Week 5: Flashcards
can help or hurt a business. In recent decades, there have been growing numbers of Trade Agreements (for example, creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement a/k/a NAFTA) and shrinking numbers of Trade Barriers (Tariffs or Export Quotas) that create terrific opportunities for competitive firms who make excellent products efficiently but that pose real threats to badly-run firms (ineffective and inefficient) whose products are poorly made and expensive.
Global Political/Legal Forces
Global Economic Forces in the form of currency fluctuation also create threats and opportunities for businesses. For an American firm that imports products, a strong dollar/weak foreign currency (e.g., the Russian ruble) means foreign products from Russia will cost the American-based firm ____ than it would pay if it were buying with a weak dollar.
less
a weak dollar means that the product it buys from Russia will cost the firm ____ than the product cost when the dollar was strong.
more
For an American firm that exports products, a strong dollar means that the product will cost its foreign customers ___; a weak dollar means that the product will cost its foreign customers ___.
more, less
Accordingly, firms that import see a strong home-country currency trend as an _____ and a weak home-country currency trend as a ___; firms that export see a strong home-country currency as a threat and a weak home-country currency as an opportunity.
opportunity, threat
A global company must familiarize itself with acceptable and unacceptable _____ (e.g., in language: ‘wake you up’ in US versus ‘knock you up’ in England).
cultural practices
Companies whose actions reflect societal customs in foreign nations recognize cultural differences as an _____; a firm whose actions clash with foreign cultures rightly sees those cultural differences as ______.
opportunities, threats.
Global Customer Forces can also affect a company’s business. A global firm may have to tailor its products to reflect local country desires (e.g., __________.
McDonalds making its cheeseburgers in India out of lamb rather than out of cow because Indians who are Hindu consider the cow a sacred animal)
However, some businesses (Nike, for instance) see little need to _____ their products to specific country customer wishes and succeed anyway.
tailor
follows orders from people of authority without questioning the orders, particularly if following the orders will benefit him/her. The individual acts based on selfish reasons to further his/her own interests.
pre-conventional level
a person acts in ways that conform to his/her peers’ expectations. At this level, one does what will be accepted by the organization’s culture. This means that a _____ person working in a largely corrupt organization will likely be corrupt too; a person working in a largely ethical organization will likely be ethical too.
conventional level
will use his/her internalized highly ethical principles to decide how to behave. A _______ person will stick to his/her principles when deciding how to act even if it conflicts with what others would do in a situation. Typically, these people behave in a highly ethical manner, even if the organization culture would approve of corrupt behavior.
post-conventional level
If an act is legal it is ethical. Decision distributes benefits and harms fairly.
justice rule
ethical if promotes greatest good for greatest number of people.
utilitariN RULE
ethical if it protects the rights of people affected by it.
moral rights
