Boeing business

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Executive summary

In this study it has been identified that improper maintenance of business ethics has created the

Boeing disasters, which has brought the impact on political as well as social context. In the

provided case study, a situation related to the Boeing industry has been highlighted, which has

brought huge impact on the operational activities. Two cases have been highlighted in the case

study. In both the cases, sensors and software flaws have been highlighted as the major reasons

behind the situation and the malfunctioning of the maneuvering characteristics Augmentation

system has been mentioned as the major reason for pushing the nose driving. The moral concern

that has been aroused in the case study is lack of concern of the company towards the safety of

the passengers.
Table of contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

Analysis...........................................................................................................................................4

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7

Recommendations............................................................................................................................7

References and bibliography:..........................................................................................................9

Introduction

The term business ethics can be described as the appropriate business practices as well as

policies that can potentially maintains the corporate governance related commitment (Tindall,

N.T., Uhrick and Vardeman-Winter 2016). By continuing this it can also be said that business

ethics is the wider area of research that includes social responsibility, discrimination, insider

trading and fiduciary responsibilities. Analyzing the interrelationship between corporate ethics

and corporate governance, it can be said that both the aspects significantly influence the

operational activities in a firm. In the provided case study, a situation related to the Boeing

industry has been highlighted, which has brought huge impact on the operational activities. In the

year 2018, in an incident 189 people were killed in Boeing 737 ion Air flight in Indonesia. It has

been identified that due to sudden nose drive the aircraft got crashed and fallen into the sea after

13 minutes of take-off (Blog.apaonline.org 2020). Another incident happened in the year 2019

on March, where almost 157 numbers of passengers have lost their lives due to the nose drive

reason and crashed into the countryside outside Addis Ababa. In both the cases, sensors and

software flaws have been highlighted as the major reasons behind the situation and the

malfunctioning of the maneuvering characteristics Augmentation system has been mentioned as

the major reason for pushing the nose driving. However, the Chief executive has denied the

reason and highlighted it as the failure of the aircraft (Forbes.com 2020). After this situation,

Federal Aviation Administration has temporary banned the jets for the software updates and they

have decided to finish the process in the end of this summer. The moral concern that has been

aroused in the case study is lack of concern of the company towards the safety of the passengers.

The purpose of this report to critically analyze the case study and evaluate the operational
approaches adopted by the company. The study has also analyze the ethical conflicts that have

been identified in the operational activities of the firm.

Analysis

The aim of the report is to identify the improper business approach followed by the Boeing

business and its impact on creating ethical dilemma in the workplace. By continuing this, it can

be said that through the report, the significance of maintaining the balance between business

profitability and customers’ safety in the Boeing business has been mentioned. It is true that in

every business context, customer safety is being included in the important ethical commitment of

the organization towards the customers. Especially in the Boeing business promoting the

passengers safety, should be treated as the primary concern of the firm. However in both the

cases, the primary concern has been ignored by the Boeing companies (Miller 2019).

Especially in the aviation industry, safety is the primary consideration that is being followed by

the airplane designers. As per the legal perspective, it can be considered as the criminal offence

that can bring allegation to the Boeing employees. After the two crashes, understanding the

Boeing corporate culture has become necessary (Matthews and Choi 2019). It is true that after

the incident the company is trying to regain the reputation for getting the chance of flying again,

but it is true that lack of transparency regarding the safety process can create impact on the brand

reputation. By critically analyze the decision making process as well as designs of the Boeing

737 ion Air flight, it has been identified that managers have given more attention towards

gaining the profits which has created ethical concern in its operational process. The formal

complaint in the report has been published based on the misrepresentation of the safety

information from the responsible authority has influenced such situation.

