Chapter 1 Accidents, Tragedies and Disasters

SAVING HUMAN LIVES Issues in Business Ethics VOLUME 21 Series Editors Henk van Luijk, Emeritus Professor of Business Ethics Patricia Werhane, University of Virginia, U.S.A. Editorial Board Brenda Almond, University of Hull, Hull, U.K. Antonio Argandoña, IESE, Barcelona, Spain William C. Frederick, University of Pittsburgh, U.S.A. Georges Enderle, University of Notre Dame, U.S.A. Norman E. Bowie, University of Minnesota, U.S.A. Brian Harvey, Manchester Business School, U.K. Horst Steinmann, University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Nurnberg, Germany The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume. Saving Human Lives Lessons in Management Ethics by ROBERT ELLIOTT ALLINSON Soka University of America The Chinese University of Hong Kong A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN-10 1-4020-2905-5 (HB) ISBN-10 1-4020-2980-2 ( e-book) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-2905-9 (HB) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-2980-6 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springeronline.com Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2005 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed in the Netherlands. To my wife, Iréna, whose unfailing support and brilliant suggestions inform this book and grace my existence. To the bravery of the late Justice Peter Mahon, Stuart Macfarlane and Captain Gordon Vette who risked their careers and their lives to research and investigate the events that made up the disaster on Mt. Erebus, whose work may serve as an inspiration to us all for the courage that humanity needs to struggle for the cause of justice. Saving Human Lives is an attempt to demonstrate how ethical management can save human lives. Its thesis is explored through a detailed investigation of case studies all of which support the thesis that greater attention to ethics in management would have saved human lives. To this author, the saving of human lives is the greatest possible contribution ethics can make to management and it is to this end-goal that this book is dedicated. As one reads through the chapters one readily notice parallels to numerous global crises and disasters that have occurred since the preparation of this book. The Columbia space shuttle disaster is an ominous reminder that the lessons of history were not learned in the Challengerr space shuttle disaster. The terrible events of September 11 in the United States are horrific reminders that the lessons of management ethics could also have prevented the needless loss of lives. In both of these recent cases, warnings of the impending disasters were out there but were neglected or trivialized. The prioritization of ethics as is strongly argued for throughout this volume would have not tolerated such a neglect of the advance warnings of the serious, potential threat to human lives. To give special thanks to those who have helped in the preparation of this volume, I wish to thank the contributions of Stuart Macfarlane, Captain Gordon Vette, Mrs. Justice Mahon, Mrs. Jim Collins and Peter McErlane all of whom gave valuable information which aided my investigations into the disasterr on Mt. Erebus enormously. All of these individuals were kind to give of their personal time when I visited with them in New Zealand and provided both materials and a focus to my investigation which was immeasurable in itsvalue. Without the opportunity for personal interviews with all of the aforementioned, there would have been no way of obtaining crucial information which has remained unpublished. I also wish to thank Roger Boisjoly for keeping an extensive, personal correspondence with me that shed invaluable light on my investigations of the Challengerr space shuttle disaster. I wish to thank the University of Canterbury which offered me Erskine Fellowship that enabled me to come to New Zealand. I was able to deepen my investigations of the disaster on Mt. Erebus that I had originally undertaken over a decade earlier. Some of the material in this book originally appeared in my earlier volume, Global Disasters: Inquiries into Management Ethics. viii The materials in the chapters on the Challengerr disaster and the disaster on Mt. Erebus are revised and new chapters have been added including case studies of the Titanic disaster and the Vasa disaster. The chapters on the Challengerr disaster and the disaster on Mt. Erebus contain key points never before published which cast great light on these disasters and provide powerful support for the thesis of the present book that ethical management could have prevented these disasters. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 ACCIDENTS, TRAGEDIES AND DISASTERS.....................1 THE RULE OF ACCIDENTAL ..........................................3 THE EXPLANATION OF HUMAN ERROR......................3 THE EXPLANATION OF A BREAKDOWN OF A MATERIAL OR TECHNICAL COMPONENT AND ITS COROLLARY, “”RISKY TECHNOLOGY ..................3 RISKY OR UNRULY TECHNOLOGY?.............................4 THE EXPLANATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL INERTIA OR BUREAUCRATIC DRIFT............................6 ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN .............................................7 THE WORD ‘ACCIDENT’ ..................................................8 THE BELIEF IN MONOCAUSALITY............................ 12 MULTI-CAUSALITY AND MULTIPLE RESPONSIBILITY .............................................................14 FAULT FINDING AND THE SCAPEGOAT....................15 WARNINGS AND ETHICS ...............................................17 FREEDOM AND ETHICS..................................................18 NOTES ................................................................................19 CHAPTER 2 THE INTERNAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHICS AND BUSINESS......................................................21 ETHICS AS INVOLVED IN THE GOALSOF AN ORGANIZATION...............................................................22 ETHICS AND THE CONDUCT OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISE......................................................................33 ix x TABLE OF CONTENTS ETHICS AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF A BUSINESS ORGANIZATION...........................................33 THE WILL TO COMMUNICATE: FORMAL AND INFORMAL REPORTING CHANNELS.................34 THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE OF ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: RESPECT FOR PERSONS............34 ETHICS AND INFORMAL CHANNELSOF COMMUNICATION ..........................................................36 ETHICS AND FORMAL REPORTING CHANNELS........................................................................37 THE ARGUMENT FOR THE EQUIVALENCE IN EFFECT OF COMPETING NORMATIVE ETHICAL JUSTIFICATIONS..............................................................39 NOTES ................................................................................46 CHAPTER 3 THE BUCK STOPS HERE AND IT STOPS EVERYWHERE ELSE AS WELL......................................................................48 THE BUCK STOPS HERE.................................................48 THE WILL TO COMMUNICATE.....................................50 THE MANAGER’S TASK .................................................52 THE MANAGER AS EDUCATOR AND FACILITATOR OF GOOD WILL.................................................................53 NOTES ................................................................................55 CHAPTER 4 CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND DISASTER PREVENTION MANAGEMENT ....................................................................60 CRISIS MANAGEMENT: THE “BAND-AID” APPROACH........................................................................60 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi CONCEPTUAL PREPAREDNESS....................................64 THE EXPLICIT PRIORITIZATION OF A SAFETY ETHOS ......................................................66 THE INDEPENDENTLY FUNDED SAFETY BOARD WITH FULL VETO POWERSOVER OPERATIONAL DECISIONS ...........................................67 NOTES ................................................................................68 CHAPTER 5 THE VASA DISASTER....... ...................................................71 THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE VASA ............................72 THE STABILITY TEST .....................................................73 THE QUESTION OF BALLAST .......................................74 THE WIND PRESSURE ON THE SAILS .........................75 THE VASA’SS CENTER OF GRAVITY ..............................76 WHY THE VASA CAPSIZED.............................................76 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................82 NOTES ................................................................................82 CHAPTER 6 THE TITANICC DISASTER......................................................84 METAPHYSICAL BELIEF SYSTEMS .............................84 LOSS OF LIFE....................................................................87 REPORT OF THE COURT (BRITISH REPORT).............87 THE COLLISION ...............................................................87 CAUSES OF THE DISASTER...........................................88 WARNINGS........................................................................88 WARNINGS TO PASSENGERS .......................................91

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