The document summarizes a scenario where the author is the recall coordinator for Ford Motor Company in 1973. Reports are coming in of rear-end collisions involving Pintos resulting in fires and fatalities. The author must decide whether to recall the Pinto. The Pinto was rushed to market with known safety issues to compete with foreign compact cars. Ford prioritized costs over safety. The author considers their obligations to Ford, consumers, and the public, and determines a recall is necessary to prevent further loss of life despite potential professional consequences.

1. Amy B. Perrault Individual Assignment | Number One MBA605 – Business Ethics & Social Responsibility | Jan Ruder, Ph.D. November 11, 2007

10. After considering the facts, conflicts, involved parties, consequences, obligations, standards, and checking my gut, I have come to the conclusion I am recommending the Pinto be recalled. I cannot work for a company who knowingly produces faulty products, knowingly ignores reports of product failure (resulting in fatalities), and then asks me to ignore their incompetence and the duties of my position. I could not look at myself in the mirror knowing I could prevent people from dying – even if it means losing my job. There are other jobs. If I was qualified for this position, I will be qualified for others. The point that hit home, and which was my deciding factor, was asking myself, “Is the Pinto – with the faulty gas tank – safe enough to let my own loved ones drive?” When two roads are diverged in a corporate wood, taking the one less traveled by Pintos makes all the difference.

11. Trevino, Linda, and Katherine Nelson. Managing Business Ethics. Fourth Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007.