A Case Analysis of Ethical Decision-Making

Description of the Situation and Identification of the Ethical Issue

The situation is one in which the writer of this case was a member of a project analysis team that was charged with assessing the financial feasibility of a new aircraft model. The essential determination of financial feasibility for the new aircraft model involved several elements. The first consideration was the breakeven point - both financial and production volume. With respect to the financial breakeven point, the initial criterion was the number of years that would elapse between program launch and financial breakeven. The next consideration was the production volume required to reach financial breakeven. Assuming that the time required for attainment of the financial breakeven point was acceptable, the second criterion was the probability that the requisite volume of aircraft could be sold between program launch and the time-point of financial breakeven.

Highly detailed and in-depth analyses were performed to over the better part of a year of long overtime days to develop the extensive financial projections required to assess the financial feasibility of the proposed new aircraft model. Extensive negotiations between the design, engineering, production, sales, materials acquisition, finance, and human resources functions within the company were conducted to develop data that were as accurate as they could be considering that the life

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ted to revise the draft feasibility study based on arbitrarily eliminating two million person-hours from project costs during project years three through six. In practical terms, this outcome would result from arbitrary adjustments to the production learning curve for the project. The ethical issue confronting the writer of this case as a member of the financial feasibility assessment team for the new aircraft model was whether to go around the financial feasibility assessment team leader and the executive vice president to acquaint all members of the top management committee of the situation. In essence, the message would be that that the directed changes to the financial feasibility assessment could not be supported by reasoned analysis (based on the extensive work performed). Options for Decision-Making and Action As a member of the financial feasibility assessment team, options related both to an ethical decision and ethical action confronted me. The decision-making options and the action options that confronted me were as follows: Decision-making options related to take specific action or accept the order of the executive vice president: My first option was the accept the possibility that the learning curve for the ne
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Ethical Issue, Decision-Making Action, Evaluation Result, Underlying Decision, Moral Development, Social Psychology, Future Thinking, March Integrating, Philosophy Approach, financial feasibility, September Unabashed, aircraft model, financial breakeven, feasibility study, feasibility assessment, financial feasibility assessment, directed changes, executive vice president, executive vice, vice president, top management, assessment team, top management committee, feasibility assessment team, financial feasibility study,
Approximate Word count = 1313
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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