3054-Chapter 2

Question 1

What is ethics about?

Answer 1

Less about the one and only right thing to do but rather the better thing to do.

Question 2

What is ethics?

Answer 2

It is the study and practice of decisions about what is good or right.

Question 3

Business ethics is the application of ethics to the special problems and opportunities experienced by businesspeople. T/F

Answer 3

T

Question 4

What is an ethical dilemma?

Answer 4

It is a problem about what a firm should do when there is no clear right decision.

Question 5

What is the social responsibility of business?

Answer 5

It consists of the expectations that the community imposes on firms doing business inside its borders.

Question 6

What are the requirements for commercial speech?

Answer 6

1) whether the expression is an advertisement 2) whether it refers to a specific product 3) whether the speaker has an economic motivation for speaking

Question 7

What is the WPH process of ethical decision making?

Answer 7

W- Who (Stakeholders) P- Purpose (Values) H- How (Guidelines)

Question 8

Who are stakeholders?

Answer 8

1) Owners or shareholders
2) Employees
3) Customers
4) Management
5) General Community
6) Future Generations

Question 9

What are values?

Answer 9

They are positive abstractions that capture our sense of what is good or desirable.

Question 10

What is the premise of the universalization test?

Answer 10

Consider what the world would be like if our decision were copied by everyone else.

Question 11

What is ethical relativism?

Answer 11

It is a theory of ethics that denies the existence of objective moral standards. Instead individuals must evaluate actions on the basis of what they feel is best for themselves.

Question 12

If morality is relative what is the conclusion?

Answer 12

That no one can criticize the behavior of another as immoral. It promotes tolerance.

Question 13

What is situational ethics?

Answer 13

It requires evaluation of the morality of an action by imagining ourselves in the position of the person facing the ethical dilemma.

Question 14

What is absolutism?

Answer 14

It requires the use of a set of rules to guide the ethical decision making process.

Question 15

What is ethical fundamentalism?

Answer 15

Absolutism

Question 16

What is the downfall of ethical relativism?

Answer 16

No judgements can be made about any behavior. Any behavior can be deemed ethical no matter how heinous if the perpetrator believed it was in their best interest

Question 17

What is the downfall of situational ethics?

Answer 17

It does not tell us how to evaluate that person’s actions.

Question 18

What is the downfall of absolutism?

Answer 18

There can be disagreement about which set of rules to follow. Unquestioning adherence to the rules may inappropriate in some circumstances like killing in self-defense.

Question 19

What is consequentialism?

Answer 19

It is an approach to ethical dilemmas that require inquiry into the consequences to relevant people.

Question 20

How does utilitarianism guide managers to take actions?

Answer 20

It urges managers to take actions that provide the greatest pleasure after having subtracted the pain or harm associated with the action in question.

Question 21

What are the two branches of utilitarianism?

Answer 21

Act and rule

Question 22

What is act utilitarianism?

Answer 22

It tells business managers to examine all the potential actions and choose the action that yields the greatest pleasure over pain.

Question 23

What is rule utilitarianism?

Answer 23

Rule utilitarianism holds that general rules that on balance produce the greatest amount pleasure for all involved should be established and followed in each situation.

Question 24

Deontology is an alternative theoretical approach to consequentialism. T/F

Answer 24

T

Question 25

What is deontology?

Answer 25

It consists of acting on the basis of the recognition that certain actions are right or wrong regardless of their consequences.
The duties or obligations we owe one another as humans are much more ethically significant than are measurements of the impacts of business decisions

Question 26

What is the categorical imperative?

Answer 26

An action is moral only if it would be consistent for everyone in society to act in the same way. (Kant)

Question 27

What is the principle of rights?

Answer 27

It asserts that whether a business decision is ethical depends on how the decision affects the rights of all involved.

Question 28

What is the downfall of deontology?

Answer 28

It is difficult to agree on which duties we owe to one another and which are more important when they conflict.

Question 29

What is the downfall of consequentialism?

Answer 29

It is very difficult to measure consequences in terms of actual impact and to balance the few versus the many in any situation.

Question 30

What virtues or positive character traits does virtue ethics encourage as a basis for morality?

Answer 30

courage
justice
truthfulness

Question 31

What is the downfall of virtue ethics?

Answer 31

What is the “good life”?

Question 32

What is the ethics of care?

Answer 32

Ethics of care holds that the right course of action is the option most consistent with the building and maintaining of human relationships.

Question 33

What is the ethics-of-care theory?

Answer 33

That when a caregiver meets the needs of the cared-for, the caregiver is actually helping meet the needs of all the individuals who fall within the cared-for’s web of care