Exam I Flashcards
What are the three components of the Smeal Honor Code?
- We will aspire to high ethical standards
- we will hold each other accountable
- we will not engage in any improper academic or professional actions
Today and tomorrow
What was the important takeaway from the spiderman clip shown in class?
“With great power comes great responsibility”
Ethics is in 4 major playing fields, what are they?
PONG Personal Organizational National Global
We talked about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, what was the main takeaway?
You need to know that you can personally be responsible for the actions in the business world. How you run yourself in uniform is just as important as when you are a civilian
Why is Adam Smith important to Business Ethics?
Economist but also wrote “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” before his publishing of “The Wealth of Nations”
He talked about how free markets would work if everyone acted ethically and responsibly instead of greedily looking out for themselves
What information would you seek out if looking for Business Ethics Trends on the Fortune 1000?
The Ethics Resource Centers national business ethics survey - comes out every 2 years
ERC Data shows misconduct in the workplace….
has decreased since 2011 but 60% of misconduct come from management
Change the mindset of Dilbert video - “Management doesn’t have ethics training!!”
What were the 4 main statistics Ron John highlighted from the Business Resource Center?
Observed misconduct - down (good)
Reporting misconduct - down (bad)
Perceived pressure to commit misconduct - down (good)
Received retaliation from reporting misconduct - down (good)
Ron John showed us a graph from the Business Resource Center on Perceived Pressure to Commit Misconduct, what did is show?
Perceived pressure has gone down from 28% to 9% from 1994-2013
There was a spike during the financial crisis that has since decreased
According to the ERC what are the 5 most frequent observed types of misconduct?
- Abusive behavior (18%)
- Lying to employees (17%)
- Discrimination (12%)
- Internet misuse (12%)
- Conflict of interest (12%)
Ron John asked the question “Is there such a thing as right and wrong?” What was the big takeaway?
There are underlying principles we as humans can all see as right and wrong
DONT BE WISHY WASHY ON ETHICS - Lead with your values and never say “it depends”
Cultural Relativism
My values will change depending on where I am or where I live
Ethical Imperialism
My values will stick with me at all ways and at all times no matter where I am or who I am with
The Ethics definition we were given has 3 parts - what are they?
- Set of Principles
- Right Conduct
- Underlying Values
“A set of principles of right conduct based on underlying values”
What are the PSU values?
P - penn state community R - responsibility R - respect I - integrity D - discovery E - excellence
What is the textbook definition of business ethics?
Behavior, actions, policies, and practices that take place within a business context that are concerned with morality and fairness
What is the individual ethical decision making process look like?
- Ethical awareness
- Ethical judgement
- Ethical behavior
We talked about ethics in college, what was the main takeaway?
We want to act ethically but also want to please other people
You need to have humility because the minute you say “I’ve got this” is the minute you have lost. You need to have an underlying base of ethics so when factors change you can make a solid decision
Ron John highlighted three characteristic of Millennials in the workplace, what are they?
- we report just as much
- we are more likely to experience retaliation
- we report to informal channels more than formal channels
What was the main takeaway from our discussion on moral disengagement in college?
70% of students say they have cheated - we know it’s wrong but it has become a norm… meaning we are morally disengaged when it comes to certain things like cheating
What are the three “worlds” of ethics?
Corporate
Personal
College
What is the most basic assumption we can make when talking about ethics?
Most people want to behave ethically in every situation but sometimes won’t due to outside influences
What is the main leadership competency taught in BA342?
Ethical decision making
What does EAP mean to Ron John?
Excellent performance
Academic Integrity
Professional Behavior
We discussed a case in which an employee is doing drugs on the job, what does Ron John say you should do?
Go to HR!! Do not confront the situation yourself
What is the takeaway from the section about the Ethics environment?
There’s a corporate and media dilemma that breeds unethical behavior
Who were the 3 key players in the Enron scandal of 2001?
Andy Fastow
Ken Lay
Jeff Skilling
What was the big issues in the Enron case?
Enron was perceived as a company held to high ethical standards but none of the higher ups were living by the company’s code of ethics
Always wanted to report high earnings at any cost, manipulated the whole energy market in California; grandma dying of heat stroke because energy cost too much
Who was the whistle blower in the Enron case and what other company went down because her spilling the secret?
Sharron Watkins
Arthur Anderson was part of the “Big 5” but was destroyed because they were the ones auditing Enron’s books
Ron John showed us the Blue Band hype video for 2015, what was the main takeaway?
“Values aren’t just words written on a page”
YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY LIVE BY THEM PEOPLE
What was the example given in class for the Environment of Ethics?
Martha Stewart insider trading with CEO friend
The Marist College Institute for public opinion shared what interesting information?
We would say we can be ethical in the workplace but we usually aren’t.
It also said we do not act the same ethically at work as we do at home
Media and Ethics
“If it bleeds, it leads.”
news, movies, tv, social media, etc. cling to the negative stories so it is all we hear about giving business a bad ethical rep
77% of TV shows involving business plots were….
Negative!
We are media’s favorite villain
What are the three approaches to ethical decision making?
- Conventional Approach - societal norm
- Principles Approach - moral guidelines
- Ethical Tests Approach - applied guidelines
Explain the conventional approach to ethical decision making
surveying society to see what the common norm is and that then becomes ethical
ex. cheating in school - 70% say they do
The focus of descriptive ethics is ____________.
learning what is occurring in the realm of moral behaviors
What were the good ways J&J handled the Tylenol incident?
