Ethical Analysis of Boeing 737 MAX Failures and Issues

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the ethical issues at Boeing, specifically focusing on the 737 MAX aircraft failures. It examines the leadership failures within the organization, highlighting how cost-cutting measures and a focus on profitability over safety led to unethical practices. The report delves into the organizational culture at Boeing, the ineffectiveness of leadership, and the consequences of amoral management. It explores specific ethical breaches, such as inadequate pilot training, lack of transparency about the aircraft's new systems, and the company's initial denial of issues. The report also provides a counter-argument and concludes with several recommendations for Boeing to improve its ethical business practices, enhance managerial effectiveness, and prioritize safety in its operations, including better communication and training for pilots, and improved internal audits. The report emphasizes the importance of ethical decision-making and the integration of individual and organizational goals.

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STUDENT DETAILS
1-1-2020

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Executive Summary
Business organisations are required to focus on implementing ethical practices so that they
can effectively focus on effective decision making within the organisation and can lead the
organisation towards the development of organisation within the industry. The essay is
focused on analysing the ethical issues at Boeing which resulted in the plane crash and the
grounding of the aircraft. Boeing major issue lie within the leadership of the organisation, as
the decisions taken within the organisation were not effective to ensure the safety and
security of the passengers and as a result during the flight the aircraft crashed and resulted in
loss of lives.
Boeing is required to focus upon its managerial effectiveness and ensure that the activities
within the organisation are being conducted as per the ethical principles and the product
developments are being effectively communicated to the flight operators so that any issue can
be avoided. Boeing is also required to focus on developing an effective team that is focused
on analysing the defects within the aircrafts and ensure that the safety measures has been
effectively implemented within the aircraft and its execution will result in benefit to the
organisation as well as society.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Ethical Issues within the Organisation.......................................................................................3
Counter Argument..................................................................................................................6
Recommendations......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The organisations are required to follow ethical principles while they are operating within the
industry so that they can make decisions that are effective for the organisation growth and
development. Business ethics are the guidelines that help managers in taking decisions in
complex situations and overcome the situation. Boeing an aircraft manufacturer is among the
leaders within the industry, but due to the unethical practices followed by the employees
within the organisation, two of the airplanes crashed shortly after the take-off, which resulted
in the grounding of the aircraft. The ethical issues involved within the scenario were
neglecting the safety and health factor, as the aircraft was equipped with an upgraded sensor
system but Boeing avoided providing training to the pilots (Peterson, 2019).
The ethical issue also involved that the pilots were not informed about the operations of the
newly equipped systems within the aircraft due to which during the emergency they were not
aware of how to handle the situation. The third ethical issue was that the organisation was
denying the fact that there were issues within the aircraft and there is no need for grounding
the aircraft (Leopold, 2019). The report is focused on analyzing the unethical practices being
followed at Boeing and accordingly developing recommendations so that the issues can be
eliminated.
Ethical Issues within the Organisation
Business ethics is an important aspect of the management that deals in promoting ethical
business practices and ensure that the organisation is working towards societal development
within the industry. The organisational culture, the employee behaviour as well as the internal
efficiency of the organisation influence the ethical decision making within the organisation.
As an effective manager or the leader will always ensure that the activities within the
organisation are being conducted as per the ethical guidelines and will result in the
organisational development as well as benefit to the society. Also, the way the employees
within the organisation responds or behave effects the following ethics within the
organisation (Lawton & Páez, 2014).
Leaders ineffectiveness
The ethical issues within Boeing are due to the organisational context such as the leadership
issues within the organisation, as the organisation is focused on implementing innovations
within the organisation, and ensures that the employees effectively contribute towards the

