Business and Ethics Practices
Boeing has its headquarters in Chicago and its workforces are considered as very diverse. The company employs more than 160,000 people in the United States and in 7 other countries. The company has customers in more than 90 countries all over the world and it is also considered as one of the bigger exporters in the United States in terms of sales. The Boeing Company is considered as the world’s principal aerospace company aside from being the largest producer of commercial jetliners and military craft.
The company concentrates not only on the aircraft but it also designs and manufactures different technological device such as defense systems, satellites launch vehicles and state-of-the-art information and communication systems. In relation to having manufactured the devices needed aerospace, Boeing had become the chief service provider to NASA. As a matter of fact, Boeing operates the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. Support services are also given by the company to the military and commercial airline support services. (boeing.
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com, 2008) Despite its prestigious profile, there are several scandals and ethical problems that the company had to face. The scandals and ethical problems of the company had become a big issue globally and in the business world. There had been allegations that women had been discriminated in its factories and office around the Puget Sound area. To resolve its allegations, Boeing had agreed to pay $72. 5 million. This shows that Boeing had accepted its social responsibility to its employees. The Boeing company cares much for its employees.
In the year 2005, a scandal had broke out about the current president of the company, Harry Stonecipher, and a female underling. According to Richman (2005), Mr. Stonecipher had been rehired by the company in order to straighten its current status in the industry. He was hired in the year 2003 and during his term, he had asked the employees to sign a code of conduct (SmartPros Editorial Staff, 2005). As such, the president had approved this code of conduct to show that the company had some ethical considerations at work. When the affair was discovered, the board had acted accordingly.
In response to this issue, it is only right for the board to act immediately. As stated from the article from SmartPro (2005), there was no mention of intraoffice affairs in the Boeing’s Code of Conduct. However, looking at the morality angle and reputation of the company, it is not good to see that the leader of the company is not morally fit to guide its subordinates. The scandal had shown the world that there is nobody who is immune when it comes to ethics deliberation and it also shows that Boeing is not a corrupt company.
Boeing had experienced losses because of Ethics. Leslie Wayne of the Herald Tribune had reported that Boeing has experienced $160 million losses in the second quarter of 2006. This had been brought upon by the company because of the $615 million settlement with the US government over ethical charges. The company had advised the government that the ethical settlement would not be considered as a tax deduction. The settlement had not only been the money paid for by the company. An additional of $496 million was paid for the delays in the military surveillance.
The company had further agreed in May to pay another $615 million to end in an investigation for three years. This is so that the company could avoid criminal charges over claims that the company had acquired the documents from Lockheed Martin and had recruited illegally a senior US Air Force weapons purchaser who had been handling Boeing contracts. This time the president of the company is W. James Mcnermey Jr. The current president had been brave and honest enough to face the Senate Armed Forces Committee to answer questions on the ethical standing of the company.
Mcnermey values the reputation of the Boeing company. Mcnermey has definitely made moves to show the global community that Boeing company is considered as one of the company that is non-corrupt, honest and values social responsibility. As a conclusion, Boeing is a big and a dominant company globally. As such, some of the people in the business world would think that the company and the big bosses can do anything it wants since they are all powerful. However, Boeing had proven itself to be a very ethical and socially responsible company.
In the past scandals and ethical issues that the company had faced, Boeing had proven that they value reputation more than money and that the rules that had been set-up inside the company are not just for show. The rules made are considered as the law of the company and it must be followed to the letter by the lowest ranked person to the highest position inside the company. Boeing believes in preserving its reputation and show ethical considerations to all the things that it is involved in.
Being able to give the president who had been not considered the ethics of having an affair with a female underling the proper punishment, giving benefits to the women who had suffered from discrimination and suffering losses but maintaining the company’s reputation are all evidences that show how the company had become a very good model of ethics in the business community. REFERENCES Boeing. (2008). About Us. Retrieved last April 21, 2008 from Boeing Website: http://www. boeing. com/companyoffices/aboutus/ Wayne, L.
(27 July 2006). Ethics stance leads to a Boeing Loss. Website: http://www. iht. com/articles/2006/07/27/business/boeing. php Richman, D. (2005). Analysis: Boeing conduct Code Worked Properly, experts say. Retrieved last April 21, 2008 from Seattle Post Intelligencer. Website: http://seattlepi. nwsource. com/business/214916_ethics08. html SmartPros Editorial Staff. (14 March 2005) Ethics Expert Says Boeing Did the Right Thing. Retrieved last April 21, 2008 from Smart Pros Ltd. Website: http://accounting. smartpros. com/x47388. xml
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