Ethical Decisions in Business

In the case study of the Goodrich testing of airplane brakes for LTV Aerospace, this conclusion becomes very obvious. In some cases, a business decision might be unethical, but it would not be a threat to life or the environment. For example, a dishwasher soap maker might know that a soap left a non-toxic film on dishes, but they choose to market it anyway. Lives would not be threatened.

In the case of Goodrich, however, lives were threatened. Certainly a minimum standard for ethical behavior is that a business decision will not lead to unnecessary danger to human life.

In some cases, an unethical decision might never be discovered. In the case of Goodrich, however, discovery was going to come sooner or later, and, in fact, it did come during flight tests. The decisions made by the managers and employees of Goodrich in the brake tests were not only unethical, they were also stupid because discovery was inevitable.

Ethical decisions are based on conscience and practical matters. It is Cordtz' argument that the tw

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"is consistent with the canons of justice" (Cavanagh 782). In all three cases, the decisions made by the workers and managers at Goodrich were unethical. The decisions to hide the facts on the tests for the brakes did not optimize the satisfactions of all the parties, did not respect the rights of the individuals, and was not consistent with the canons of justice. In the Goodrich case, nobody was satisfied. Two men were promoted after taking part in the fraud, but we do not know the long-term impact on their careers or their consciences. The rights of individuals to be protected from dangerous products were not protected. And justice was not promoted through the fraud and the dangers resulting from the unethical decisions at Goodrich. What makes the Kermit Vandivier article on the fraud at Goodrich so effective is that Vandivier himself took part in the fraud. He does not try to show himself as a hero, although he was the first one to go to the FBI to report the fraud. He only went to the FBI after it was clear that the fraud was going to be exposed anyway. Vandivier shows that anybody can be taken into a group of people who make unethical decisions. He was a man with a conscience, but he still went along with the fraud, eve
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Approximate Word count = 1567
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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