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development of the organisation, but in the process, the organisation lacks leadership
capabilities to guide the employees within the industry or to make ethical decisions within the
organisation. The leaders at Boeing can be classified as egoistic, as they were focused on the
profitability improvement and reducing cost, without focusing on the industry requirements
Nd the safety measures. The industry experts explain that the leadership at Boeing should be
effectively able to analyse the issues within the aircraft before offering it for use. Also, the
aircraft should be grounded after the first crash and should be allowed only after ensuring that
the aircraft is free of any defects and is safe for passengers (Pontefract, 2019).
The grounding of the Boeing 737 Max required that the organisation focus on ensuring that
safety measures are being followed and the aircraft is safe for the passengers. Boeing
effectively focused on making changes within its leadership team and the board members
identifying that their ineffectiveness resulted in the airplane crash. Boeing is constantly
focused on improving the safety of the aircraft after the aircraft has been grounded by the
FAA. But the organisation is still lacking in making ethical decisions, as Boeing is focused
on returning the flight into service again, the US FAA conducted an audit to analyse the
safety of the aircraft. In the audit, a flaw was discovered which was not identified by Boeing
experts before the audit (Allen, 2020).
Amoral Management at Boeing
Boeing has issued a statement that reflects the organisation’s priority towards ensuring that
the 737 Max meets all the safety regulations within the industry and returns to service. The
organisation is required to focus on the ethical practices within the organisation while
focusing on analysing the aircraft. As the aircraft is an advanced version that included
advanced software and operating systems. But the organisation does not focus on providing
proper training programs for the pilots or the flight operators to understand the changes and
act accordingly which is considered an ethical issue within the leadership of the organisation.
The crash of the Boeing 737 Max has resulted in the identification of the ethical issues within
the organisation (Campbell, 2019).
Boeing’s decision to bring the aircraft back to service should be backed by an effective safety
and security plan which ensures that the pilots and the airlines should be aware of the changes
within the aircraft. The organisation is required to focus on following ethical practices while
taking decisions within the organisation. The employees at Boeing are effective and focus on
innovation and development within the organisation, but their effective practice to analyse

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the defects within the aircraft has resulted in the crashes and the loss of the lives. The crashes
were due to the fault in the newly implemented software within the aircraft, but the
organisation did not accept the fact that the crash was due to the organisational inefficiency
(Fallows, 2019).
Organisational culture, as well as the organisational internal managerial capabilities, affect
the implementation of the ethics within the organisation. The organisational culture at Boeing
is to provide its customers with quality products and services and to do the right thing for the
customers as well as other business stakeholders, but the organisational internal inefficiency
has resulted in the ethical issues within the organisation, and grounding of the aircraft by the
regulatory authorities. Also, the organisation’s effort to re-introduce the aircraft into service
failed when a flaw was detected within the aircraft during the internal audit, as after ensuring
that the aircraft is safe for service, it was found that there is a flaw in the wiring that controls
the functioning of the tail of the aircraft and if not take care of then it may lead towards the
crash of the aircraft (Monahan & Quinn, 2006).
Individual factors at the workplace influence the implementation of the ethical principles at
the workplace, as the moral values of the individual as well as the behaviour of an individual
within the organisation describes how the activities are being conducted at the workplace.
Kohlberg defines that the individual’s morality is dependent on their experiences within the
society, the individuals were classified within three stages to define the morality of the
individuals. The individual goals within the organisation affect the ethical work conditions,
therefore, it is required that the leaders within the organisation focus on integrating the
individual’s efforts towards group goals (Gibbs, 2019).
Management high external locus
Boeing’s management decision to minimize the training requirements for the 737 Max to
decrease the variable cost of production, resulted in the crashes and development of an
unethical situation within the organisation. The ethical decisions are not being taught or
educated, it simply defines that the result of the activities conducted should result in the
benefit of the society along with the achievement of the organisational goals and objectives.
Boeing 737 has been the organisation’s best-selling aircraft to date, but due to the unethical
practices and neglecting the safety issues resulted in creating an image of unethical
organisation within the industry. As the management at Boeing ignored the internal

