Business Legal and Ethical Issues: The Boeing 737 MAX Crisis and Corporate Governance Failures
Overview
This paper examines the Boeing 737 MAX crashes and their legal and ethical implications for the company. It analyzes the ethical dilemmas Boeing faced in prioritizing cost reduction and pilot training restrictions over safety, and evaluates the company's ethical frameworks and corporate culture in relation to the design flaws that contributed to the fatal accidents.
What this case study covers
- Introduction to Boeing and the development of 737 MAX in response to Airbus competition
- Ethical dilemma and the 737 MAX crashes involving anti-stall system failures and simulator defects
- Analysis of Boeing's ethical frameworks and internal ethics processes in addressing safety concerns
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Business Legal and Ethical Issues
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Business Legal and Ethical Issues
Boeing is an aeronautical manufacturer specializing in the design of aircraft (Petrescu et al., 2017). Ever since the inception of 737 class plane in 1967, the company has developed and sold more than 10, 000 aircraft to airlines globally (Pontefract, 2019). It was a continuous cash cow for the Boeing until things changed when their rivals Airbus developed A320neo that was fuel-efficient. Leaders of Boeing acted promptly, and they were asked by American Airlines to build something similar to A320ne. As a result, the company jumped into action to develop and launch the 737 MAX (Pontefract, 2019). However, the Boeing management has to sell 737 MAX to and potentially restricted cost of pilot training to appease the airlines. This exhibited leadership calamities since the company ignored its enduring values. The company did not adhere to the moral principles guiding their way of conduct. However, this paper delves into the Boeing 737 MAX legal and ethical implications after its fatal crash.
Boeing Ethical dilemma
After the crash of 737 MAX, ethical issues have been raised about the company. However, the company admitted there were defects in the 737 MAX flight simulator. A manufacturer at the company claimed to have made corrections on the simulator's software and additional information on its operations has been provided (Italiano, 2019). The flight simulators were not able to reproduce the required flight conditions.