Discuss the Ethical and Legal Issues with Regards to the Ford Company (Term Paper Sample)

Case Analysis: Ford Pinto
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Case Analysis: Ford Pinto
The case presented herein is aimed at giving a summary of the Pinto car. Likewise, the impacts of the car on human life have been adequately discussed. Various issues concerning the make of the model are carefully outlined. For instance, the paper has pinpointed major flaws on the Company’s officials and the dangers of a Company becoming profit-oriented at the expense of human safety and human life. Also, recommendations have been made on how a Company is expected to adhere to moral, ethical, and legal standards before introducing a product to the public.
The Ford Company wanted to meet the competition risk from abroad head-on from competitors such as Volkswagen, hence creating the Pinto. Before producing the Pinto, Ford crash-tested different models, to some degree to learn whether they met the security standard to lessen fires from car accidents. This rule would have obliged that every single new auto hold the capacity to withstand a backside effect of 20mph without fuel leakage. The Pinto itself was tested, and the outcome was the same: damaged gas tanks and risky gas holes.
In this way, it begs the question, did the Company consider consumer’s safety? Notably, the company realized that the model posed a high fire risk if it was hit at the back even in low-speed.
As such, the company found itself in a dilemma "Should they proceed with the Pinto design, in this manner arriving at the manufacturing timetable yet conceivably risking consumer security?" (Uncg.edu, n.d., para. 5). Furthermore, would it be prudent to postpone generation of the Pinto by upgrading to a more secure gas and along these lines surrender one more year of subcompact strength to outside organizations? Ford pushed ahead with the first outline as well as the years that followed.
Was the cost-benefit analysis helpful to the consumers? The confirmation proposes that Ford depended, in any event to a limited extent, cost-benefit analysis aspect. There were different methods for making the Pinto's gas tank more secure. Despite the evaluated cost of these upgrades being extended from five to eight dollars a vehicle, Ford apparently contemplated that the expanded expense exceeded the advantages of another tank outline (Uncg.edu, n.d., para. 6).
How precisely did Ford achieve that conclusion? It is clear that the motive behind that decision uncovers the cost-benefit thinking by the Company. It is evident that the motive behind being reluctant to make changes to the car is to make profits. Despite the profit-making motive, a lot of legal, ethical, and moral standards were ignored by the Company.
Also, it is imperative to note the stakeholders in this case. Stakeholders are the people (within and outside the Company) or institutions that are affected by the products and services of the Ford Motor Company. In the Ford Pinto’s Case, the stakeholders include the customers, the legal justice systems, the society, the health care institutions, and the Company’s officials.
Therefore, the stakeholders confronted with the issue are the Company’s officials the legal institutions. On the hand, those impacted by the issue are the consumers and the society.
The best resolution to such a case was to involve all the stakeholders in decision making. For instance, the Company were the decision-makers and did not involve people such as consumers to decide whether the car met security standard. Hence, the best strategy is to include all the stakeholders in decision making.
On the other hand, legal, moral and ethical aspects have called for adequate attention. For instance, the Company failed entirely to consider the moral and ethical issues. From cultural relativism approach, the Company’s culture of producing new designs and products did not put safety in the objectives. Therefore, the approach has its challenge in that it prevents people from questioning activities that do not respect human rights or that are risks to human beings
Notably, the company put their products first at the expense of human life. Therefore, they ultimately betrayed the same consumers who were loyal to them. Likewise, the legal requirement for vehicles to withstand damage at 20mph crash was not followed adequately. Unfortunately, Ford openly admitted that "the Pinto did not meet the 20mph standard and denied that the car was unsafe," (Hoffman, 1982, p. 223). The risk behind the leniency by the legal system is that the death toll continued to rise. As such, from a teological point of view, the company did not care about the consequences of the Pinto, and the product was not for the greater good, it was solely for the company’s monetary benefits.
Therefore, if legal considerat...