Sample TOEFL Multiple Choice Essay – Unethical Company

The Question

When employees feel that the management of their company is doing something wrong, what do you think is the best way for them to respond?

• Talking to the media
• Speaking to the management directly
• Discussing the problem with each other

Note

This essay follows our TOEFL Writing templates for independent essays.  Note that we have many more sample essays for you to read.

Special Offer: TOEFL Essay Evaluation and Scoring

You can now sign up to have your practice essays corrected and scored by a TOEFL expert!  This service is a great way to learn your current TOEFL level. Sign up today.

The Sample Essay

          It is critically important that companies behave ethically and responsibly at all times.  Personally, if I notice that the company which I work for is acting inappropriately I will discuss the issue with my coworkers.  I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay.

          First of all, a large group of determined employees can easily force a company to change its ways.  Modern businesses require a satisfied and efficient workforce, and if they do not have one they suffer immediate consequences.  This means that a group of determined employees can take collective action to ensure that their employers are ethical.  In such a situation, I would probably create a website to share my views of the problem and email the address to all of my colleagues.  The site would also include a private message board so we could talk about it privately. After reaching a consensus, we could share our opinions with the company’s management and demand specific changes.  It would be almost impossible for the company to reject our requests, as doing so might cause an undesirable escalation.  Collective action like a strike would certainly reduce the overall profitability of the company, which is something they would unquestionably like to avoid.

          Secondly, employees of an unethical  business can easily share news of its actions with the general public and, as a result, negatively affect its public image.  Nowadays, the media is reluctant to write critical stories about businesses.  This is because they are owned by large multinational corporations and therefore are extremely biased.  Each worker at my company, though, has a family and dozens of friends.  If I can convince them to talk about what is going on, the news will spread extremely quickly.  Accordingly, the company’s public image will suffer and its sales will decline.  In order to undo this kind of damage, the management will likely cease acting unethically.  Accordingly, the overall problem will be solved.  The other proposed methods of handling this dilemma would be much slower and inefficient, in comparison.

          In conclusion, I believe that the best way to encourage a firm we work for to behave ethically and morally is to talk about what is going on with fellow employees.  This is because collective action is always efficient, and workers can quickly spread stories about dishonest behavior. (389 words)