Assignment task: Provide a reply to following discussion forum.
Part-1:
The article that I am going to take as an example this week is on 'What really brought down the Boeing 737 Max?'(William, 2021). Boeing tried to silently dismiss that there is a new software which does require some formal training but because of the stakeholder decisions it has made to avoid having to pay $1million/plane because they conveyed to their customers if their new airplane needed any additional training, they would pay that amount.
This sparks two major controversial ethical practices, one is that this non-disclosure that there is a new software called Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that takes over controls in certain situations when the nose of the plane pitched a bit much and that is only reliant on just one sensor, violates ethical minimums that Boeing did not even put the efforts into it, seriously contends with the belief that its customers (the airline companies) and the people who board those planes have in the company. And secondly, another ethical dilemma that Boeing decided to take sides of 'Enabling stakeholders' which includes stockholders, legislatures, government regulators and board of directors and against 'Functional stakeholders' which includes suppliers, employees, unions, customers, distributors, and retailers. This was in complete disregard of its functional stakeholders that led to leaving scars that can never be healed in more than 346 families.
Part-2:
Before we look at what passenger stakeholder claims and government stakeholder claims look like, in Malaysia airlines, I wanted to reiterate that stakeholder claim is the interest of any given stakeholder, in a business decision, may therefore challenge the ethical stance even of an organization that complies with the law (Byars, 2019). Then, it becomes obvious that 60% of Malaysia's population being Muslims, would want to make a pilgrimage to Mecca for hajj and is a driving factor dubbed as passenger stakeholder claims on Malaysia airlines as opposed to the government's stakeholder claims to cut costs and increase revenues. This is where it gets a bit dicey and interesting at the same time because the airline was incurring losses in 2014 and its investors and government who had a major share in the airline wanted to bring back profits but the CEO at that time, Peter Bellew had a strategy to cater to the customers and serve charter flights to Mecca. This strategy of the CEO would actually work because serving customers is often high-priority and perhaps responsibility to shape expectations in ways that encourages the growth of company and enable itself to provide for employees, suppliers, distributors, and shareholders. An example of this is Ryan Air, one of the top profitable airlines in Europe. They started their services offering cheapest of fairs and 'created demand' that its customer base increased and with that, intelligent add-on placements has led the airlines to become one of the most profitable airlines (Dan, 2021)
References:
- Byars, S. M., Stanberry, K., & Openstax College. (2019). Business ethics (pp. 67-88). Openstax College, Rice University.
- Dan, Why Ryan air makes so much money, Why Ryanair Makes So Much Money - YouTube
- William Langewiesche, What really brought down the Boring 737 Max, What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max? - The New York Times