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Ethics within corporations
Ethics within corporations
Corruption in a workplace
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This film places PG&E at the center point of ethical controversy. Ethics is an inquiry into the moral judgements people make as to what is right or wrong (Sigismond, 2014, p. 19). In this case, we learn PG&E is clearly at fault, which allows us to learn from a number of ethical issues with their business practice. Two examples stand out. First, once PG&E learn that Masry’s law firm is investigating their use of hexavalent chromium, a representative from PG&G is sent to the law firm to attempt to stop the investigation. This representative offers to buy out the Jensen family who has been affected by poor health, and their young daughter, Annabelle, is battling cancer that is speculated to be linked to PG&E. He offers $250,000 for the Jensen’s …show more content…
These ethical issues were focused on PG&E and their employees. It seems this group of individuals did anything to get by, including an employee who cleaned the tanks at PG&E while continuing to have severe nose bleeds. Additionally, PG&E did not care for others; otherwise they would have changed their policies to stop the use of harmful chemicals. The only employee seemingly willing to come forward was a man named Charles Embry, who approached Erin toward the end of her investigation. He was instrumental in this law suit because he had saved documents that PG&E had requested he destroy, because he knew it was unethical to destroy the evidence of harmful chemicals, calling himself a “bad employee” in his own words for his actions. He watched his cousin pass away at only 41 years old, after suffering nose bleeds while cleaning the cooling towers, having his colon and intestines removed, and ultimately dying from kidney tumors. Charles Embry clearly cared about others, the greatest good for the greatest number, and was willing to go against his manager’s direction, to do as he was told (Banaji, 2003, pp. 6-7), and therefore far more ethical than his managers at …show more content…
In this case, PG&E deceived the entire town of Hinckley by allowing them to believe that their water source was safe. Deception was clearly portrayed throughout the film, with a particularly good example toward the beginning of the movie. The film described how PG&E held a meeting with 200 people from Hinckley to explain the benefits of PG&E using chromium 3 at their plant. Chromium 3 is similar to hexavalent chromium, but its effects on the human body are quite benign in comparison, however the deception is clear when the film goes on to show that PG&E was not actually using chromium 3 at their plant, and was actually using the harmful hexavalent chromium instead. As explained previously, hexavalent chromium is extremely dangerous and harmful to humans. This deceit continued for far too long, allowing the community to believe that children could safely play in pools and all members could safely drink water out of their faucet. It was even proven toward the end of the film that PG&E were aware of their actions because there were internal PG&E documents dated 1966 that described how it would be “better for all if documents were not discussed…” (Soderbergh, 2000). This company ended up losing the largest direct-action lawsuit in United States history, therefore in some sense it was resolved with the $333 million paid to the people of
Hughes Microelectronics is a company that were found to have unethical practices during the 1980’s when handling government contracts. This was brought to light by two whistleblowers that worked for the company at the time. The purpose of this is to review four main questions concerning the situation and how it was handled ethically by the whistleblower. The first and second parts will be fairly similar what were the responsibilities of the company itself, what were the responsibilities of the main whistleblower Margaret Goodearl. Next, the conflict between the two parties will be examined and also whether or not the situation was handled ethically. Lastly the question of whether or not whistleblowing is the most ethical solution
The National Society of Professional Engineers Code of Ethics lays out guidelines and standards to which all engineers should abide when making professional decisions and communicating with their peers and the public. Ethics and communications played a large role in the cause of the event and the end result of the mission. The following section will discuss the ethics of the events that transpired prior to the launch, the communication of the crews and the NASA public relations office, and the ethics of the actions taken by the engineers after the incident.
There are several ethical philosophies in play here regarding the tobacco company and these ethical issues can be explored by analyzing the myriad of interplay of relationships between the characters in the movie and the choices that they make based on certain public and private interests and values. To summarize there is the reluctant protagonist Jeffery Wigand who was the corporate vice president/research chemist of a tobacco company but essentially an employee who was fired yet is still under a non-disclosure clause in a confidentiality agreement with said former company. Secondly the relationship of the company towards its employees regarding its hiring and firing policies, the relationship between the tobacco company with its consumers and the evident issue of justice versus profit making in the tobacco business.
In the movie Erin Brockovich not only were children affected by the water contamination but the adults were also negatively affected. In this film the families were directly exposed to carcinogens that were used for water pressure in a multi-million dollar company located a few miles away from the home. One particular family that caught my attention was the first family that filed a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company. Donna Jensen and her family filed a lawsuit again this company because of a real estate issue. Fortunately, Erin Brockovich worked as the lawyer's assistant and was the first individual to realize that this company was hiding the truth about the chemicals used in the facility. This information that PS&E was withholding from the local residents directly affected their health and
It's difficult not to be cynical about how “big business” treats the subject of ethics in today's world. In many corporations, where the only important value is the bottom line, most executives merely give lip service to living and operating their corporations ethically.
