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Business Ethics Blunders The Medici’s of Renaissance Florence were ruthless in their pursuit of power, political control, and wealth as they expanded their banking empire throughout Europe. Nowadays, most companies have business ethics policies , which are standards of right and wrong directing how the business and its employees ought to conduct themselves. Nonetheless, plenty of companies have been caught engaging in such deplorable behavior as ignoring consumer safety, covering up corporate crimes, cheating or misleading customers, dumping toxic waste, child labor violations, and evading taxes. Experts say that unethical behavior often goes unnoticed, or happens unintentionally. What do you know about ethics? (The answer page follows the questions.) 1. You are the president of BigFoot Shoe company which has several stores in the local area. Your company has a glut of shoes in size 15. You have offered a reward – a much-coveted annual pass to a local theme park – to the salesperson who sells the most size 15’s. One day, Sasquatch walks into one of the stores. Clearly, he is a size 18. Unbeknownst to you, the salesperson changes the labels on several size 15s to read “18” and pawns off three pairs on Sasquatch. Have you done anything wrong? Explain. _ ______________________________________________________________________________ _ ______________________________________________________________________________ _ ______________________________________________________________________________ 2. You work in the warehouse of a successful landscaping company which provides design and maintenance services for many local corporate parks. Business is booming. Local businesses prefer your company because of its extraordinary ability to coax rapid and lush growth out of trees. One day you notice the landscape crew substituting one fertilizer for another. You check it out, and discover that they are using an illegal chemical banned by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency.) “So that’s how they manage to get those trees to grow so well!” you realize. You say nothing, because you know the company’s “green thumb” is buttering your bread, so to speak. Have you done anything wrong? Explain. _ ______________________________________________________________________________ _ ______________________________________________________________________________ _ ______________________________________________________________________________ PRODUCT PREVIEW
Lesson 10 | A Garage is for More Than Parking a Car 182
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