Firestone Corporation essays

Firestone Corporation essays This work will attempt to address corporate social responsibility and the actions of Firestone, with regard to recent ethically questionable decisions. The work will touch on the most recent recall and eventual reparations awarded injured parties as a result of Firestone tire failure. The work will also identify the key ingredients that make such a failing possible in the long term through a look at the source of ethical (or unethical) decisions making. The core of the problem, according to many experts and by this writer is that profit is valued above safety and that the corporate climate as well as it support networks, such as law and education value secrecy rather than full disclosure when the potential for profit loss is projected. Scientists, CEOs and even line workers are implored to remain silent through overt and subtle coercion, even when they are aware of safety concerns and industry relies heavily on the time lag between the introduction of a potentially unsafe product and the time it takes to begin to restrict its use to safe practices or eliminate it altogether. It is difficult to imagine a socially aware individual being against corporate social responsibility, though many actions taken by individuals and corporate entities prove that the profit margin dictates the decisions made, even if this means practicing business in a socially irresponsible manner. (Berkhout, 2005, pg. 15) Such as in the case of the Bridgestone/Firestone, when dangerous products manufactured and sold by them caused deaths and permanent injury to many people, when they purchased the Ford Explorer new, with presumably new tires and then those products failed and caused serious accidents. In 2001, Bridgestone/Firestone and the Ford Motor Company apologized to consumers for a pattern of deadly tire failures, while blaming each other for the debacle. 9 Once again, major corporations are enveloped in ethics scandals that are generating new trem...