Ethics Final Exam

The way we do things around here" addresses an organization's
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heroes.
rituals.
norms.
myths.

norms

According to the Executive Ethical Leadership Reputation Matrix, ___________ is an executive characterized as a strong "moral person" and a strong "moral manager."
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Unethical leader
Ethical leader
Ethically neutral leader
Hypocritical leader

Ethical leader

According to the Executive Ethical Leadership Reputation Matrix, ___________ is an executive characterized as a weak "moral person" and a strong "moral manager."
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Unethical leader
Ethical leader
Ethically neutral leader
Hypocritical leader

Hypocritical leader

The "moral person" component of ethical leadership:
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Tells employees how the leader expects them to behave.
Tells employees how the leader is likely to behave.
Shows that ethics and values are an important part of the leader's message.
Demonstrate

Tells employees how the leader is likely to behave.

Under which of these climates little attention is given to the social consequences of one's actions?
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Benevolence climate
Self-interest climate
Rule-based climate
Fairness climate

Self-interest climate

Weak organizational cultures are:
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desirable if an organization has many subcultures.
desirable if an organization wants diversity of thought and action.
desirable if an organization wants behavioral consistency.
undesirable in all situations.

desirable if an organization wants diversity of thought and action.

When an organization "cares" about multiple stakeholders, including employees, customers, and the broader community and public, it is said to have which of these?
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Benevolence climate
Self-interest climate
Rule-based climate
Fairness climate

Benevolence climate

Which of these is NOT a part of informal system in an organization?:
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Norms
Rituals
Language
Decision processes

Decision processes

_____ tell people symbolically what the organization wants them to do and how it expects them to do it.
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Heroes
Myths
Norms
Rituals

Rituals

______ are symbolic figures who set standards of performance by modeling certain behaviors, and they can be the organization's formal leaders.
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Heroes
First-line managers
Large investors in an organization
Hypocritical leader

Heroes

All of the following about Ethics Officer is true EXCEPT:
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The ethics officer is typically a first-line to middle-level manager.
The ethics officer typically reports directly to the CEO.
The ethics officer can be hired from inside or outside of th

The ethics officer is typically a first-line to middle-level manager.

According to research, what percent of the information that passes through the grapevine is accurate?
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Between 10 to 30%
Between 30 to 50%
Between 50 to 70%
Between 70 to 90%

Between 70 to 90%

The US Sentencing Guidelines use a "carrot and stick" approach to managing corporate crime. What is meant by the use of "carrot" and "stick"?
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The carrot dangles at the end of the stick as an incentive for organizations to continue to behave ethic

The carrot refers to incentives in the guidelines to behave ethically and the stick refers to the punishment if the guidelines are not followed.

The _________ approach to formal corporate ethics initiatives focuses on meeting required behavior norms or obeying the letter of the law.
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rules
compliance
principles
values

compliance

The __________ approach to formal corporate ethics initiatives is proactive and aspirational.
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rules
compliance
competitive
values

values

When communicating policies:
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It is important to use legalese to demonstrate the formality of the document.
Eliminate the legalese and tell employees what the policy means.
Policies should be alphabetized to communicate that all policies are impor

Eliminate the legalese and tell employees what the policy means.

When communicating a code of conduct:
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Focus on values that should guide decision making.
Provide the same code of conduct to all departments regardless of its length.
Refrain from changing the code of conduct regularly.
Fewer employees will read

Focus on values that should guide decision making.

Which of the following is false?
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An effective approach to managing ethics has a compliance-only focus.
Abstract value statements can appear hypocritical to employees.
Strictly compliance-oriented programs are often viewed by employees with cynici

An effective approach to managing ethics has a compliance-only focus.

Which of the following is true?
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Fines applied by the US Sentencing Commission have decreased on average since 1990.
Only the presence of a code of ethics in the organization is necessary to meet the US Sentencing Commission's idea of an effective

The US Sentencing Commission allows prosecutors to assess the quality of an organization's compliance program in order to determine appropriate penalties.

Your friend, Jamira, has been selected to create a new ethics training program at work. What advice should you give Jamira?
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Ensure that all employees receive the same training content.
Focus on new employees only; the other employees already know

Provide separate training depending on the needs of different groups of employees.

