CASE STUDY 6 Toyota—Oh, What a Feeling, or Oh, What a Mess? Ethics at the Inters

Question

CASE STUDY 6 Toyota—Oh, What a Feeling, or Oh, What a Mess? Ethics at the Intersection of Industry, Government, and Publics Rebecca J.

               Meisenbach and Sarah B. Feldner

This case considers the role of communication prior to, during, and after a product recall. More specifically, it explores the importance of dialogue and transparency to create public trust and maintain a company’s reputation. It also addresses potential conflicts of interest between corporate lobbying and government regulation, as well as the challenges of balancing individual and community concerns.

The Toyota Corporation has a long-standing reputation for quality and safety in the United States regarding its automobiles. However, this reputation was called into question in 2010 when Toyota made three separate significant recalls that affected nearly 8 million vehicles. Beyond problems with the vehicles themselves, Toyota faced challenges about how it communicated the issue of safety concerns with various publics. Despite these challenges,

Toyota as a corporation is emerging relatively successfully from this crisis. This case study examines the communication efforts of the Toyota Corporation within the framework of issue life cycle theory (Crable & Vibbert, 1985). In particular, this chapter examines some of the ethical dilemmas of the Toyota case by considering the potential for dialogic transparency, conflicts of interest between corporate lobbying and government regulation, and balancing individual and community concerns.

What were the ethical obligations of Toyota, the NHTSA, and the general public in this case? How did each of these stakeholders fulfill those obligations?

Explanation / Answer

Ethical obligations are voluntarily taken initiatives by individual, organizations, governrmnt authorities and corporate houses. Generally, ethics mean what is right and wrong it must be in understanding while taking any important decision. For example: A company should sell defective product or not which has serious damages might be associated to the end users. Ethics, even fix the moral responsibility of any person, individual or organization or any party involved in business transaction or a social transaction.

Toyota's recall can be seen as the ethical interaction of company, corporate lobbying and govt. regulators. Now, we shall point outs the ethical obligations of each parties in the given case:

Toyota's Ethical Obligations:

1) Providing quality products

2) Best services to its customers

3) Recall of any defective product /vehicle offerings

4) Best treatment to the employees working with it.

5) Public disclosure of true facts

6) Following American laws and international laws

7) Corporate social responsibility as a responsible organization

8) Promoting value based business policies

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)'s Ethical obligations:

1) Safety of American as well as any passengers on its road

2) To make safer laws this provides justice to each stakeholder like Transport Company, citizens, govts, automobile companies etc.

3) Environmental protection

4) Utilization of green road construction technology

5) Prevent injuries and emergency care to road users

Ethical obligations of General Public:

1) Have trust on companies and government authorities like tax department, NHTSA etc.

2) Rate automobile companies on truly basis to the social media platforms so that other can get good products.

3) Provide honest feedback and support to government authorities’ in case of any emergency.

4) Ready to help other people at the time of road accidents etc.

5) Promote fair and ethical transaction with govt.bodies

6) Never promote rumours without verify any facts.

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