Corporate Scandal: United Drags a Bloodied Passenger Off a Flight

This report discusses the corporate scandal of United Airlines forcibly dragging a bloodied passenger off a flight. It covers topics such as corporate governance, ethical theories, and stakeholder perspectives.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
PART 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
Corporate Governance.............................................................................................................................3
PART 2.......................................................................................................................................................5
Approaches and business ethical theories related to business case..........................................................5
PART 3.......................................................................................................................................................7
Analyze stakeholder’s perspective...........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Corporate scandals can be explained as publicized incidents consisting allegations of the
managerial wrongdoing, moral outrage or disgrace on part of one of more than members of an
organization. There will be considering the corporate governance by consisting the case of
United Drags a Bloodied Passenger Off a Flight. The corporate governance is set of structures,
procedures and relationships used by various parties to manage and run an organization (Benoit,
2018). United Airlines Inc. is main American airline headquarter at Willis Tower in Chicago. It
operated large domestic and also international route networking spanning cities small and large
across United Stated and six continents. In this report will be discussing about the corporate
scandal and its related case. Approaches of related case from perspective of relevant normative
and descriptive business ethics theories will be discussing in detail manner.
PART 1
Corporate Governance
Corporate governance is defined as combination of the processes, rules and laws through
which the businesses are operated and controlled. Corporate governance is the basis for
achieving a company's goals; this covers virtually every aspect of management, from action
schedules and internal controls to performance assessment to corporate transparency. Investors
value corporate governance because it demonstrates a company's purpose and business ethics.
Corporate governance helps in the development of trust among investors and the general public.
As a practice, corporate governance contributes to financial viability through providing investor
holders with long-term investment incentive. The interaction of various participants in
influencing a corporation's success and direction is referred to as corporate governance. In an
organization, the relationship among owners and the management must be good and there should
be no dispute among them. Owners must ensure that the person's real output matches the norm
(Bentley, George and Lambiase, 2021).
There is a corporate scandal about United Airlines Forcibly drags the bloodied passenger
off flight and does not apologize. United has been scolded for the handling of travelers
for second time in even less than month. In this scandal, a police officer wrestled an unknown
person from out his seat and pulled him down the aisle through his arms after he declined to be

pushed off a plane. As uniformed officers approached, his glasses dropped down his forehead
and his collar raised over his midriff. The airline's conduct, says "our officers were left with no
alternative" but to contact security to evacuate the passenger, adding to the public uproar. United
Airlines is facing backlash from the public over how it handled a passenger who was violently
pulled off an airplane. Dao is being cared for his injury in a Chicago hospital, according to his
attorney, who released a statement Tuesday afternoon. The organization will "accept full
responsibility" and will conduct a "thorough analysis of crew movement, procedures for
encouraging volunteers in these cases, how they manage oversold situations, and an overview of
how they work with airport authorities as well as local law enforcement in these situations.
According to some other passengers, man introduced himself as doctor and said that he cannot
give up his place because he had patients to see in morning. Man's injury, according to another
traveler, was caused by his face colliding with armrest when he was pulled off the aircraft. Other
than this, one of officers did not follow policy, according to the Chicago Department of
Aviation and was put on leave awaiting an investigation for conduct that the department did not
approve. U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) stated that this was looking at whether
United complied with overbooking regulations, which mandate airlines to provide procedures for
denying boarding to passengers who may not volunteer to giving up their seats (Callahan and
Miller, 2017). If there aren't enough volunteers, airlines will involuntarily move passengers from
overvalued flights; however, this is the airline's job to decide its own equal boarding preferences.
The surprising scene posed concerns about overbooking and how much airlines would go
to sell the whole of their seats. The passengers who were bumped were selected by a computer,
an employee, or a combination of two. However, the length of time a passenger must wait at
airport before being rebooked is a concern and airline strives to prevent splitting families or
leaving them minor. United Airlines reached mea culpa mode Tuesday afternoon, following two
days of contradictory claims, dropping stock values and worldwide uproar, when the chief
executive revealed an independent inquiry into an altercation case of a man who was forcibly
ejected from plane so a member of the crew could take his seat. The assertion was airline's latest
effort to counter public relations scandal that erupted when now-suspended security guard
yanked man from his seat, forcing his face to touch an arm rest, again and pulled him back to
terminal at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. United Airlines' CEO apologized for having
to "re-accommodate costumers" because the company underestimated how video was seen

