Ethical Analysis Assignment

Ethical Analysis Assignment

Yo-Hao Chen

Role: Boeing Corporation, Pentagon

When judging a company with the scope of Boeing, it is very hard to make major changes without affecting the aerospace industry and the country’s economy as a whole. The US defense, transportation and technology are all closely tied with the company. The scandal involved high rank officials from both the company and the government, so not only the company but also individuals from the pentagon itself would be put on trial. Any conviction would damage the company, which has numerous employees, while mistrust in the government could cause chaos in the society. But with the current situation where citizens are paying taxes just to fulfill individual greed, actions to punish Boeing and reestablishing the relationship between the pentagon and Boeing must be made.

History wise, Boeing can almost be defined as a monopolization of aircraft. This causes a market to form where prices are fluctuated by the decisions of the company. The contract itself is unreasonable, but was signed off because of a bribery of a government official. Secretive documents of their competitor were leaked, which gained them an unfair advantage. According to individualism, the way they maximized their profit was unethical because they broke the law. According to Utilitarian theory, their decision did not bring happiness to the consumers because of their deceiving actions. According to Kantian theory, hiding these exchanges from the public is wrong because they prevented consumers from exercising their rational. According to the Aristotelian Virtue Theory, they did not show honestly or fairness, and knew the actions were wrong but still violated so were unethical.

        As the Pentagon, although influence can be made to the court, I think that it would be unwise to try to use inside power since it would just increase the mistrust from the public. Boeing would be hurt but should be able to recover since they are a well-established company, and future collaboration should be restored when their internal problems are solved. The people should be able to understand the situation better since scandals that included Boeing and the government have happened multiple times before this, instead of just Boeing making statements how they have a good education on ethics actions should be made using public pressure.