They took responsibility early
They rebuilt their brand through installing safety measures
They changed their corporate culture
Showed leadership by pulling that much product off the shelves - first major recall
The J&J Credo has a list of people who are most important to their business, what are they? (4)
- customers
- employees
- communities
- stockholders
What are the two moral philosophy categories and what do they mean?
Teleological - look at consequences and results
Deontological - looks at your duties to society
The Trolley problem illustrated what concept to us?
Principle Approach to decision making - morals??
Teleological and deontological
What is the most important thing to remember about our talk on the sexual harassment case?
You are 100% involved as soon as someone tells you about a situation
You now need to take action!!
What is the Golden Rule?
do unto others as you would have them do unto you -JESUS
What is the most important ethical test?
Public disclosure - if everything was exposed right here, right now, would it bring bad attention??
The Big Four - Ethical test
- Greed
- Speed
- Laziness
- Haziness
What does the ACFE stand for?
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
What are the 3 sides to the ACFE Fraud Triangle?
- Opportunity
- Rationalization
- Motivation
Which part of the Fraud Triangle CAN we control?
Opportunity - not giving people a reason to have to rationalize or motivate themselves to commit fraud
Summarize the Fraud case we examined and link it to the fraud triangle
City comptroller, no checks and balances, stole TONS of tax payer dollars all at the cost of social programs, public safety, etc.
The city gave her an opportunity because she handled all of this money with no checks and balances set in place
What is the FCPA?
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
addressed US bribery to foreign officials to gain business/access to markets
set punishments: financial penalty, loss of government contract, individual incarceration
Culture in Corporations does 4 things, what are they?
shapes attitudes
reinforces behavior
directs behavior
sets expectations
What are some factors that influence employees to act unethical?
behavior of supervisors behavior of peers industry ethical practices societies moral climate policy (or lack thereof) personal financial need
We watched a video about implementing ethical culture, what was the main takeaway?
It’s easy to install an ethical problem but it’s hard to get a culture to permeate through a system and have the employees truly live by it
Where are company rules located?
In the compliance document
Where are the company ethics located?
In the code of conduct
What are some components of organizational ethics?
leadership ethics officers training codes audits industry standards communication detection and prevention compliance standards
Behavioral ethics
how people actually behave in an organization as result of psychological processes or as a consequence of organization factors at work
Bounded Ethically
you want to behave ethically but it’s hard due to the corporate climate around it
Conformity bias
looking to others to guide your own ethics instead of looking within yourself
Overconfidence bias
when you’re so sure of yourself that you forget to take a step back from the situation - irrational
Def: Technology
all the ways people use inventions and discoveries to meet their wants and needs
What are some key factors to remember from our talk about technology?
- tech is growing at an exponential rate
- knowledge era
- as we automate, reliance on humans becomes obsolete
- there’s growing globalization
- tons of quantity info but quality lacking
- you’re constantly surrounded by tech info every day
Knowledge Era
Also known as big data era, 1990-now
Technology pros and cons
increase g/s = decrease in natural resources
decrease labor = tech. unemployment
labor safer and easier = high pollution
increase standard of living = creating unsatisfactory jobs
Technology has changed our way of thinking, how?
we want quick fixes fear/worship tech blurred lines between real and fake accepting violence as a norm love tech like a toy we are distant and distracted
What are the Big 5 stakeholders in a business?
- owners
- consumers
- employees
- government
- community
The identity fraud report had 4 interesting statistics, what were they?
12.6 mill victims
1 of 4 data breach victims effected
1 of 40 children identities are stolen
$21 bill stolen from victims
The Mobile Entertainment Form took a Global Privacy survey in 2013. What did it say about consumer comfortability with sharing info, how many people want to know where there info is going, and who feels the least in control of their privacy online?
37% comfortable sharing
70% want to know if mobile is haring their info
women and people 35+ feel the least in control of their privacy online
Opt-in
positive
asking people if they’d like their info shared up front
Opt-out
negative
taking the information and making the consumer go back and find and change what has already been done for them
Corporations are concerned with two major group’s privacy, what are they?
Their employees and their customers
CPO
Chief privacy officers - decides what info we should be collecting and storing or destroying
vs. CSO - security of the information which is being collected
The Chief Privacy Officer of an organization should always _______ and _________ a policy.
Have and disclose
Privacy under the Bill of Rights has 8 main components, name a few
individual control transparency game plan for stolen personal info respect for content security access and accuracy focused collection accountability
Kaspersky said that there are two main tech. fields in which we need to watch more closely, what are they?
- mobile
2. cyber space
Summarize the case of phantom expense
A new sales rep was doing business for the company and the older worker she was with said it was typical practice for the reps to give themselves as 25% padding on their expenses. The new rep said this wasn’t ethical and the old rep pleaded with her to do them like the rest of the reps did because it could turn into a problem and people could lose their jobs
what is the theme for BA342?
Responsibility
Def: responsibility
the ability or authority to act or decide on one’s own
What is the license to operate a big corporation?
Responsibility and ethics... managing these things intangibles consumers risk mgmt employees investors operations
The 5 mega trends in responsible leadership are?
- new market and business case
- stakeholder wants and needs
- global crisis
- internet and transparency
- institutional responsibility
Lord Michael Hastings video on corporate social responsibility: summary
connection between company goals and the individuals within the company
companies need to be involved with the wider world/make a difference
the right thing to do vs. the cost factor
What are hyper norms?
Values applied across cultures that stay the same
ex. stealing a TV
Society’s expectations for business ethics is _____________.
Increasing - want to see more from us
