1a). Breach in individual rights is evident in the case of ex-Lockheed manager Kenneth Branch who unlawfully gained access to “25000 documents containing proprietary technical and cost information of Lockheed”. This concerns Lockheed’s copyright and privacy issue. Distributive injustice is shown in the investigations that proved male employees were paid more relatively to their female counterparts. It is also evident in the scandal involving ex-CEO Harry and a female vice president; Harry is inconsistent towards the company’s code of conduct which he wants his employees to uphold. Due to their personal relationship, she might have gained exclusive rewards and privileges which her colleagues could not enjoy. Lastly, by holding unlawful job negotiations with a Pentagon official, the Boeing former financial officer was seen to be breaching the utilitarianism principle. Moreover, concealing of the findings of the internal studies regarding gender’s pay further illustrates this ethical lapse in Boeing. 1b). The author felt that Boeing is plagued by bad company norms. Previous CEOs were people with low ethical sensitivity who had not been leading by example. Stonecipher committed an ethical lapse by having a relationship with an employee while Philip and Stonecipher travelled in luxurious business jet with personal handlers. Subconsciously, they were conveying a message across the company: Boeing tolerates ethical lapse; power and privileges are entitlements for higher ranking staff. McNerney agrees that bureaucracy has given higher ranking staff too much autonomy such that breaching ethical codes can be overlooked since little or none in the company can penalize them. The company has a culture of unquestioning when something wrong surfaced in the company. Take for example the Lockheed documents incident, where the 25000 documents were seen in the company for nearly 3 years before someone voiced his concerns regarding it. This unhealthy culture not only allows unethical practices to prevail, it also hinders company’s growth. Strong internal rivalry between the after-merged Boeing and McDonnell Douglas Corp is also contributing to company’s ethical scandals. As competition between each party gets stiffer, employees might tend to resort to ethical breaches to gain competitive advantages so as to outshine each other. I certainly agree to the author and McNerney that the unethical dysfunctional company norm is the root cause of the ethical issue. It is this norm created by the predecessors who never set good ethical examples that influences the employees. They believed the politically safest way of executing tasks would be mimicking how their superiors get their jobs done.
The reason I chose to write about this company McDonnell Douglas is because I felt that what they did was appalling and demonic. They dehumanized the passengers and only seen profit margins. One may say that McDonnell Douglas imps did not know the meaning of the word “solidarity”: Solidarity is a principle of Catholic Social Teaching. This principle means the firm and preserving determination to commit oneself to the common good. This principle incorporates other principles like Human Dignity, Community, Common Good, Stewardship, and Option for the Poor, that is what we are to demonstrate in our actions. This principle does not always come into play with many corporations; Furthermore when things like this come into play, one may say that a company is participating in unethical business practice. This is the reason why an American commercial aircraft industry company named McDonnell Douglas failed to reach their full potential in designing aircrafts. Their lack of ethical appropriate behavior has shown many that the expense of a change of a product is more important than losing lives over something that could have been prevented. There are three ways this situation could have been avoided but yet was not: First, finding an ethical way of putting the consumer long term goals first and increasing profitability (ex. maintaining a good company image). Secondly, look at the short term effect of being unethical, and receiving high profitability and long-term effect of being caught and having to file bankruptcy finally; McDonnell Douglas has an ethical responsibility for the lives of the people who use their product. McDonnell Douglas had a responsibility to the people to provide them a quick trouble free flight to and from their chosen...
Their organizational initiatives are often self-serving; however, the emerging workforce isn’t motivated by selfish managers. This selfish behavior often turns into unethical conduct. Unethical dealings in the workplace are always wrong. It is crucial to promote ethical behavior. Everyone must understand that once caught, unethical behavior is not just a problem for those directly involved, it is everyone’s problem.
Boeing has had its problems when it comes to ethics. Lawmakers question Boeing’s ethical commitments. (Mandel,2006) This on the heels of two separate charges involving Boeing.
Where the articles differ is how these play into ethics in an organization. The Organizational Determinants of Ethical Dysfunctionality article points to the vertical hierarchy as the main driver for unethical behavior. The larger the workplace and the further ethic safety nets are from the wrong doers offers opportunity for unethical behavior. Also, the more dysfunctional the organization, the more prevelant the unethical behavior within the organization. Additionally, the article suggests that unethical behavior has a contagion factor as well, spreading to other organizations within the same geographic area. This article differs for the Virtuous Persons and Virtuous Actions as the structure of the organization and not the individual is the true culprit of ethical choices. The Virtuous Persons and Virtuous Actions article takes a more philosophical approach to ethics pointing to the individual and his or her virtues (gratitude for
Unethical strategies and business behavior with a company can cause issue that effect all involved, company and non-company personal.
