ESSENTIALS OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT, 3RD EDITION
CHAPTER 2
Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and
Business Ethics
Name: __________________________ Date: _____________
1. T F Stockholders are important external claimants on a company.
2. T F The general public is not a stakeholder for a company.
3. T F Examples of external stakeholders are the members of the board of directors.
4. T F A national union is an example of an external stakeholder.
5. T F All stakeholders are in an exchange relationship with the company.
6. T F Different stakeholders supply different resources to the company, and in exchange they expect
their interests to be satisfied.
7. T F If a company fails to take stakeholder claims into account, stakeholders may withdraw their
support.
12 Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics
8. T F The goals of all stakeholder groups are generally aligned.
9. T F The mission statement is a key indicator of how an organization views the claims of its
stakeholders.
10. T F The mission describes what it is that the company does.
11. T F Values of a company state how managers and employees should conduct themselves, how they
should do business, and what kind of organization they should build to help a company achieve its
mission.
12. T F The vision of a company lays out some desired future state and articulates what the company
would like to achieve.
13. T F Organizational culture is the set of values, norms, and standards that control how employees
work to achieve an organization’s mission and goals.
14. T F A goal is a precise and measurable desired future state that a company attempts to realize.
15. T F Equity capital for which there is a guarantee that stockholders will recoup their investment
and earn a decent return is called risk capital.
Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics 13
16. T F As the agents of stockholders, managers should pursue strategies that maximize short-term
returns to stockholders because this increases the value of their shares.
17. T F The agency problem occurs when managers pursue strategies that are not in the interests of
stockholders.
18. T F The term principle refers to the person delegating authority to an agent, who acts on the
principle’s behalf in an agency relationship.
19. T F The agency relationship arises whenever one party delegates decision-making authority or
control over resources to another.
20. T F Information asymmetry is a situation in which both parties have the same information about
the exchange.
21. T F Despite the existence of governance mechanisms and comprehensive measurement and control
systems, a degree of information asymmetry will always remain between principles and agents.
22. T F Critics of U.S. industry claim that extraordinary pay has now become an endemic problem
and that senior managers are enriching themselves at the expense of stockholders and other
employees.
23. T F In 1980, the average CEO in Business Week‘s survey of CEO’s of the largest 500 American
companies earned 42 times what the average blue-collar worker earned.
14 Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics
24. T F In 2005, the average CEO in the Business Week survey earned more than 350 times the pay of
the average blue-collar worker.
25. T F The typical board of directors is composed of a mix of inside and outside directors.
26. T F The board of directors is the centerpiece of the corporate governance system in the United
States and the Federal Republic of Germany.
27. T F Outside directors are full-time employees of the company.
28. T F Critics of the existing governance system charge that inside directors often dominate the
outsiders on the board.
29. T F The typical inside director is subordinate to the CEO in the company’s hierarchy and
therefore unlikely to criticize the boss.
30. T F The most common pay-for-performance system has been to give managers stock options: the
right to buy the company’s shares at a predetermined (strike) price at some point in the future,
usually within ten years of the grant date.
31. T F The risk of being acquired by another company is known as the takeover constraint.
32. T F Governance mechanisms help align the incentives between principals and agents, and monitor
and control agents.
Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics 15
33. T F Publicly traded companies in the United States are required to file quarterly and semi-annual
reports with the SEC that are prepared according to GAAP.
34. T F Business ethics are the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of
businesspeople.
35. T F Ethical Dilemmas are situations where there is no agreement over exactly what the accepted
principles of right and wrong are, or where none of the available alternatives seems ethically
acceptable.
36. T F Self-dealing occurs when managers find a way to feather their own nests with corporate
monies.
37. T F Information manipulation occurs when managers use their control over corporate data to
distort or hide information in order to enhance their own financial situation of the competitive
position of the firm.
38. T F In reality, there is a clear and distinct line between business ethics and personal ethics.
39. T F Environmental degradation occurs when a firm takes actions that directly or indirectly result
in pollution or other forms of environmental harm.
40. T F To foster ethical behavior, businesses need to build an organizational culture that places a
high value on ethical behavior,
16 Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics
41. Which of the following would not be considered a company stakeholder?
a) Employee
b) Customer
c) Supplier
d) Competitor
e) Shareholder
42. Internal stakeholders of a company include
a) the board of directors
b) customers.
c) unions
d) suppliers.
e) local communities.
43. External stakeholders of a company include
a) stockholders
b) the board of directors.
c) executive officers.
d) unions
e) employees.
