UARK MGMT 4243 Ethics and Corporate
Responsibility: Exam 1 Questions and
Answers
Ethics: Book Definition - -the principles, norms, and standards of conduct
governing an individual or group
-focuses on conduct
-employees should establish guidelines for work related conduct (customer
treatment, behavioral rules, conflicts, expectations)
- Ethical Behavior in Business - -behavior that is consistent with the
principles, norms, and standards of business practice that have been agreed
upon by society
- Process of Individual Ethical Decision-Making - -1) moral awareness
2) ethical judgment
3) ethical behavior
- Prescriptive Approach - -how you "should" make decisions
1. consequential
2. deontological
3. virtue ethics
- Descriptive Approach - -how we actually make decisions
- Ethical Dilemma - -a situation in which two or more important values are
in conflict
- Consequential - -focus on consequences
(utilitarianism)
advantages: practical, underlies business thinking
challenges: difficult to evaluate all consequences, rights of minorities can be
sacrificed
- Deontological - -advantages: (rights approach)
challenges: determining rule, principle, or right to follow, deciding which
takes precedence, reconciling deontological and consequentialist approaches
when they conflict
- Virtue Ethics - -(focus on integrity of moral actor rather than the act itself)
-need to identify your relevant moral community
, advantages: can rely upon community standards for guidance
challenges: limited agreement about community standards, many
communities haven't done this kind of thinking, community may be wrong
- Disclosure Rule - --how would I feel if my behavior appeared on the front
page of the New York Times?
- Influences on Ethical Awareness - --if peers agree
-if ethical language is used
-if potential for serious harm
- Pre-conventional - -before age 9, most children's morality focuses on self-
interest : They obey rules either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete
rewards. (self-centered)
- Conventional - -by early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others
and on upholding laws and social rules, simply because they are the laws
and rules (cares about what society thinks)
- Post-conventional - -with the abstract reasoning of formal operational
thought, people may reach a third moral level. Actions are judged "right"
because they flow from people's rights or from self-defined, basic ethical
principles (beyond what society thinks; more what you think is right)
- Moral Disengagement - -The tendency for some individuals to deactivate
their internal control system in order to feel okay about doing unethical
things
- Euphemistic Language - -sanitizing language to disengage reprehensible
conduct from morality
-twisting words to make it seem ethical
- Moral Justification - -treating conduct as if it has a moral purpose
- Advantageous Comparison - -individuals trivialize conduct by comparing it
to instances of conduct with greater immorality
"it's not as bad as what someone else is doing"
- Displacement of Responsibility - -puts blame on authority figure "my boss
told me to do it"
- Diffusion of Responsibility - -puts blame on the team
"it's not my responsibility, my team decided this"
Responsibility: Exam 1 Questions and
Answers
Ethics: Book Definition - -the principles, norms, and standards of conduct
governing an individual or group
-focuses on conduct
-employees should establish guidelines for work related conduct (customer
treatment, behavioral rules, conflicts, expectations)
- Ethical Behavior in Business - -behavior that is consistent with the
principles, norms, and standards of business practice that have been agreed
upon by society
- Process of Individual Ethical Decision-Making - -1) moral awareness
2) ethical judgment
3) ethical behavior
- Prescriptive Approach - -how you "should" make decisions
1. consequential
2. deontological
3. virtue ethics
- Descriptive Approach - -how we actually make decisions
- Ethical Dilemma - -a situation in which two or more important values are
in conflict
- Consequential - -focus on consequences
(utilitarianism)
advantages: practical, underlies business thinking
challenges: difficult to evaluate all consequences, rights of minorities can be
sacrificed
- Deontological - -advantages: (rights approach)
challenges: determining rule, principle, or right to follow, deciding which
takes precedence, reconciling deontological and consequentialist approaches
when they conflict
- Virtue Ethics - -(focus on integrity of moral actor rather than the act itself)
-need to identify your relevant moral community
, advantages: can rely upon community standards for guidance
challenges: limited agreement about community standards, many
communities haven't done this kind of thinking, community may be wrong
- Disclosure Rule - --how would I feel if my behavior appeared on the front
page of the New York Times?
- Influences on Ethical Awareness - --if peers agree
-if ethical language is used
-if potential for serious harm
- Pre-conventional - -before age 9, most children's morality focuses on self-
interest : They obey rules either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete
rewards. (self-centered)
- Conventional - -by early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others
and on upholding laws and social rules, simply because they are the laws
and rules (cares about what society thinks)
- Post-conventional - -with the abstract reasoning of formal operational
thought, people may reach a third moral level. Actions are judged "right"
because they flow from people's rights or from self-defined, basic ethical
principles (beyond what society thinks; more what you think is right)
- Moral Disengagement - -The tendency for some individuals to deactivate
their internal control system in order to feel okay about doing unethical
things
- Euphemistic Language - -sanitizing language to disengage reprehensible
conduct from morality
-twisting words to make it seem ethical
- Moral Justification - -treating conduct as if it has a moral purpose
- Advantageous Comparison - -individuals trivialize conduct by comparing it
to instances of conduct with greater immorality
"it's not as bad as what someone else is doing"
- Displacement of Responsibility - -puts blame on authority figure "my boss
told me to do it"
- Diffusion of Responsibility - -puts blame on the team
"it's not my responsibility, my team decided this"
