"The MGMT Solution," Vocabulary from Chapter 4

This list focuses on ethics and social responsibility (Part 1, Chapter 4).

Here are links to all the chapters in Part 1, Introduction to Management: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4

Here are links to all the parts of the textbook published by South-Western Cengage Learning: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ethical
    conforming to accepted standards of social behavior
    In short, much needs to be done to make workplaces more ethical, but—and this is very important—most managers and employees want this to happen.
  2. violate
    act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises
    Workplace deviance is unethical behavior that violates organizational norms about right and wrong.
  3. tangible
    perceptible by the senses, especially the sense of touch
    Company-related deviance can affect both tangible and intangible assets.
  4. quality
    a degree or grade of excellence or worth
    One kind of workplace deviance, called production deviance, hurts the quality and quantity of work produced. Examples include leaving early, taking excessively long work breaks, intentionally working slower, or wasting resources.
  5. sabotage
    a deliberate act of destruction or disruption
    Property deviance is unethical behavior aimed at company property or products. Examples include sabotaging, stealing, or damaging equipment or products and overcharging for services and then pocketing the difference.
  6. aggression
    deliberately unfriendly behavior
    Whereas production and property deviance harm companies, political deviance and personal aggression are unethical behaviors that hurt particular people within companies.
  7. offense
    an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act
    The guidelines cover offenses defined by federal laws such as invasion of privacy, price fixing, fraud, customs violations, antitrust violations, civil rights violations, theft, money laundering, conflicts of interest, embezzlement, dealing in stolen goods, copyright infringements, extortion, and more.
  8. incur
    receive a specified treatment
    The level of the offense (i.e., its seriousness) varies depending on the kind of crime, the loss incurred by the victims, and how much planning went into the crime.
  9. culpability
    a state of guilt
    The greater the corporate responsibility in conducting, encouraging, or sanctioning illegal or unethical activity, the higher the culpability score.
  10. ambiguity
    unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
    Although some ethical issues are easily solved, many do not have clearly right or wrong answers. But even though the answers are rarely clear, mangers do need to have a clear sense of how to arrive at an answer in order to manage this ethical ambiguity well.
  11. intensity
    high level or degree
    These decisions differ in their ethical intensity, or the degree of concern people have about an ethical issue. When addressing an issue of high ethical intensity, managers are more aware of the impact their decision will have on others.
  12. magnitude
    the property of relative size or extent
    Magnitude of consequences is the total harm or benefit derived from an ethical decision. The more people who are harmed or the greater the harm to those people, the larger the consequences.
  13. consensus
    agreement in the judgment reached by a group as a whole
    Social consensus is agreement on whether behavior is bad or good.
  14. probability
    a measure of how likely it is that some event will occur
    For example, if there is clear agreement (social consensus) that a managerial decision or action is certain (probability of effect) to have large negative consequences (magnitude of consequences) in some way, then people will be highly concerned about that managerial decision or action, and ethical intensity will be high.
  15. temporal
    of or relating to or limited by time
    Temporal immediacy is the time between an act and the consequences the act produces. Temporal immediacy is stronger if a manager has to lay off workers next week as opposed to three months from now.
  16. proximity
    the property of being close together
    Proximity of effect is the social, psychological, cultural, or physical distance of a decision maker from those affected by his or her decisions.
  17. consequence
    the outcome of an event
    Studies indicate that managers are much more likely to view decisions as ethical issues when the magnitude of consequences (total harm) is high and there is a social consensus (agreement) that a behavior or action is bad.
  18. moral
    concerned with principles of right and wrong
    At the preconventional level of moral development, people decide based on selfish reasons.
  19. conventional
    following accepted customs and proprieties
    Most adults are in the conventional stage of moral development, in which they look outside themselves to others for guidance on ethical issues.
  20. dilemma
    state of uncertainty in a choice between unfavorable options
    Beyond an issue’s ethical intensity and a manager’s level of moral maturity, the particular ethical principles that managers use will also affect how they solve ethical dilemmas.