The development of Boeing 737 in Air flight is being completed under the supervision of the

pilots so that they can get the knowledge regarding cockpit systems (Theguardian.com 2020). As

per the Boeing 737 in Air flight accident report, for calculating the speed of the aircraft, the

managers have been advised regarding the synthetic airspeed calculation process. However, due

to the malfunctioning process, the faulty information as well as improper responds from the

sensors has created negative impact on the situation. On the other hand, it has also been

identified that throughout the development process, the company has not taken any initiative to

train the pilots in flight regarding changed system for reducing the operational cost

(Theguardian.com 2020). Therefore, analyzing the situation it can be said that Boeing

management team were concentrated towards the cost rather than the safety as well as quality. In

this case, employee involvement in the process has been identified as the important situation that

Analyzing the ethical failure behind the Boeing disaster, it can be said that in both the cases bad

engineering practices well as simple design errors have been identified, which has been caused

due to thee carelessness of the management team (Jain 2017). In both the cases total numbers of

346 life losses, which has made the incident black boxed. The unethical Boeing behavior from

the authorities end as well as the ethical principles have not been followed by the Boeing

engineers as well as managers. As per the fundamental canon of the National Society of

Professional Engineers code of ethics, the wellbeing, safety and health of the passengers have

been neglected by the managers. In the ongoing investigation, it has been identified that ion both

the cases, anti-stalled system has repeatedly pushed the nose driving situation (Forbes.com

2020).

By arguing this, Miller (2017) stated that cheap warning display has made the situation more

complicated for the pilots to read the sensor. In that situation, it became challenging for the pilot
to diagnose the malfunctioning of anti-stall system. The concern aroused as the aircraft

manufacturer attempts to gain the high profits and ignored the vital safety measures. As per the

NSPE code, the judgment of the engineers cannot be overrules as it can involve life in danger.

As an example it can be said that the customers can be provided the less expensive products by

thee companies, but as per the regulations, the business operators are not allowed to provide less

safer products as well as services in the market. In that case offering the cheap as well as less

developed safety system was the major concern for the Boeing industry.

By arguing this Bergstra and Burgess (2020) stated that the Pilots were not aware of the new

version of Boeing 737 Max model. They were also not aware of the new automatic anti-stall

system as well as the single sensor. This can be defined as the violation of the principle of

informed consent. As an example it can be said that in the hospitals the doctors are responsible

for asking the patients for informed consent prior for the medical intervention. Similarly the

aircraft manufacturers have the similar obligation for making sure that the pilots are responsible

for the safety operation (Bbc.com 2020). In that case, it is also important responsibility for the

aircraft manufacturers to inform the pilot regarding the critical systems. However, in this case,

the lack of coordination between the pilot and the aircraft manufacturer has influenced the

Boeing disaster.

Critically analyzing the situation the conflict between medical and engineering ethics have been

identified (Bbc.com 2020). Especially in the medical sector, the principle of information consent

is being shared with the patient by the hospital authority, it can be related to cell phone use or

others activities. It is true that the in case of medical context the relationship between doctor and

the patient is more direct compared to the relationship between engineer and the passenger. In

some of the cases the technological devices are being foreseen by the engineers.
The principle that has been violated by Boeing is the Precautionary principle. After the 737

Max 8 incident the controversies regarding the US ground model has influenced the investigation

process of the case (Blog.apaonline.org 2020). It has been identified that the ethics of technology

should be taken by the engineers for safeguarding such uncertain threats. Although in the first

case, the failure in measurement has been avoided, but due to the repetition in the second case,

all the blame got shifted from anti-stall system to warrant action. By understudying the situation

in moral point of view, it can be said that improper construction of the expected values, the

situation has got influenced (Blog.apaonline.org 2020). In the end it can be said that both the

cases are still now under investigation. The political as well as social pressures are influencing

the case situations. However in case of European nation and China, it has been highlighted as the

ethical concern. In case of America, it just has been measured as the technological cause, which

has created the accident.

