be a natural outcome. The Ford Pinto case is based upon act utilitarianism’s approach to making a decision using a cost benefit analysis and whether that action makes the best ethical outcome for all involved. In 1968, Ford Motor Company had a decision to make as to whether it would compete in the subcompact automotive market. Ford needed to quickly introduce a small, fuel efficient, and cheap car on the market to compete with Japanese and European imports. The Pinto was to be the answer to the
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THE PINTO CASE A SHORT SUMMARY In the early 1960s Ford’s market position was being heavily eroded by competition from domestic and foreign manufactures of subcompacts. Lee Iacocca, then President of Ford, was determined to regain Ford’s share of the market by having a new subcompact, the Pinto, in production by 1970. Then Ford engineers crash tested an early model of the Pinto. They found that when the automobile was struck from the rear at 20 miles per hour, the gas tank regularly ruptured
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Using utilitarianism to analysis both costs and benefits of Ford may be considered as a moral and immoral action and this belongs to each person and each customer. Therefore, before making the last decision that whether redesign or not to ensure bringing the greatest benefits for the greatest people Ford’s managers should do several steps below. First, they should examine preference of customers to research what they want. Then, they collect their ideas to choose the best decision that satisfies
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1. What moral issues does the Pinto case raise? I think Pinto case raised some serious issue of abusing human rights and not behaving ethically in the world of business. Any business/service should never ever put a value on human life and not take consideration of a known deadly danger. Ford had an option as well as the solution to design the car in a way that prevented cars from exploding; however they refused to implement it. They thought that it was cost effective not to fix dangerous condition
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In the article, Ford Pinto Fuel-Fed Fires, “the Center for Auto Safety petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to recall Ford Pintos due to defects in the design of the strap on the gas tank which made it susceptible to leakage and fire in low to moderate speed collisions,” (Ford), clarifies the conception that improvements are indefinite. Not in this case, “Mark Dowie of Mother Jones Magazine, published documentation that Ford Motor Company was aware of the weakness in the
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really understand this case, it is necessary to understand the times and societal norms of when it occurred. In short, did Ford design the Pinto's fuel system in an ethical way, and should they have redesigned it later? The reason that this case has gotten so much attention is that Ford did not update the fuel system in 1978, because the cost-benefit analysis favored leaving it unchanged. Ford Motor Company defended their decision to not make the production changes in the Pinto by saying that they
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1. What moral issues does the Pinto case raise? I think Pinto case raised some serious issue of abusing human rights and not behaving ethically in the world of business. Any business/service should never ever put a value on human life and not take consideration of a known deadly danger. Ford had an option as well as the solution to design the car in a way that prevented cars from exploding; however they refused to implement it. They thought that it was cost effective not to fix dangerous condition
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Case 2.2 (The Ford Pinto) 2.) Suppose Ford officials were asked to justify their decision. What moral principles do you think they would invoke? Assess Ford’s handling of the Pinto from the perspective of each of the moral theories discussed in the chapter. 3.) Utilitarian’s would say that jeopardizing motorist does not by itself make Ford’s action morally objectionable. The only morally relevant matter is whether Ford gave equal consideration to the interests of each affected
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Business Ethics - Assignment 1 Case Study: At the beginning of the 1960's, the Ford Motor Company was facing great competition from foreign automobile manufacturers. The Japanese companies, Toyota and Datsun, were importing fuel-efficient, low-cost automobiles. Every year the Japanese companies were capturing larger portions of the U.S. automobile retail market and profits of American auto manufactures were spiraling downward. The president of Ford at that time was Lee Iaccoca, who was
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Pinto Case Bottom Line vs. Customer Needs and Safety The Facts In early 1968, a decision was made at Ford Motor Company to enter the small car market to compete against foreign competitors. Lee Iacocca, a future company President, wanted the new vehicle, called a Pinto, to be in showrooms by the 1971 model introductions. This would mean that it would be the shortest production planning period in automotive history at that time. Due to the extremely tight timeline, many processes for building the
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