In the 1980s, one issue given much attention was product liability, and again it was the automobile industry in the spotlight with arguments about the Ford Motor Company and the Ford Pinto, considered dangerous because of a gas tank that could explode in even the most minor impact. In the 1990s, business was faced with issues concerning the environment, privacy, and financial governance (Vernon-Wortzel, 1994, pp
All organizations -- private and governmental, must become more robustly ethical in word and deed, and, 3. Ethics as a practice has a strong, persistent voice in the world's communication channels (Burke, 1999)
Organizations have also undergone a change in their overall philosophy -- not just moving toward entrepreneurial thought as a way to change the operational paradigm, but through consumer and corporate expectations of marketing in a more ethical and sustainable manner -- regardless of the business or service (ASHE-ERIC, 2002). For organizations, this translates out as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), or the idea that any organization now has a responsibility to not only produce products in a sustainable manner, but to ensure that they market those products in the same way, treat employees ethically, and are generally transparent and working in a utilitarian manner for the common good (Jahdi, K
Moral obligation is based on rationalism, then, and is the way most humans innately wish to head, and wish to respect. Deontology then, is "the means justify the ends" (Kamm, 2007)
There is historical and philosophical precedent for this in the Social Contract Theories of Locke, Rousseau and Jefferson -- if one acts in a moral and ethical way for the individual, this will translate into societal and organizational behaviors as well (Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics, 2012). In many ways, this forms the basis of trust in government -- the notion of how humans interact with social institutions and explains the manner in which individuals, by necessity, must therefore trust and hand over a varying degree of power to either elected representatives, empowered rulers, or a combination of governing bodies to ensure a better and more organized society (Lewis & Gilman, 2005)
CSR leads organizations to the notion of both global and stakeholder responsibility, and an organizational system that begs for sustainability -- not just to outlast the competition, but also to increase customer loyalty, presence in the global market, and a stronger unification with the political bureaucracies. There is a clear integrative framework involved that impacts the idea of sustainable and active organizational mandates (Maignan & Ferrell 2004)
Typically, definitions of trust focus on situations in which one party or group believes that they can relinquish control over a situation because they have faith (trust) in another group's willingness to act in the best interests of all parties to come to a positive solution. There is uncertainty, and particularly over centuries of governmental paradigms, a tendency for citizens to hold varying degrees of trust to both elected public officials and governments in general (Mayer, R
Actions have quantitative outcomes and the ethical choices that lead to the "greatest good for the greatest number" are the appropriate decisions, even if that means subsuming the rights of certain individuals. It is considered to be a consequential outlook in the sense that while outcomes cannot be predicted the judgment of an action is based on the outcome -- or, "the ends justify the means" (Robinson and Groves, 2003)
In this environment, the impact of behavior, values and ethics on achieving an organization's strategic vision represents a timely and valuable undertaking. This behavior is a new focus on ethical and social issues (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001)
The most readily apparent example of this justifiable hacking of a corporation is the recent hacking of security firm HBGary by the loose collection of hackers and activists known as Anonymous. HBGary had been compiling information on Anonymous members, Wikileaks supporters, and the journalist Glenn Greenwald after having been hired by Bank of America in an attempt to disrupt both Wikileaks and its supporters after rumors appeared that the transparency advocacy group was in possession of a hard drive containing evidence of criminal wrongdoing at Bank of America (Bright, 2011)
By looking at the recent hacks of the security firm HBGary, the search engine giant Google, and the collection of blogs run by Gawker Media, it will become clear that not only do corporations have a social responsibility to protect their customers and clients from hacking attempts, but that hacking into a corporation or government's website or systems may be entirely justifiable given the realities of the contemporary information landscape. As Palmer (2001) notes, with the rise of the internet and the massive stores of data connected to it, "organizations came to realize that one of the best ways to evaluate the intruder threat to their interests would be to have independent computer security professionals attempt to break into their computer systems," which is essentially "similar to having independent auditors come into an organization to verify its bookkeeping records" (Palmer, p
" Furthermore, the management at Gawker Media admitted that "we're upset, too, and deeply embarrassed about the breach. Rest assured that we're doing what we can to both fix what's happened and ensure that it doesn't happen again in the future" (Stern 2010)
Thus, the CEO of a company that has been the victim of an unauthorized hack must consider a number of factors before responding, all the while aware that the more time which passes between identifying the intrusion and notifying the public will increase the appearance of incompetence or complicity. To see how a company might respond to a security breach, consider the following hypothetical e-mail script to be sent to AT&T customers in light of the security flaw which allowed members of 4 chan to access thousands of Apple iPad users' e-mails in 2010 (Tate 2010)
Less than five years ago, management at BP faced significant ethical criticism based on a number of questionable policies. These included association with Chinese oil interests in a bid to build a pipeline across occupied Tibet, environmental concerns about exploratory drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and implicit involvement with oil-driven conflicts in Sudan (Clark, 2001)
Therefore, in the case, we are told that "if the district court ultimately finds that the OSHA employees had discretion in conducting their inspection and that the discretion involved considerations of policy, it should grant the government immunity." (Fairchild, 6) This constructs the primary legal case through which the government might gain its own defense