Bhopal Ethics Essay

The Bhopal gas outpouring was a terrible tragedy in which thousands of helpless civilians were kil direct and hundreds of thousands were injured as they slept. Determining who was at fault and, consequently, who should compensate the victims and clean up the topical anaestheticize ar questions that have plagued the affected parties, my Rotman classmates and the manhood at large for everywhere 25 years. The analysis to follow, in attempting to present the roles and responsibilities of each major player, provide demonstrate the incredible difficulty involved in assigning decisive certificate of indebtedness for the tragedy.This will be followed by my personal reflections on the incident in which I present an additional culprit to those discussed in class. confed eontion Carbide Corporation (US) In try outking to assign righteousness for the incident, there are two lighten opportunities to point the finger at summation Carbide Corporation. Firstly, twinge from the corpor ate mutilateice to stop losses backed Union Carbide India into a corner that led to the cost-cutting proposal that ultimately produced the disaster.If, as Milton Friedman said, the social duty of a business is to increase profits, and then Union Carbide Corporation is downstairs a purely fiduciary, and non a moral or ethical, office to the gilds shareholders and their determination to approve the cost-cutting plan seems appropriate. Friedmans view, however, is off the beaten track(predicate) from universally accepted. Many believe that corporations responsibilities to their shareholders, employees, customers and communities extend past fiduciary and disgrace the realms of ethics and CSR.These people will lay blame for the incident at Union Carbide Corporation for putting profits forwards people. A second base criticism often leveled at Union Carbide Corporation is the fact that their inspectors had visited the Bhopal install a year before the incident and noted sixty-one refuge issues. A grand total of zero of these recommendations had been implemented by the season of the incident. small-arm responsibility for implementation certainly rests with Union Carbide India, the parent company cannot escape blameless as they bear responsibility for following up and ensuring their seed downs are meeting their own safety guidance.This negligence led to disaster. Union Carbide India Limited The Indian appurtenant of Union Carbides level of responsibility for the Bhopal tragedy is overly difficult to determine. It clearly bears responsibility for non-functioning safety and hand brake equipment that greatly exacerbated the scope of the tragedy. It is simply unacceptable that the cooling unit had been incapacitate for over one year. Union Carbide India also failed its responsibilities by hiring under-qualified and illiterate employees, and then failing to train them appropriately.These employees did not understand the dangers and worked in a world where minor leaks were commonplace and corroded instruments could not be trusted. As well, the subsidiary surely deserves blame for not correcting any of the safety violations identified before the incident. Defendants of the Indian subsidiary, however, will remind their critics that cutting these corners were required to keep their plant open and preserve their jobs and important pesticides. Without pressure from their US parent to rid of losses, they argue, such drastic measures would not have been necessary.Here again we see how easily complications arise when attempting to assign responsibility for ethical lapses. Government of India The governance of India was the strongest proponent in bringing a Union Carbide plant to Bhopal as the prospect of jobs and much needed pesticides led to an offer Union Carbide could not refuse cheap labour, tax breaks, few workplace safety restrictions and a guaranteed market for 100% of their output. The Government of India, in addition to economic g rowth, also bears responsibility for the safety and well-being of its citizens here, they failed to live up to their full mandate.Firstly, the decision to favour economic growth over safety was questionable ethically and ended up costing them dearly. Secondly, the Government neglected the densely-populated shanty townsfolk that had grown up near the plant on land deeded from local officials. Its residents were the first and main victims of the poisonous gas. Still, many will argue that a cost-benefit analysis made creating jobs and accessible pesticide for a poor and hungry share the proper priority.While many were ultimately harmed by the leak, how many more than had benefitted from the poverty-alleviating jobs and hunger-alleviating crops? Here again we find valid points and counter-points, leaving us no closer to assigning conclusive blame and responsibility for the tragedy. Dow Chemical While Dow certainly protected itself in the purchase agreement from a reasoned standpoint , there are those that suggest the proper ethical action is for Dow to assign responsibility for any outstanding clean up and compensation.While this may innately feel like the right thing to do, the counterpoint that Dow had zero point to do with the incident and should not be punished after nonrecreational fair market value for Union Carbide is also valid. Personal observance Analyzing the conduct of the major parties has not produced any conclusive allocation of responsibility. It is clear that each political party deserves significant blame but no party deserves total blame.There is, however, an overlooked culprit that I believe deserves the hatful of the blame the expectations market that has hijacked the decision making of US corporations(1). Ever-increasing emphasis on the expectations market (stock prices) instead of the real market (products/services, relationships with customers and communities) has left businesses making short-term, profit-chasing decisions at the expense of their reputation, ethics and long-term viability. Approving cost cuts that jeopardized safety in Bhopal is just one of all too many such instances. This apposition of ethics vs. eeting financial expectations, however, is fatally flawed there are many examples where ethical decisions produce long term financial success (Tylenol and Maple tack Foods recalls, for example). Queens University took the ethical route vis a vis the Radler donation and the class poll parrot revealed that only a very small percentage of us had hear of that incident. I believe that if Queens had taken the easier, unethical decision and neer offered to return the donation, this story would have been much more widely air and Queens would have suffered in the long run.Moreover, there is no deficit of examples where short-term unethical decisions destroy companies and make them miss their projections forever (Enron, Bre-X, Nortel, etc lamentably this is a very long list indeed). In short, I pr otest with Friedman and lay the bulk of Bhopal blame at the financial system in which Union Carbide operated. Fear of getting hammered by the expectations market led to corporates threat to close the Bhopal plant which set off the chain reaction that ultimately ended in tragedy.Fear of subject further losses after the tragedy than focused Union Carbides efforts on avoiding liability, kinda than taking the ethical high-ground and assuming fair responsibility for compensation and clean up. Corporate promotion of hypernorms such as integrity, tenderness and responsibility will ultimately benefit all stakeholders and provide corporations with the lasting financial rewards that accrue to those that are respected and well-liked by the real market (ie. onsumers and communities, not analysts and speculators). We need to usher in a new era where businesses chase solid reputations and community longevity instead of quarterly salary expectations. The default corporate reaction to adversit y must shift towards upholding these hypernorms, rather than hiding behind lawyers and waiting until the blame has been transferred elsewhere. Realizing that employing the ethical strategy does not compromise, but actually enhances long term financial viability is a life-or-death first step.