44. Which of the following groups is not among the external claimants on a company?
a) Customers
b) General public
c) Unions
d) Governments
e) Stockholders
45. Typically, the third step in the stakeholder impact analysis is________________________.
a) Identify the resulting strategic challenges.
b) Identify the stakeholders.
c) Identify what claims stakeholders are likely to make on the organization.
d) Identify stakeholders’ interests and concerns.
e) None of the above
Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics 17
46. The ___________ of a company lay(s) out some desired future state.
a) vision
b) values
c) goals
d) mission statement
e) stakeholders
47. Which of the following is not a characteristic of well-constructed goals?
a) They are precise and measurable.
b) They are challenging but realistic
c) They specify a time period.
d) They are the result of a group decision process.
e) They address crucial issues.
48. The capital that stockholders provide to a company is seen as
a) play money.
b) risk capital
c) contractual capital.
d) guaranteed capital.
e) agency capital
49. The _________________ statement describes what it is that the company does.
a) vision
b) values
c) mission
d) cultural
e) major goals
50. _______________________ is the set of values, norms, and standards that control how employees
work to achieve an organization’s mission and goals
a) The vision
b) The mission
c) The organizational culture
d) The goals
e) The corporate governance
18 Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics
51. Equity capital for which there is no guarantee that stockholders will ever recoup their investment or
earn a decent return is called __________________________.
a) capital
b) investments
c) risk capital
d) stock options
e) none of the above
52. When managers pursue strategies that are not in the interests of stockholders, this is call
__________________.
a) empire building
b) agency problem
c) unauthorized acquisitions
d) strategic incoherence
e) a corporate scandal
53. Dennis Kozlowski was the CEO of _______________.
a) Red Hat
b) IBM
c) Tyco
d) Microsoft
e) Netscape
54. Which of the following is not a type of governance mechanism?
a) Business ethics
b) The takeover constraint
c) The board of directors
d) Stock-based compensation
e) Financial statements
55. The centerpiece of the corporate governance system in the United States and the United Kingdom
is___________________.
a) stock-based compensation
b) the takeover constraint
c) financial statements
d) cultural leadership
e) the board of directors
Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics 19
56. ___________________ are senior employees of the company, such as the CEO.
a) Stockholders
b) Outside directors
c) Inside directors
d) Business-level managers
e) None of the above
57. Why are managers thought to engage in empire building?
a) Companies that do not grow stagnate
b) The pursuit of growth represents the best way of maximizing the long-run profitability of the
company.
c) Growth is designed to increase market share, which in turn increases company profits.
d) Growth results in large company size, and large size satisfies managers’ needs for power, status,
income, and job security.
e) Stockholders would rather invest in large companies than in small ones.
58. The most common pay-for-performance system have been to give managers ________________.
a) semi-annual bonuses
b) annual pay increases
c) capital increases
d) stock options.
e) none of the above
59. Publicly trading companies in the United States are required to file quarterly and __________ reports
with the SEC that are prepared according to GAAP
a) semi-annual
b) monthly
c) annual
d) by-monthly
e) detailed
60. Which of the following is not a responsibility of the board of directors?
a) Monitor corporate strategy decisions and ensure that they are consistent with stockholder
interests
b) Develop the company’s competitive strategy
c) Hire, fire, and compensate the CEO
d) Apply sanctions on management when appropriate
e) Make sure the audited financial statements present a true picture of the company’s financial
situation
20 Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics
61. Members of the board of directors are supposed to be agents for
a) executive officers
b) employees.
c) stockholders
d) customers.
e) suppliers.
62. Which of the following statements about the board of directors is false?
a) Board members are elected by stockholders.
b) All directors are full-time employees of the company.
c) The board has the legal authority to hire, fire, and compensate the CEO.
d) The board can be held legally accountable for a company’s actions.
e) Outside directors help perform the monitoring function of the board.
63. Which of the following statements about the takeover constraint is false?
a) Limits the extent to which managers can pursue strategies.
b) Limits the actions that put the managers own interests above those of the stockholders.
c) Limits situations where there is no agreement about acceptable principles.
d) Managers could lose their independence and probably their jobs.
e) Limits the worst excesses of the agency problem.
64. Which of the following statements about the Sarbanes-Oxley bill is false?
a) It represents the biggest overhaul of accounting rules.
b) It represents the biggest overhaul of corporate governance since the 1930s
c) It set-up a new oversight board for accounting firms.
d) It requires CEOs and CFOs to endorse their company’s financial statements.
e) It outlines acceptable principles of right and wrong.
