The Warhead Cable Test Dilemma

Question 1
According to Kohlberg’s moral development theory, Stanton Wong moral development should be at post-conventional level, where it is believed that caring for other is everyone’s obligation. It is because he is concerning with the well being of the innocent civilians and the military personnel if a faulty missile misfired. Beside that, he also thinking a method of solving the problem so that everyone is cared for equally and nobody will harmed by the faulty cable.
For Harry Jackson, he stage of moral development is at the pre-conventional level. At this level, self-interest is emphasized and values are adhered to in order to avoid punishment and also be rewarded. It can be proved by his intentionally to ignore the result of the product test and do not take action to correct the problem. It is because he does not think of the well being of the civilians and military personnel because he more worries about getting punishment from higher up if the warhead cable cant be deliver on time to the customer. From here we can see that he emphasis on his self-interest more than the values of other people.

Question 2
I think Stanton Wong should report the test result to the customer’s source inspector, Jane Conway first and ask Jane to perform additional sample testing. I think it can help to convince Harry Jackson to stop the cable for shipping out for the customer if Jane found out there is a problem occurred on the cable. If Harry still refuse to solve the problem, then Stanton should report the case to the top management who have the power to change Harry’s decision. One of the ethical reasoning is logic, it means before we can conclude or make a judgement , we have to ensure that premise, either factual or inferred, are know and clear.
In this case, I think it is logical for Stanton to report the problem to authorities if the faulty items could harm innocence and also because he cares about the civilians and armed forces. Accuracy is one of the ethical reasoning, it means whatever evidence cited to support our judgement should be accurate, relevant, and complete. So, before he reports to top management, he should ask the source inspector to run additional test to ensure the previous test result is accurate and certainly. The other criteria of ethical reasoning is consistency. It states whatever decision a person made or action taken should consistent with his or her moral values. Thus, Stanton should makes a decision that does not contrary with his moral values.
Question 3
Currently, I think he should not be a whistle-blower. Because there are several methods to solve this problem internally,such as informing the problem to top management and thus he should not involve public media in solving this problem. Beside that, he should considers his role as an employee. As a employee, his role is creating values for the company or help the company the achieve its goals. If he blows the whistle on his own company, it will defame the company plus he might get fired or distrust by his colleagues. At the meantime, it might consider unethical to be a whistle-blower because it doesn’t bring any positive values for company and may against the conducts as an employee. In addition, the effect may cause to the company if the scandal concern a company leak out is always out of estimation, so he should not risk his career and the fame of his company since there are other methods can be use to solve this problem.
Question 4
The company already have the protocol in testing and reporting of product tests. The company could heavily punish those who do not follow the protocol to avoid this kind of situation. In additional, the company should be careful when hiring the plant manager. They should hire someone with good moral values such as honesty and sincerity. Beside that, they should make sure the plant manager is open-minded, and with good interpersonal or people management skills. It can help to prevent this kind of situation because a open-minded manager able to listen to advices or opinions and making wise decision based on evidences.
Beside that, a manager with good interpersonal or people management skills could enhance the performance of the employees and this increase the quality of the product. Furthermore, I think the company can give the quality control supervisor the power to stop or adjust the production if product failure occurred. It is often costly to reproduce the product when it was finished. Thus, the company should allow the quality control supervisor to find out and solve the problem instantly without waiting further instruction from plant manager.