A professor for one of your courses has assigned reading materials from various
publications. He tells you that the materials are on reserve and that each student should
go and copy the materials individually. He notes that for him to copy the materials for
students and then sell them or distribute them would be a violation of copyright law.
The professor’s conduct:
a. Is unethical and violates copyright law as well.
b. Is something everyone does and is accepted behavior.
c. Does not really harm anyone.
d. Is acceptable in an academic setting.
Medical Purchasing Agents (MPC) is a company that represents groups of hospitals as
their agents for purchasing medical supplies. MPC is able to obtain discounts for the
hospital group because of their sheer volume needs when they are grouped together.
MPC’s CEO, CFO and general counsel own 51% of the stock of a company called
Medi-Pump. Medi-Pump is the sole supplier to the hospitals for feeding pumps, IV
pumps and other forms of hi-tech medical pumps and supplies. MPC has negotiated a
low-cost supply contract from Medi-Pump to the hospitals. MPC:
a. Has served its customers well with the Medi-Pump contract.
b. Has a conflict because of its ownership of Medi-Pump.
c. Cannot have a conflict so long as the Medi-Pump price is lowest.
d. Cannot have a conflict because it represents groups of hospitals.
e. None of the above
Who is Matthew Whitley?
a. The account manager for Burger King
b. The Coke retail vice president
c. A Coke employee who questioned the invoices from the marketing consultant
d. CEO of Coke
How much did Jack-in-the-Box have to have set aside for payments in the suits filed
against it?
a. $20 million
b. $50 million
c. $100 million
d. $200 million
What was Beech-Nut’s fine?
a. $100 million
b. $50 million
c. $2 million
d. $140,000
Which company uses primum non nocere as its credo?
a. AIG
b. ABC TV
c. ImClone
d. Johnson & Johnson
Which of the following does the Sadhu represent in the “Parable of the Sadhu”?
a. Business competitor
b. Business challenges
c. Customers
d. Ethical challenges in business
e. None of the above
What is the average wage of a cruise ship worker?
a. $900 – $950/month
b. $700 – $750/month
c. $500 – $550/month
d. $400 – $450/month
Professor Reba McGintry is the head of the Student Conduct Board. Charges have been
brought against three students who are also members of the university basketball team.
The charges are based on the criminal charges brought by the local district attorney
against the three men for sexual assault. Professor McGintry’s husband was one of the
staff attorneys in the DA’s office who made the decision to go forward with the
prosecution. Professor McGintry:
a. Can proceed with the hearing because the two matters are unrelated.
b. Can proceed with the hearing because of marital privilege.
c. Must excuse herself from the students’ hearing because of a conflict of interest.
d. Has no conflict, but her husband does.
e. None of the above
If Firestone establishes that Ford provided incorrect instructions for owners on inflation
of tires and that the tires were underinflated at the time of the accidents:
a. Ford is liable if it was aware of the underinflation.
b. Ford is not liable because of Firestone’s failure to anticipate the inflation issue.
c. Ford is liable.
d. None of the above
Who were “Friends of Angelo”?
a. Friends of Angelo were the members of Countrywide’s board.
b. Friends of Angelo were those who received favorable and expedited mortgage
decisions through Angelo Mozilo.
c. Members of Countrywide’s staff who received favorable mortgage terms.
d. None of the above
Extension of drilling contracts is covered under the FCPA.
A bad barrel refers to:
a. A company culture that directs employees to unethical conduct.
b. A bad management team.
c. Government.
d. None of the above
What was different about the losses resulting from Robert Citron’s conduct?
a. He was not given discretion on trading
b. He was not earning bonuses for profitable yields and trades
c. There are no differences
d. He did not invest in anything risky
How did Coke managers react when an employee brought the Boys and Girls Club
issue to their attention?
a. It went to Burger King and apologized
b. It fired the employee
c. It asked the employee to conduct a complete investigation
d. None of the above
Who said, “We are on the side of angels”?
a. Investigators for the SEC
b. Prosecutors for the Justice Department
c. Jeffrey Skilling and Lloyd Blankfein
d. Both a and b
Why did Albert Meyer hesitate to disclose his findings on New Era?
a. He was not sure
b. He was asked by his superiors to let it go
c. He did not have tenure
d. Both b and c
e. All of the above
Pro forma numbers are:
a. GAAP measures.
b. Non-GAAP measures.
c. Illegal under Sarbanes-Oxley.
d. Both b and c
Susan Wade is the president of the Illinois Hospice Organization (IHO). IHO is a state
organization affiliated with a national non-profit organization, the National Hospice
Organization. Both the state and national organizations have members from both
for-profit and non-profits hospices. Susan Wade is the director of a non-profit hospice in
Illinois.
A Chicago newspaper has printed a story about hospices and what they do. Susan was
interviewed extensively for the piece. In one quote in the article, Susan expressed her
concerns about for-profit hospices. “It has become the sort of franchise of the decade.
They’re not all bad, but I think the original spirit of hospice is becoming very
adulterated. There’s one time in a person’s life when he shouldn’t be looked at as a
number, as a piece of an actuarial problem. If your first and last priority is making
money, it flies in the face of what hospice is all about. It’s the end of the health-care
chain. It’s the place of last hope for patients. Dollars should not be the issue here.”
