Eight ways business conduct goes wrong

Why a taxonomy

The MCQ's second half gives you a one-line scenario and asks what kind of wrong it is. A taxonomy makes that a matching exercise rather than a judgement call. This course uses eight categories of unethical business activity, adapted from the list in OpenStax's business text:

1. Taking what isn't yours — unauthorized use of someone else's property, however small.
2. Saying what you know is false — lying, false blame, misreported conversations.
3. Creating a false impression — letting someone believe what you know is untrue, without ever stating a falsehood.
4. Conflict of interest / buying influence — a duty influenced by potential personal gain, on either side of the transaction.
5. Hiding or divulging information — concealing what someone is entitled to know, or disclosing what you are bound to keep.
6. Taking unfair advantage — exploiting someone's lack of knowledge or bargaining position.
7. Improper personal conduct — behaviour outside the job that affects the work or the reputation.
8. Abuse of power — mistreating those you have authority over.

(The source's list runs to eleven; the three not carried here — permitting organisational abuse, violating internal rules, and condoning others' unethical acts — are covered by later lessons on the duty to report and on responding at work.)

Worked example — eight scenarios, eight labels

1. A co-op student adds 40 km to a mileage claim, "because the rate is low anyway" → taking what isn't yours. The size of the claim is irrelevant; the category is about whose property it is.
2. A junior tells the partner that the client "confirmed the figures by phone" when no call took place → saying what you know is false.
3. A client asks whether the review is finished; it is not, and the junior says "we're in good shape" and lets the client believe it is → creating a false impression. No lie was told. The violation is the belief the junior chose not to correct.
4. A purchasing manager steers a printing contract to his cousin's shop and receives a "thank-you" bonus → conflict of interest / buying influence, on both sides.
5. A co-op student at a firm tells a roommate that a client's results are "much better than the market expects" the week before release → hiding or divulging information — a confidentiality breach (and, as the next lesson shows, potentially insider tipping).
6. A salesperson sells a newcomer a five-year contract they clearly do not understand, at a rate the salesperson knows is uncompetitive → taking unfair advantage.
7. A staff member arrives at client meetings visibly hungover, repeatedly → improper personal conduct.
8. A manager corrects a junior loudly in front of the client, every time → abuse of power.

Six to classify yourself

• Using the firm's courier account for personal parcels. (Taking what isn't yours.)
• Not mentioning to a buyer that the van's transmission was replaced after a flood. (Creating a false impression — and, for a car, likely also illegal.)
• A supplier's account manager offers a junior analyst hockey tickets during a vendor evaluation. (Conflict of interest / buying influence — the next lesson's case.)
• Posting a client's draft results in a group chat "just to show off". (Divulging information.)
• Charging an elderly client for services the firm knows she does not need. (Unfair advantage.)
• Assigning all weekend work to the one junior who never pushes back. (Abuse of power.)

Two traps

First, size: a padded $40 claim is in category 1 exactly as a padded $4,000 claim is. The category is defined by the act, not the amount; the amount affects the penalty, not the label. Second, silence: creating a false impression needs no words. Letting a client keep a belief you could correct, when they are relying on you, is a violation — and it is the one that professionals fall into most, because it feels like doing nothing.