______ is a term frequently used to describe ethics initiatives that begin at the top of the organization and work their way down, level by level.
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Command-and-control
Cascading
Codes of conduct
Good soldiers

Cascading

___________ have their own agenda and lack any company or professional loyalty.
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Deserters
Misguided cannons
Grenades
Toxic ammo

Grenades

___________ may have good ethical compasses, but they don't know their corporation's policies. Without guidance, ethics may not even be a consideration.
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Loose ammo
Loose cannons
Misguided cannons
Grenades

Loose cannons

Under the 2004 sentencing guidelines, the __________ are expected to oversee the compliance and ethics program while __________ is/are charged with ensuring its effectiveness within the company.
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board of directors; top management
board of directo

board of directors; top management

Group norms can cause an "everyone is doing it" mentality. This means:
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People are more likely to recognize issues as "ethical issues."
Many individuals will go along with unethical behavior because of a strong need for peer acceptance.
Managers c

Many individuals will go along with unethical behavior because of a strong need for peer acceptance.

Groupthink occurs when:
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A group is working together in a cohesive, flowing manner for peak performance.
Group members know each other so well that they are able to anticipate each other's ideas.
Group members conform to the group's decision and a

Group members conform to the group's decision and are unwilling to express disagreement.

The Zimbardo experiment provides insight into ___________ just as the Milgram experiment provides insight into ____________.
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My Lai massacre; Abu Ghraib prison scandal
Watergate scandal; My Lai massacre
Abu Ghraib prison scandal; McDonald's case

Abu Ghraib prison scandal; McDonald's case

The __________ experiment demonstrated how normal students accepted and acted on their randomly assigned role of prisoner or guard.
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Milgram
Manville
Zimbardo
My Lai

Zimbardo

The ___________ experiment demonstrated the power of legitimate authority. Teachers were unwilling to question the experimenter's authority for fear of personal embarrassment or upsetting the status quo.
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Milgram
Manville
Zimbardo
My Lai

Milgram

Which of the following is false?
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The idea that punishment should be avoided is based on research on rats and small children.
People are less likely to engage in unethical behavior if it is likely to be detected and punished.
Other employees are a

People do not care if violators of ethical conduct are punished.

Which of the following is false?
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People enter organizations in a state of "role readiness."
Roles reduce a person's sense of individuality.
Managers do not have roles as much as their subordinates do.
Conflicting role expectations can cause incre

Managers do not have roles as much as their subordinates do.

Which of the following is true?
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Attempting to achieve a task goal can decrease risky behavior.
Employees focus on what managers say more than what managers do.
Employees will not search for clues about what gets rewarded; they must be told by man

Meeting a goal provides psychological benefits.

Which of the following is true?
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Rewards set the tone for what's expected and rewarded in the long term.
Employees need to be rewarded for engaging in specific ethical behaviors.
Punishment is an inherently bad practice.
Rewards are better to cont

Rewards set the tone for what's expected and rewarded in the long term.

According to James Shaffer, an expert in communication and employee engagement, all of these are drivers of engagement EXCEPT:
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mission statement.
involvement.
information sharing.
rewards and recognition.

mission statement.

As a manager of ABC Corporation, you are in a tough situation. You must send an employee to work with your new client in Europe and Sam is clearly the most qualified candidate. However, ABC Corporation is located in an area where several people of Sam's r

Ask Sam if he wants to go to Europe and discuss the situation.

Because of a family emergency, John was unable to complete a report for his boss. Instead, he asks a coworker to finish it for him and in the morning, John tells his boss that he did the report. Is there anything wrong with John's action?
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No, bec

Yes, because John told a lie to his boss and put his reputation on the line.

Continuous performance evaluation is categorized under which of the four drivers of employee engagement?
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Line of sight
Involvement
Information sharing
Rewards and recognition

Rewards and recognition

Employee with an attitude of "it's not my job" fits into which of these groups?
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Actively engaged employees
Actively disengaged employees
Not engaged employees
Partially engaged employees

Actively disengaged employees

Federal law prohibits discrimination against individuals with specific characteristics. Which of the following characteristics is not on that list (i.e. not protected under Federal law)?
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Religion
Gender
Pregnancy
Mental ability

Mental ability

One of the higher performing employees in your group has recently had family troubles. These personal issues caused him to be less flexible with his work schedule. For example, he has come in late some mornings and missed several late afternoon meetings.

Institute flexible work hours for all employees in your group and arrange meetings when everyone can be available.

