Friendly and Professional

8 short answer questions

1) Other than ethical values, what values might a business manager use in reaching decisions?  Are there classes in your college curriculum, other then ethics, which advise you about proper and correct ways to act and decide?

2) Why might legal rules be insufficient for fulfilling one’s ethical responsibilities?  Can you think of cases in which business person has done something legally right, but ethically wrong?  What about opposite–are there situations in which a business person might have acted in a way that was legally wrong but ethically right?

3) What might be some benefits and costs of acting unethically in business?  Distinguish between benefits and harms to the individual and benefits and harms to the firm? 

4) Review the distinction between personal morality and matters of social ethics.  Can you think of cases in which some decisions would be valuable as a matter of social policy. but bad as a matter of personal ethics?  Something good as a matter of personal ethics and bad as a matter of social policy?

5) As described in chapter 1, the Americans with Disablities Act requires firms to make reasonable accomodations for employees with disabilities. Consider such conditions as obesity, depression, dyslexia, arthritis,

hearing loss, high blood pressure, facial scars, and the fear of heights.  Imagine that you are a business manager and an employee comes to you asking that accomodations be made for these conditions.  Under what circumstances might these conditions be serious enough impairments to deserve legal protection under the ADA? What factors would you consider in answering this question?  After making these decisions, reflect on whether your decision was more a legal or ethical decision.

6) Do an Internet search on Malden Mills and research the present status of the business and Aaron Feuerstein’s ownership.  How much of a difference would it make if Malden Mills was a publicly traded corporation rather than privately owned?  Can any lessons be drawn from the present situation? 

7) Construct a list of all the people who were adversly affected by the collapse of Enron.  Who, among these people, would you say had their rights violated? What responsibilities, if any, did the managers of Enron have to eash of these constituencies?

8) What difference, if any, exists between ethical reasons and reasons of self-interest? If a business performs a socially beneficial act in order to receive good publicity, or if it creates an ethical culture as a business strategy, has the business acted in a less than ethically praiseworthy way?