| ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE OF COMMERCE (AUTONOMOUS) | ||
| END SEMESTER EXAMINATION – SEPT/OCT.2015 | ||
| M.COM – III SEMESTER | ||
| P111303:ETHICS FOR BUSINESS DECISIONS | ||
| Duration: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 100 | ||
| SECTION – A | ||
| I. | Answer any SEVEN questions. Each carries 5 marks. (7×5=35) | |
| 1. | Explain ‘Code of Ethics’ and discuss the benefit of Managing Ethics
at Work Place. |
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| 2. | What is CSR? Discuss the role of different stake holders. | |
| 3. | What are the roles and functions of an ethical manager? | |
| 4. | Examine what is meant by ethical dilemma. | |
| 5. | Write a brief note on straw men approach in ethics. | |
| 6. | Explain stereotyping. | |
| 7. | Write a short note on Accounting Shenanigans | |
| 8. | Elaborate descriptive ethics and normative ethics. | |
| 9. | Explain the merits and limitations of legal accounting. | |
| 10. | Write a note on the relevance of ethics in marketing. | |
| SECTION – B | ||
| II. | Answer any THREE questions. Each carries 15 marks. (3×15=45) | |
| 11. | Why is ethics important for a Corporate? What are the causes of unethical behavior in workplaces? | |
| 12. | Write short notes on any two of the following.
a) “good business is good to do business with” b) the six test of ethical action. c) Ethical hiring and equality of opportunity. |
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| 13. | Bright Baby’s Bright Idea Bartok Manufacturing produces a line of infant toys under the “Bright Baby” brand label. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently issued a recall order for the Bright Baby car seat gym, a very popular product. According to the CPSC, the gym contains small parts that present a choking hazard. The CEO of Bartok Manufacturing, Bill Bartok, called an executive meeting to determine the firm’s strategy in response to the recall. Mike Henderson, Bartok’s CFO, stated that the recall could cost as much as $1 million in lost revenue from the Bright Baby line. Noting that there had been no deaths or injuries from the product, just the potential for injury, Mike proposed that the remaining inventory of car seat gyms be sold in Mexico, where there are no rules such as the CPSC’s. Sue Tyler, the marketing director for Bartok, recommended that the product be repackaged and sold in Mexico under a different brand name so that the Bright Baby name would not be associated with the product. Bill, though a bit leery of the plan, agreed to go along with it to avoid the monetary losses. What would you have recommended to the CEO?
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| 14. | “Corporate cannot ignore the concerns of environment and its ecology.” In the light of this statement describe the obligations of the corporate towards environment and society
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| 15. | Give in details various ethical compliance programs an organization can initiate. | |
| SECTION – C | ||
| III. | Case Study (1×20=20) | |
| 16. | Britt Smith was recently hired by a large architecture and engineering firm as an assistant account manager in the government contracts division. The firm specializes in building hospitals, schools and other large-scale projects. Britt is excited to learn that she will be part of the marketing team that presents the firm’s proposals to the clients. In this case the clients are primarily federal and state governmental agencies. The presentations are elaborate, often costing $50,000 or more to prepare. But the projects can be worth millions to the firm, so the investment is worth it. The firm has a solid record for building quality projects, on time. And the majority of the time within budget. The firm also has an impressive track record, being awarded government contracts an incredible 85 percent of the time. No other firm in the industry comes close to this record.