Sleewalking represents characteristic of which of these groups?
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Actively engaged employees
Actively disengaged employees
Not engaged employees
Partially engaged employees

Not engaged employees

This driver of engagement, __________, refers to the fact that employees should understand the company's strategic direction and how their individual efforts play a role in the company's revenue-generating enterprise.
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line of sight
involvement
in

line of sight

Which of the following is false about employee engagement?
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Employee engagement is how committed employees are to their work.
Actively disengaged employees have lower turnover and absenteeism.
Actively disengaged employees cost the US economy bill

Actively disengaged employees have lower turnover and absenteeism.

Which of the following is not an effective way to discipline employees?
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Discipline must be constructive and done in a professional manner.
Discipline should be done privately.
Employees should be encouraged to explain their side of the story.
Dis

Discipline should be consistent with what other employees at the same level or position received.

You are a manager forced to layoff certain employees. What is the primary objective that should guide your treatment of these individuals?
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To make the process as quick and painless to the company as possible.
To ensure the grapevine is passing tr

To allow the terminated employee to maintain personal dignity.

Under the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines, the same crime can be subject to a wide range of penalties. In determining the penalty, the following will be considered:
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Prior violations
Whether management reports itself
Whether management cooperates with

All of the above

Why did the US Sentencing Commission begin to focus on the ethical culture of the organization in 2004?
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Researchers had just recently introduced the idea of an "ethical culture" in 2002.
More and more consultants were discussing "ethical culture

Prior to the change, organizations used formal programs as "window dressing".

The Tailhook scandal represents an example of which of these?
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Management focusing too much on the ends rather than the means
The ethical Pygmalion effect
Social learning theory
Employees ignoring management's clear message

Social learning theory

Because stakeholders' interests frequently do not overlap, an organization is able to focus on one stakeholder at a time.
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True
False

False

Conflicts involving organizations are more damaging than those who involve individuals.
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True
False

True

Ethical disasters in corporations often start as small issues and it is either denial or mismanagement that causes seemingly minor situations to mushroom into huge legal, ethical, and public relations nightmares.
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True
False

True

In ethical decision-making and particularly in cases dealing with product safety, firms are best served when they consider the long-term consequences of a decision.
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True
False

True

The definition of conflict for an organization is similar to that for an individual ; that is, if a stakeholder thinks that an organization's judgment is biased because of a relationship it has with another firm, a conflict could exist.
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True
Fals

True

One of the most common faults in ethical decision making is to ignore the long-term consequences of a decision.
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True
False

True

The real proportion of wrong-doers is probably quite small.
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True
False

True

The pharmaceutical industry has found that advertising directly to the consumer minimizes problems experienced earlier with consumers regarding their confidence in products.
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True
False

False

According to researchers at Harvard, in developing their firm's codes of conduct, multinational firms would be wise to stick with the eight principles identified by their research as the core of global standards of conduct and to not deviate or supplement

False

Because of the cultural differences in Asia and Latin America, "help lines" are more effective when they are oriented more toward reporting misconduct.
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True
False

False

Because of the expatriate manager's and the manager's family's inability to adjust to the foreign work environment, many overseas assignments end early and unsuccessfully.
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True
False

True

Behavior is difficult to predict because people adapt their behaviors to what they believe others expect of them.
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True
False

True

Given the larger distance, workers in a culture of high power distance are more willing to question the boss's authority or even blow the whistle on an unethical manager.
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True
False

False

A country's sociopolitical environment increases the number of ethical questions with a company must deal.
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True
False

True

Justice and fairness are universal human values. Therefore, specific beliefs and preferences about what is a fair allocation are also universally interdependent.
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True
False

False

Interestingly, ethical issues are universal and do not vary from culture to culture.
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True
False

False

The term emotional intelligence (EQ) has been used to describe an individual's ability to be effective in cross-cultural situations.
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True
False

False

The additional cost of corruption to international projects is less than 5% on average making it practical to include corruption as a cost of doing business.
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True
False

False

The Golden Rule ("do unto others as you would have them do unto you") appears in the teachings of every major world religion.
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True
False

True

Spouses of high level expatriate managers generally serve in a corporate "ambassador" role.
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True
False

True

Visitors to another culture will notice things that are important at home but that may not be important in the target culture.
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True
False

True

Unfortunately, fluency in a foreign language assists with verbal communication, but helps little in understanding the culture.
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True
False

False

Unfortunately, corporate citizenship has no influences on consumers buying habits.
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True
False

False

Despite Johnson & Johnson's best efforts to respond to its customers by pulling Tylenol off shelves, the product has never regained its market share.
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True
False