65. When are the interests of stockholders and senior managers likely to be most closely aligned?
a) When the board of directors is dominated by insiders
b) When managers receive most of their compensation in the form of a regular salary
c) When managers receive most of their compensation in the form of stock options
d) When stockholders are weak
e) When corporate raiders are unable to mount a takeover bid
Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics 21
66. Which one of the following about business ethics is true?
a) Business ethics are the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of business
people.
b) Business ethics are accepted principles of right or wrong that govern a person.
c) Business ethics govern the behavior of members of a profession.
d) Business ethics is selecting the correct alternative to solve a problem.
e) Business ethics govern the actions of an organization.
67. In the business arena the laws that govern product liability are called __________________.
a) contract laws
b) intellectual laws
c) tort laws.
d) securities laws
e) none of the above
68. A takeover constraint
a) uses the threat of a takeover to cause the CEO to fear the loss of his or her job.
b) prevents a company from being taken over.
c) limits the extent to which managers can pursue strategies that are inconsistent with shareholder
interest.
d) is reduced by corporate raiders.
e) is greatest when a company’s stock price is significantly higher than book value.
69. Business ethics is primarily concerned with
a) teaching people the difference between right and wrong.
b) replacing economics with social responsibility in the decision-making process
c) ensuring that employees are experts in laws related to business ethics.
d) ensuring managers weigh the ethical implications of their decisions.
e) increasing profits.
70. The most common examples of unethical behavior include all of the following except______________.
a) information manipulation
b) self-dealing
c) annual reports
d) anti-competitive behavior
e) the maintenance of substandard working conditions
22 Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics
71. Which of the following is not a potential cause of unethical behavior in organizations?
a) Failure to examine the ethical dimensions of a decision
b) An organizational culture that de-emphasizes ethical behavior
c) Dynamic competitive environment
d) Management pressure to meet organizational objectives by “cutting corners”
e) Weak ethical leadership
72. When managers of a firm seek to unilaterally rewrite the terms of a contract with suppliers, buyers,
or complement providers in a way that is more favorable to their firm they are engaging in
a) corruption
b) ethical behavior.
c) opportunistic exploitation.
d) philosophical ethics.
e) self-dealing.
73. When managers pay bribes to gain access to lucrative business contracts they are engaging in
a) opportunistic exploitation.
b) corruption
c) self-dealing.
d) information manipulation.
e) utilitarian ethics
74. To make sure that ethical issues are considered in business decisions
a) a company should use a bottom-up approach.
b) top managers should articulate and model ethical behaviors.
c) a company should have a no-layoff policy
d) a company should spend the majority of its operating budget to teach people what is legal and
not legal.
e) a company should hire and promote employees that do whatever it takes to achieve
organizational objectives.
75. ______________________ covers a range of actions aimed at harming actual or potential competitors,
most often by using monopoly power, thereby enhancing the long-run prospects of the firm.
a) Self-dealing
b) Information manipulation
c) Anti-competitive behavior
d) Opportunistic exploitation
e) Corruption
Chapter 2: Stakeholders, The Mission, Governance, and Business Ethics 23
76. Which of the following statements about opportunistic exploitation is true?
a) When managers find a way to feather their own nests with corporate monies.
b) When managers use their control over corporate data to distort or hide information.
c) When managers aim at harming actual or potential competitors.
d) Managers unilaterally rewrite the terms of a contract with suppliers, buyers, or complement
providers in a way that is more favorable to the firm.
e) None of the above
77. _______________ are individuals who are responsible for making sure that all employees are trained
to be ethically aware, that ethical considerations enter the business decision-making process, and that
the company code of ethics is adhered to.
a) CEOs
b) Corporate attorneys
c) The board of directors
d) Ethics officers
e) Stakeholders
78. Which of the following statements about moral courage is false?
a) It enables managers to walk away from a decision that is profitable.
b) It gives the employee the strength to say no to a superior that instructs her to pursue actions
that are unethical.
c) Moral courage is important to maximize long-term profits in order to maximize returns to
stockholders.
d) It gives employees the integrity to go public to the media and blow the whistle on persistent
unethical behavior in a company.
e) Moral courage does not come easily.
79. Identify and discuss the governance mechanisms that help align the incentives of stockholders and
managers and monitor and control management.
80. Discuss the best ways for managers to make sure that the ethical considerations are taken into
account when making business decisions.
81. Explain the principles of agency theory, including the issues it addresses. What are some effective
ways to deal with agency problems, as implied or stated by agency theory?
82. Business ethics are concerned with accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of
business people. Identify and discuss the common examples of unethical decisions that business
people have made.
83. Discuss the ethical decision-making process.