The first project Britt is assigned to is an enormous project to design a new military hospital complex. The team leader, Brian Jenkins, has stressed how crucial it is for the firm to land this contract. He hints that if the team is successful the members will be well compensated. In fact, Britt heard that the members of the winning team for the last contract this size each received a $10,000 bonus. Not long after the project commences, Brian invites Britt to have lunch so they can get to know each other better. During lunch, a man approaches Brian and asks if he has received the information. The man says that he knows that with this information the firm is a sure winner. He also reminds Brian that he is due a bonus for getting such crucial information. Brian comes back and explains that the man was George Miller who was the former head of the division awarding the hospital contract. George had been helping Brian by talking to the decision team and getting information that was relevant to the bid. Brian explained that the information George gathered about the internal discussions among the buying team would be what made their proposal a clear winner. This was obviously good news for the team since a winning bid meant bonuseswere almost assured. After lunch Britt looked at the ethics manual which she had received just a week back on her joining. Lobbying without disclosure and paying for insider information were clearly discussed as unethical practices. Yet Brian seemed perfectly comfortable discussing George’s role with Britt. Britt decides she should check with another team member about the use of insider information, so she asks Sue Garcia. Sue tells Britt that this kind of thing happens all the time. She jokes that most of the people in the division had at one time or another worked for the government. They all still knew people in the various agencies. As far as Sue was concerned, friends will talk and that is not illegal, so there was no problem. It was a win—win situation: the government got their building, the firm got their funding, and the employees got their bonuses. Britt realizes that with her overdue credit card bill and her needed car repairs, the bonus money would really help out. Besides she is the most junior member of the team. If all the others are comfortable with this practice, why should she be concerned? After, all it Is just friends talking, Isn’t it?
Questions:
a. Analyze Britt’s dilemma. Should she go to the company’s ethics officer and report what she knows about the use of insider information? b. As the most Junior member of the team, do you feel that Britt has less of an ethical duty to report the actions of the team than more senior members of the team do? Why or why not? c. If you were the ethics officer for this firm would you address the belief among employees that it is acceptable to discuss a pending proposal with members of the decision team? If so, how? If you would not discuss this belief, why not? |
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Answer Schem – Ethics for Business decisions
SECTION A: 4 MARKS QUESTIONS CARRIES MAXIMUM 3.5 MARKS
3.5 MARKS FOR EXCELLENT, 3 MARKS FOR VERY GOOD, 2.5-GOOD, 2 FOR AVG. 1-MARK FOR JUSTIFY THE EFFORT.
- A code of ethics specifies the ethical rules of operation. It’s the `thou shalt nots. codes should not be developed out of the Human Resource or Legal departments alone, as is too often done. Codes are insufficient if intended only to ensure that policies are legal. All staff must see the ethics program being driven by top management. codes of ethics and codes of conduct may be the same in some organizations, depending on the organization’s culture and operations and on the ultimate level of specificity in the code(s).
- Professional Misconduct is defined as behavior that violates professional or ethical standards for the profession or discipline for which a student is preparing as adopted or recognized as authoritative by the relevant academic program. The term includes, but is not limited to, misconduct that demonstrates the student’s unfitness for such profession or discipline. “professional misconduct”: (a) negligence; (b) a breach by a Member, Student, Firm, Public Accounting Firm or Professional Corporation of the Act, or the Bylaws or the Regulations; (c) undertaking work the Member, Student, Firm, Public Accounting Firm or Professional Corporation is not competent to perform by virtue of his, her or its training and experience; (d) fraud, theft, forgery, tax evasion, violation of securities laws, or unlawful conduct in the Member’s, Student’s, Firm’s, Public Accounting Firm’s or Professional Corporation’s professional capacity, including any criminal conviction of the above;
- The ethical role of managers is broadened beyond fiduciary responsibility when consideration is given to the multiple stakeholders who constitute the organization being managed and to nature, on which human civilization depends for its survival. Business decisions affect both stakeholders and nature; therefore, a logical conclusion is that those decisions have ethical content inherently and that managerial decisions, behaviors, and actions are therefore inherently ethical in nature. Whenever there are impacts due to a decision, behavior, or action that a leader or manager makes, there are ethical aspects to that decision or situation. While some skeptics claim that business ethics is an oxymoron, the reality is that decisions and actions have consequences, and that reality implies some degree of ethics, high or low. Thus, ethics and the managerial role cannot realistically be teased apart.
