1. Put yourself in the role of the Recall Coordinator for Ford Motor Company in
ID: 342578 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Put yourself in the role of the Recall Coordinator for Ford Motor Company in the Pinto Case study;
(a) What is cost-benefit analysis and is it appropriate where human life is part of the cost calculation?
(b) How would Milton Friedman (profit maximization) view cost-benefit analysis in this situation? How would Ed Freeman (stakeholder) view it? How about the Golden Rule, would there be a different result?
(c) Where do you draw the ethical line on product safety?
2. In the Pinto case study, as the Recall Coordinator:
(a) Identify the ethical issues and ethical conflicts and who are the affected parties (stakeholders)?
(b) What decision would you make? Which theory would it be based upon - the consequential (utilitarian) or the deontological (Kant's Categorical Imperative) and what would be the consequences of your decision?
3. What conditions would have to be present for you to blow the whistle about unethical conduct you observed at work? How would you go about it by identifying the specific steps you would take. What are the implications (risks) for you?
4. Ninos and Ninas, Inc. is an adoption agency in Massachusetts that specializes in speedy adoptions of poor Hispanic-American infants. These poor infants, if not adopted, would end up abandoned on the street or malnourished in orphanages because their mothers cannot afford to care for them. The adoption fee charged by the agency is $15,000. Linda and Andrew have been accepted for adoption by the agency with a deposit of $10,000. Soon thereafter, Carmen, the agency's director of adoption services, informs Linda and Andrew that a baby girl is now available. She instructs them to place in a post office box the final $5,000 fee payment and an additional, separate $2,500 in cash in an envelop, marking the envelope with cash for "senior Jose." Carmen further explains that once they have paid the $5,000 adoption fee balance and additional cash payment, they can come to the agency the next day to pick up the little girl. When Linda questions the additional odd cash payment, Carmen tells her Senior Jose is an official in the social agency who handles adoptions and it is the way Ninos and Ninas Inc. has been doing business for 10 years. How would you characterize the additional cash payment and does the adoption benefit to the infant girl justify the method for accomplishing that benefit?If you were Linda, would you go forward with the adoption? What ethical and/or moral theories would help in your decision?
iguzine called it one of the ILIOMS that helped create the business world as it is today."2 According to Fortune, the case and ensuing legal batles contributed to the develop- ment of consumer activism as well as to the consumer protections and class action lawsuits that we now take for granted. We have also seen aspects of the case play out in more recent product safety cases CASE PINTO FIRES by Dennis A. Gioia (used with permission) On August 10, 1978, three teenage girls died horribly in an automobile accident. Driving a 1973 Ford Pinto to their church volleyball practice in Goshen, Indiana, they were struck from behind by a Chevrolet van. The Pinto's fuel tank ruptured and the car exploded in flames. Two passengers, Lynn Marie Ulrich, 16, and her cousin, Donna Ulrich, 18, were trapped inside the inferno and burned to death. After three attempts, Lynn Marie's sister, 18-year-old Judy Ann, was dragged out alive from the driver's seat, but died in agony hours later in the hospital.Explanation / Answer
A) Cost Benefit analysis is a systematic approach to analyse the strength and weakness of available alternatives. It is not appropriate to consider human life for cost consideration. Human life can never be measured by cost. When you are making any cost analysis for any alternatives you will need to keep the human life aside and you cannot make money risking human life in any business.
B) Profit maximization would also be looked in to upon the cost benefit analysis. When the analysis is done, all the strength and weakness have to be taken care off. Stake holder would definitely see that the un ethical issue is taken care off along with some profit maximization technology.
c) Any product should have the ethical compliant to an extent. In this case when the human life is getting damaged due to the tank issue of the car and there had been many issues reported earlier. This is something which is unethical. A line should be drawn if a human life is not getting impacted. Product safety should be a high priority and company should show ethics in providing the safety for customer who uses for Ford cars.
2) A) The main issue was Ford Pinto’s car fuel tank ruptured and exploded in flames. There were couple of people were burnt in fires. The passengers are the one who died in the car. Another ethical issue was the Ford engineer was not ready to place the gas tank in a different location to trunk the space and also mentions that “safety does not sell” and “safety is not the issue, tank is”. Also there were some crash-test were made and all of the cars which were tested got failed and three out them were saved since there were special measures taken to save the card from exploding. Ford also decided to go with Original gas tank despite the Crash test result which is really unethical. The customer will become the stakeholders of the problems.
B) I would like to go with the theory deontological where it talks about rightness or wrongness of the action depends upon answer to questions
a) Will everyone should do the same act as proposed
b) Does the act respect every human and does not maximise the utility or pleasure
The consequence of the decision is every human will be respected with the decision and more than everything this theory thinks even before something goes wrong and appropriate measures will be taken in to consideration.
3) The conditions have to be something suitable which means if you observe any unethical conduct at work and if you raise a concern on it there should be somebody who really takes the issue seriously, work towards it and ensures there is no unethical conduct. Else there is no use of pointing that there is an issue. Any time I find unethical conduct at workplace, I would go talk to the HRM team who are in the company and raise a unethical complaint. If the issue is happening with me, I would go talk to my superior and also raise a complaint with the HRM team. The risk is there are chances that my goodwill might not in a good shape, there are chances that there will be a lot interrogations and I will need to be ready for all of that. There are many scenario’s where the issue might turn on to my neck only and I might be in trouble
4) The additional cash payment is not ethical on part of Linda & Andrew and it does not justify the way the cash has been accomplished. If I was Linda I would not go with this unethical adoption. The only thing here is they are not supposed to collect money this way and to help one person they are troubling other person. Instead the organization can do a fundraising wherein they get some fund to help the little child.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.