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Student name:__________
1) Discuss how companies such as Exxon, Kodak, and IBM helped improve human rights in
South Africa.
2) Should a multinational feel free to pollute in a developing nation?
3) In your opinion, are bribes ever acceptable? Why or why not?
4) Discuss the notion of social responsibility. What does it mean for corporations?
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5) What are ethical dilemmas? Why do they exist?
6) Why are expatriate managers at a greater risk of violating their personal code of ethics?
7) Explain the Friedman doctrine. Who developed the philosophy? How well does this
approach hold up ethically?
8) Discuss the cultural relativism approach to business ethics. What is the connection
between this approach and the phrase “When in Rome do as the Romans do”? How well does
this approach hold up ethically?
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9) Discuss the naive immoralist’s approach to business ethics. What are the criticisms of this
approach?
10) Discuss the utilitarian approach to business ethics. When was this approach developed?
What are its drawbacks?
11) What are the ways in which international business and its managers can ensure that
ethical issues are considered in business decisions?
12) Describe the five-step process that businesses can use to think through ethical problems.
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13) Why do organizations appoint an ethics officer?
14) How can companies strengthen the moral courage of employees?
15) Explain the concept of moral imagination as it relates to a company’s stakeholders.
16) The _____ occurs when a resource held in common by all, but owned by no one, is
overused by individuals, resulting in its degradation.
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A) tragedy of the commons
B) moral ignorance
C) noblesse oblige
D) veil of ignorance
17) The _____ outlawed the paying of bribes to foreign government officials to gain
business.
A) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials
B) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
C) Convention on International Business Transactions
D) Universal Declaration of Human Rights
18) Facilitating payments are also known as
A) grease monkeying.
B) pocket lining.
C) speed money or grease payments.
D) sliding.
19) Which of the following was designed to allow GM to operate ethically in South Africa as
long as the company did not obey the apartheid laws in its own South African operations?
A) Sullivan principles
B) the righteous moral system
C) noblesse oblige
D) cultural relativism
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20) The _____ obliges member states to make the bribery of foreign public officials a
criminal offense and excludes facilitating payments made to expedite routine government action
from the convention.
A) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials
B) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
C) Convention on International Business Transactions
D) Universal Declaration of Human Rights
21) Identify the incorrect statement about environmental regulations.
A) Environmental regulations are often lacking in developing nations.
B) Environmental regulations are similar across developed and developing nations.
C) Developed nations have substantial regulations governing the emission of pollutants,
the dumping of toxic chemicals, and so on.
D) Inferior environmental regulations in host nations, as compared to the home nation,
can lead to ethical issues.
22) The _____ occurs when a resource that is shared by all, but owned by no one, is overused
by individuals, resulting in its degradation.
A) Friedman effect
B) noblesse oblige
C) inequity aversion
D) tragedy of the commons
23) An international U.S.-based company sets up a production unit in a developing country
with poor environmental regulations. This contributes to the
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A) noblesse oblige situation.
B) inequity aversion.
C) global tragedy of the commons.
D) Friedman effect.
24) Which of the following observations about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is true?
A) The act outlawed the paying of bribes to foreign government officials to gain
business.
B) There is enough evidence that it put U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage.
C) The act originally allowed for “facilitating payments.”
D) The Nike case was the impetus for the 1977 passage of this act.
25) Facilitating payments are
A) a direct violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
B) permitted so long as they are designed only to gain exclusive preferential treatment.
C) used to secure contracts that would otherwise not be secured.
D) permitted under the amended Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
26) The Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International
Business Transactions excludes
A) bribes made to secure contracts that would otherwise not be secured.
B) grease payments to gain exclusive preferential treatment.
C) facilitating payments made to expedite routine government action.
D) payments to government officials for special privileges.
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27) The idea that businesspeople should consider the social consequences of economic
actions when making business decisions and that there should be a presumption in favor of
decisions that have both good economic and social consequences is known as
A) moral relativism.
B) noblesse oblige.
C) ethical dilemma.
D) social responsibility.
28) Which of the following, in a business setting, is taken to mean benevolent behavior that is
the responsibility of successful enterprises?
