Lockheed Martin is one of the largest corporations in the United States that deals with defense, security, aerospace, and advanced technologies with interests worldwide. It has several subsidiaries companies such as; Skunk Works and Sikorsky Aircraft and commands a large workforce of about 130,000 workers (Rendtorff, 2008). With such a large workforce, maintaining required ethics in work is usually considered difficult, and it fails in most corporations. This challenge tainted a bad public image of this corporation in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to pressure from various stakeholders and the government as well as the board of directors, the corporation formed Lockheed Martin’s ethics program to tackle the issue. The program required that every employee from the most junior to those in highest ranks to undergo an annual ethics training as well as participate in modules that well distributed throughout the year (Terris, 2005).
Vulnerabilities of the Program Among Senior Executives
According to Terris in his book, argues that this program has some loopholes that could allow those at the top of the organization breach required ethics. The senior executives the uses curriculum in ethics modules and training like the used by all other employees of this corporation without considering special demands required in their line of work. Since those in leadership are required to have special skills and this calls for special ethical demands, therefore the program is supposed to facilitate a special ethical curriculum for all senior executives.
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For example, the program provokes discussion among employees in a wide range which is very applicable to low levels workers (Terris, 2005). The same rule cannot apply to those at the top because discussions among them, help is required for smooth operation of the corporation. The senior executives have commonly faced complex and difficult decision making, and even if the law suggests that they should source for help, it is insufficient in encouraging them to self-examine themselves from staving off incentives, opportunities, and their arrogance.
The program also does little in protecting against leaders who believe they have the power to redefine existing ethical boundaries to suit their needs. For example, some top executives make decisions that are unethical such as bribing, threatening other competing partners in order to secure certain business deals in favor of the organization. Some senior executives also go ahead in siphoning large amounts of money from their corporation to their private accounts because of their positions at the top (Terris, 2005). Such actions and behaviors are usually contributed by lack of clear ethical framework which is supposed to guide them when they encounter these challenging decisions.
Solutions for Effective Ethics Program for the Top Management
To fill the gaps in their program, Lockheed Martin should consider making several changes in order to effectively fill the gaps in their program regarding the top management. First, they should consider developing a new ethical program that caters to specific problems which are experienced by senior executives due to definite levels of complexity. Although the corporation had developed “Ethics Tools for Leaders,” which is a program that is meant for all of its managers (Terris, 2005). The program only focuses on how they should supervise and manage people rather than how to manage power and authority.
Secondly, the corporation should create a system where the ethics office could be more formal in monitoring the actions and advising senior executives. The current informal consultation only helps those already inclined to addressing the potential ethics problems that they face. If a formal structure is introduced, it will enable monitoring of all top executives which will help in churning out ‘bad apples’ before they do something that could bring harm to the corporation.
Thirdly, Lockheed Martin should appoint members with certain professional proficiency in corporate ethics to the board of directors. With such members, they would strengthen the Audit and Ethics Committee, and this would encourage the committee to be more effective in scrutinizing even the top officials (Rendtorff, 2008).
The last major change that would help the corporation is by increasing their transparency. When dealing with emerging ethics issues such as compensation of executive, Lockheed Martin should be more publicly transparent (Terris, 2005). Such openness could positively boost the morale within the company as well as paint a good picture for the larger community, especially to its shareholders.
Impact of Group Dynamics to Ethical Issues
Just like many other corporations, Lockheed Martin also falls a victim of what is referred to as “personal responsibility, collective innocence.” This where if an individual is responsible for his or her mistakes but mistakes that are done by collective discussion especially by the top brass, are not highlighted as ethically wrong (Whetstone, 2015). Some mistakes that have been made through group agreements have cost the corporation millions of dollars through lawsuits against it. A member of the group may be of high ethical character, but when making decisions, they are forced to act against their will for the benefit of the organization.
In conclusion, Lockheed Martin’s ethics program has accomplished a lot in promoting required ethics within the corporation. With the current trend, it will be able to achieve a lot and should consider making a few changes in order to accommodate all of its employees in the program
References
Rendtorff, J. D. (2008). The corporation as a good citizen: A case study of Lockheed Martin. Tidsskriftet Politik , 11 (4), 48-59.
Terris, D. (2005). Ethics at work: Creating Virtue in an American corporation . UPNE.
Whetstone, J. T. (2015). Developing a Virtuous Organizational Culture. Handbook of Virtue Ethics in Business and Management , 1-12.
