Ethical Frameworks

 Explain how ethical frameworks shape business decisions. PROMPT: In answering the following hypothethical, refer to Lesson 1. Hypothetical: An airplane manufacturer, Universe Clear (UC), is about to launch a faster, bigger commercial passenger plane, called the UC 800Z. Decision makers in UC management receive a confidential internal memo that a backup alert system in the UC 800Z has a potential failure issue, based on simulations. To run additional tests will cause a delay in the timeline for delivery of the planes, causing in turn cost overruns in manufacture and contract penalties. Management runs a cost benefit analysis for holding up its timeline to further investigate the report and possibly run a fix on the backup system. Based on the inordinate costs involved to further evaluate and possibly change the mechanism involved, the delays that would be incurred, the urgent demand to replace aging planes in service, and the report’s indication that this is a contingency feature and also not a certain failure, management decides to proceed with the current plans and to take no further action on the information in the memo. Within six months of the UC d800Z’s placement in active service three planes out of 50 crash, with no survivors. Preliminary investigation in all three crashes suggests that failure of the backup mechanism, reported in the confidential memo to management, may have been a significant event in each of the crashes. Clearly state Universe Clear management’s ethical dilemma presented by the internal memo. Identify and discuss which ethical framework was utilized by Universe Clear’s management in making its decision. Identify and define two other ethical frameworks from the assigned Halbert chapter, and briefly explain how each of these would apply to this dilemma. Would you have decided differently as UC management at the time? Why or why not? If you would have decided differently, which ethical framework would you have applied? Support your analysis by citing your sources.