Reading about the Boeing 737 MAX case made me think about my MIE 310 group project, and where deadlines felt somewhat tight and we just wanted to get the work done. Sometimes we’d ignore what we viewed as minor issues so we could finish our project quickly and meet deadlines. This article allowed me to realize how easy it is for pressure and competition to make people cut corners, in ways big or small. If that mindset exists in a huge company like Boeing, especially where they have everyday people’s lives on the line, it serves as a reminder that ethical behavior really does start with everyday decisions, even as students, and eventually workers.

For my text-to-text connection, I was reminded of Sandra Waddock’s “Ethical Role of the Manager” which I used for a separate DEJ earlier this semester. Waddock hammers down on how ethical leadership means implementing and practicing values into our own daily decisions. Boeing’s leadership simply failed at this by prioritizing competition with Airbus over long-term stakeholder trust and sustainable growth. Connecting these texts shows that ethics must be part of corporate structure and decision making, not merely a cause of failure after it already happened.

This connects to what’s happening now with the age of technology and automation, specifically in AI. Companies are moving so fast to stay competitive and invent “the next big thing”, that they sometimes focus on releasing the product/service rather than quality testing and ensuring it meets regulations. Similar to Boeing, modern tech firms face have a tough time finding a balance between innovation and ethical responsibility.

Herkert, J. R., Borenstein, J., & Miller, K. W. (2020). The Boeing 737 MAX: Lessons for engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 26(6), 2957–2974. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-020-00252-