Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Chapter 4 QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Chapter Question 1: What are the six steps of an ethics job-screening process? What are
the strengths and weaknesses of each step?
1. ETHICS SCREEN NOTICE
• Inform potential job applicants about the organization’s ethics job screen.
2. LEGAL GROUND RULES
• Gather and use information in a way that does not discriminate against job
3. BEHAVIOR INFORMATION
• Review behavioral information from resumes, reference checks, background
4. PERSONALITY TRAITS AND RELATED CHARACTERISTICS
• Obtain measures for personality traits and related characteristics such as
5. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
• Interview job finalists about their responses to ethical dilemmas experienced at
6. POST-INTERVIEW TESTS
• Where appropriate, conduct drug and polygraph tests.
Chapter Question 2: How does including an ethics screen notice in job descriptions affect
the types of candidates that apply?
• ATTRACTION-SELECTION-ATTRITION CYCLE (ASA)
o Industrial psychologist Benjamin Schneider’s Attraction-Selection-Attrition
cycle (ASA) highlights how individuals are attracted to organizations that reflect
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
their values and goals, organizations select applicants with personal attributes that
Chapter Question 3: What are disparate impacts and how can you determine if an
organization’s job-screening process results in disparate impacts?
• In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson pressured Congress to pass the far-reaching Civil
Rights Act. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits businesses from
• An organization’s gender, racial, and ethnic employee profile should reflect the
gender, racial, and ethnic profile of people living in the geographical region qualified
to perform the job task.
• A job selection rule that does not explicitly discriminate against a protected class, but
• The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) recommends applying a
four-fifths rule to determine whether an apparently nondiscriminatory selection
process may result in disparate impacts.
o The method consists of determining the acceptance rate for two groups of job
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Chapter Question 4: What are four sources of behavioral information about a job
candidate’s ethics? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each information source?
Type
Strengths
Concerns
Résumés
Documents previous work experience and
Some résumés contain false
Reference
Checks
References have personal experience
working with the job applicant.
References are legally protected from a
defamation lawsuit if the conveyed
information is truthful.
available on Internet.
inaccurate.
Many listed references have a
favorable bias toward job
applicant.
Some references are unwilling
to share negative information
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Integrity Tests
Documents applicant’s previous illegal
actions and opinions about ethics issues.
Test takers can easily guess at
the socially desired answer.
Personality
Tests
Scores for conscientiousness and
organizational citizenship behavior are
strongly associated with both ethical
behavior and employee performance.
Test takers can easily guess at
the socially desired answer.
Administering tests that are not
performance related can lead to
lawsuits.
Chapter Question 5: Which of the Big Five personality factors are the most relevant for
understanding a job candidate’s ethics?
Conscientiousness
Liars can provide false
than conscientious applicants.
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
BIG FIVE PERSONALITY MODEL
• Personality theorists and researchers have reached a general consensus on a Big Five
Model consisting of five broad dimensions or factors that describe human personality:
1. Extraversion (talkative, assertive, energetic, ambitious)
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
• Individuals who behave ethically are also responsible, dependable, and hardworking.
This is particularly noteworthy because conscientiousness is also a strong predictor of
job performance.
Chapter Question 6: What types of questions would you ask job candidates during an
interview to understand their ethics?
• Employers should question job applicants about how they responded to previous
ethical dilemmas.
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
PREVIOUS ETHICAL DILEMMAS
• Asking job candidates to describe how they managed an ethical dilemma at a
• If the individual has not experienced any ethical dilemmas, then transform the issue
into a hypothetical situation: “Would you accept a free lunch from a client wanting to
Chapter Question 7: Under what conditions can a job candidate be given a drug and
polygraph test?
• After interviewing the finalists, some organizations make the job offer contingent on
passing a drug test and polygraph test. When appropriate, employers can conduct
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
• Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 prohibits most companies from using
polygraph testing as a preemployment tool.
o The prohibition does not apply to federal, state, and local governments.
CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS FOR “WHAT WOULD YOU DO?” OPENING DILEMMA
Chapter 4: A Second Chance
Summary
• You work as an assistant manager at an accounting firm and your responsibilities include
hiring high-quality students from your alma mater.
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
• A month later, you meet Tim again at your alma mater event and he asks for a second
chance. Tim apologizes for letting you down, blames drinking problem associated with
marital issues, and claims that was not his normal behavior.
• What would you do?
Table 6.3 Systematic Rational Ethical Decision-Making Process
1. Who are all the people affected by the action?
2. What option benefits me the most? (egoism)
Don’t give Tim another chance (Option B): This option makes your life least
3. What option does my social group support? (social group relativism)
4. What option is legal? (cultural relativism)
5. What option is the greatest good for the greatest number of people affected?
(utilitarianism)
6. What option is based on truthfulness and respect/integrity toward each stakeholder?
Instructor Resource
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Mixed. Offering Tim another chance (Option A) demonstrates consideration and
7. What option would a virtuous person do? (virtue ethics)
Mixed. Offering Tim another chance (Option A) shows compassion, generosity, and
Option
Option Strengths Based on
Application of Ethical Theories
A: Give Tim a
second chance and
monitor him
closely.
This option shows compassion,
forgiveness, and generosity
towards Tim.
C: Other
Option Chosen
B: Don’t give Tim another chance.
Chosen Because
This choice is based on egoism, social group relativism, cultural
relativism, utilitarianism and partly on deontology and virtue ethics. By
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
other talents waiting to be hired (social group relativism). You are
allowed to prohibit on-the-job drinking and dismiss employees who are
under the influence (cultural relativism). Coworkers and partners will be
relieved that they may not go through the same bad experience and that
CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS FOR UP FOR DEBATE
Up for Debate: Facebook Privacy
As many employers spend as much or more time at work than with their families, when making a
hiring decision they seek clues to an applicant’s character. Some employers ask job applicants to
provide them access to their Facebook pages, so they can get a better understanding of the
applicant’s character. Others argue that doing so violates an applicant’s right to privacy.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Should job recruiters look at a potential employee’s personal Facebook postings?
Up for Debate: Facebook Privacy—Should job recruiters look at a potential employee’s
personal Facebook postings?
Instructor Resource
Collins, Business Ethics 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
about job candidates (utilitarianism,
deontology).
• An individual’s extensive drug use,
heavy drinking, sexually offensive
• It can give greater insight into an
applicant’s abilities (social group
relativism, deontology, virtue ethics).
• It could reveal protected information
(such as ethnicity, upcoming
pregnancy, religious affiliation,
political affiliations) which can lead to