Possible Exam Questions for the Second Business Ethics Exam -- on December 2

Note: I may transform several questions from this list into multiple choice questions. Otherwise several will be presented as short essay questions. (Short = half a page or a page) You will be able to consult your textbooks but not any notes or handouts or other papers.

1. In Moral Mazes (especially in Chapters 6 and 7) Robert Jackall describes patterns of communication that could be considered pervasively dishonest. Or they could just be considered ‘the way the game is played’. What are some of the patterns he describes? What do you think about the ethical acceptability of these ways of communicating?

2. At the end of Moral Mazes, Jackall suggests that people who master the corporate game (who attain the ‘adeptness at inconsistency’, ‘dexterity with symbols’ and the moral flexibility that are required) pay a price – what might be called a psychic or a spiritual price. Explain what he thinks that price is. What do you think about this?

3. Pick one of the cases discussed in Chapter 5 of Moral Mazes and discuss whether the manager involved should have ‘blown the whistle’ according to what Michael Davis calls ‘the standard theory’ and according to his ‘complicity theory’.

4. Do you think that it is fair to require employers to make workplaces as safe as is technologically feasible? If not, what would be a more reasonable standard? Explain your reasoning.

5. Do you think that there is anything wrong with U.S.-based multinationals using so-called sweatshop labor abroad (or purchasing from subcontractors who operate such facilities)? Explain -- include some discussion/rebuttal of the arguments for the opposing view.

6. Let’s assume that, in a democratic society, business managers have an obligation to obey the law. Do they have an ethical obligation to do more than that in order to avoid damaging the environment or to promote a sustainable way of life? Explain -- include some discussion/rebuttal of the arguments for the opposing view.

7. David Holley argues that sellers have an obligation to meet the more stringent ‘mutual benefit’ standard and not just the weaker ‘fairness’ standard when it comes to disclosing information to buyers. What are these standards? What reasons does Holley give for preferring the ‘mutual benefit’ standard? Is he right?

8. Do business people have a moral responsibility to be honest with customers (and to avoid manipulating them), even when doing so may reduce their company's profits? Why or why not?

9. Is "good ethics good business"? Does the market always reward integrity, honesty, environmental stewardship, and the other moral virtues? If you think it does, how would you account for some of the cases we have studied where "bad behavior" seemed to pay off rather handsomely? If you think it doesn't, why not? Why don't standard market incentives work to induce "good behavior"?