around world. People on social media were enraged by United's lack of remorse in his apologies,
and they vented their frustrations on social media.
PART 2
Approaches and business ethical theories related to business case.
In year 2017, David Dao was physically ejected from Flight 3411 by United Airlines.
This airline agreed to bump four people off the flight in context to transport four United
employees to a connecting flight. Airport security officers were called by United workers, who
physically ejected Dao from his seat. Although United staff and airport security may well have
followed protocol, their deference to authority ended in physical damage to Dao during his
removal. They gave up their ability to make legal decisions of their own in favor of obeying
orders. Their activities sparked a backlash against company, harmed United's public image, and
sparked controversy about legal and ethical implications. In certain conditions, United Airlines
would have had the legal authority to ban passengers from its flights. In case of passenger David
Dao, though, possessing right did not actually make one such action ethically acceptable. United
Airline operated with its own self-interest, paying no attention to how it influenced the passenger
who wanted to sit on the plane. The organization's decision was childish, so are many deceptive
decisions. United's shares fell 1.1% in the aftermath of the incident, resulting in a loss of $255
million in stock market value (Carbado, 2017). The persecuted traveler dispatched an individual
damage attorney. The ethical theories concerned with case of United Drags a Bloodied Passenger
Off mention below:
Individualism- This theory states that "company activities can increase income for
business owners while remaining legal." An individual person might look at this case and
conclude that United behaved dishonestly and that the company should have done exact opposite
to maximize profits. An individual person might argue that the protection provision should have
followed the man instead of forcibly removing him from the plane. To even get him to get
off plane, a quieter and deferential approach should have been used (Veil and Dillingham, 2020).
If he'd been already escorted off the plane, CEO Oscar Munoz should have kept a diplomatic
distance from a total PR nightmare by issuing a sincere declaration of apology to Dao, his
significant one and everyone else involved in the situation. He should've even reached over to
Dao to apologize and make logical sense of what had happened, as well as find out ways to make

it right. Since the aim of freedom is to further enhance advantages, it may have helped United
avoid further destroying their reputation and shielding their deals from falling and losing future
benefits for the company.
Utilitarianism- The contextual inquiry can be approached in an unusual manner by
utilitarian’s. They would consider United's actions to be unethical. According to The Case
Manual, utilitarianism adheres to the rule that " the business actions should seek to optimize the
satisfaction of all thinking beings influenced through business action in long run." United will
not dismiss everyone from flight in order for everyone on the trip to be happy, including Dao and
the other four party members. In order for this to happen, the airline would have to make sure
that the flight wasn't overbooked in case more passengers were to be loaded. In the off chance
no, one had to start the flight, Dao would sit on plane and make that to his destination. The entire
occurrence will be held at strategic distance, preventing the company from losing any offers. It
will keep together, their employees and their customers happy, which is Utilitarianism's main
goal (Cheng and Shen, 2020).
Kantianism- United was deceptive, broke almost every norm in that description and
failed to follow equation of humanity, as per a Kantian. The company most notably, did not trust
or regard Dao's decision to stay on flight. Security officials inflicted pain on Dao in order to
obtain their directive, that was an open seat for additional flight squad. They can't take advantage
of Dao's balanced agreement in order to get him off plane. What Kantian might recommend is
that protection should have spoken to Dao with respect. They really should have asked him if he
didn't want to get off plane and offered to find him substitute solution so he could get back home
just in time for his next day of the work. They should have explained that with $800 coupon they
gave him if he would have missed his flight, he could have tried to book flight on different
airline to get to his destination. They could've either given him more money on the voucher or
chosen another passenger at random to request to abandon flight (Hasegawa, 2019).
Virtue theory- When dealing with Dao's failure to get it off the plane, a professional
might recommend that forceful security authorization may have tried to improve the attribute of
control. This quality would've allowed them to keep their cool and avoid using beast energy on
Dao. Security team should have approached Dao calmly and honestly, explaining that they would
have to get off plane regardless of how hard he fought it but that they would help him find some

