Reflection Paper: Module 2 (Business Ethics for Leaders course) - Essay Example

However, when time to make a decision comes at a crossroad it is difficult to realise which is the right way till you have gone miles ahead. This is what happened with Ford in this case study. The road chosen was not the right path and since it was too far from where they had started it was a tough decision to make - either go back and start again or go ahead from where they were standing. Now was the time for the legal department to help them out if their own sensitivity had given up on them.

However, they chose to go ahead with this expected danger which cost many lives. That is why we are taught ethics from the day we are born which stops us from harming each other for money or any other reason and those who do not stoop are called barbaric. It is pertinent to understand that cost benefit is not the only aspect of getting profits from business. Sadly but truly this was the approach of his advisor and subsequently Ford’s himself. Ford’s Pinto could have survived had this decision not been taken when safety is the main issue especially with media so much in power.

It should be realised that cost benefit analysis of a problem is mostly not the right direction of the thinker. The approach should be to realise fundamental values and how to take effective actions for those values. There are a lot of choices in business; the important thing is which way we want to go. It was a great opportunity for Ford to realise and work at his mistake rather than go ahead with it causing numerous deaths and bringing a bad name to the company and letting down his employees and stakeholders.

And all of this for what? Just a few extra pennies and all because of a wrong decision. The decision making gets easy when we follow the steps of ethical decision making which includes: (1) Gather the facts, (2) define the ethical issues of the different solutions, (3) indentify the different stakeholders to be affected by the decision, (4) identify the