Unethical behaviour is where a person or a business acts morally wrong and performs something that would be viewed unacceptable by society. Business ethics has been described as ‘the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed’ (Crane & Matten, 2007, p. 5). There are two ways a business can fail, relative failure or total failure. Relative failure is when a business has a drop in profits, brand image changes, or consumer depiction changes; this would not impact a business to the extent of bankruptcy or closer. However total failure is where a business becomes bankrupt, this could be due to fraud, overdue debt, and money laundering.
Businesses can act unethically in various ways; for …show more content…
This was due to a design flaw that created uproar about their unethical decision. The Ford Pinto a model which was available to consumers between 1970 to 1980 was desired to be a low cost affordable vehicle. During tests ‘the Pinto’s fuel tank often ruptured when struck from the rear at a relatively low speed (31 mph in crash tests)’ (Gioia, 1992, p. 380). However, Ford still thought it was acceptable to sell the Pinto model to consumers during this decade, even though it was morally wrong to sell a product which was proven statistically more likely to set a light than not. ‘More than two dozen people were killed or injured in Pinto fires before the company issued a recall to correct the problem’ (Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, 2011), this then meant that Ford had to pay out millions for consumers who sued the business for the injuries they …show more content…
This therefore meant that the business could spend less time ensuring the vehicles were ethically and legally correct through testing and research and get a heads up against their competitors within their market. The extent of this unethical behaviour is that ‘11 million VW diesel cars [were] fitted with special software’ (Bremmer, 2015) this therefore meant that it had a global impact and has affected millions of consumers across the
Businesses can act unethically in various ways; for …show more content…
This was due to a design flaw that created uproar about their unethical decision. The Ford Pinto a model which was available to consumers between 1970 to 1980 was desired to be a low cost affordable vehicle. During tests ‘the Pinto’s fuel tank often ruptured when struck from the rear at a relatively low speed (31 mph in crash tests)’ (Gioia, 1992, p. 380). However, Ford still thought it was acceptable to sell the Pinto model to consumers during this decade, even though it was morally wrong to sell a product which was proven statistically more likely to set a light than not. ‘More than two dozen people were killed or injured in Pinto fires before the company issued a recall to correct the problem’ (Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, 2011), this then meant that Ford had to pay out millions for consumers who sued the business for the injuries they …show more content…
This therefore meant that the business could spend less time ensuring the vehicles were ethically and legally correct through testing and research and get a heads up against their competitors within their market. The extent of this unethical behaviour is that ‘11 million VW diesel cars [were] fitted with special software’ (Bremmer, 2015) this therefore meant that it had a global impact and has affected millions of consumers across the