Full CASE 1 FORD Libre
Ethics and Values in Management
BAGM5033 (2014/1)
CASE STUDY: THE FORD PINTO
VELU KUMARASAMY
MC1301MC0029
Assigned By: Dr. Shaharudin Yunus
1
TABLE OF CONTENT
NO
PARTICULAR
1
CASE SUMMARY : THE FORD PINTO
2
Q1: Is it ethical for a company such as Ford, to perform cost-benefit
PAGE
analyses when lives are involved?
3
Q2: As a society we often perform cost-benefit analyses involving lives.
For example, we do not require overpasses to be built at all railroad crossings, even though we know that an occasional fatal collision will occur if we do not. How is this different from what Ford did?
4
Q3: Do you think that the public was adequately informed concerning the dangers of the Pinto?
5
Q4: Could it be possible that upper management at Ford did not understand the engineering issues involved? What was Lee Iacocca’s technical background?
6
Q5: Suppose you are an engineer at Ford and you have just discovered the Pinto’s gas tank problems. You discuss the situation with your manager and he tells you he doesn’t see a problem. What, if anything, do you do next?
7
Q6: Ford designed the Pinto to satisfy all then-existing legal requirements for safety. Do they have a higher obligation? Does it matter that, during the design, Ford was successfully lobbying the U.S government to not impose more stringent safety requirements
8
Q7: Should a profession impose ethical obligations which are more stringent than legal obligations? If so, why? If so, how should they be
2
No answer enforced?
CASE SUMMARY
Based on the Ford Pinto case, in the year 1960’s there was strong competition for
Ford in the American small car market from Volkswagen and several Japanese companies. In order to fight the competition, Ford rushed its newly made car the
Pinto into production in much less than it usually required developing a car. Basically time to produce an automobile is 43 months, but Ford took 25 months. However, before the production Ford engineers found a major flaw in
BAGM5033 (2014/1)
CASE STUDY: THE FORD PINTO
VELU KUMARASAMY
MC1301MC0029
Assigned By: Dr. Shaharudin Yunus
1
TABLE OF CONTENT
NO
PARTICULAR
1
CASE SUMMARY : THE FORD PINTO
2
Q1: Is it ethical for a company such as Ford, to perform cost-benefit
PAGE
analyses when lives are involved?
3
Q2: As a society we often perform cost-benefit analyses involving lives.
For example, we do not require overpasses to be built at all railroad crossings, even though we know that an occasional fatal collision will occur if we do not. How is this different from what Ford did?
4
Q3: Do you think that the public was adequately informed concerning the dangers of the Pinto?
5
Q4: Could it be possible that upper management at Ford did not understand the engineering issues involved? What was Lee Iacocca’s technical background?
6
Q5: Suppose you are an engineer at Ford and you have just discovered the Pinto’s gas tank problems. You discuss the situation with your manager and he tells you he doesn’t see a problem. What, if anything, do you do next?
7
Q6: Ford designed the Pinto to satisfy all then-existing legal requirements for safety. Do they have a higher obligation? Does it matter that, during the design, Ford was successfully lobbying the U.S government to not impose more stringent safety requirements
8
Q7: Should a profession impose ethical obligations which are more stringent than legal obligations? If so, why? If so, how should they be
2
No answer enforced?
CASE SUMMARY
Based on the Ford Pinto case, in the year 1960’s there was strong competition for
Ford in the American small car market from Volkswagen and several Japanese companies. In order to fight the competition, Ford rushed its newly made car the
Pinto into production in much less than it usually required developing a car. Basically time to produce an automobile is 43 months, but Ford took 25 months. However, before the production Ford engineers found a major flaw in