- Ethical dilemmas, also known as a moral dilemmas, are situations in which there is a choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. In such cases, societal and personal ethical guidelines can provide no satisfactory outcome for the chooser. Ethical dilemmas assume that the chooser will abide by societal norms, such as codes of law or religious teachings, in order to make the choice ethically impossible
- Straw man approaches to business ethics are raised by business ethics scholars primarily to demonstrate that they offer inappropriate guidelines for ethical decision making in a multinational enterprise – The Friedman Doctrine states that the only social responsibility of business is to increase profits, so long as the company stays within the rules of law. Cultural Relativism believes that ethics are nothing more than the reflection of a culture (‘When in Rome, do as the Romans’) • The Righteous Moralist claims that a multinational’s home-country standards of ethics are the appropriate ones in all countries • The Naïve Immoralist asserts that if a manager sees that firms from other nations are not following ethical norms in a host country then they should not either…any explanation mentioning at least 3 of the above fetches 3.5
- Stereotyping is a subject of singular relevance to ethics. Stereotyping is about extrapolating from an individual to a class, as a whole. At least 4 examples with explanation fetches 3.5
7. Any shenanigans of
Cash Flow
Stretching A/P
Financing A/P
Securitizing A/R
Repurchasing Stock to Offset Dilution..MENTION OF 4 FETCHES 3.4
- Normative ethics is about intrinsic value, right and wrong, and/or virtues. The following are claims concerning normative ethics:
It is wrong to kill people just because they make you angry.
We should fight to free slaves when necessary, even when doing so is illegal.
Pain is intrinsically bad—we ought not cause pain without a good reason to do so.
It is reasonable for a person to give charity to those in need, even if no reciprocation should be expected.
Normative ethics is about what actually has overriding importance for determining how we ought to act. Even if you want a million dollars, you ought not kill innocent people in order to get a million dollars in return. Etiquette is often said to be similar to normative ethics, except etiquette is not of overriding importance. Burping is considered to be rude, but it is not that big of a deal.
Descriptive ethics is about what motivates pro-social behavior, how people reason about ethics, what people believe to have overriding importance, and how societies regulate behavior (such as by punishing people for doing certain actions). We know that empathy helps motivate pro-social behavior (such as giving to charity) and we know that our beliefs about what has overriding importance is somewhat based on the culture we live in.
What behaviors are punished in a society tells us something about what the people find to be of overriding importance, and the type of punishment I have in mind is basically just negative consequences. Punishment could even be social pressure, such as being criticized for doing something unethical. For example, Jonathan Haidt has talked about the importance of gossip and reputation for motivating ethical behavior. There are certain predictable ways people reason about ethics (often in unreasonable ways).
- Explain the merits and limitations of legal accounting. ANY 4 EACH
- ANY 5 SIGN/ADVANTAGES/RELEVEANCE.
SECTION B 15 MARKS…MAXIMUM 13 MARKS ONLY.—EXELLL-13,V.GOOD 12, GOOD 11, OK-10.
- Why is ethics important for a Corporate? What are the causes of unethical behavior in workplaces? 7.5+7.5 marks
At least 7 points of importance – proportionate if less
and 7 points of unethical behavior spaning all functions, at least 3 in each- explained in detail- proportionately less if students has given less points.
- Short notes- at least two, 7.5 marks for each.
A)Good business— importance of ethics, ethical hiring,advt,account, finance all points to be addressed.
B)6 test of ethical behavior- mirror, etc…all six explained ONLY WILL FETCH.
C)Ethical hiring and equal opportunity- all concepts to be mentioned.
13.SMALL CASE –EXPORTS- 6 TEST TO BE APPLIED HERE. IF NOT, ONLY GENERAL ANSWER THEN 8 MARKS MAXM……IF ALL TEST –MIRROR ETC COVERED THEN IT WILL FETCH 13 .
14.ENVIRONMENT AND ETHICS- ANTROPROCENTRSIM, NON-ANTHROPROCENTRISM, SPECISIT PREJUDICE, UTILITITRAIN VIEWS, RIGHTS AND JUSTICE VIEW OF ANIMALS. LAST MAN ON PLANET VIEW.
IF ADDRESSED WILL FETCH 13 OTHERWISE PROPOTIONATELY LESS.
14.ETHICAL COMPLIANCES PROGRAMMES- ANY 7 -8 PROGRAMES DESCRIBED WILL FETCH 13 MARKS.
SECTION: C CASE STUDY- (5+2+2 FOR FACTS OF CASE, ANALYSIS, CONCLUSION)+(3+4+4- FOR QUESTIONS)
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