UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE

School of Business Administration

BUS 102 Ethics and Law in Business and Society

SUMMER 2017
Dr. Sean D. Jasso

EXAM 1

Below are the essay questions for your first take-home exam. The exam is intended for you to
work independently. Each question is worth a total of 25 points. Please answer each question as
thoroughly as possible, providing rich detail from our lectures, readings, and discussions. The
organization of your answers, the complexity of your analysis, and the clarity of your critical
thinking are the key elements of your evaluation.1

1. On Moral Development
a. Identify Kohlbergs six stages of moral development supporting each stage with an actual
or hypothetical scenario/example.
b. How do you translate theory into practice that is, how can Kohlbergs model help
managers maintain an ethical corporate culture? Provide an example to support your
reasoning.
c. Lastly, behavioral evidence indicates that relativism permeates our society whereby we
use our business ethics in business, our family ethics at home or our global ethics
with other cultures, etc. Explain the flaws in this approach to being good. In other words,
are there really business ethics or just ethics? Explain in detail.
i. Ultimately, when presented with an opportunity to carry out an action you know
is wrong, what helps you do the right thing?

2. On Justice We have built the course on the premise that ethics are the ideas and right actions by
which we live. Using Sandels book as your source, reflect on the following questions as they
pertain to Aristotle, Kant, and one other of your choice from our class lecture on Justice.
a. How might the philosophers approach to ethics help with doing the right thing?
b. What philosopher best supports your idea of ethics and why? If none fits with your
philosophy, which philosopher do you most disagree and why?
c. Lastly, in lecture we debated whether it was better to do good than to feel good. What is
your response to this idea of morality?

3. On Corporate Responsibility
a. Compare and contrast Milton Friedmans and Archie Carrolls philosophies of the
corporations responsibility.
i. Which do you think is more accurate and why? Explain in detail.
b. In lecture, we introduced five specific characteristics of what corporations should exhibit
to be good corporate citizens. Identify and discuss the rationale of these characteristics
and explain the value we place on citizenship in general.

4. On Market Failure We said that the rationale for public policy is either market failure and/or government
failure. Address the following with this rationale in mind:
a. Define market failure from the perspective of the economist and government failure from the perspective
of the political scientist (recall public choice theory).
i. Which definition best fits the policy problem of the law you are studying for your final paper?
Explain why.
b. Market failures are most commonly identified with negative externalities. Provide an example of this
phenomenon as well as a pro and con of government regulation as a corrective measure.
c. Lastly, provide an example of a public good and explain why it is framed within the theory of market
failure. Be specific.

1 Recommendations on excellence ten pages is your minimum target; dig deep into the readings and lectures;
provide unique insight; reach for high-level analysis, presentation and formatting; use 12-point, Times New Roman
font; double-space; use endnotes to cite your sources using full APA bibliographic formatting including page
numbers; pay attention to details; put some time into this assignment; teach me something new.