As a result, GM’s developer Edward Cole was well aware of the major design defect of the excessive weight in the rear causing General Motors to face 106 Corvair liability lawsuits involving injuries and death. After the publication of Nader’s book General Motors hired a private detective in New York to gather information and discredit Nader. Nader sued General Motors for invasion of privacy winning millions in the lawsuit. Furthermore, CEO James Roche promoted Edward Cole the Corvair design engineer in question, to GM’s President. Did the CEO Roche of General Motors make a sound ethical decision with the promotion? In the 1970’s, questions continued to arise about the concept of social conscience. As consumerism increased, experts began …show more content…
General Motors became a “centralized organization, so decision-making authority is concentrated in the hands of top-level managers, and little authority is delegated to lower levels” (Ferrell et al., 2015, p. 199). Centralized organizations have little upward communication and top-level manager may not be aware of problems and unethical activities. According to Ferrell et al., (2015), it has been noted that “centralized organization may exert influence on their employees because they have a central core of policies and codes of ethical conduct” (p. 201). Conversely, to survive at GM employees praised the CEO intelligence and carried out their orders by keeping a low profile, and never made waves. GM rewarded employees who followed the old traditional ways and those that challenged their thinking lost promotion opportunities or their jobs. However, General Motors experienced conflict between corporate management responsibility and social responsibility. Consequently, General Motors “attempted to implement a new mentality upon its management in a short period of time” (Goussak, Webber, & Ser, 2012, p. 49) by changing the company’s environment, but …show more content…
Leaders who treat their employees with fairness, honesty, and provide frequent, accurate information are seen as more effective. According to Robbins and Judge (2014), “trust is a primary attribute associated with leadership and followers who trust a leader are confident their rights and interest will not be abused” (p.193). The old General Motor Corporation had eleven different CEO’s from 1923 until 2009 each with their own unique leadership style, which directed employees toward the organization goals. Unfortunately, many of the top level managers under the CEO’s had the tendency of filtering out information that did not match up with their pre-conceived notions about a particular issue and they lacked upward communication. One consumer goal of General Motors was to build trust in the company so people would be repeat customers, but building trust between employees and establishing an ethical culture was not a top priority of the organization. Goal directed leadership alone is important, but differs from a structure of leadership based on ethics. It is important to note, that effective leadership may not be the same as leadership founded on ethical principles. Business competence must exist, along with personal leadership accountability in ethical decisions. Within the General Motors organization, ethics and leadership did not interconnect; there were misalignment between the
This study analyses the controversy that has existed within general electric (GE). This is a company that has been running the electrical equipment plants. The company has been dumping wastes into Hudson River. The case involves recovery battle and the plight of dumping the Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) into the Hudson River in New York, which had accumulated to more than 1.3 million pounds into a 40 mile stretch of the Hudson River. The cleanup programs supported by EPA, most of the environmental groups and some government agencies led to a lot of controversies since GE was not ready to take responsibility for the dredging expenses and even after their little cooperation, the dredging process is never complete.
Corporate executives like Kenneth Lay and Martha Stewart were taken before the court for poor ethical practices. Leaders of pharmaceutical companies have been found knowing about distribution of unsafe products. Leaders at Coke Cola were found guilty of racial discrimination and leaders of cruise ships fined for dumping waste in the ocean. News reports exposed Wall Street analysts who created phony reports, made profits, and pushing worthless stocks, left citizens questioning if they should invest their money. Leaders of the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, were cited for practices of employee abuses and gender discrimination.
According to the theory of diffusion of responsibility, every person in an organization shares the moral accountability of a company’s actions. However, it therefore follows that no singular individual can hold moral responsibility (Shaw, 205). With knowledge of the Milgram Experiment, that those in a lower chain of command are prone to obeying the command of-higher ups, corporate executives can exploit their employees, who are free from moral responsibility and do not have to think twice before carrying out unethical
The case study of Jacob Franklin, aged 25, offers an analysis of how unethical decisions can damage a company and the repercussions that these decisions cause. Jacob was aware of the unethical situations happening around him, but he was new and unexperienced to the business and it seems that at some point, his hands were tight and he did not have much control to change them. On the other hand, he had plenty of opportunities to make ethical decisions.
Employees of companies must consider their actions before making decisions and remember they have an ethical responsibility to the organization and use high moral standards to influence their decisions. Ethical responsibility is crucial and goes beyond personal values, it takes into account which actions provide the greatest benefit for the greatest number and produces the least amount of harm. Not all decisions are black and white, many fall into gray areas. When individuals make unethical decisions it can damage the name of the organization. In the business world the reputation of an organization is based on its integrity. A company must acquire and maintain customers to survive and grow in today’s competitive global market. Rational
George R. Boggs, in the Handbook of CEO-Board Relationships and Responsibilities, warns that “a CEO’s termination can result in, at the least, negative publicity, and at the worst, litigation” (p. 40). The events that occurred at JCC; financial irresponsibility, reports of lack of oversight and accountability; political interference, followed by the actions taken by the board; the suspension and firing of the president and the termination of 21 others, provides a picture of an institution whose morale is nonexistent.
