Directions: In the following passage, some of the words have been left out, each of which is indicated by a number. Find the suitable word from the options given against each number and fill up the blanks with appropriate words to make the paragraph meaningful.
Ethics concern an individual’s moral judgements about right and wrong. Decisions taken within an organization may be made by individuals or groups, but whoever makes them will be influenced by the culture of the company. The decision to behave ethically is a moral one; employees must decide what they think is the right course of action. This may involve rejecting the route that would lead to the biggest short-term profit. Ethical issues include the rights and duties between a company and its employees, suppliers, customers and neighbours, its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders. Issues concerning relations between different companies include hostile take-over and industrial espionage. Related issues include governance; corporate; political contributions; legal issues such as the ethical debate over introducing a crime of corporate manslaughter; and the marketing of corporations’ ethics policies.
Business ethics reflects the philosophy of business, one of whose aims is to determine the fundamental purposes of a company. If a company’s purpose is to maximize shareholder returns, then sacrificing profits to other concerns is a violation of its fiduciary responsibility. Business ethics is also known as corporate ethics, a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. Business ethics has both normative and descriptive dimensions. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. Academics attempting to understand business behaviour employ descriptive methods. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the interaction of profit-maximizing behaviour with non-economic concerns. Ethical behaviour and corporate social responsibility can bring significant benefits to a business. For example, they may: attract customers to the firm’s products, thereby boosting sales and profits. It makes employees want to stay with the business, reduce labour turnover and therefore increase productivity. It attracts more employees wanting to work for the business, reduce recruitment costs and enable the company to get the most talented employees and also attract investors and keep the company’s share price high, thereby protecting the business from takeover.
While unethical behaviour or a lack of corporate social responsibility, by comparison, may damage a firm’s reputation and make it less appealing to stakeholders. Unethical behaviour can also result in bad publicity, resulting in a bad name that will always be associated with the company even if they attempt to utilize a more ethical code of conduct. If a company has unethical behaviour and is charged by the courts, they can wind up paying fines, court fees and may even receive some jail time, many companies eventually go bankrupt and close their doors due to the high cost of unethical behaviours. Unethical behaviour also decreases productivity of a company. If you are working in a company with bad ethical behaviours, it is difficult for the employees to trust each other, or their supervisors. When people work in an environment where they do not trust anyone, they are not going to do their best work, if they continue to work there at all. Unethical behaviour can cause employees to lose the faith in the company and become more likely to call in sick more often or not even show up at all. Once a company is known for having unethical behaviours, the effects can be permanent. All of the years spent building a good reputation can be quickly torn down with only one unethical incident, destroying the company’s reputation possibly forever.
1. What is meant by Manslaughter ?
1) A kind of heinous crime
2) It's all about foul play.
3) Legally killing of one human being by another.
4) Killing without malicious forethought
5) None of these
2. What is/are the dimensions of Business ethics ?
1) Corporate ethics
2) Applied ethics or professional ethics
3) Normative and descriptive
4) 1) and 2)
5) None of these
3. What can be the worst impact of unethical behaviour in corporate world ?
1) It can reduce the loyalty of customer towards the product.
2) It will reduce productivity.
3) It may damage firm's reputation and make it less appealing to stake holders.
4) A company can be charged by the counts and order to close down it with a fine or jail or both. Thus, company becomes insolvent.
5) Both 1 and 3
4. Once a company is known for having unethical behaviours, the effect can be-
1) Permanent
2) Negligible
3) Determined
4) Partial
5) None of these
5. Which of the following is definitely true in the context of the passage ?
1) Profit maximization directly proportional to ethical behaviour.
2) People having ethical behaviour always in loss at their working place.
3) Corporate culture does not understand business behaviour.
4) Both 2 and 3
5) None of these
Direction : Choose the word which is most nearly the SAME in meaning as the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
6. FIDUCIARY
1) Employee
2) Depositary
3) Guardian
4) Collector
5) Store keeper
7. ESPIONAGE
1) Spying
2) Information
3) Reforms
4) Norms
5) Requirement
8. TORN DOWN
1) Restored
2) Solvent
3) Bulldoze
4) End
5) Demolish
Direction : Choose the word which is most OPPOSITE in meaning of the word printed in bold as used in the passage.
9. WIND-UP
1) Start
2) Neglect
3) Conclude
4) Unsettled
5) Normalized
10. BANKRUPT
1) Successful
2) Saved
3) Rich
4) Solvent
5) Complete
Answers:
01. 4
02. 3
03. 4
04. 1
05. 1
06. 2
07. 1
08. 5
09. 1
10. 4