A) Sullivan’s principles
B) ethical dilemma
C) tragedy of the commons
D) noblesse oblige
29) BP, one of the world’s largest oil companies, has made it part of the company policy to
undertake “social investments” in the countries where it does business. There was no economic
reason for BP to make this social investment, but the company believes it is morally obligated to
give something back to the societies that have made its success possible. BP’s actions are an
example of
A) cultural relativism.
B) the Friedman doctrine.
C) noblesse oblige.
D) the tragedy of the commons.
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30) _____ are the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of
businesspeople.
A) Sustainable strategies
B) Business ethics
C) Moral worth of actions
D) Ethical strategies
31) In the international business setting, one of the most common ethical issues involves
A) hiring practices.
B) government deregulation.
C) the moral obligation of multinational corporations.
D) facilitating payments.
32) Ethical dilemmas exist because many real-world decisions involve
A) first-, second-, and third-order consequences that are hard to quantify.
B) people from different cultures.
C) employers and employees.
D) people from different multinational firms.
33) Josiah was managing a factory in India, and had a decision to make. The factory used
child labor, which he disapproved of, but he knew the families of these children might starve
without their income. This situation, in which none of the available alternatives seems morally
acceptable, is called
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A) an ethical dilemma.
B) noblesse oblige.
C) the tragedy of the commons.
D) the free rider problem.
34) Which of the following is a reason managers working abroad in multinational firms may
behave in a manner that is unethical?
A) psychological, cultural, and geographical distances of a foreign subsidiary from the
home office
B) pressure from an ethical leader
C) confusion between personal ethics and business ethics
D) incorporating ethical issues into strategic and operational decision making
35) Expatriate managers may experience more than the usual degree of pressure to violate
their personal ethics because of which of the following?
A) They are surrounded by their ordinary social context and supporting culture.
B) They are psychologically and geographically closer to the parent company.
C) They may be based in a culture that does not place the same value on ethical norms
important in the manager’s home country.
D) They may be surrounded by local employees who have more rigorous ethical
standards.
36) Which of the following refers to the values and norms that the employees of an
organization share?
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A) vision statement
B) cultural relativism
C) organization culture
D) power orientation
37) Grady works at a fast food restaurant. One day he noticed a co-worker giving free food to
a friend. He was unsure about what to do. Grady most likely decided to follow the example of
A) other employees.
B) his supervisor.
C) his family.
D) government leaders.
38) _____ approaches to business ethics are raised by business ethics scholars primarily to
demonstrate that they offer inappropriate ethical decision making in a multinational enterprise.
A) Cultural relativism
B) The righteous moralist
C) Straw man
D) The naive immoralist
39) _____ arguments suggest that improving working conditions beyond the level required
by the law and necessary to maximize employee productivity will reduce profits and are
therefore not appropriate.
A) Rawls’
B) Kantian
C) Sullivan’s
D) Friedman’s
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40) According to the _____ point of view, a firm should adopt the ethics of the culture in
which it is operating.
A) cultural relativism
B) righteous moralist
C) naive immoralist
D) utilitarian approach
41) According to the _____, even if a manager of a multinational sees that firms from other
nations are not following ethical norms in a host nation, that manager should maintain the
standards of the company’s home country.
A) cultural relativist
B) righteous moralist
C) utilitarian
D) naive immoralist
42) A British firm that sets up production units in China is accused of releasing untreated
chemical waste into water bodies. The manager of the firm defends the firm stating that, factories
in China set up by French and American firms also release untreated chemical waste into water
bodies. What approach to business ethics is the manager using?
A) righteous moralist
B) utilitarian
C) naive immoralist
D) cultural relativist
43) Business ethics that either deny the value of business ethics or apply the concept in a very
unsatisfactory way are termed
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A) straw man.
B) the Sullivan principles.
C) just distribution.
D) rights theories.
44) The _____ approaches to ethics hold that the moral worth of actions or practices is
determined by their consequences.
A) naive immoralist
B) cultural relativist
C) righteous moralist
D) utilitarian
45) _____ recognize that human beings have fundamental rights and privileges that transcend
national boundaries and cultures.
A) Rights theories
B) Utilitarians
C) Cultural relativists
D) Kantian ethics
46) According to _____, the social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as
the company stays within the rules of law.
