Firestone and Ford the Tire Tread Separation Tragedy

Case 30 Firestone and Ford: The Tire Tread Separation Tragedy I t is often tricky to know when an ethical or social issue really begins. Does it begin before it is â€Å"recognized† or â€Å"identified† as an issue? Does it begin when an isolated manager recognizes an incident or a trend and reports it via a memo to his superiors? Does it begin once the media get hold of information and the frenzy begins? Such questions arise in the case of the Firestone–Ford tire tread separation debacle that began dominating business news in the fall of 2000, with implications for passenger safety that continue today. Ask any consumer about the two most critical features of safety on their automobiles, and most will quickly respond—brakes and tires. It is not†¦show more content†¦Roberts discovered that other attorneys, for example, Bruce Kaster of Ocala, Florida, and Tab Turner of Little Rock, Arkansas, had been suing Firestone for much of the decade over the same type of issue. Though a trial date for his case had not been set, Roberts was one of the first to sense the broad scope of potential tire defects. At that time, he reported that there had been more than 1,100 incident reports and 57 lawsuits by February 2000.4 NHTSA GETS INVOLVED By February 2000, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had received fewer than 50 complaints over the better part of the previous decade about the suspect tires. It began to receive tips from State Farm Insurance that it was experiencing an unusually high number of insurance claims in which these tires were associated. After a report on tread separation accidents by Houston’s TV station KHOU, 30 to 40 more complaints came in. At this point, NHTSA got interested. They contacted Randy Roberts, and Roberts was quite willing to help them do their work. He reported his findings about widespread complaints, and it is believed to have been a significant factor leading up to Firestone’s voluntary recall of 6.5 million possibly defective tires. The voluntary recall began August 9, 2000, and it included the Radial ATX, Radial ATXII, and certain Wilderness AT tires.5 By September 2000, the recall had only replaced about 2 million tires. One reason was due to a shortage of replacementShow MoreRelatedFirestone and Ford: the Tire Tread Separation Tragedy2032 Words   |  9 PagesFirestone and Ford: The Tire Tread Separation Tragedy Business Ethics November 8, 2011 Executive summary. Firestone/Bridgestone and Ford companies caught public negative attention in the end of 1990s because of their relation to tire tread separation cases, which caused numerous car accidents not only in US, but also abroad. Because they did not take proper actions to eliminate the number of this cases and remove all dangerous products from the market timely, even if they knew that somethingRead MoreFirestone and Ford Case Analysis Essay1458 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction: Tire Tread Separation Issue II. Questions for Case analysis a. What are the ethical and social issues in this case? b. Who are the stakeholders and what are their stakes? How do legitimacy, power, and urgency factor in? Do these companies care about consumers? Discuss. c. Conduct a CSR analysis of both Firestone and Ford. How do they measure up in fulfilling their various social responsibilities? d. Who is at fault in the tire separation controversy? Bridgestone / Firestone? FordRead MoreCase Analysis #231022 Words   |  5 PagesCase 22 Analysis Firestone and Ford; The Tire Tread Separation Tragedy 1. What are the major and minor ethical issues involved in this case? The major ethical issue is Ford and Firestone’s negligence of the technical problems. They knew that something was wrong yet they did not do anything about it and therefore ignored their consumers’ safety and health. They used a utilitarian decision model where they were looking to accomplish the greatest good for the greatest number. Another majorRead MoreEssay on Ford/Firestone Rollover Deaths4792 Words   |  20 PagesFORD/FIRESTONE TIRE TREAD ROLLOVER DEATHS Case Details: Describe in detail the illegal/unethical behavior you will be analyzing in your case analysis. You may choose any case of interest from your text or the news. In 2001, more than 175 deaths and 700 injuries in the United States were the result of Ford Explorers rolling over after the tread separated on Firestone tires with which the Explorers had been equipped. Firestone’s Wilderness AT tires were standard with Ford Explorers in 2000. SinceRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pages so General Motors asked Toyota to reopen and manage the Fremont plant. Most of the former U.S. autoworkers were rehired, and a new management team was put in place. Workers were exposed to training in high-involvement work practices, and a former Ford Motor Company employee actually became the plant manager. The primary difference between the plant before it closed and after it reopened was that a new management team was in place and employee training had occurred. The workforce, in other words

Guerrilla Marketing A Startup s Phenomenon - 1175 Words

USW, Atrium University of South Wales Guerrilla Marketing: A startup’s phenomenon Kyle Sowden 14023601 BA(Hons) Advertising Design G107728 - Critical Paper Introduction One reason many startups fail is poor marketing. Due to minimal finances, startups are restricted from using a lot of traditional marketing methods that are often associated with high costs. An alternative strategy that does not require expensive financial resources and can help a company shine through the countless number of competing campaigns is guerrilla marketing. But is guerrilla marketing the only answer for start-ups? The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the research on the phenomenon that is guerrilla marketing and answer the following: What is guerrilla marketing and is it the only answer for start-ups? In order to answer this effectively, we must first understand what guerrilla marketing is. The work of Jay Conrad Levinson will be used as the foundation for this paper as he is widely considered the godfather of guerrilla marketing, after first coining the term in his 1984 book Guerrilla Advertising’. Other sources will then also used to create an unbiased understanding in addition of guerrilla marketing and the theory surrounding it. A multiple case study exploring three unconventional campaigns from three different companies is used as a basis for Main Body â€Å"People that spread ideas, regardless of what those ideas are, win.† It is not what is offered that’sShow MoreRelatedMarketing Management 14th Edition Test Bank Kotler Test Bank173911 Words   |  696 PagesMarketing Management, 14e (Kotler/Keller) Chapter 1 Defining Marketing for the 21st Century 1) Which of the following statements about marketing is true? A) It is of little importance when products are standardized. B) It can help create jobs in the economy by increasing demand for goods and services. C) It helps to build a loyal customer base but has no impact on a firms intangible assets. D) It is more important for bigger organizations than smaller ones. E) It is seldom used by nonprofit

