Reference no: EM133032098

Questions - Q1) You never thought you would be selected for an internship, but you did succeed. You, along with your classmate Olya Kvalevcka, were spending the summer together, completing the final weeks of your coveted internships with PrizeWaterhome, CPAs. The only problem was that the firm intimated that, due to a slowdown in business, it would only give a permanent job offer to one of you.

While waiting in a partner's office, you happened to see Olya's resume on his desk. The resume was sitting plainly in front you, so you began to kill time looking at it. Upon reading it, you noticed that Olya had misrepresented several things about herself. She stated that she was the Beta Alpha Psi vice-president, but she was only the vice-president in charge of guest speakers, not the overall vice-president. She also said that she was Professor Salcedo's teaching assistant, but you knew that this was false because you were Professor Salcedo's teaching assistant...and he only employs one! Finally, her resume says that she was selected as the "top student in Intermediate Financial Accounting" and you have never heard of that award.

You could barely sleep last night, thinking about whether you should tell someone in authority at PrizeWaterhome about these lies. What should you do?

2) You work as an internal auditor for a manufacturer. Your employer has a strict policy against internal auditors engaging in romantic relationships with company employees. All employees frequently are warned that they will be fired if they violate this rule.

Despite this policy, you secretly have been dating a manager in the company's information systems department. You and this manager always receive excellent performance reviews because you both are talented, experienced employees.

When a company executive began asking questions about this romantic relationship, you both denied having a romantic relationship. In justifying your lying, you reasoned that the company had not suffered any harm so far, but it would sustain significant harm if it had to replace two valuable employees. You, of course, also would suffer tremendous harm if your lives were disrupted and had to find other jobs elsewhere. From the perspective of consequentialism, was it ethical for you to lie?

Q3) A corporation originally was formed with only common stock outstanding. If a company suffers financial distress or goes bankrupt, preferred stockholders receive full repayment of their investments before any amounts are paid to common stockholders.

Would it be ethical for this corporation to issue preferred stock?

Q4) Truett Cathy, founder of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain, was a devout Christian who maintained a policy of keeping his restaurants closed on Sundays so his employees could spend more time with their families. Chick-fil-A generates revenues of about $6 billion per year. As a result, being closed on Sundays might cost the restaurant roughly one billion dollars in sales annually. Rent is an important fixed cost in the restaurant business. Is Chick-fil-A's policy an act of CSR?

Q5) In your role as an internal auditor for a car manufacturer, you discovered that your employer can produce a car engine that will get 8 more miles per gallon than the existing engine. However, the cost of producing this car engine would be an additional $3,000 per car. Assume that a typical driver drives a car for 5 years and 200,000 miles. Also, assume that the cost of a gallon of gas is $5 per gallon and a typical car gets 24 miles per gallon. The company is wondering if it is ethical to not produce this more efficient engine.

a. Is this an ethical question or just a simple cost accounting problem?

b. How would you analyze this from the perspective of shareholder theory?

c. How would you analyze this from the perspective of stakeholder theory?

d. If this car manufacturer does decide to produce the more fuel-efficient car, would you consider it to be an act of corporate social responsibility?

e. Would your answer to the preceding question be different if the car manufacturer's motivation was simply to increase its profits by selling more cars?

Q6) A criminal has taken five of your neighbors as hostages and has threatened to kill them unless five of his compatriots serving time for murder are released from prison. He has already shot one of the hostages in the leg. If the five compatriots are let free, authorities estimate that they will return to their home country of Mongolia, spend time with their families, and then begin murdering others next year. Statistically speaking, they are likely to kill a total of between 10 and 30 people in Mongolia.

a. Should the authorities release these prisoners?

b. Applying the Issue-Contingent Model, what elements of moral intensity are especially important to you in formulating your opinion?

c. What factors should a utilitarian take into account in evaluating this trade? What conclusion would a utilitarian likely reach?