Ethics

Thursday, November 13, 2014

[Ethics of the Automobile Industry: Ford Motor Company] |

By Amir Rafih, Jordan Mather, Jennifer Sprague, Eric Parr, Gloria Ledi, and Meshal Mustafa |

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(04-71-300 ) Business Ethics in a Global Context by Dr. Kent Walker

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3

Global History & Development of Automotive Industry 4

Value Chain of the Automotive Industry 5

PEST Analysis 7

Political Factors 7

Economic Factors 8

Social Factors 9

Technological Factors 10

Stakeholder Interests 11

Shareholders 11

Domestic Part Suppliers 11

CAW/UAW (Employees) 12

Customers 12

Environmental Groups 12

Stakeholder Position Analysis 13

CEO 13

Customers 13

Competitors 13

Analysis of History of Recalls and Assessment of Ethics 14

History of Recalls 14

Potential for Improvement 15

Economic, Social and Environmental Impacts of the Global Automobile Industry 16

Utilitarianism 17

Feminist Ethics 18

Postmodern ethics 19

Kant’s categorical Imperative 21

Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Social Responsiveness and Corporate Social Performance 22

Conclusion 27

References 27

Appendices A 29

Appendices B 30

Appendices C 33

Executive Summary

Before only the wealthy could afford cars but this changed with the Ford Model T. This car was specifically targeted at average family household by making it affordable to own. By 1918, Model T was owned by half of American car consumers (LoveToKnow, 2014). Standards must be set for companies to not sell faulty cars. Regulations are set by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which lead to recalls when not met this can be very expensive for the company. Unions are also very costly when they are strong, thus Ford would look for areas where the union is weaker for location of its manufacturing plant. This allows room to negotiate a company-friendly contract and save by a significant amount. Gas prices and the state of economy have a huge...