Chapter 3 Review Questions: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
1. Relative ethics is the idea that each person's ethical standard is unique to themselves as a result of: past experiences, family/peer groups, etc, while universal ethical standards are standards meant to apply to every single person in a wide range of circumstances. Yes, ethics should be a relative unique to persons within smaller everyday instances, but there should also be universal standards for ethics in place, i.e., the law.
2. An ethical dilemma is when there is two (or more) solutions to a problem, and both are unethical or unfavorable options with some negative consequence.
Example 1: You are a teacher at a secondary school. One of your weaker students who has attendance issues and rarely completes any assignments is caught cheating on a major test. Another student is also caught, but this student is a straight A student who has been in a significant amount of work over the semester. When you ask why she cheated on the test, she responses with saying that she is very stressed out with school and work, and did not have the time to study but did not want to accept a poor grade. The weaker student received an automatic 0 on the test. Do you cut the straight A student a break?
Example 2: One of your closest friends at work has been openly vocalizing a better paying job offer at a competitor's company. Your friend is extremely good, and proficient at his job, so when word accidently reaches the boss he is very displeased with this. Your boss knows that your good friends with him, and asks you to persuade him to continue working here and decline the new job offer, and offers you a pay raise if you succeed. You know your friend has worked hard for a long time, needs the money, and is a good candidate for the new job. Do you still try and talk him out of it for the sake of your own financial needs?
Example 3: You are a manager at a small local retail store. With Christmas (busy season) fast approaching you have room to hire 1 new employee. A young women applies for the position who has extensive retail experience, is very polite/professional, and has open availability. Several others also apply for the job with less than dazzling resumes. The choice should seem clear, expect that the young women is handicapped and is in a wheelchair which would mean paying for your store to become wheelchair accessible in order to hire her. As a small local store it would take a large toll on your profit in order to make your store wheelchair accessible. Who would you hire?
3. Ethics in relation to the individual consist of factors such as: your personality traits, your friends/co-workers, and self-esteem etc. These factors affect your decisions that you make in everyday life, and while at the workplace. Business ethics is making the correct and legal decisions that help give back to the community (charity, etc), and help build a good reputation for your business. Businesses can help promote an ethical climate by making good decisions that positively affect both business, their employees, their customers, and the community. For example, instead of businesses taking an expensive private jet to destinations, they can save money by flying first or business class. Excess money not spend on ridiculous travel expenses can go towards charity campaigns, thus helping the reputation of the business, and in turn gaining a larger customer base.
4. The need for profit, and the need for social responsibility could conflict when a business's profits are at a low, and therefore unable give back to their community and build a positive reputation with potential customers. Unless the business is in a terrible financial crisis with no extra money whatsoever, the business should take the path of social responsibility. Taking this path over profit can promote and benefit the community, which raises awareness for the business and impresses potential customers by their good doing, thus