While reading Daniel Terris’s opinion on Lockheed Martin’s ethical program, I noticed he observed that the company does not commit enough effort to counteracting ethical violations when pertaining to those in higher leadership positions. I would have to agree with the author, throughout the book I began to realize that the ethical program was geared more towards the employees who were located at the “bottom of the food chain”. Top level leadership has no issues displaying and voicing that they stand behind the ethical program and those in charge of it; for instance, the CEO Brain Sears at times sits in on the training sessions to listen and view the different perspectives of the employees (Terris, 2005). Although it is important for the Lockheed
Setting standard behavior expectations in the workplace is important for all levels of management. A “culture of respect, trust and honest communication” can make or break the ability of a company to establish and maintain ethical business operations (Long, 2013). When joining Oracle in the 1990’s, many employees were greeted with the public reputation of its sales force. Teams functioned under a boundary less structure, not limited by structure or management and highly flexible and responsive (Robbins, Decenzo & Coulter, 2013). Sales would risk any relationship to meet their quota which had been doubled from the previous year and ethics took a backseat.
Ethical leaders help give meaning to their employees‟ work and ensure that organizational decisions are based on sound moral values(Piccolo, Greenbaum, Den Hartog, & Folger, 2010).Ethical leaders are always making efforts to incorporate moral principles in their beliefs, values and behaviour; they are committed to higher purpose, prudence, pride, patience, and persistence (Khuntia &Suar, 2004).In conceptualizing of ethical leadership, Trevino, Hartman &Brown (2000)present a matrix comprising unethical leadership weak moral person, weak moral manager, hypocritical leadership weak moral person, strong moral manager, ethical leader strong moral person, strong moral manager, and ethically silent or neutral leadership (weak/strong moral person, weak moral manager). In a similar fashion, Trevino &Brown (2004) propose an executive must be perceived as both a “moral person” and a “moral manager to have a reputation of ethical leadership. “A “moral person” is related to good character; the leader is honest and trustworthy, show concern for employee welfare and is seen as approachable. Whereas, a “moral manager,” is one who leads others on the ethical dimension, allow employee to know what is expected, and holds them
The management team of any company must remain keenly aware of the ethical image they are propagating. Not only must the management of the company maintain a personal commitment to high moral and ethical standards, they must expect the same of their subordinates and all associated with the company. Management must place a high priority on the execution of sound values and ethical principles in order to move the company in the right ethical direction. Managers could have high personal ethical commitments, but if they allow their subordinates to operate under lower ethical standards, then they, too, are responsible for the poor ethical performance of the company.
Often when the terms “ethical leadership” is used, it is stated without any meditative thoughts (Fluker, 2009). Nonetheless, when most people discuss ethical leadership, they often includes the values or moral character that are instilled in a particular leader. According to Ciulla (2014), “leadership ethics is the study of ethical problems and challenges that are distinctive to and inherent in the processes, practices, and outcomes of leading and following” (p. 5). Undoubtedly, in many organizations, employees differ about what is ethical. Therefore, it is vital that leaders demonstrate how ethical behavior is applied to the organization. Within my organization, there is a clear ethical tone. For instance, the culture of the organization
Leaders lead people, and leaders should always do the right things. Most employees tend to look for ethical guidance from others, and a leader within a workplace should therefore be the essential source of such guidance. According to Economy (2013) communication, support and facilitate employees, as well as having integrity are some qualities that make a good leader. Leaders with integrity would make good ethical leaders. According to Gulla (2010) “When acting with integrity, we do what is right – even when no one is watching. People of integrity are guided by a set of core principles that empowers them to behave consistently to high standards. The core principles of integrity are virtues, such as: compassion, dependability, generosity, honesty, kindness, loyalty, maturity, objectivity, respect, trust and wisdom.” (p.19) By having a leader like this you can expect them to keep high standards which could benefit an organization as well as the employees. Leaders can be counted on to do the right things and to demonstrate high standard of ethical and moral conduct. Sometimes being ethical is being effective and sometimes being effective is being ethical. In other words, ethics is effectiveness in some cases. If a le...
Ethical leadership and personal integrity are key components in determining the ethical culture of an organization. Moreover, leaders are integral components in the establishment of strong organizational integrity, which leads to the creation of strong ethical pathways that are consistent with the organization’s mission, vision and values (Gilbert, 2007). This paper will explore the ethical leadership of a leader I know, as well as, my commitment to personal integrity. This exploration will occur through the utilization of diagnostic tools provided in Gilbert’s Strengthening Ethical Wisdom (2007).
It is not uncommon that leaders encounter situations where they are faced with making choices that have the potential to impact others for better or worse. It is important that good leaders choose a direction that will have the least negative impact while having a positive outcome if possible. If the actions cannot be considered ethical, a different approach or action should be considered. The choices made in problematic situations will ultimately identify the true character of the leader. It is ideal that a good leader do what is right in all situations as their actions are constantly observed by others and subjected to scrutinization. Leaders who display ethical qualities will be most effective at gaining or maintaining a leader and follower relationship. Additionally, if a leader models ethical decisions and behaviors, followers can be expected to take after them. Ethical behaviors in leaders are found to be reflected by a reduction of unethical behaviors in followers ( Mayer et al., 2009; Mayer et al., 2012). Ethical leaders create environments and structures that influence followers to behave more ethically (Schaubroeck et al.,
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