False

A firm's financial responsibility is primary and the bedrock of corporate social responsibility because without financial viability, the other responsibilities become moot issues.
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True
False

True

According to Harvard Professor Michael Porter, the strategic reason for having CSR play a prominent role in a firm is that in evaluating the firm's CSR, executives should begin by scrutinizing the social impacts of the company's value chain.
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True

True

Constructive engagement of stakeholders, including critics, is replacing the "just trust us" plea of yesteryear as executives conclude that the plea rarely works in a world of regular corporate scandals.
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True
False

True

An organization that does not fulfill its philanthropic responsibilities is acting unethically.
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True
False

False

Even if socially responsible business practices are costly, firms must perform them anyway.
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True
False

True

Over the long run, to be successful, firms with excellent socially responsible strategies need to worry less about their business strategies.
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True
False

False

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is credited with improving internal financial control systems in public companies even if the cost of doing so is thought to be exorbitant by small firms.
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True
False

True

Since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley few firms have been prosecuted and fewer high level executives have received jail terms proving convincingly that the legislation is flawed.
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True
False

False

Some analysts argue that the more stringent regulatory environment resulting in the post Sarbanes-Oxley period increases shareholder confidence in financial reporting.
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True
False

True

The Social Investment Forum reported that socially responsible investing grew from $40 billion in 1984 to nearly $4 trillion in 2012.
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True
False

True

The economic responsibilities of a firm involve its primary function of producing goods and services that consumers need and want, while making an acceptable profit.
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True
False

True

The most strategic CSR initiatives are those that remove the social dimension from the firm's overall competitive strategy.
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True
False

False

The pragmatic approach is more proactive and affirmative than the strategic approach because it asks companies to identify and acknowledge company activities that can do harm and encourages firms to scrutinize their practices and address potential harms b

False

Organization cultures are maintained through formal systems alone.
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True
False

False

An ethical culture is maintained through alignment between the formal and informal systems.
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True
False

True

The more a firm demands unquestioning obedience to authority, the more likely the firm will experience higher levels of unethical conduct among their employees.
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True
False

True

Research has found that employees working in organizations with an enforced code of ethics report that they engage in less unethical behavior.
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True
False

True

Research has found that executive ethical leadership is critical to investors but not the employees.
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True
False

False

Unethical leaders can just as negatively affect the culture of a company as ethical leaders can affect the ethical culture.
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True
False

True

Today, with advances in technology, very few modern organizations are bureaucratic.
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True
False

False

The only way to determine if the culture is aligned to support ethical behavior is to conduct regular, comprehensive audits of all relevant cultural systems, both formal and informal.
Answers:
True
False

True

Most people, according to cognitive moral development, are looking outside of themselves for guidance on decision-making. This means that stated organizational policy can be an important source of guidance foe employees in making decisions.
Answers:
True

True

Organization cultures vary widely, even within the same industry.
Answers:
True
False

True

An ethically neutral leader is not clearly unethical, but is perceived to be more self-centered and more focused on the bottom line.
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True
False

True

Command-and-control is a term frequently used to describe ethics initiatives that begin at the top of the organization and work their way down, level by level.
Answers:
True
False

False

Depending on the organization's culture, the word "ethics" may carry a negative connotation and need to be replaced with "business conduct."
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True
False

True

Organizational experience suggests that an "ethics action line" is unnecessary because it promotes "tattling" on people an employee doesn't like.
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True
False

False

Seldom should ethics information be included in a company's external website.
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True
False

False

Research suggests that ethics only needs to be communicated in orientation materials for new employees.
Answers:
True
False

False

According to ethics and compliance officers, a respected and trusted insider who knows the company's culture and people is a preferable choice for a firm's ethics or compliance officer.
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True
False

True

An increase in the number of calls on the "ethics action line" is a sign that there are more reportable problems in the company now.
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True
False

False

An organization can be convicted of a crime even if only one employee breaks the law.
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True
False

True

According to Peters and Waterman, an effective leader must be the master of two ends of the spectrum: ideas at the highest level of abstraction and actions at the most mundane level of detail.
Answers:
True
False

True

Given the less hierarchical organizational structures that are more common place today, it is less important for to have strongly aligned ethical culture to guide employees in their independent decision-making.
Answers:
True
False

False

Loyalty is paramount in business and employees who question unethical direction or an unethical boss are doomed.
Answers:
True
False

False