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Corporate Governance
The system by which businesses are directed and controlled
1. Shareholders
a. decide who is to serve on the Board of Directors. b. approve/reject bylaw changes
2. Board of Directors
a. creates/approves corporate policies b. chooses Board Chair c. approves/disapproves recommendations by the Audit, Compensation and Corporate Governance Committees
3. Executive Committee
a. chooses the agenda for Board meets. b. approves major contracts
Outside Board Member (director)
One who owns stock but derives no income from the organization other than dividend income
Inside Board Member (director)
One who derives an income from the organization other than dividend income
Two-Tiered Board
One where the executive committee makes all the real decisions leaving the other members of the board with no real power
Vested Stakeholder
An organization or individual with a claim to the organization's future earnings
Stakeholders
Vested interests as well as those who are or can be affected by the operations of the organization
Say on Pay
The right of shareholders to have a direct vote regarding executive compensation
Special Purpose Entities (SPE)
limited partnerships or companies created to fund or manage risks associated with specific assets
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Create a governmental accounting board and mandatory compliance with a broad range of accepted accounting procedures relating to the management, reporting, and auditing responsibilities of businesses and financial institutions
The Problem of Agency
the use of one's decision making power to direct the resources of an organization to one's personal interests
Chinese Fire Wall
Where one division in a firm cannot ethically reveal "material" information to another division
Mosaic Analysis
A method used by stock market analysts to gather information about a corporation's character and financial stability
Passive Unethical Behavior
The deliberate hiding of material financial or product information so as not to harm sales volume
Deception
This involves, misleading language, illusions, hidden costs, and the obscuring of disadvantages
Caveat Emptor
This makes consumers responsible for transactions on the grounds that they should know all vendors are dishonest
Churning
sales commissions are increased by a broker by buying and selling a client's assets more often than needed
Planned Obsolescence
a product's usage time is deliberately shortened
Unsuitability
a good or financial product is sold even though the seller knows it will not meet the buyer's needs
Bundling
high profit but less desired products and services are packaged with high demand goods
Dependence Creation
companies create a market instead of servicing an existing market
Staple
A product whose life cycle can span many generations
Fad
A public desire for product whose use is so superficial the desire is based more on whim than need
Price Manipulation
we encounter underpricing, discriminatory pricing, and price fixing
Underpricing
a large company engages in price manipulation to drive a smaller competitor out of business
Discriminatory pricing
an industry engages in price manipulation by lobbying for laws which allow them to sell their product to certain buyers at higher costs
Price fixing
a company engages in price manipulation by conspiring with a competitor to divide a market
The marginal utility of money
The increased quality to life, or financial return, brought on by the last dollar spent
The marginal utility of a good
The value to a consumer created by a good's last incremental unit of consumption
Shadow pricing
The comparing of free market purchasing practices in order to assign dollar values to quality-of-life goods or even to life itself
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Promotes ten elements common to many business codes of conduct
UN Global Compact
Promotes international "good corporate citizenship"
Concepts and Principles
Underlie a code's guidelines
General Policies
General recommendations that tell how, in general situations one is to apply the code's principles
Specific Policies
General recommendations are analyzed into specific activities and how they are to be handled
Passive Corruption
No acceptance of unsolicited gifts
Active Corruption
No giving of solicited or unsolicited gifts or a request made for a gift in a quid pro quo arrangement
A failure in reliability
a. skips meetings or is chronically late b. can't get reports in on time
A failure in initiative
a. never supererogates b. needs pushed even for the required
Supererogation
To do more than is required
A failure in responsibility
a. tends to blame others for all errors b. contributes little to team assignments
A failure in maturity
a. more attracted to play than work b. generally disorganized, messy
A failure in sensitivity
a. gossipy and critical of others b. arrogant, rude, or disrespectful
A failure in loyalty
a. defiant to organizational rules b. has a reputation as a job-jumper
Teleological honor
The view that businesses and professionals owe it to themselves and others to "be all they can be"
Hedonism
the view that pleasure and happiness are the highest goods
Epicureanism
The view that pleasure and happiness are best attained through friendship, liberty, and simplicity in the material goods of life
Maximalism
the view that any proper action is worthy of being carried out to its fullest extent
Proactive CSR
The actions of an organization that are targeted towards the achievement of a social benefit over and above maximizing profits for its shareholders and meeting all its legal obligations
Passive CSR
The perspective that the only obligation of a corporation is to maximize profits for its shareholders in the provision of goods and services that meet the needs of their customers
Proactive Approach
The perspective that a corporation has an obligation to society over and above the expectation of its shareholders
Pre- Depression Model
Pursuit of profit is constrained by an obligation to do no harm to others
Market failure
the inability of a sales transaction to include the full cost of a good or service
Post-depression Model
Producers are best viewed as social creations organized to serve social goals through government regulation (Friedman)
Contemporary Model for CSR
Producers should be proactive in making their community a better place to live
Market failure awareness
Companies often create profits from activities that create costs for third parties
Changed corporate image
More and more the public sees corporate profits as primarily going to its officers and the rich
Sustainability
There is now the realization that natural resources and habitats are being destroyed at a record pace by perfectly legal corporate activities
Globalization
There is now the realization that Western businesses potentially profit from foreign unprotected workers and environments
Failure of the public sector
The public is losing confidence in government's ability to correct local community problems
Libertarianism
the view that individuals should, as much as possible, be free of government and social initiatives
Libertarian Robert Nozick's entitlement theory
The distribution of goods should be made, not by a a princple, but by the validity of prior events
Free Enterprise
Economic system where the decision as to what is to be produced is determined by individual citizens allowed to own the tools of production
Free markets
Economic activity where the decision as to what is to be purchased is determined by individual citizens allowed to keep the major portion of their income
Adam Smith's invisible hand
The collective good is maximized when each individual is allowed to pursue his or her own self interest within the law
Pareto Improvement
Any free market exchange of goods which makes both parties better off
Pareto Optimality
That point in free markets where the exchange of goods is so efficient that one more exchange would make someone feel worse off
Capitalism
Free market system using money as an exchanged commodity
Usury
The rental of money at unfairly high interest rates
The labor theory of value
the view that profits generated by capitalism are unethical in that only labor creates wealth
Socialism
Economic system where the decision as to what is to be produced is determined by a government allocating the tools of production to itself and its own contractors
Communism
View that for socialism to work government must also direct individual career choices
Zero-Sum Game
An exchange of goods which makes one party better off and one worse off
Karl Marx's
According to ability to each according to need
John Rawl's Veil of Ignorance
One should promote a society in which he or she would want to live regardless of his or her status at birth
Egalitarianism
The view that society should promote the equal treatment of every citizen
Social Justice Theory (generic)
The view that government, business, and professional ethics should serve the goal of equal opportunity
Social Justice Theory (managerial)
The view that every economic right granted by a society carries with it an economic responsibility to that society

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