Alcoa’s Case Study 2
1. How would you classify Alcoa’s ethical climate? Which ethical criterion, as shown in figure 5.1., was used by the company: egoism (self-centered), benevolence (concern for others) or principles (integrity approach)? Or, using Professor Paine’s two distinct ethics approaches, as discussed in this chapter, was Alcoa’s approach more compliance or integrity?
Alcoa since its inception had a very strong values and the people itself enforce these values, all the employees knew clearly that all the decisions should be done according to the Alcoa’s Core standards. Since my point of view the corporate culture sets the ethical work climate of the firm as principle (integrity approach) because Alcoa expected personal morality from their workers, the rules and procedures with to be followed by the organizations, and laws and professional codes were to be followed in society. I would classify Alcoa’s ethical work climate one of high standards.
Using Professor Paine’s ethics studies, Alcoa’s has an integrity based approach that combines a concern for the law with an emphasis on employee responsibility for ethical conduct. Employees are told to act with integrity and conduct their business dealings in an environment of honesty and fairness. That’s why O’Neill fired the manager, because none employee could have a misperception about the company values, even though this manager had a record of increased sales and profitability.

The top management commitment played a significant role in developing the ethical work climate and organizational performance seen at Alcoa. In the 1990’s Paul O’Neil the CEO implemented the health and safety to the global ethics and compliance program (Lawrence & Weber, 2011). Alcoa had an ethics and compliance officer who reported to the company’s CEO and board of directors, a global code of conduct, continuous ethics and