Chapter 9 - True/False - Questions
1 According to Milton Friedman, corporations should never be involved in
social issues.
2 Simon, Powers and Gunnemann suggest that affirmative duties should not
be included in the “moral minimum”.
3 The third viewpoint of corporate social responsibility obliges corporations
to take on maximal duties (duties of beneficence) of corporate social
responsibility – a corporation’s responsibilities include shaping society and
solving social problems caused wholly or in part by the corporation.
4 The maximal view among others is based on an understanding that
corporate citizenship, like individual citizenship, involves civic duties and
responsibilities, duties of gratitude for the benefits corporations receive
from society and the responsibility to positively contribute to society.
5 Senior level management involvement in the formulation phase is critical
for the acceptance of written standards throughout an organisation.
6 Ethical cultures are seen as vehicles for enabling and producing shared
understandings among organisational members about proper behaviour.
7 Lack of opportunity to discuss ethics issues in the workplace can lead to
“moral stress”.
8 There is agreement that ethics is hard to measure and that any evaluation
of a corporate ethics programme must go beyond cost accounting or
savings from fewer lawsuits.
9 While recognising that ethics programmes might influence other
outcomes, they posit that the outcomes they have identified are the most
salient in the context of most corporate ethics programmes.
The seven outcomes are:
low levels of observed unethical behaviour
high levels of employee awareness of ethical issues that arise in the
workplace
high levels of willingness to seek ethics advice within the company
high levels of willingness and sense of comfort about delivering bad news
to superiors
high levels of reporting ethics violations to management
high levels of effective ethical decision making that is based on a
company’s ethics programme
high levels of employee commitment to the organisation because of its
values
1
, 10 Written standards of ethical business conduct must be aligned with an
enterprise’s organisational structures, culture and leadership.
11 Corporate ethics programs are best left solely to legal departments.
12 The King II Report on corporate governance recommends that the chair of
the board of directors and the CEO should be one and the same person.
13 Corporate culture can only be ethical if it seeks to make autonomy a
fundamental feature.
14 Read the list below:
Recklessness
Ruthlessness
Single-mindedness
Irrational behaviour
The abovementioned are aspects of leadership that can work against
good governance.
15 Good governance is also important because it enables predictability,
transparency, participation and accountability.
16 Sufficient internal control systems do not have an influence on good
governance.
17 The eradication of poverty, disease, environmental pollution and
corruption have little to do with corporate citizenship and more to do with
civic and private duties of individuals.
18 The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX Act) of 2002 regulates corporate
governance in South Africa.
19 The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College in the U.S.A. is
involved in launching a new assessment tool (The Corporate Citizenship
Assessment Tool™) that is intended to help enterprises manage corporate
citizenship practices in order to better integrate corporate citizenship
efforts into company culture and strategic planning. The assessment tool
is based on a series of questions relating to three dimensions of corporate
citizenship, namely community, products and services and operations.
20 The traditional HR activities of recruitment and selection, training and
development, and performance management and remuneration, have a
critical role to play in the development and maintenance of good corporate
governance.
2
1 According to Milton Friedman, corporations should never be involved in
social issues.
2 Simon, Powers and Gunnemann suggest that affirmative duties should not
be included in the “moral minimum”.
3 The third viewpoint of corporate social responsibility obliges corporations
to take on maximal duties (duties of beneficence) of corporate social
responsibility – a corporation’s responsibilities include shaping society and
solving social problems caused wholly or in part by the corporation.
4 The maximal view among others is based on an understanding that
corporate citizenship, like individual citizenship, involves civic duties and
responsibilities, duties of gratitude for the benefits corporations receive
from society and the responsibility to positively contribute to society.
5 Senior level management involvement in the formulation phase is critical
for the acceptance of written standards throughout an organisation.
6 Ethical cultures are seen as vehicles for enabling and producing shared
understandings among organisational members about proper behaviour.
7 Lack of opportunity to discuss ethics issues in the workplace can lead to
“moral stress”.
8 There is agreement that ethics is hard to measure and that any evaluation
of a corporate ethics programme must go beyond cost accounting or
savings from fewer lawsuits.
9 While recognising that ethics programmes might influence other
outcomes, they posit that the outcomes they have identified are the most
salient in the context of most corporate ethics programmes.
The seven outcomes are:
low levels of observed unethical behaviour
high levels of employee awareness of ethical issues that arise in the
workplace
high levels of willingness to seek ethics advice within the company
high levels of willingness and sense of comfort about delivering bad news
to superiors
high levels of reporting ethics violations to management
high levels of effective ethical decision making that is based on a
company’s ethics programme
high levels of employee commitment to the organisation because of its
values
1
, 10 Written standards of ethical business conduct must be aligned with an
enterprise’s organisational structures, culture and leadership.
11 Corporate ethics programs are best left solely to legal departments.
12 The King II Report on corporate governance recommends that the chair of
the board of directors and the CEO should be one and the same person.
13 Corporate culture can only be ethical if it seeks to make autonomy a
fundamental feature.
14 Read the list below:
Recklessness
Ruthlessness
Single-mindedness
Irrational behaviour
The abovementioned are aspects of leadership that can work against
good governance.
15 Good governance is also important because it enables predictability,
transparency, participation and accountability.
16 Sufficient internal control systems do not have an influence on good
governance.
17 The eradication of poverty, disease, environmental pollution and
corruption have little to do with corporate citizenship and more to do with
civic and private duties of individuals.
18 The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX Act) of 2002 regulates corporate
governance in South Africa.
19 The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College in the U.S.A. is
involved in launching a new assessment tool (The Corporate Citizenship
Assessment Tool™) that is intended to help enterprises manage corporate
citizenship practices in order to better integrate corporate citizenship
efforts into company culture and strategic planning. The assessment tool
is based on a series of questions relating to three dimensions of corporate
citizenship, namely community, products and services and operations.
20 The traditional HR activities of recruitment and selection, training and
development, and performance management and remuneration, have a
critical role to play in the development and maintenance of good corporate
governance.
2