Conclusion

In this study it can be concluded that in the above analysis section it has been identified that

improper ethical practice is the major concern which has created the repeated disaster in the

particular Boeing business. Lack of coordination between the aircraft manufacturer and the

engineers search disaster has taken place. In the above analysis 3 ethical principles have been

identified which have not been followed in the particular Boeing business. It is true that some of

the authors have mentioned that due to the technical errors the Accident happened but the actual

reason behind the accident was, negligence of Management authority towards the safety of the

passengers. It is also true that as per the precautionary principle the aircraft manufacturer has not

provided the clear data Civil Aviation authority which created search uncertain threads in the

particular sector. The aircraft manufacturer focused on providing the cheap safety system for
generating high productivity and for avoiding the training cost the pilots were not trained in

handling the new sensor, where miscalculation of aircraft speed has influenced the situation.

Recommendations

As the report has identified that improper ethical practice as well as lack of transparency is the

potential cause behind the Boeing disaster. On the other hand negative Boeing culture and

negligence towards the customers’ safety have been considered as the huge life loss. In order to

deal with the situation ethical conduct needs to be improved in the particular business. It can be

recommended that-

 Developing the code for making the ethical performance as the strategic priority, it can

be easier for the aircraft manufactured to involve the stuffs in in measuring the

effectiveness. In the particular scenario the aircraft manager should focus on setting the

ethical priorities as the strategic moves for promoting betterment in the operational

process.

 Maintenance of transparency with the customers can also be considered as the important

strategic moon that is needed for the particular situation. it is true that sharing the

technological errors with the customers can be quite challenging for the engineers but it is

also true that it is important for the management authority to inform the customers if

there journey is in safe hands or not. it is also important for the aircraft manager to focus

on providing the safe travel to the customers rather than providing the cheapest travel.

 Training and development initiative are also essential for the particular sector. After

installation of each system it is very important for the aircraft manufacturing to make the

pilot aware of the new system so that they can operate it in better manner and ensure the

better security.
References and bibliography:

Alexander, D.E., 2017. Corruption and the governance of natural disaster risk. Oxford University

Press.

Bbc.com 2020. retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47522028 [Accessed on

29th Feb, 2020]

Bbc.com 2020. retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47553174[Accessed on

29th Feb, 2020]

Bergstra, J.A. and Burgess, M., 2020. Candidate Software Process Flaws for the Boeing 737

Max MCAS Algorithm and Risks for a Proposed Upgrade. arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.05690.

Blog.apaonline.org 2020. retrieved from: https://blog.apaonline.org/2019/04/08/the-ethical-

failures-behind-the-boeing-disasters/ [Accessed on 29th Feb, 2020]

Forbes.com 2020. retrieved from:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2019/03/18/boeings-737-max-crisis-is-a-leadership-

issue/#59fdf72d6a0a [Accessed on 29th Feb, 2020]

Jain, P., 2017. Ethical and Legal Issues in Knowledge Management Life-Cycle in Business.

In Managing Knowledge Resources and Records in Modern Organizations (pp. 82-101). IGI

Global.

Matthews, M. and Choi, C.Q., 2019. COMPASS COURSE. ASEE Prism, 29(4), pp.24-29.

Miller, G., 2019. Toward Lifelong Excellence: Navigating the Engineering-Business Space.

In The Engineering-Business Nexus (pp. 81-101). Springer, Cham.

Theguardian.com 2020. retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/business [Accessed on

29th Feb, 2020]

Theguardian.com 2020. retrieved from:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/29/boeing-boss-rejects-accusations-about-737-

max-jets-that-crashed [Accessed on 29th Feb, 2020]

Theverge.com 2020. retrieved from: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/22/18275736/boeing-

737-max-plane-crashes-grounded-problems-info-details-explained-reasons [Accessed on 29th

Feb, 2020]

Tindall, N.T., Uhrick, J. and Vardeman-Winter, J., 2016. Public Relations Ethics, Corporate

Social Responsibility, and the Private Sector: The Case for Corporate Community Resilience

Support for Disaster Preparedness. In The Moral Compass of Public Relations (pp. 149-162).

Routledge.