Professional and Ethical Implications of GM Ignition Switch

This memorandum analyzes the professional and ethical implications of the General Motors ignition switch design. It identifies key professional issues, such as the sale of potentially defective equipment and a lack of customer awareness regarding technical problems. Ethical concerns include the work ethics of design engineers, the lack of price adjustments for problematic features, and inadequate management oversight. The report proposes solutions, including creating specific work plans, setting output standards, incentivizing engineers, providing full product specifications to customers, and increasing management involvement in design approval and monitoring. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of addressing these issues to prevent a decline in sales and maintain the company's reputation.

eXemplar
Memorandum
Date: xx/mmm/yy
To: The CEO, General Motors Pvt Ltd.
From: Sravan
Subject: Professional and Ethical Implications of the General Motors Ignition Switch Design
Introduction
This memorandum is basically about the professional and ethical implications of the new ignition
switch design that has been implemented in a few recent cars. It has been found that the response
against the design from both the retailers and customers have been negative due to a number of
reasons. As per the initial analysis, the new ignition switch design has a number of unwanted risks for
the car drivers and as a result, there are both professional and ethical implications of this new design.
Professional Issue
As expressed in the introductory passage, there are some professional issues potentially related to the
new car ignition switch design. Due to these professional issues, the sales of the car can be
significantly reduced as the customers will reject cars from General Motors until the ignition button is
replaced by a better system. The main professional issues are highlighted as follows.
 The first professional issue is the company is deliberately selling poor quality equipments
inside the cars even after knowing that the ignition switch design is not up to the standards
and has numerous technical problems.
 The second professional issue is that the customers are not even always aware about the
technical problems and issues associated with the ignition switch. As a result, they trust the
company, buy the cars and later report problems faced due to the technical issues. This is not
a professional method to deal with the customers and if the ignition switch design is used, the
customers should be made aware of the same during the purchase process.
 The third professional issue is that the engineering are already provided with high amount of
salaries as compensation for their hard work in developing new car designs and its functional
equipments. However, if they continue to design functional parts that do not meet the
standards of the company, paying so much high wages becomes completely unnecessary.
Ethical Issue
In addition to the professional issues, there are also certain ethical issues that are associated with this
new ignition switch design. These ethical issues are highlighted as follows.
 The first ethical issue is related to the work ethics of the design engineers who develop the
designs of the functional equipments of the cars. In spite of providing the best possible support
in terms of resources, scope and motivation, they have developed a design of the ignition
switch that has several technical problems and is much below the standard of General
Motors. It is to be determined whether the engineers have been careful about the design and
whether they have tested the design before rolling out in the new cars.
 The second ethical issue is that while technically problematic functional equipments are
provided in the cars, the actual prices of the cars are not reduced. Thus, General Motors is
selling cars with problematic functions at standard prices of the company. Hence, the
customers are cheated in terms of the price as they do not receive “value for money” from the
General Motors cars. This ethical issue can result in significant drop in the sales of General
Motors cars as the customers will prefer to buy cars from other companies. In addition to
General Motors itself, the reputation of the retailers will also get negatively affected as the
customers will think that the retailer only sells poor quality cars at high prices.

eXemplar The third ethical issue is that the management is also not getting involved in monitoring what
is being sold and what design is getting approved. No design should be implemented and
rolled out before the approval of the management team. However, it seems that the
management does not carries out monitoring duties and any design gets rolled out without
even feasibility testing and approval.
Possible Measures to the Raised Issues
In order to solve the raised issues regarding the new ignition switch design, the following measures
can be implemented.
Create a specific work plan for the engineers to follow. In addition, some specific work output
standards must be set so that the engineers do not roll out technically problematic or poor
quality designs. Furthermore, before rolling out a new design, the engineers must ensure the
design is sufficiently tested, documented and approved by the management. The wages for the
engineers can also be incentive based i.e. the engineers with the best designs of car parts will
receive certain amount of monetary incentives at the end of the month.
The cars should be rolled out for sale with full specifications including the functioning,
advantages and drawbacks of various parts included in it. This will allow the customers to
check all the features before deciding on buying a particular model of car.
The management of the company should be more involved in the monitoring of the design of
the cars and car parts. In case the management thinks a particular design is not up to the
standards of General Motors, they will be able to reject the design and send the engineer for
rework of the design or development of new design.
The roll out process should be done through a number of different steps. The first step will
include the documentation of test results followed by the submission of the document to the
management. The management will analyse the test results and if they find them to be suitable
and up to the standards, they will provide approval for the design. Receiving the approval, the
design will be rolled out in the new cars.
Conclusion
Finally, it can be concluded that the professional and ethical issues must be considered on top priority
in order to prevent the fall of sales of the General Motors cars. Based on the professional and ethical
implications determined, the recommended measures should be taken to ensure these implications are
properly dealt with and the company is able to continue its business among its customer base.