A) the naive immoralist
B) the righteous moralist
C) cultural relativism
D) the Friedman doctrine
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47) According to the Friedman doctrine,
A) ethics are nothing more than the reflection of culture.
B) a multinational’s home-country standards of ethics are inappropriate to follow in
foreign countries.
C) businesses should not undertake social expenditures beyond those mandated by the
law and required for the efficient running of a business.
D) if a manager of a multinational sees that firms from other nations are not following
environmental legislation in a host nation, that manager should not either.
48) Miranda is a cultural relativist, which means she likely believes
A) a firm should adopt the ethics of the culture in which it is operating.
B) the only social responsibility of a firm is to increase profits.
C) a firm’s ethical policies should remain the same in all cultures.
D) a multinational should follow its home-country cultural practices in all the host
countries where it has operations.
49) Child labor is permitted and widely employed in Country X. A multinational company
entering Country X decides to employ minors in its subsidiary, even though it is against the
multinational’s home-country ethics. Which of the following approaches to business ethics
would justify the actions of the multinational company?
A) righteous moralist
B) cultural relativism
C) the justice theory
D) the rights theory
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50) A multinational company is accused of paying bribes to the government of a host country
to obtain permission to build a production factory. The public relations manager of the company
defends the company’s actions as being ethically sound; he states that in the host country, paying
bribes to government officials is the accepted norm and is in keeping with the social practices in
the host country. The public relations manager is using which of the following philosophical
doctrines to defend the actions of the company?
A) the Friedman doctrine
B) righteous moralist
C) noblesse oblige
D) cultural relativism
51) In its extreme viewpoint, _____ suggests that if a culture supports slavery, it is all right to
use slave labor in the country.
A) the Friedman doctrine
B) noblesse oblige
C) righteous moralist
D) cultural relativism
52) The righteous moralist suggests that
A) ethics are nothing more than the reflection of culture.
B) a multinational’s home-country standards of ethics are the appropriate ones for
companies to follow in foreign countries.
C) the social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company
stays within the rules of law.
D) if a manager of a multinational sees that firms from other nations are not following
ethical norms in a host nation, that manager should not either.
53) According to the naive immoralist,
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A) a multinational’s home-country standards of ethics are the appropriate ones for
companies to follow in foreign countries.
B) the social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company
stays within the rules of law.
C) ethics are nothing more than the reflection of a culture.
D) if firms in a host nation do not follow ethical norms then the manager of a
multinational should not follow ethical norms there either.
54) An American manager in Colombia routinely pays off the local drug lord to guarantee
that his plant will not be bombed and that none of his employees will be kidnapped. The manager
argues that such payments are ethically defensible because everyone is doing it. The manager’s
argument exemplifies which of the following ethical approaches?
A) naive immoralist
B) Kantian ethics
C) righteous moralist
D) noblesse oblige
55) The utilitarian approach to business ethics suggests that
A) people should be treated as ends and never purely as means to the ends of others.
B) the moral worth of actions or practices is determined by their consequences.
C) people have dignity and need to be treated as such.
D) human beings have fundamental rights and privileges that transcend national
cultures.
56) Mahatma Gandhi felt the best decisions are those that produce the greatest good for the
greatest number of people.This demonstrates the ________ perspective.
A) naive immoralist
B) Friedman doctrine
C) Kantian ethics
D) utilitarian
57) The products of Carmen Stores, an international sports apparel chain, are manufactured in
sweatshop factories in China. According to the company president, using sweatshop labor offers
a means of livelihood to children and young adults, as well as supplies good quality apparel to
customers at a lower cost. She asserts that the actions of the company are justified because it
results in the benefit of the maximum number of people. The company president’s argument is
based on which of the following ethical viewpoints?
A) the righteous moralist
B) the Friedman doctrine
C) Kantian approach to business ethics
D) utilitarian approach to business ethics
58) The Kantian approach to ethics suggests that
A) human beings have fundamental rights and privileges that transcend national
boundaries.
B) the moral worth of actions or practices is determined by their consequences.
C) people should be treated as ends and never purely as means to the ends of others.
D) ethics are nothing more than the reflection of culture.
59) Identify the correct statement about the rights theories.