As in any other discipline that entails interaction with individuals, the aspect of ethics must include a conscious principle. To define ethics in its simplest form, it is known as the ability to distinguish right from wrong. In the movie, the sudden pressure from management drives the company’s salesmen to increase sales with no regards to ethics in order to maintain job security. All of the main characters had made their fair share of unethical decisions, out of desperation, to increase their sales and ultimately to keep their jobs. The degree of each decision can be left for viewers to determine the level of appropriateness based on their own values. Personally, although all characters have made unethical decisions, the most ethical salesman was Ricky Roma. Ri...
It was believed that it would be cheaper for PG&E to dispose of the chemicals illegally since the company officials were more concerned with the profits than about people's lives. The hiding of this critical information had tragic consequences for the people involved. PG&E must have realized that they were guilty since they settled the case for $330 million in private arbitration. All in all, it probably ended up costing PG&E more money than it would have if they had properly lined the water pools and taken care of things the correct way in the beginning.
As per request of the first assignment of this course, I watched the movie “A Civil Action” starring John Travolta (Jan Schlichtmann), as a plaintiff’s lawyer and Robert Duvall (Jerome Facher) and Bruce Norris (William Cheeseman) as the defendant’s lawyers of W.R. Grace and J Riley Leather companies. The movie depicted the court case fought in the 1980’s among the previously mentioned companies and the residents of Woburn a little town located in Massachusetts. After watching the movie, an analysis using the ethical tools reflected in the chapter 1 of the course textbook will be used to portray the ethical issues of the movie.
Kozier and Erb's (2015) refer to veracity as telling the truth. Sometimes the nurse is left in a dilemma whether to tell the patient the truth. The nurse is left with the question whether, to tell the truth which may cause anxiety or a lie that is likely to relieve anxiety and fear? In reality lying to the sick persons would rarely justify. It is important that the nurse to weigh any benefit derived from telling lies to the patient versus the loss of trust the patient can have the nurse and the anxiety caused by not knowing the truth
To clarify, the Engineering Code of Ethics is the set of rules established by the National Society of Professional Engineers that all engineers are expected to adhere to. In essence, the fundamental tenets of this code are that all engineers are expected to prioritize public safety, as well as be honest with their clients and the general public while only doing work that they are qualified to do. (“Code of Ethics,” n.d.). The reason this code is crucial in this case is because it offers guiding principles for the men and women who are in charge of so many of the various structures and buildings that are used by everyone in society. If the engineering population were to fail to adhere to this code, many people’s lives would be put in jeopardy; buildings might crumble, planes may crash, and bridges could collapse. This means that this code serves to keep engineers in check so that the world maintains stability, therefore its importance cannot be emphasized enough. Furthermore, since this code is nationally recognized, if a company’s engineers were to violate any aspect of it, it would be seen nation-wide as a misuse of power for the sake
Currently I am working for a Christian preschool as a co-teacher for a class of eleven 3 year old children. Working for a Christian preschool you would imagine that having and displaying good morals and ethics would be a must, however just like with any workplace there are those who sometimes break or they may say bend these ethical rules and display behavior that should not be revealed in any type of situation, especially in the workplace. The text book describes ethics in the workplace as “Ethics of business is just that, ethics- a sense of right and wrong when dealing with coworkers, employers, employees, customers, shareholders, and the general population”, basically saying that ethics allows you to
Within the Gilbane Gold case, the major problem is the contribution of water pollution by dumping chemicals to speed production for Z CORP. However, there is doubt as to what extent the company violated city regulations. Tom Richards believes that Z-CORP broke regulations repeatedly but Professor Massin believes that it is not solid evidence. Part of the problem is that two different tests are involved: an older and a less sensitive test which does not break regulations but there is also the newer and more sensitive one which does. The newer test was said that the company just broke city regulations, but not by a large amount.
Many ethical dilemmas are philosophical in nature, an ethical issue can be described as a problem with no clear resolution. In order to solve the issue or dilemma a consensus between the parties involved must be reached. There are several reasons to come to an agreement over an ethical dilemma, it is the basis for all aspects of personal and professional dealings. Each one of us is part of a civilized society and as such it is our responsibility to be rational, honest and loyal in our dealings with others. (Alakavuklar, 2012) states that individuals make decisions for different situations in business life involving various ethical dilemmas. Each time either consciously or unconsciously individuals may follow some ethical approaches
This film has opened up a new perspective to me about the mindset of many of the people that have and are running many of the most noticeable household name brands that we have all come to know since childhood. The film does a very good job of explaining how businesses and corporations have not only grown but evolved over the last 40 plus years. We all know that at the end of the day, a company’s goal is to make money. “The Corporation” gave me a very in-depth look at the extent that major corporations will go to in order to keep their company successful and profitable. With many of the companies that were mentioned in the film, the average person such as myself, would never know that the companies that we support and patronize have taken part in modern day slavery to give use the products that we have come to love. The part of this that was most troubling was the fact that these business practices no matter how unethical we find them are in fact legal and do not
Shaw, W. H., & Barry, V. (2011). Moral Issues in Business (Eleventh ed., pp. 230-244).