Exam 9: Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Sustainability, and Strategy

A) Unilever set up a central corporate team dedicated to spreading best sustainability practices from one factory or business unit to the rest of the company.
B) Unilever created a "small actions, big differences" fund to invest in innovative ideas that help the company achieve its sustainability goal.
C) Unilever dedicated significant resources and time to pursuing profit maximization strategies in order to boost its sustainability scores.
D) Unilever worked with its suppliers to source sustainable agricultural products to reduce emissions from the overall footprint of its products and extend its sustainability efforts to its entire supply chain.
E) Unilever enabled over 716,000 small farmers to improve their agricultural practices and/or their incomes.

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A) It can discontinue relying on those suppliers that manufacture products using child labor.
B) It can provide work-at-home opportunities.
C) It can donate a percentage of its profits to a national charity.
D) It can pay to have litter removed from a state highway.
E) It can sell its products at a discounted price in underdeveloped countries.

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A) the school of ethical relativism but not the school of ethical universalism
B) the school of ethical universalism but not the school of ethical relativism
C) integrative social contracts theory but not the school of ethical universalism
D) the school of ethical relativism and the school of ethical universalism
E) the school of ethical relativism but not integrative social contracts theory

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A) "Every business has a moral duty to be a good corporate citizen."
B) "Acting in a socially responsible manner reduces the risk of reputation-damaging incidents."
C) "Acting in a socially responsible manner is in the overall best interest of shareholders."
D) "To the extent that a company's socially responsible behavior wins applause from consumers and fortifies its reputation, a company may win additional patronage."
E) "Acting in a socially responsible manner can generate internal benefits (as concerns employee recruiting, workforce retention, employee morale, and training costs) ."

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A) the school of ethical relativism.
B) the school of ethical universalism.
C) integrated social contracts theory.
D) corporate social responsibility.
E) the triple bottom line.

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A) principles that set forth the traits and behaviors considered virtuous, that is, which a good person is supposed to believe in and display.
B) principles embodied in international law that all societies and countries are obliged to practice.
C) principles of right and wrong in judging the ethical correctness of business behavior.
D) standards of what's ethical and what's unethical, applicable to all businesses in all countries, irrespective of local business traditions and local business norms.
E) standards of what constitutes ethical and unethical behavior in business situations that are partly universal, but in the main are governed by local business norms.

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A) if the use of underage labor and/or the payment of bribes/kickbacks are acceptable in a particular culture/society/country, then a case can be made that it is morally correct and ethical for a company to use these practices in conducting its business activities in that culture/society/country.
B) each company should have the flexibility to set its own standards for deciding whether the use of underage labor and/or the payment of bribes/kickbacks are ethically acceptable or not.
C) if the use of underage labor and/or the payment of bribes/kickbacks are not legal but locally acceptable in a particular country, then it is morally correct and ethical for a company to use these practices in that country.
D) each industry should go by standards established by competitors for deciding whether the use of underage labor and/or the payment of bribes/kickbacks are ethically acceptable or not.
E) it is very clear that the use of underage labor or the payment of bribes and kickbacks are ethically impermissible-local customs, behavioral norms, and traditions absolutely cannot be taken into account.

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A) the company's demonstration of an adequate degree of social responsibility or efforts to be a model corporate citizen unless it spends 5 percent (or more) of pretax profits on social responsibility initiatives.
B) corporate social agendas that address generic social issues that may help boost a company's reputation but are unlikely to improve its competitive strength in the marketplace.
C) cost savings and improved profitability that can be drivers of corporate sustainability strategies.
D) social responsibility strategies linked to a company's customer value proposition or key value chain activities that may help build competitive advantage.
E) the strategies and actions of all socially responsible companies that have sameness in the sense of drawing on the same categories of socially responsible behavior, with each company's version of being socially responsible being unique.

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A) An unethical strategy reflects badly on the character of the company personnel involved.
B) Senior executives fear public embarrassment and disciplinary action if caught doing something perceived as unethical.
C) An ethical strategy is in the self-interest of shareholders, partly because an unethical strategy can damage a company's reputation and partly because unethical behavior can be very costly in terms of fines and penalties.
D) Customers shun companies known for their shady behavior and ethically upstanding company personnel are repulsed by a work environment where unethical behavior is condoned.
E) A strategy that is unethical in whole or in part is morally wrong.

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A) It promotes greater transparency and facilitates benchmarking CSR efforts across firms and industries.
B) It promotes and establishes mutual funds investment opportunities comprised of companies that excel on the basis of the triple bottom line.
C) It promotes greater awareness of the Dow Jones World Index, which comprises companies that are engaged in environment sustainability.
D) It promotes corporate governance, climate change, and labor practices.
E) It is a nonprofit reporting organization that ranks companies on habitat protection.

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A) making assessments of the moral character of a company's managers.
B) the tendency for managers to focus on immediate performance objectives at the expense of longer-term strategic objectives.
C) assessing the costs and damages to the company's reputation as a result of ethical violations.
D) weighing the short-term costs of regulatory compliance with the long-term costs of noncompliance.
E) assessing the short-term costs of complying with government regulations.

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A) in a multinational company, application of ethical relativism equates to multiple sets of ethical standards.
B) there are few absolutes when it comes to business ethics and thus few ethical absolutes for consistently judging a company's conduct in various countries and markets.
C) when there are cross-country or cross-cultural differences in ethical standards, it is appropriate for ethical standards in a company's home market to take precedence over what the local ethical standards may be.
D) a company that adopts the principle of ethical relativism and holds company personnel to local ethical standards necessarily assumes that what prevails as local morality is an adequate guide to ethical behavior.
E) according to the ethical relativism school of thinking, a "one-size-fits-all" template for judging the ethical appropriateness of business actions and the behaviors of company personnel does not exist.

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Ethical relativism frequently calls for ...

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