Organizational Culpability
It is mind blowing how one of the Big Three major American automotive companies such as General Motors could neglect such a crucial procedure as reporting a safety issue. Wealth inequality became present, and clear, when the company decided that it would be too costly to immediately fix the problem. Instead, they decided to prioritize their profit over the lives of the individuals, in this case – their customers. The neglect continued for years until they were informed of the first fatal crash. They then tried to cover this up by not investigating it and they still didn’t make the recall until many years later. I believe that their lack of action to resolve the issue is evidence of corruption. When a company is not being transparent with their …show more content…
By the time the company made the recall, many people had died. Although late is better than never, GM has paid a higher price now a decade later, then they would have if they had made the recall the moment they were aware of the defect. Maybe GM has learned its lesson at last. The book “The ignition switch from hell” that examines the engineering, managerial and supplier relations problems that led to the defective part explains: “General Motors plans to invest $900 million to expand its Warren, Mitch. technical center to accommodate additional resources in engineering and computer technology. In recent years GM invested $130 million for IT innovation at Warren location” (Sullivan, 2015, p.207). This investment will accelerate improvement in employee capability. The story is not over and will not be for a long time because GM still faces injury and death lawsuits from the crashes. GM may have been saved from the government, may be able to pay the fines it owns to avoid prosecution, and may pay settlement fees to members of the one who lost their lives in the crashes but, people do not forget. GM’s reputation will take a while to
It is mind blowing how one of the Big Three major American automotive companies such as General Motors could neglect such a crucial procedure as reporting a safety issue. Wealth inequality became present, and clear, when the company decided that it would be too costly to immediately fix the problem. Instead, they decided to prioritize their profit over the lives of the individuals, in this case – their customers. The neglect continued for years until they were informed of the first fatal crash. They then tried to cover this up by not investigating it and they still didn’t make the recall until many years later. I believe that their lack of action to resolve the issue is evidence of corruption. When a company is not being transparent with their …show more content…
By the time the company made the recall, many people had died. Although late is better than never, GM has paid a higher price now a decade later, then they would have if they had made the recall the moment they were aware of the defect. Maybe GM has learned its lesson at last. The book “The ignition switch from hell” that examines the engineering, managerial and supplier relations problems that led to the defective part explains: “General Motors plans to invest $900 million to expand its Warren, Mitch. technical center to accommodate additional resources in engineering and computer technology. In recent years GM invested $130 million for IT innovation at Warren location” (Sullivan, 2015, p.207). This investment will accelerate improvement in employee capability. The story is not over and will not be for a long time because GM still faces injury and death lawsuits from the crashes. GM may have been saved from the government, may be able to pay the fines it owns to avoid prosecution, and may pay settlement fees to members of the one who lost their lives in the crashes but, people do not forget. GM’s reputation will take a while to