A chief operating officer of a for-profit hospice has written to Susan complaining that
her remarks are libelous and misinform the public about for-profit hospices.
a. Does Ms. Wade have a conflict of interest?
b. Is Ms. Wade properly executing her role as the president of the state organization?
What was the cost of partially or completely fixing the Pinto gas tank to better
withstand rear-end collision impact?
a. The costs of the changes ranged from $1.80 to $15.30
b. The costs were over 10% of the cost of the car
c. The costs were too great because the car had to be redesigned
d. None of the above
What project were Boeing and Lockheed Martin competing for?
a. Jets for the Gulf War
b. EELV
c. Air Force One contract
d. They were not competing for the same project
Who said, “My actions caused my wife to go to prison”?
a. Andrew Fastow
b. David Delainey
c. Jeffrey Skilling
d. Ken Lay
Which of the following have received tax incentives for locating plants or companies in
certain states?
a. Nike
b. Susette Kelo
c. John Cougar Mellencamp
d. All of the above
Into which group would the students at Stuyvesant High School fall?
a. Moral relativists
b. Utilitarians
c. Ethical egoists
d. Virtue
Which of the following has been documented as an employer practice in order to meet
safety numbers on injuries?
a. Refusing medical treatment for an employee
b. Wheeling an employee with a broken leg onto a construction site to avoid a lost
work-day report
c. Asking OSHA for a change in definitions
d. All of the above
“Conscious parallelism” is:
a. The prices of competitors running in tandem with changes.
b. Illegal per se.
c. An issue in the vertical distribution of goods.
d. None of the above
Which of the following people is associated with the “Front-Page-of-the-Newspaper”
test for ethical dilemmas?
a. Warren Buffett
b. Ken Blanchard
c. Laura Nash
d. John Rawls
What did the state of Indiana do with regard to Ford’s Pinto?
a. Banned the sale of the Pinto in the state
b. Indicted Ford for reckless homicide
c. Filed suit to recover damages for burn victims
d. Fined Ford $200,000 per accident
Who is Jerome LiCari?
a. CEO of Beech-Nut
b. Plant manager for Beech-Nut
c. Employee in Beech-Nut’s purchasing function
d. Director of Research and Development for Beech-Nut Nutrition
How many law firms had represented Kearns?
a. One
b. Two
c. Three
d. Four
Into what ethical category did “robo-signing” fit?
a. False impression
b. Taking unfair advantage
c. Not following the rules
d. All of the above
Where is Timothy Mayopoulos now employed?
a. At Bank of America
b. At Lehman Brothers
c. At Fannie Mae
d. At Kidder Peabody
Who served as an ethics consultant to Boeing following the document issue coming to
light?
a. The author of the text
b. Marianne Jennings
c. Both a and b
d. Dean Philip Regier
Freedom from physical abuse is a basic fair employment practice.
BP had no way of knowing about the evolving issues at Deepwater Horizon.
Although you are not part of your company’s engineering group, you have discovered a
major flaw in the company’s new paper-thin solar calculator. The calculator adds when
the subtract button is pressed if there are more than 3 figures to the right of the decimal
point. Since it is not your area, you should do and say nothing.
What was the inspiration for the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper?
a. A Ford Galaxy
b. A popped Champaign cork that resulted in Champaign in the eyes of Kearns, the
inventor
d. A group of engineers working together at Ford who created defective wipers that did
not work regularly
c. None of the above
Only those who actually made the agreements to fix prices are liable under the criminal
law.
In 2008, Starbucks placed a red light on 600 planned openings. Starbucks says it was
excused from the leases because of economic conditions. Landlords note that Starbucks
is driving down property values by allowing the leased spots to lie fallow. The landlords
also note that they are victims because Starbucks’ expansion plans were too ambitious,
even for a good economy. Discuss the social responsibility of Starbucks in this
situation.
The U.S. Supreme Court reversal of the Andersen conviction means that there were no
ethical missteps by Andersen.
A purchasing agent whose daughter works for a supplier has a conflict of interest.
Screening bad apples out before hiring is an effective way to curb employees’ unethical
conduct.
Giving preferential treatment in contract bidding to the daughter of a member of the
company board is not a conflict of interest.
The Theory of Justice is subscribed to by contractarians.
Countrywide went bankrupt.
Sarbanes-Oxley requires all covered companies to have a code of ethics for financial
officers.
Peter Drucker believes that the ethical obligation of business is to bluff within reason.
A commercial broker who accepts fees from both the seller and the buyer of the
business without disclosure to either has not committed an ethical violation if both
parties are happy with the transaction.
A journalist who fails to disclose his or her financial interest in the subject of a story he
or she is covering has a conflict of interest.
Submitting a new pair of shoes as a travel expense is an example of a dishonest act.
List those at BP who were aware of maintenance and inspection issues with respect to
the Prudhoe Bay pipeline.
Failure to disclose the dangers of a diet program is an ethical issue.
BP transferred employees who raised concerns about safety at its facilities.