Test Bank for Modern Business Ethics
1st Edition by Corbin
ISBN: 9781529672510
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Testbank
Chapter 1: Introducing business ethics
1. The term ‘business ethics’is sometimes called an oxymoron because
a. Ethics and profits always go hand in hand
b. It combines two concepts perceived as contradictory
c. Businesses operate exclusively for social good
d. Ethics is rarely discussed in business
Ans: B
2.According to common cynicism, why do businesses act ethically?
a. To enhance their public image
b. To avoid legal trouble
c. Due to personal values of managers
d. Only if it increases profits
Ans: D
3. Which of the following statements best reflects the sceptical view (addressed early in the chapter)?
a. Business ethics is only relevant to managers
b. Companies always follow the law
c. Businesses only act ethically if forced to do so
d. Profit and ethics are synonymous
Ans: C
4. Early discussions about business conduct can be traced back to:
a.Ancient civilisations
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
b. Modern economics
c. Digital technology
d. Industrial management
Ans:A
5. Which development significantly contributed to the rise of business ethics as a recognised academic discipline?
a. The invention of the printing press
b. Growth of multinational corporations
c. The popularity of social media
d. Introduction of labour unions
Ans: B
6. Why is understanding the historical context of business ethics important?
a. It reveals the origins of accounting practices
b. It helps explain current ethical standards and challenges
c. It shows how profits increased over time
d. It identifies the first business leaders
Ans: B
7. Which is a key influence in shaping business ethics debates today?
a.Ancient religious texts
b. Shipping innovations
c. New office design trends
d. The legacy of high-profile corporate scandals
Ans: D
8. The Enron scandal is significant to business ethics because it exemplifies:
a. Effective corporate governance
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
b. The consequences of ethical failure
c. How to increase shareholder value
d. The benefits of risk-taking
Ans: B
9. What was the main outcome for employees and shareholders due to the Enron scandal?
a. Increased job opportunities
b. Improved corporate reputation
c. Higher bonuses for executives
d. Loss of jobs and savings
Ans: D
10. Theranos is an example of:
a. Transparent reporting
b. Medical innovation success
c. The dangers of fraudulent claims
d. Effective leadership communication
Ans: C
11. Which is a leading modern technological challenge in business ethics discussed in this chapter?
a. Manual bookkeeping
b.Algorithmic bias in digital systems
c. Using paper forms
d. Hiring based on intuition
Ans: B
12. Environmental stewardship as a business ethics issue involves:
a. Maximising quarterly profits in the context of environmental spending
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
b. Managing data usage
c. Taking responsibility for ecological impacts
d. Focusing on product quality when they use natural materials
Ans: C
13. Which of the following is a key ethical challenge for businesses in the digital age?
a. Ensuring workplace diversity
b. Navigating data privacy and security
c. Ensuring appropriate employee benefits
d.All of these
Ans: D
14. The outcome of recognising racial and gender equity in business ethics often appears as:
a.An absence of workplace diversity
b. Equal access to promotion and fair treatment
c.Afocus on improved productivity
d. Outsourcing jobs internationally
Ans: B
15.Astakeholder approach to business focuses mostly on:
a. Increasing only shareholder wealth
b. Environmental effects
c. Employee participation
d. Engaging with multiple parties affected by the business
Ans: D
16. Which best describes the shift in modern business roles?
a. From pure profit pursuit to multidimensional responsibility
b. From ethical conduct to strict law compliance
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics SAGE Publishing, 2026
c. From community service to outsourcing
d. From innovation to tradition
Ans:A
17. Studying business ethics can help future leaders to:
a. Understand ethical issues in decision-making
b. Become better leaders
c. Develop strong ethical reasoning skills
d.All of these
Ans: D
18. For organisational success, ethics education is important primarily because:
a. It offers a competitive advantage through trust and integrity
b. It teaches how to avoid all risks
c. It improves innovation
d. It prohibits rule-breaking
Ans:A
19. Why might business ethics be important for career development?
a. It increases the chances of ethical leadership roles
b. It ensures promotion
c. It reduces the need for ongoing learning
d. It directly improves communication skills
Ans:A
20. Strong ethical understanding supports business success by:
a. Impacting employee engagement
b. Encouraging transparency and trust
c. Restricting innovation
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Teaching guide
This Teaching Guide is structured chapter-by-chapter to align with Modern Business Ethics.
Introduction
Modern Business Ethics provides students with a rigorous yet accessible introduction to ethical reasoning in contemporary business contexts. The book treats ethics not as compliance or reputation management, but as a practical skill grounded in philosophical reasoning, historical awareness and real-world application.
This Teaching Guide supports lecturers and tutors in designing lectures, seminars, tutorials and assessments around the text. Each chapter can be taught independently, allowing flexibility across business, management, economics and interdisciplinary programmes.
Suggestions throughout the guide encourage discussion, critical engagement and reflective learning. The guide also foregrounds equity, inclusion and decolonising perspectives, inviting instructors to encourage students to interrogate whose values, voices and interests are centred in business ethics debates.
Chapter 1: Introducing business ethics
Chapter overview and aim
Introduces business ethics as a field of study, addressing scepticism about ethics in business, tracing its historical development and establishing why ethical reasoning matters in contemporary business.
Teaching suggestions
Begin with the opening anecdote about business ethics as an oxymoron to prompt discussion. Ask students to identify a business ethics scandal they recognise and why it matters. Emphasise distinctions between legal, ethical and profitable behaviour. Address the common student belief that ethics is simply common sense.
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Assessment suggestions
Short reflective essay on why business ethics matters. Exam question asking students to explain how business ethics emerged as a discipline.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Encourage students to introduce business ethics examples from non-Western contexts. Prompt interrogation of dominant corporate narratives and whose interests are prioritised.
