Professional Ethics & Governance Flashcards
7 cards from real CSM practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Professional Ethics & Governance flashcards as text
A strategic manager discovers that a colleague is sharing confidential merger plans with a competitor. Which ethical principle is being violated?
Answer: Fiduciary duty and confidentiality
Sharing confidential merger plans violates fiduciary duty, which requires acting in the best interests of the organization and maintaining confidentiality of privileged information.
In corporate governance, the 'tone at the top' principle refers to which of the following?
Answer: The ethical culture and values modeled by senior leadership
Tone at the top refers to the ethical climate and culture that senior leaders establish through their behavior, decisions, and values, which cascades throughout the organization.
Which governance mechanism is specifically designed to prevent a single individual from having unchecked authority over critical decisions?
Answer: Segregation of duties
Segregation of duties divides critical tasks among multiple individuals to reduce the risk of error or fraud by ensuring no single person controls an entire process.
A CSM practitioner is asked to present overly optimistic projections to secure investor funding. The ethical response is to:
Answer: Refuse to participate and report the request to compliance
Presenting knowingly misleading projections to investors constitutes fraud; the ethical response is to refuse and escalate to compliance or legal counsel.
The concept of 'duty of care' in strategic governance requires board members to:
Answer: Make informed decisions with reasonable diligence
Duty of care obligates board members to act with the diligence, care, and skill that a reasonably prudent person would exercise when making decisions on behalf of the organization.
Which of the following best describes a whistleblower protection policy in an ethical governance framework?
Answer: Protection for employees who report misconduct in good faith
Whistleblower protection policies shield employees who report suspected wrongdoing in good faith from retaliation, encouraging ethical transparency.
In ethics frameworks, 'normative ethics' is primarily concerned with:
Answer: Establishing what actions are morally right or wrong
Normative ethics focuses on establishing standards and principles that prescribe how individuals and organizations ought to act morally.