Kerwin Pasia
Professor Danaher
Persuasive Theory
13 April 2014
An Ethical Dilemma: An Automobile Company’s Carelessness
Ethical standards can be defined as a set of rules, principles, and regulations that when followed, will promote values such as fairness, kindness, good behavior, and trust. They are codes of conduct that everyone lives by (Eastman, 2001). For example, many industries and businesses have developed their own set of ethical standards that appears to be meaningful to their organization. However, what happens when their ethical standards are violated knowingly? What impact does it have to those affected on such violation? The following example clearly violates the ethical standard that the company should have followed. Their lack of conscience to the safety of the buying public is unethical. They determined at the time that money was their priority instead of the concern for human life and safety. When it comes to manufacturing any products, it should be rest assured that they are built with a seal of quality. Therefore, building and selling an unsafe car is completely unethical.
For example, this scenario is about an automobile company that produced a compact car in order to compete with competitors in terms of price, design, and weight. Compared to their competitors, their prices were lower and they had a lightweight design which gave them an edge. However, they have one flaw that would put them in jeopardy. Resulting from the construction and placement of the gas tank, they realized that the car might have fire issues during production. They conducted a rear collision test before marketing their products and discovered that only three out of eleven tested have problems. Their engineers had to install safety dev...
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...good or bad and we are willing to pay the price and hold accountability for the actions we commit.
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References
Eastman, J. K. (2001). The Relationship between Ethical Ideology and Ethical Behavior Intentions: An Exploratory Look at Physicians' Responses to Managed Care Dilemmas. Journal of Business Ethics, 31(3), 209-224. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/eds/detail?vid=5&sid=130cadee-b6c4-4c44-afb0-033cf3dd4548@sessionmgr4004&hid=4210&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ==#db=bth&AN=12250402
Eidness, A. C. (2011). Confronting Ethical Issues in Practice: The Trial Lawyer's Dilemma. Family Law Quarterly, 45(1). Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/eds/detail?vid=10&sid=130cadee-b6c4-4c44-afb0-033cf3dd4548%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=63490930
Freedman, Monroe H., and Abbe Smith. Understanding Lawyers' Ethics. New Providence, NJ: LexisNexis, 2010. Print.
In certain situations it is difficult for a person to decide between a moral and immoral choice. In the field of health there are physicians and patients that may have two different mindsets. One may be a patient that believes a decision is moral, while a physician may think the decision is immoral. How can the physician stick to his beliefs and morals when he must make a choice to go against them or not?
The moral dilemma identified in the Lake Pleasant Bodies case is an attorney’s disturbing conflict with his competing rights to his client and as Badaracco (2009) states “…and his empathy for the victims’ families” (Badaracco, 2009, p. 6). In the case study, Attorney Frank Armani sympathizes with the father of a victim and questions divulging confidential information that would breech the attorney-client agreement with his client Frank Garrow. Additionally, the moral dilemma includes the overwhelming decisions Armani faced constructing a plausible defense for this client and at the same time setting aside his personal reservations regarding his clients guilt.
Since the industrial revolution, the field of engineering has allowed society to flourish through the development of technological advances at an exponential rate. Similar to other professionals, engineers are tasked with making ethical decisions, especially during the production and distribution processes of new inventions. One field that has encountered ethical dilemmas since its inception is the automotive industry. Today, the dawn of the autonomous, self-driving, vehicle is upon us. In this new-age mode of transportation, humans will be less responsible for decisions made on the road. With the wide adoption of autonomous vehicles, there exist a possibility to reduce traffic-related accidents. Even though computers have the ability
Ethics, in any form, provides a detailed verdict on what is considered right or wrong. This means that it provides assertions of what ought to be done and what should not. Ethics is also universal and affects anything in relation to individuals. These matters keep businesses from abusing consumers. Laws have even been enacted to enforce principles set forth by ethics. But, in some cases, scrutiny of the laws or their enforcements may be too loose and ineffective. This is evident in the case of the Japanese manufacturer Takata and their faulty airbags. While in other cases there may not be laws clarifying how to act in a specific setting, as in Todd Rutherford and his online reviewing company. These circumstances depend on personal ethics and
Since 15th century, barristers have been split up into two professions in United Kingdom, Barristers and Barristers. Barristers have traditionally been the people who research cases, deal with clients directly, and Barristers have had the rights of advocate in courts. Hence, Barristers' ethical duties are very important to the court and the client, and this is an essay to discuss the duties to the court, clients and conflicts in between.
Miller, Roger LeRoy., Meinzinger, Mary. Paralegal Today: The Legal Team At Work. Clifton Park, NY : Delmar Cengage Learning, 2010. Print
Healthcare executives who adhere to a professional code of ethics follow the mission and vision of the organization they work for. When healthcare executives “lose the sight of their mission and vision, or lose their ethical ground, have the tendency
Gedge, E., & Waluchow, W. (2012). Readings in health care ethics (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press.
One situation that demonstrates a legal and ethical dimension is shown in the idea of skipping the safety testing of the battery. The president is under pressure to maintain the market lead for Tri-star, failure to do so would find numerous employees get laid off. The president knows that a good battery would help them gain more worldwide customers and increase their market share. Thus, the president tasks the VP of engineering to develop a new battery in time for the launch of Tri-star’s flagship phone for next year. The vice president of engineering, Mr. Cutthroat, finds out that if they perform the safety test, the battery would not be ready for launch. Mr. Cutthroat comes up with the idea of skipping the safety test for the new battery they’ve developed to have it ready for the launch of the flagship phone. Tri-star is not required by law to safety test the batteries, but by skipping the safety test would endanger the consumers. While the company may not legally be responsible, whether or not they acted ethically is different. By skipping the safety test, they are not attempting to promote good consequences and instead are promoting bad consequences. So while they may not be held legally liable, they are definitely guilty of unethical behavior.
No, the fact that design flaws resulted in deaths makes the Ford Pinto completely in the wrong regardless of meeting the safety standards. Ethical standards were violated because there should be no flaws in the product ethically a company needs to guarantee to the best of their knowledge that there are no dangers in the product. Customers should be buying and trusting with the manufacturer selling a product that is safe and sound quality. Just meeting the standards alone in this case is unethical even though it may be a satisfactory goal for a manufacturer or company to achieve. The best company’s reputation and quality go hand in hand for maximum profits and for consumers to want to invest and trust in a company.
By attempting to boil down the lawyer’s actions to inflexible principles, you cheapen the profession and the normative content provided by their role. The most apt solution is to embrace the moral aspect of the lawyers role, providing as much guidance as possible in how to engage in this enterprise, in acceptance of the reality that this is the best that can be done. Whilst seeking a universal theory of lawyering is externally attractive due to a clear and universal prescription, the practical reality is that does not provide lawyers with adequate theory to make sense of a particular client’s
Jecker, N. (1990). Integrating medical ethics with normative theory: Patient advocacy and social responsibility. 11(2), 125-139.
Garrett, T. M., Baillie, H. W., & Garrett, R. M. (2010). Health care ethics: Principles and problems (5thed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Toyota issues in automotive industry resulted from a lack of moral and ethical obligations to loyal customers. In fact, people encounter ethics at one time or another. A business expectation is to act in manner upholding society values. According to authors Trevino and Nelson, (2004) states, “a set of moral principals or values, or the principals, norm, and standards of conduct governing a group or individual.” On the other hand, three ethical criteria determined in this discussion like obligation, moral ideas, and consequences which this article highlights an ethical dilemma with automobiles makers.