts and behaviors, espoused values, and assumptions
c. profit-seeking, goal-seeking, and ethical intentions
d. explicit values, implicit values, and informal values
76. What positive correlation appeared within the evidence of the ERC survey into
organizational culture at for-profit organizations?
a. strong ethical culture and lower levels of misconduct
b. strong ethical culture and higher levels of misconduct
c. weaker ethical culture and lower levels of retaliation for reporting misconduct
d. strong-leaning ethical culture and higher levels of retaliation for reporting misconduct
77. Which of the following statements about the Ethical Systems Model?
a. It forgoes the “best practices” model in favor of offering some general guidelines for
ethical behavior.
b. Its ultimate goal is to eliminate ethical behaviors that represent a challenge to
financial revenue.
c. Its ultimate goal is to reduce ethical defects as close to zero as possible.
d. It focuses primarily on hiring practices and employee diversity as the primary driver of
ethical behavior.
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78. In the ERC’s survey of 6,400 for-profit employees about organization culture, what
percentage said that their organization had either a strong or a strong-leaning ethical
culture?
a. 15 percent
b. 66 percent
c. 24 percent
d. 43 percent
79. The first step a manager should take when an ethical problem arises is to ______.
a. examine the activity separately from other actions
b. determine the systematic source for the problem arising
c. make an example of the person doing the wrong
d. report the problem to the authorities
80. Studies have shown that ______ to ethical behaviors had a major effect of
misconduct and unethical behaviors committed by employees.
a. ignorance
b. strong leader commitment
c. regulatory compliance
d. employee resistance
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True/False
1. The advent of charters granted by the British government allowed greater risk-taking
in business ventures.
2. Business activities in the colonies prior to the American Revolution were quite weakly
regulated.
3. Much of the inspiration for Adam Smith’s writings on capitalism came from his
reaction to the dominance of mercantilism.
4. Adam Smith believed that division of labor would make businesses more competitive,
but that excessive division of labor could hurt both business and worker.
5. The advent of capitalism brought about the appearance of slavery as a profitable and
widely used system of exploitation.
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6. Internal violence and corrupt behaviors proved very damaging to the labor union
movement during the early 20th century.
7. The purpose of a labor union is to advocate on behalf of workers seeking more
equitable wages, hours, and working conditions.
8. The subsystems of the Interpenetrating Systems Model are self-contained and largely
monolithic.
9. A worker earning a minimum wage could make more than the federal minimum wage
in one state and lower than the federal minimum wage in another.
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10. In Edgar Schein’s conception of organizational culture, assumptions create values,
which then become symbols and behaviors.
Short Answer
1. What do we know of the state of business ethics in the ancient world?
2. How did the early English colonies in the Americas solve their labor shortage
problem?
3. How did Adam Smith see the relationship between selfishness and self-interest under
capitalism?
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4. What were the early major victories of organized unions in the United States?
5. How do the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSG) encourage
businesses to become more ethical?
Essay
1. Why is it important to consider modern business ethics from an evolutionary
perspective?
2. Broadly outline the key components of Adam Smith’s philosophy of capitalism.
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3. Contrast the trend of government regulation of the private sector under the Kennedy,
Johnson, and Nixon administrations with regulatory trends under the Reagan, Bush,
Clinton, and second Bush administrations.
4. How is the specific dollar amount of a living wage typically determined?
5. What are the advantages of creating voluntary regulatory agreements like the
Defense Industry Initiative?
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