  21. virtue
    the quality of doing what is right
    According to professor LaRue Hosmer, a number of different ethical principles can be used to make business decisions: long-term self-interest, personal virtue, religious injunctions, government requirements, utilitarian benefits, individual rights, and distributive justice.
  22. maximize
    make the most of
    What we do to maximize our long-term interests (save more, spend less, exercise every day, watch what we eat) is often very different from what we do to maximize short-term interests (max out our credit cards, be couch potatoes, eat whatever we want).
  23. injunction
    a formal command or admonition
    The principle of religious injunctions holds that you should never take an action that is unkind or that harms a sense of community, such as the positive feelings that come from working together to accomplish a commonly accepted goal.
  24. minimal
    the least possible
    According to the principle of government requirements, the law represents the minimal moral standards of society, so you should never take any action that violates the law.
  25. utilitarian
    having a useful function
    The principle of utilitarian benefits states that you should never take an action that does not result in greater good for society. In short, you should do whatever creates the greatest good for the greatest number.
  26. infringe
    go against, as of rules and laws
    The principle of individual rights holds that you should never take an action that infringes on others’ agreed-upon rights.
  27. justice
    the quality of being fair, reasonable, or impartial
    Finally, under the principle of distributive justice, you should never take any action that harms the least fortunate among us in some way. This principle is designed to protect the poor, the uneducated, and the unemployed.
  28. integrity
    moral soundness
    Overt integrity tests estimate job applicants’ honesty by asking them directly what they think or feel about theft or about punishment of unethical behaviors.
  29. credible
    appearing to merit belief or acceptance
    Ethics training becomes even more credible when top managers teach the initial ethics classes to their subordinates who in turn teach their subordinates.
  30. obligation
    the social force that binds you to a course of action
    What makes it an ethical problem? Think in terms of rights, obligations, fairness, relationships, and integrity.
  31. constituent
    a citizen who is represented in a government by officials
    Identify the constituents. Who has been hurt? Who could be hurt? Who could be helped? Are they willing players, or are they victims?
  32. diagnose
    determine the nature of a problem or an illness
    Diagnose the situation. How did it happen in the first place? What could have prevented it? Is it going to get worse or better? Can the damage now be undone?
  33. option
    one of a number of things from which only one can be chosen
    Analyze your options. Imagine the range of possibilities. Limit yourself to the two or three most manageable.
  34. qualm
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    Could you disclose without qualm your decision to your boss, the CEO, the board of directors, your family, or society as a whole?
  35. shareholder
    someone who owns stock in a corporation
    By contrast, under the stakeholder model, management’s most important responsibility is the firm’s long-term survival (not just maximizing profits), which is achieved by satisfying the interests of multiple corporate stakeholders (not just shareholders).
  36. primary
    of first rank or importance or value
    Primary stakeholders are groups on which the organization depends for its long-term survival; they include shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, governments, and local communities.
  37. discretionary
    having the ability to act according to your own judgment
    Discretionary responsibilities pertain to the social roles that businesses play in society beyond their economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities.
  38. strategy
    an elaborate and systematic plan of action
    A company using a reactive strategy will do less than society expects. It may deny responsibility for a problem or fight any suggestions that the company should solve a problem. By contrast, a company using a defensive strategy would admit responsibility for a problem but would do the least required to meet societal expectations.
  39. progressive
    favoring or promoting change, often by government action
    A company using an accommodative strategy will accept responsibility for a problem and take a progressive approach by doing all that could be expected to solve the problem.
  40. profitable
    yielding material gain
    Being socially responsible usually won’t make a business less profitable. What this suggests is that the costs of being socially responsible—and those costs can be high, especially early on—can be offset by a better product or corporate reputation, which results in stronger sales or higher profit margins.
Created on Mon Oct 31 13:15:05 EDT 2016 (updated Sun Nov 13 17:23:45 EST 2016)

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