YALI Professionals Responsible Business Quiz

Quiz Questions

• 1.
  You are a manager at a local company. Your boss, Aaron, needs you to recruit an assistant to help manage some upcoming projects. Aaron is pressuring you to hire his nephew, Edwin, who is finishing up his economics degree. You have three other applicants you have interviewed that you believe are more qualified and more interested in this role, but you are worried about the repercussions from Aaron if you hire someone other than Edwin. What would you do?

  • A.
    Hire another applicant you interviewed and found to be most qualified and excited about the position. 
  • B.
    Hire Edwin — it is better to maintain a good relationship with your boss than make trouble with something like this.
  • C.
    State you no longer need an assistant and stop recruiting altogether to avoid the decision. 
• 2.
  You find out that your co-worker, Abass, has another co-worker clocking in for him at 7 a.m. every day. Abass does not actually arrive and start working until 10 a.m. What would you do once you found this information out?

  • A.
    Address this with each co-worker independently and encourage them to discuss potential solutions with your supervisor.  
  • B.
    Ignore it. Abass clocking in early doesn’t affect you directly. 
  • C.
    Report Abass to your supervisor and request for him to be fired.  
• 3.
  You work at an online shoe company. Your co-worker, Bahati, works in marketing. She discovered that it is easy to add reviews from customers to your web platform. You are not sure where Bahati has gotten these firsthand reviews as they get added to the website. You investigate to find that there is no record of these reviews, and she is fabricating them to make the organization look better. What would you do?

  • A.
    Provide her more interesting language for fabricated reviews to add to the website so that they appear more legitimate.  
  • B.
    Go straight to your boss and demand that Bahati be reprimanded for her actions.  
  • C.
    Encourage Bahati to talk to her supervisor. Help to delete the fabricated reviews and solicit genuine reviews.
• 4.
  You work at a local radio station covering local businesses and restaurants. You are tasked to cover a new restaurant opening up in your city. When you have finished your meal at this new location, the restaurant owners stop by your table and offer to cover your entire meal as well as to give you a large check, in hopes that you will give them positive coverage of their restaurant. What would you do?

  • A.
    Refuse the bribe and bring the issue up with your organization.  
  • B.
    Take the money and write a very positive review, and ask for more free meals at the restaurant.
  • C.
    Bring it up to your other news co-worker and have that person write a story about the bribery and report the restaurant.  
• 5.
  The textiles and clothing company where you work has not had good sales this year. The business needs to prove to investors that you have a strategy to increase sales. Your supervisor, Samirah, wants you to adjust the numbers in the annual financial report so that it looks like sales have been better than they actually were. What would you do?

  • A.
    Adjust the numbers in your report — you need the company to appear successful to keep your job.
  • B.
    Publish an honest report, address the issue with Samirah, and come up with solutions together to improve sales for the coming year to present to investors.
  • C.
    Publish an honest report and report to your investors that your boss is deceitful and that they should pull their money. 
• 6.
  Congratulations! You and your business partner, Lionel, have received a grant for your program to be implemented in local schools. You notice Lionel sporadically accounting for his spending months after it was received. You suspect he is accounting for a lot more than what you notice you need for the company’s development. What would you do?

  • A.
    Tell Lionel that he is no longer a part of your business and continue on your own.
  • B.
    Address the issue with Lionel and ask for a complete report of both his spending and yours.
  • C.
    Let it go and hope Lionel is utilizing the money appropriately — after all, he is your partner.
• 7.
  One of your employees, Josphat, at your communications consulting company has been working all week, developing a new logo for one of your clients. A member of his team, Londiwe, states that Josphat stole her idea for the initial graphic and took credit when starting the project. She is upset that her idea went unrecognized and she did not get to work on the project. What would you do?

  • A.
    Believe Londiwe and fire Josphat — taking credit for someone else’s work is unacceptable.
  • B.
    Tell Londiwe that she should have stood up for herself and demote her — advertising is a competitive industry, and it is important to advocate for yourself.
  • C.
    Communicate the issue with Londiwe and Josphat and find a solution together.
• 8.
  Your manager, Isaac, asked your co-worker, Corine, on a date and she said no. You notice Isaac ostracizing Corine, leaving Corine out of important meetings, and pushing her work to other members of the team. She shares with you that she is afraid of bringing it up to human resources and losing her job, but she cannot continue as is. What would you do?

  • A.
    Help Corine communicate these issues to the human resources department and find a solution.
  • B.
    Leave it alone — it is not your place to interfere. 
  • C.
    Tell Corine she should just go on a date with Isaac — it is not that big a deal.
• 9.
  You start working as a web developer at a cosmetics company, that is launching a new product soon. You find in some of your research that one of the ingredients has the potential to harm customers under certain conditions. You bring it up with your supervisor, Yvonne. However, due to the close time constraints, Yvonne wants to launch the product anyway without addressing the issue. How do you respond?

  • A.
    Ignore the issue and launch the new product. 
  • B.
    Quit immediately — you cannot work for a company that ignores customer safety.
  • C.
    Communicate with Yvonne the necessity to reassess the launch, providing more research documenting the ramifications.
• 10.
  Your tutoring company offers low-cost English lessons in local schools. Your co-worker, Benjamin, has left papers on his desk with information about his own private tutoring organization. He is using the same materials that your company uses but does so without your boss knowing. What would you do?

  • A.
    Inform Benjamin about what you have found and explain how his actions can damage the company and take work away from his colleagues.
  • B.
    Report Benjamin immediately and demand for him to be fired for the conflict of interest.
  • C.
    Ignore it. Benjamin may not be competing directly with your company for clients, so it’s probably not a big deal.
• 11.
  You work as an engineer with Fathia, one of your colleagues. Fathia, has a degree in engineering from a very well-regarded university in another country. Despite her education and qualifications, the other members of your team make comments that Fathia is not a good “cultural fit” for the team. They first cite her organizational skills, but the conversation quickly changes to how the way she wears her hair is “unprofessional” and how she doesn’t share the same background as your customers. Your teammates start changing the weekly meeting times without telling Fathia. How would you respond?

  • A.
    Suggest you also change the meeting spot so she does not catch on. 
  • B.
    Tell Fathia she should consider switching to another team where she fits in more.
  • C.
    Remind the team of her qualifications and contributions and educate them on implicit bias and the value of diversity. Make sure Fathia is notified of all meeting changes going forward.
• 12.
  Your co-worker, Juma, is often on his phone scrolling through Facebook during the workday at the law firm where you work. You also see him consistently using the private mode on his computer to read articles unrelated to your work. Juma often asks for extensions on his deadlines, which is negatively affecting your workload as well. What should you do?

  • A.
    Tell him to send you articles he finds most interesting. 
  • B.
    Suggest to Juma better ways to manage his time and consider having your human resources team send a reminder about company policies.
  • C.
    Tell your supervisor that Juma is misusing company time and should be moved to another team or be reprimanded.

Quiz Outcomes

• 1.
  Not Bad! 

  These scenarios are tricky and show that an ethical approach isn’t always so black and white. Now is a great time to recognize that when addressing ethical dilemmas and being a responsible business owner and professional, you may not be able to change everything, but you can start to make an impact with your own actions!
• 2.
  Congratulations! 

  You excelled at understanding how to take ethical approaches to challenging scenarios. You recognize that when addressing ethical dilemmas and being a responsible business owner and professional, you may not be able to change everything, but you can start to make an impact with your own actions!