Is Business Ethics for Everyone?

Most people involved in business, from the CEO of a large corporation to the assembly line worker, will eventually face an ethical dilemma. Although the breadth of responsibility for some business members is much broader than others, all have a responsibility to stakeholders. Because everyone within the business entity can potentially impact the business stakeholders, everyone should fully understand and practice sound business ethics all the time.

Consider the Firestone tire recall of 2000. This was a recall of over 14.5 million tires at a cost of more than 3 billion dollars. The tires had been manufactured at a plant in Decatur, IL, and had defects that resulted in tread separations and rollover accidents. The ethical dilemma for business leadership in this case would be between profit loss and consumer safety. To initiate a recall the tire manufacturer would probably consider the cost of the recall versus the cost of litigation. The lesser of the two would determine the company’s course of action. On the surface, this doesn’t sound very ethical, but from a practical standpoint, it may be. For a tire, there is an acceptable rate of defect and if the harm caused by these defects is within that range, it’s considered ethical to refrain from a product recall. This doesn’t mean the company keeps the information secret or initiates a cover-up. It simply doesn’t undertake what it considers is an unnecessary action. In this respect, one can easily understand the manager’s ethical dilemma and why it’s important to understand and practice sound business ethics. But what of the employee on the assembly line?

The Firestone employee at the Decatur, IL, plant is engaged in the actual manufacture of the tire. Perhaps this employee has been working the job for several months when he discovers that he has been performing a function incorrectly. This inadvertent mistake resulted in a tire defect that could lead to a tread separation. Should the employee inform management of his error and place his job at risk or should he keep quiet, simply make the process correction and eliminate the error. The potential repercussion of his silence would be harm to the consumer and the potential repercussion of his informing on himself would be a recall of the affected tires and his firing or reprimand. How the employee responds to this ethical dilemma could mean serious injury or death to consumers or severe profit loss to his employer in the form of a product recall and ultimately, the termination of his employment. How does the employee determine the right course of action?

An organization should encourage all employees to understand and practice sound business ethics. Incorporation of ethics into the business culture will ensure personnel at all levels make the rightdecision when faced with ethical dilemmas. The Firestone employee who brings his error to the attention of his employers has resolved his ethical dilemma with the right choice. How the employer responds to this information represents his own ethical dilemma and is an indication of the business ethical culture.