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deficiency within the organisation and neglected to accept the internal deficiency due to high
dependence on the external factors (Ladd, 2019).
An analysis done by M.M. Eleswed to find out the relation between individual factors and
organisation’s ethical behavior is interlinked. The individual’s personality factors such as
risk-taking ability, cultural background, experience level within the industry and the
personality traits has high influence over the ethical practices within the organisation, as the
activities conducted by the employees is ethical from their point of view but it may have a
negative impact on the organisational performance (Eleswed, 2017).
Counter Argument
Boeing follows an ethical code of conduct within the organisation and ensure that the
activities within the organisation are being conducted ethically and towards the organisational
development within the industry (Boeing, 2020). Boeing aircraft was designed perfectly and
the organisation’s innovative approach was taken care of, but the ethical issue lied within the
implementation stage where the management focused on reducing the variable cost and to
reduce the cost the management focused on the reducing the training requirements for the
pilots and the airline operators, due to which the pilots were not aware of the changes or the
technological advancements made within the aircraft and were not able to control the aircraft
in the emergencies (Kitroeff, et al., 2019).
Therefore, in the case of Boeing, the individual factor resulted in the unethical situation
within the organisation, as the management decision to reduce the implementation cost was
the major reason behind the crashes. Also, after the grounding of the aircraft, Boeing focused
on identifying the issues and eliminate it, but still, it failed to identify the flaw within the
wiring system of the aircraft which was later found in the internal audit, the flaw would result
in aircraft crash if the pilot does not respond timely (Prokupecz, et al., 2019).
Recommendations
Boeing should focus on following recommendations to improve its operational efficiency
within the industry. Boeing is required to focus on its ethical business principles and
accordingly develop policies so that the organisational effectiveness can be ensured and
developed. As at Boeing, the management states that being ethical is within the core of the
organisation, but still the activities within the organisation are resulting in the unethical
activities within the organisation. Therefore, it is required that the management ensure that

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the activities result in the organisational development along with the benefit to the
organisational stakeholders (Skeet, 2019).
Boeing is required to focus on ensuring that the innovations within the product is effectively
explained to the pilots as well as the airlines operators so that they can understand the
benefits as well as a negative aspect of the product development and accordingly can focus
upon the developments during operations and can avoid any negative incidents or accidents
in emergencies.
Boeing is required to focus upon improving its managerial efficiency so that the decisions
taken within the organisation can be focused on ethical principles as well as improving the
organisational efficiency. As the management decision to reduce the cost by minimizing the
training requirements was not ethical and resulted in a negative impact on the organisation
(Gates, 2020). Therefore, Boeing is required to focus on the capabilities of the key persons
involved in the managerial decision-making process and accordingly allocate the
responsibilities within the organisation.
Boeing should focus on developing an effective team that focuses on analysing the product
and issues within the product so that any defect within the product or the service can be
identified before the product is being provided to the airlines, and any future complications
can be avoided. As the current team is not effective enough to identify the issues within the
product developed so it is required by the organisation to focus on the operational aspect of
the organisation.
Boeing should focus on improving the organisational culture that is focused towards ethical
and effective decision making within the organisation and is focused towards ensuring the
safety and security of the employees as well as the passengers while designing the aircraft so
that the organisation can establish a trusted and reputed brand image within the industry.
Conclusion
Business Ethics are an important part of the business decision-making process; therefore, it is
required that the management focus on developing strategies within the organisation that is
focused towards the ethical principles as well as the development of the organisation along
with ensuring that the society will be benefitted from the decision taken (Jones & Ryan,
1997). Boeing is considered as an ethical organisation, but the unethical decisions taken by
the organisation has resulted in the aircraft crashes and loss of lives of people. Therefore, it is

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required that the organisation like Boeing focus on ethical practices within the organisation
(Yglesias, 2019).
The management at Boeing focused on reducing the implementation cost and to reduce the
cost they minimised the cost incurred in the training program, as a result, the pilots operating
the aircraft were not able to effectively understand the developments made within the aircraft
and lead towards the accidents. Later on, in the process of returning the aircraft to service
after the grounding, the regulatory authority found a flaw within the wiring of the aircraft, if
not focused upon can lead towards the crash. Therefore, it is required that Boeing focus more
on the safety and security of the aircraft and accordingly develop teams that would analyse
the issues or defects within the aircraft and can eliminate those before the flight.

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