Chapter 2: Moral reasoning and ethical frameworks
Chapter overview and aim
Introduces moral reasoning and four ethical frameworks – utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics and Ciceronian ethics – using workplace surveillance and privacy as a core dilemma.
Teaching suggestions
Use seminars to apply each framework to the same case study. Assign different frameworks to small groups and ask them to defend outcomes. Emphasise that frameworks guide reasoning rather than provide fixed answers.
Assessment suggestions
Case analysis applying two ethical frameworks. Short written comparison of strengths and limits of moral theories.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Encourage critique of Western dominance in ethical theory. Discuss how ethical reasoning may vary across cultures.
Case study teaching notes
The employee privacy vs productivity case works well for role-play. Encourage attention to consent, power and proportionality.
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Chapter 3: Stockholders and stakeholders
Chapter overview and aim
Explores shareholder primacy, stakeholder theory, CSR and alternative models of corporate responsibility through contemporary global cases.
Teaching suggestions
Run a Friedman vs Freeman classroom debate. Ask students to map stakeholders for a familiar company. Highlight underlying assumptions about profit and responsibility.
Assessment suggestions
Essay evaluating shareholder primacy. Group stakeholder-analysis presentation.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Emphasise non-Western business models and development contexts. Encourage critical engagement with CSR rather than celebrating it uncritically.
Case study teaching notes
Safaricom and Tata cases work well for examining stakeholder trade-offs and local context.
Chapter 4: Ethical leadership and management
Chapter overview and aim
Examines ethical leadership theories, organisational culture, managerial responsibility and ethical decision-making in everyday management.
Teaching suggestions
Ask students to reflect on leaders they trust or distrust. Introduce ethical fading and pressure from organisational systems.
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Assessment suggestions
Leadership ethics reflection paper. Case analysis using a structured ethical decision-making model.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Challenge hero-leader narratives. Discuss leadership across cultural and organisational settings.
Chapter 5: Equality and diversity
Chapter overview and aim
Explores equality, justice, diversity, intersectionality, workplace republicanism and affirmative action as ethical issues in business.
Teaching suggestions
Use Rawls’ veil of ignorance as an in-class exercise. Encourage structured discussion rather than personal disclosure. Focus on systemic rather than individual explanations.
Assessment suggestions
Essay debating affirmative action. Policy critique of a corporate diversity initiative.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Centre intersectionality and feminist critiques. Highlight voices and perspectives from marginalised groups.
Case study teaching notes
The New Belgium Brewing case supports discussion of democratic workplaces and shared ownership.
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Chapter 6: Mental health at work
Chapter overview and aim
Explores mental health as an ethical workplace issue, including stress, burnout, quiet quitting and employer responsibility.
Teaching suggestions
Establish norms for respectful discussion. Avoid requiring personal disclosure. Frame mental health as structural rather than individual failure.
Assessment suggestions
Ethical workplace wellbeing policy design task. Low-stakes reflective writing.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Discuss stigma and mental health across cultural contexts. Challenge productivity-focused wellbeing programmes.
Case study teaching notes
Quiet quitting provides a useful lens for interpreting organisational ethics.
Chapter 7: Business ethics and the environment
Chapter overview and aim
Examines environmental responsibility, sustainability and climate ethics in business decision-making.
Teaching suggestions
Use contemporary environmental controversies. Discuss responsibility beyond compliance and greenwashing.
Assessment suggestions
Ethical analysis of a sustainability strategy. Exam question on environmental responsibility.
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Highlight environmental injustice and Global South impacts.
Chapter 8: International concerns
Chapter overview and aim
Explores ethical challenges in global business including labour standards, cultural relativism and multinational responsibility.
Teaching suggestions
Discuss outsourcing, supply chains and labour conditions. Challenge cultural relativist defences of unethical conduct.
Assessment suggestions
Multinational ethics case study. Essay on limits of cultural relativism.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Centre perspectives of host communities and post-colonial economies.
Chapter 9: Business ethics meets politics
Chapter overview and aim
Examines the relationship between business, political power, lobbying, regulation and democratic accountability.
Teaching suggestions
Analyse corporate political influence and regulatory capture. Discuss appropriate limits of corporate power.
Assessment suggestions
Policy brief on corporate political responsibility. Essay on business and democracy.
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Examine post-colonial political economies and global power asymmetries.
Chapter 10: On technology
Chapter overview and aim
Explores ethical challenges created by AI, automation, surveillance technologies and digital work.
Teaching suggestions
Use familiar digital tools to illustrate ethical risks. Discuss consent, bias and surveillance.
Assessment suggestions
Ethical impact assessment of a technology. Scenario-based short answers.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Analyse technological bias and global digital labour exploitation.
Chapter 11: Ethical issues in marketing and advertising
Chapter overview and aim
Examines persuasion, manipulation, consumer vulnerability and ethical limits of advertising.
Teaching suggestions
Analyse real advertisements encountered by students. Discuss persuasion versus manipulation.
Assessment suggestions
Campaign ethics analysis. Creative critique assignment.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Explore global consumer exploitation and cultural norms in advertising.
Corbin, Modern Business Ethics
SAGE Publishing, 2026
Chapter 12: Data ethics
Chapter overview and aim
Focuses on privacy, consent, big data, surveillance capitalism and ethical data governance.
Teaching suggestions
Use everyday data practices as discussion starters. Emphasise power asymmetries and consent.
Assessment suggestions
Data ethics policy critique. Case-based ethical analysis.
Suggestions on how to teach a decolonised curriculum
Discuss data colonialism and global data extraction.