other way home and reimburse him for the ticket. Oscar Munoz, United's CEO, may have still
avoided a lot of the extra negative press for getting the courage to publicly report that the airline
went wrong and giving Dao equity by saying "sorry" and promising him a payout for his losses
after the incident was publicized. Oscar Munoz may have even declined to send email slamming
Dao and praising his representative's behavior for how they handled the situation. If both of
organization's members had more balance, sincerity and compassion, Dao would have
understood that they wanted to abandon the plane and consent to the airline (Cho, Xiong and
Boatwright, 2021).
PART 3
Analyze stakeholder’s perspective
Stakeholder is someone who has an interest in firm and may influence or be influenced
by it. Investors, staff, consumers and vendors are the primary stakeholders of a large corporation.
Stakeholders may also be investors in the firm, and their decisions have an impact on company’s
outcome. Stakeholders like these play an important part in determining the company success and
its daily operations. When it comes to identifying project limitations and risks, key stakeholders
may have criteria or constraints based on knowledge from their sector. The more they engage
and include others in the initiative, and then they will be able to minimize and expose risks. The
stakeholders of United Airlines are Oscar Munoz, J. Scott Kirby, and Brett J. Hart, and also top
institutional shareholders are Vanguard Group Inc., PRIMECAP Management Co., and
BlackRock Inc. On the basis of stakeholder’s perspective about the scandal is that customers'
negative ethical judgments were positively related to their confidence level and negatively
projected their mistrust of the company. Deep mistrust had a greater effect on stakeholders'
behavioral intentions, like finding intelligence, mobilizing resources and consulting than
confidence. Depending on first message he sent out, staff will feel encouraged through their CEO
(Dalalah, Ojiako and Chipulu, 2020). Competitors will gasp but they'll realize there's nothing to
be achieved by running a movement that criticizes United for their poor behavior. While all the
United Airline were involved in how this issue can be handled, business executives should have
discussed the concerns of the Customer, Media and Regulator communities right away to show
their understanding of and empathy for the crisis; to discuss causal factors and deter a
recurrence; and to continue their rehabilitation efforts.

Other than this, the way United Airlines treated situation had an effect on a lot of people.
First and foremost, as the article went viral, it had an effect on shareholders. People boycotted
United which resulted in so much negative attention that United's stock dropped $1.4 billion a
day after the video went viral. The owners who left United were impacted because they were
also dissatisfied with the company's handling of consumers, but many still didn't believe
company could survive the constant negative press (Davies and Christie, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above mention report, it has been concluded that it was not right to drag a
person and removed from booked seat. It develops the negative impact on the passenger and
organizational performance. There has been discussed about the whole case and ethical theories
related to case of United Drags a Bloodied Passenger Off a Flight such as Individualism,
Utilitarianism, Kantianism and virtue theory. The stakeholder’s perspective about the case has
been discussed in detailed manner.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Benoit, W.L., 2018. Crisis and image repair at United Airlines: Fly the unfriendly skies. Journal
of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research. 1(1). p.2.
Bentley, J. M., George, A.M. and Lambiase, J., 2021. Apologies as identification management:
A theoretical model. Public Relations Review. 47(2). p.102025.
Callahan, N. and Miller, W., 2017. A Few Degrees Off Course: Ethical Life or Death for Airline
Industry. Langham, R., 2017. Bloody Paralyser: The Giant Handley Page Bombers of
the First World War. Fonthill Media.
Carbado, D.W., 2017. From Stopping Black People to Killing Black People: The Fourth
Amendment Pathways to Police Violence. Calif. L. Rev.. 105. p.125.
Cheng, Y. and Shen, H., 2020. United Airlines crisis from the stakeholder perspective: Exploring
customers’ ethical judgment, trust and distrust, and behavioral intentions. Public
Relations Review. 46(2). p.101908.
Cho, M., Xiong, Y. and Boatwright, B., 2021. Through the lens of ethnicity: Semantic network
and thematic analyses of United Airlines’ dragging crisis. Public Relations Review. 47(1).
p.102006.
Dalalah, D., Ojiako, U. and Chipulu, M., 2020. Voluntary overbooking in commercial airline
reservations. Journal of Air Transport Management. 86. p.101835.
Davies, A. and Christie, N., 2017. An exploratory study of the experiences of wheelchair users as
aircraft passengers–implications for policy and practice. IATSS research. 41(2). pp.89-93.
Hasegawa, K., 2019. Postwar Departures and Reversions in Mid-1950s Japan: Chongryon,
Okinawa, and ‘Bloody Sunagawa’. In Student Radicalism and the Formation of Postwar
Japan (pp. 167-212). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
Veil, S.R. and Dillingham, L.L., 2020. 17 Reputational interdependence and spillover: Exploring
the contextual challenges of spillover crisis response. Crisis Communication. 23. p.363.
Online
United Airlines: Grounded. 2021. [Online]. Available through:<
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video/united-airlines-grounded#:~:text=Case
%20Study,members%20to%20a%20connection%20point.&text=United%20employees
%20summoned%20airport%20security,removed%20Dao%20from%20his%20seat.>.