Different levels of breach among different levels of management can cause a lack of concern for ethics as the level of trust between manager and subordinate differ in the amount (Mclean, Litzky, Holderness, 2015). Ultimately, an employee with a high threshold of trust will be more affected by a lack of ethical behavior from their manager than that of a lower trusting employee with less of a relationship with their manager (Mclean, Litzky, Holderness, 2015). The other disconnect is that can occur is the dislike for the company an employee works for (Mclean, Litzky, Holderness, 2015). Organizational cynicism is caused by the negative attitude towards the company and in turn causes the employee to disregard the rules and regulations. Employees who have high levels of corporate distrust will be more inclined to have organizational cynicism (Mclean, Litzky, Holderness,
Many other businesses may not want to do business as the company was involved with immoral behavior. The unethical business practices of the company will also gain exposure in the media and to the public (Nicol, 2015, n.p). Employees no longer keep unethical activities of the company to themselves. As a whistleblower, they may be perceived as a traitor, but in this case the senior executives are being traitors. They are taking money from immoral behavior and tarnishing the name of the company (Nicol, 2015, n.p).
In short, it was determined that communication ethics lay at the crux of these cases and others (Neher, W. W. Sandin, P.J., 2007, p. 253). In the process, these companies reputation is been damage and spend millions of dollars to repair their image and spending millions of more on court battles. In the public response, Enron scandal rippled through financial markets an Enron stock fell from $85 to 30 cents in 2001 which can be attribute to communication in the work place (Neher, W. W. Sandin, P.J., 2007, p.
What role do you think culture played at Enron? Give five specific examples of things Enron’s CEO could have done to create a healthy ethical culture. It has been stated that ethical culture can be measured by the following key attributes. “Employees must feel a sense of responsibility, and accountability for their actions and the actions of their peers. Employees must feel secure enough to raise issues, and concerns freely without fear of retaliation. Most importantly managers must lead by example, and model the behaviors that they demand from their employees.” (Dessler, pg.489) The following are examples, of things Enron’s CEO could have done to promote a strong ethical culture. First there must be a checks and balance system put in motion. For example, Office of Inspector General sole purpose is, “OIG’s mission is to (1) conduct and manage independent audit, evaluations, and investigations concerning Agency programs; (2) prevent and detect against Agency fraud, waste, and abuse; and (3) promote economy and efficiency, and effectiveness in Agency programs and operations.” (EEOC, OIG Semiannual report to Congress) “OIG is conducting ongoing investigations in several field offices involving prohibited personnel practices, ethics violations, conflicts of interest, time and attendance fraud, falsification of government records, misuse of government vehicles,
The first written case is about one of the largest aerospace firm called Boeing. Boeing the largest firm provided services for the military and its industry buyers all around the world. This company made many goods like the jets, helicopter and other things that are necessary for the military industry. (page 111). Boeing was a very successful company that’s net income was worth 1.5 billion dollars and had about 153,000 people working under this corporation, which was the worlds largest company. The big issue came about with this company was caught doing something wrong more than twice.
Ultimately, the entire business can be brought down by one poor ethical choice. Good employees see others not following ethical guidelines and it causes them to lose faith in their coworkers. Bad employees see the same thing, then believe they can get away with it. Both scenarios can cause horrible things to happen very quickly. It is even worse when employees see management taking the wrong path.
One ethical issue that has impacted the Boeing Company in recent years is public saf...
Ethics is the responsibility of each individual person, but starts with the CEO and the Board of Directors, setting the right tone at the top and moves down through the organization, including setting the tone in the middle. A company’s culture and ethic standards start at the top, not from the bottom. Employees will almost always behave in the manner that they think management expects them, and it is foolish for management to pretend otherwise (Scudder). One of the CEO’s most important jobs is to create, foster, and communicate the culture of the organization. Wrongdoings or improper behavior rarely occurs in a void, leaders typically know when someone is compromising the company
When an ethical dilemma arises within an organization, it is difficult to separate right and wrong from what is best for the majority. Sometimes the answer is not a simple “yes” or “no.” In 2002, Enron Corporation showed us just that. By 2002, the sixth-largest corporation in America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The case of the Enron scandal is one of the best examples of corporate greed and fraud in America.
By inducting ethical business practices, the need for whistleblowers will not be needed, but there is always someone that crosses the line. Therefore, by encouraging whistleblowing and supervised departmental and corporate performance concerning ethical questions. Whistleblowing is an ethical procedure when there is clear evidence of serious evidence, that will harm the public and the blower has tried to find an internal solution to effect change. The whistleblower who is associated with the unethical activity has a moral responsibility to do the right thing. Companies always know there is a possibility that the whistle will be blown, in this case the obstacle is created by knowledge that their employees stand to gain an advantage from uncovering corporate misbehaviour and thus they may be proactively looking for other people outside the organization to inform the authorities.