Business Ethics Now 4th Edition Andrew Ghillyer Solutions Manual

Business Ethics

Business ethics involves an application of ethical standards to the business situation. Business people should not apply business ethics as a separate set of ethics concepts but it must be followed on both inside or outside of the business situation.

In this case study, Automobile Company F needed to develop a competitive vehicle under affordable price to capture the market segment of baby boom generation. In the test, this new model identified the potential safety issue called aerosol, retrofitting of that model is not done as it met all the safety regulations of that country. However, all the export vehicles were made necessary modifications based the demands from that country. Further, company faced hundreds of lawsuit after it is being proved that F is aware of the safety issue. It also claimed that fixing the safety issue is also inexpensive.

The car making company identified that there is a potential safety hazard introducing those cars in the market. Though the current design meets the government standards, not fixing the safety issue is against to the business ethics. This indicates that the company is concerned about making an early entry in the market to meet the competition but not about the safety issues that a customer can face with that product. As it is ethical for a company to consider customer safety while selling the product, it is suggested for a manufacturer to go beyond government standard.