Assignment:
Managerial Misconduct?
Corporate Ethical Climate
Given the subprime mortgage crisis, a strong sense of misconduct on Wall Street, and our ongoing recession-related problems, we should not be surprised that public attitudes toward big business are not positive. A global survey of 30,000 people in 2012 found only 18 percent of the public trusts business leaders to tel l the truth. Unfortunately, government leaders scored even lower at 13 percent. In Gallup's 2012 poll of confidence in major institutions only 21 percent of Americans expressed a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in big business and in banks. For some perspective, we should note that Congress ranked last among the 16 institutions surveyed by Gallup with only 13 percent of Americans expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence.
Mistrust of the America n business community is supported by ample evidence of corporate misconduct, but some new evidence is more encouraging. According to a large 2011 national survey, 45 percent of for-profit employees witnessed misconduct at work (lying to employees, misuse of company resources, etc.), but that number compares with 49 percent in 2009 and 55 percent in 2007. Thirty-four percent of employees reported a negative view of their supervisors' ethics. In assessing America's corporate ethical climate, we should keep in mind ethicist Chris MacDonald's reminder that ethical behavior in business is, in many ways, at an historical high. Businesses, he argues, are more transparent and more accountable than ever before, and, as he says: "Workplaces, while still far from perfect, are less sexist, less racist, and generally more civilized and humane than at any time in history" (in considerable part as a response to government oversight and public pressure) [For "The Business Ethics Blog," see https://businessethicsblog.com/]
Questions
At this writing in 2013, British Petroleum (BP) is on trial in New Orleans to assign blame for the massive 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill threatened marine life while also severely damaging the Gulf's economic, recreational, and aesthetic contributions to American life. The Gulf appears to be healing itself more quickly than expected and the economic consequences have been mitigated by BP payments. Although the company continues to carry a stigma in the American market, it seems fair to say that media attention and public concern have abated. Soon after the 2010 spill, a critic at a locally owned Des Moines, Iowa, BP station berated customers and the station owner by saying: "Do you realize you're buying from a company that's polluting the Earth?"
1. Should we blame local BP station owners for the Gulf spill? Explain.
2. Should we boycott those stations? Explain.
3. Several years have passed. BP has been brought to trial and has made significant reparations. For how long, if at all, should our purchasing decisions be shaped by corporate misconduct as damaging as the Gulf spill? Explain.
See Marc Hansen, "Local BP Retailers Want You to Know They Are Not the Bad Guys," The Des Moines Register, June 29, 2010, p. 1A.