Identity †I am an American, not an Asian-American Free Essays

‘I am an American, not an Asian-American. My rejection of hyphenation has been called race treachery, but it is really a demand that America deliver the promises of its dream to all its citizens equally.’ What is identity? Many of us would think that the answer to this question is simple but once placed on the stop and asked to answer it, the answer creates more of an issue than the question. We will write a custom essay sample on Identity – I am an American, not an Asian-American or any similar topic only for you Order Now Identity can be defined in many different ways and there is more than one identity. The most obvious of these is an individual identity, regarding one person and their ability to establish their identity and locate themselves. There are also social identities, and collective identities. Usually identity is to do with ideas that are derived from society and often requires some reflexivity as it is to do with being a social being part of a society. It is mostly acquired through social interaction and the meanings we decide of social positions and is often marked through symbols. Identity is all about similarities and differences. These help one identify their sense of self in relation to others who are similar or different. For example it can help identify distinctive characteristics that make one different from others, or identify a shared viewpoint or physical features that make one similar to others. Identity is about how we think about ourselves, other people around us and what we think others around us think of us, many people would imagine social life unimaginable without a social identity. Mukherjee grew up in a Hindu, Bengali-speaking and middle-class neighbourhood. The general belief in her birthplace was that ‘one’s identity was fixed, derived from religion, caste, patrimony, and mother tongue.’ One did not need to ‘discover’ their identity because it was unchangeable and one hardly had an individual identity. As the society was one consisting of similar people, there was a sense of a shared and collective identity, even if not socially, at least within one’s family it was shared. Her neighbourhood had influenced her identity greatly, especially when regarding social divisions. For example; gender. In the article, certain sentences make it clear that Mukherjee comes from a male-dominated society. ‘Men provided and women were provided for. My father was a patriarch and I a pliant daughter†¦I didn’t expect myself to ever disobey or disappoint my father by setting my own goals and taking charge of my future.’ It also seems that class played an important role in the social divisions of the collective identity where she lived. ‘Two commands my father had written out for me†¦marry the bridegroom he selected for me from our caste and class’. She also claims that intercaste, interlanguage and interethnic marriages were forbidden within their traditional culture. Even emigration was frowned upon in Bengali tradition as it was seen as a form of diluting true culture. It seems that a woman’s identity was set by the identity (or status) of her father, or after marriage; her husband. Mukherjee also states ‘I was who I was because I was Dr. Sudhir Lal Mukherjee’s daughter’. It should also be noted that Mukherjee chooses to use the word ‘was’ rather than ‘am’. This suggests that she has in a way cut off ties with her previous identity. She now sees her main identity as being American. Once in America, Mukherjee regarded herself as an Indian foreign student who intended to return to India to live. Her short and impulsive marriage ceremony led her into a whole new world regarding identities and their importance. She felt cut off from the ways of her life in Bengal as she had done something she never would have ever dreamed of doing. She now felt as if she had conflicting loyalties between two extremely different cultures. In America, women have more rights and participate in society just as much as men. This was new to Mukherjee as she now struggled to find her true identity; something she had never really paid attention to before. There had been a recent uproar in America concerning things such as ‘who is an American?’ and ‘what is American culture?’. These led to issues involving the scapegoating of immigrants which further pushed Mukherjee into adopting America as her new homeland and following American culture. However, Mukherjee done all with her own choice and therefore takes her citizenship very seriously. The United Nations adds new members almost every year, many ‘old nations’ now find themselves challenged with ‘sub’ – nationalisms. It looks more and more likely that there will be a creation of more nationalities and people may lose true sight of what their nation once was. Many people in one society do not know each other or even of one another’s existence, yet there is a sense of a ‘community’. Anderson (1983) describes this situation as an ‘imagined community’. Members cannot know each other and despite inequality there is still an imagined meaningful friendship. One can, and does have more than one identity. Goffman (1971) talks about impression management and gives life the metaphor of a drama. Humans are seen as actors and play many different roles. He believes that they follow certain ‘scripts’ which are relevant in some situations but not in others and interaction is seen as a performance to the audience. This is known as his ‘dramaturgical analogy’. William Shakespeare once famously wrote ‘ All the world is a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrance; Each man in his time plays many parts’. This means that a concept, even if not widely agreed with, to do with Goffman’s idea has been around for a long time. In the debate of culture and identity, the notion of agency is a central theme. Agency is about choice, the ability to exercise this choice in order to shape our own identities. Agency is highly related to reflexivity; a post modern idea. Reflexivity is to do with the capacity of humans to reflect upon themselves, their actions and others around them in order to change or improve themselves. Mukherjee was brought up in an environment where the notion of agency in regards to identity did not exist. Identity was fixed, and one could not change it. Therefore, when she adopted her new found culture in America, she automatically was using agency to choose and shape her own identity. Identity is ever-changing; it changes with time, place and an individual’s perception of reality (Vithu Jeyaloganathan – Sri Lankan born Canadian, b. 1991). An Indian politician and founder of the Indian Constitution ( B.R.Ambedkar) once said that ‘Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man’s life is independent. He is born not for the development of society alone, but for the development of his self.’ This may be representative of India’s changing views on the topic of identity and more importantly, individual identity. How to cite Identity – I am an American, not an Asian-American, Papers