In this case analysis, the Ford Motor Company produced a faulty vehicle that could become combustible in rear-end collisions. In order to stay competitive, Ford began manufacturing the Ford Pinto in 1968 (Wojdyla, 2011). Kyle Wojdyla reports that the Ford Pinto “would have been no more than 2000 pounds, not a penny over $2000 and a delivery deadline of just 25 months, a record at the time and still impressive today.” (Wojdyla, 2011). However, during the development phase the identification of a faulty fuel tank in which the fuel neck would separate from the fuel tank (Ford Pinto: A Pre Law Case-Study in Product Liability, n.d.). This would cause a fuel spill that could possibly ignite setting the car and passengers on fire. When corporate …show more content…
18). The WH Framework initially analyses who is affected by the business decisions. Customers, owners, employees, and the community are a few that can be affected (Kubasek, Brown, Herron, Dhooge, & Barkacs, 2016, p. 18). Three ethical guidelines are provided to help business leaders make ethical decisions; the Golden Rule, Public Disclosure Test, and Universalization Test. No matter which guideline was reviewed, the Ford Motor Company should have come to the same …show more content…
21). Undoubt-edly, Ford management wouldn’t want a car that was unsafe to operate. The Disclosure Test con-siders the outcome of public discovery of our actions. The public did have an outcry and Ford was on damage control for their reputations during this era. The final guideline is the Universali-zation Test, in which business leaders consider the outcome if everyone else made the same deci-sion. (Kubasek, Brown, Herron, Dhooge, & Barkacs, 2016, p. 22). Why Not By utilizing the WH framework, it is apparent that the decision made by Ford Motor Compa-ny was not ethically right. Those that were affected were mainly the unknowing customers who lost their lives due to others trying to save a dollar. There was reported over 100 deaths due to the Pinto defect (Wojdyla, 2011). A notable figure to review is the financial amount lost due to future sales and customers siding with another automobile company. The public disclosure test provided real damages due to the defect becoming disclosed publicly. The biggest damage consisting of the public opinion on the