Many of you have likely seen the video of the Asian man being forcefully dragged off a United Airlines flight on April 9th, 2017. This incident is an ethical, business, and professional failure on various levels by United Airlines. The organization's culture failed to function in a way that is consistent with what the airline states are its values and responsibility to its stakeholders. The epic failure brings to light many questions surrounding culture - beliefs, norms, problem solving tactics, etc.
The incident evoked far-reaching outcry from people all over the world, with many people pledging to boycott United Airlines for their future travel plans. Immediately following the incident, the United Airlines stock price plummeted, causing the company to lose $1.4 Billion in a matter of days.
1. As consumers, responding to this horrific incident by boycotting United makes sense and perhaps feels like the right thing to do. However, the airline has more than 82,000 employees, all but a few who did nothing wrong, but many of whom will be adversely affected and could soon lose their jobs as the company's value continues to plummet (stock down $1.4 Billion since the incident). Imagine you're running United Airlines, how do you address this terrible incident while also trying to salvage the value of your company and the jobs of many thousands of workers who could be negatively affected as a result of a few poorly behaved people? Explain in detail.