Question one
Organizations are composed of different and diverse individuals who present their expertise in one way or another to create value for investors and serve a given market gap. The parties and stakeholders of a given organization are brought together to achieve predefined goals. Employees, as part of the organizational fraternity, form a crucial section that makes things happen towards the realization of the set objectives (Dale & Latham, 2015) . As much as the employees represent and further the interests of the organizations, they need to ensure that the organization on its quest to provide goods and services observes integrity. How workers respond to integrity issues in the organization and on matters regarding the external environment is crucial (Gogoll & Müller, 2017). Appropriate guidelines and principles in an organization need to be upheld for the common good of all. There has to be a code of conduct and values that govern people working in an organization. In other words, ethics are part of the business world as it matters.
It is true that organizational ethics begins with individual employees and stakeholders. For General Motors negligence on own employees brought problems causing unethical elements to taint the organization. Failure to observe ethics for General Motor’s automobiles went to the point of claiming lives through accidents. Just simple mechanical problems for the company vehicles that could have been rectified early enough went unresolved for a long time. The problem here was that the company was more concerned about making profits and retaining a positive image to the public. Nobody was interested in the probability that the defective nature of the vehicles could harm the public. According to the way things went down, employees preferred to lay low rather than risk losing their jobs by condemning the company. The few who made an effort to have the company rectify the problem suffered for their good intentions.
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Mistakes happen at times due to negligence and other times due to the standard human error. What matters is the response and actions taken after the error is identified (Pope, 2015). Right from the beginning, General Motors needed to investigate the issue and put up corrective measures. Instead, the management went ahead to deny the allegations maintaining a deaf ear to claim on defects related to their vehicles (Ghillyer, 2013) . General motor line mangers who received complaints should have taken the initiative to campaign for corrective action to be taken . Taking an ethical approach to production could have saved the organization and its clients. In its production policy and guidelines, General Motors should have people in mind. The company should observe quality and safety measures as it is the ethical thing to do.
Question two
Government standards act as a guide and provide a reference point for manufacturers. The set standards should be the minimum, and a company should aim higher to ensure their products are safe for use by their clients and the general public. A manufacturer has a better knowledge of his work and therefore better placed to determine, at what point a product is hazard-free (Dale & Latham, 2015) . If there is a need for re-adjustment and going beyond the set standards for safety purposes, a company should take the initiative. Even if more cost is involved, the ethical practice should never be compromised for whatever reasons.
Question three
With the problem clearly identified, with sound evidence provided to confirm it, General Motors had the responsibility to act ethically. At least the company should have made the issue public and the go-ahead to take full responsibility (Ghillyer, 2013) . It is true that recalling all the defective automobiles that had already been sold was going to be an expensive endeavor. The cost of repair and replacement of millions of vehicles was high. Again the move would have affected the company sales if the company agreed that its cars were defective. However, failure to do the same was bound to catch up with the company at some point. They did have to recall some vehicles. Taking the initiative early enough was the best action to take at least for ethical reasons and for economic reasons (Pope, 2015). In case only half of the owners of the concerned defective vehicles responded, the company might have had no other option. General Motors, however, had to campaign vigorously for the recall stressing on safety measures. The other option should be to advise the people to at least take their vehicles for repair and enhancement to avoid accidents due to the defects.
Question four
Once it became public that the General Motors vehicles had grave issues likely to cause accidents and breakdown, customers lost confidence with the company and its products. The company potentially could suffer a negative reputation. For private sellers, they still would want to sell the stock of the vehicles at hand even at discounted prices. It would be in their interest to recover some of their invested money. The private sellers still have an ethical responsibility not to sell defective vehicles (Ghillyer, 2013) . They would rather have the cars repaired first before selling. Selling the cars at a discount does not make things right as the cars would still be unsafe for use.
Question five
The government has an obligation to protect the people and should put measures in place to ensure public safety. Besides coming up with sound standards to be met by vehicle manufacturers, the government should hold manufacturers responsible for failure to respond to safety concerns. In the case of negligence and misguided priorities at the expense of public safety, such companies held accountable (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). The government should also campaign for ethical corporate culture while observing vigilance. Minimum regulations matter but that should not mean that companies should concentrate only on making money (Shaw, 2016). A Company should be answerable and take responsibilities where its decisions end up endangering lives. Companies have a call to maintain ethical operations, and where they go against such, they should not be spared.
References .
Dale, K., & Latham, Y. (2015). Ethics and entangled embodiment: Bodies–materialities–organization. The organization , 22 (2), 166-182.
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases . Nelson Education.
Ghillyer, A. (2013). Business Ethics Now. 5 th Edition. MC Graw Hill ISBN
Gogoll, J., & Müller, J. F. (2017). Autonomous cars: in favor of a mandatory ethics setting. Science and engineering ethics , 23 (3), 681-700.
Pope, K. S. (2015). Steps to strengthen ethics in organizations: Research findings, ethics placebos, and what works.
